The Metatude Dialogue Server is a Java application. Therefore it can run on any platform for which a Java Virtual Machine is available. However, thorough testing has been done on four platforms. We advise to use one of these operating systems for the MDS:
1.
Windows NT 4 Server or Workstation with Servicepack 6a
2.
Windows 2000 Server or Workstation with Servicepack 4
3.
Windows 2003 Server
4.
SuSe Linux 9.0 Personal or Professional edition
The Metatude Dialogue Server can run as a service on any of these platforms.
Communication with other Metatude components is done using the SOAP protocol. Each message that is exchanged is in XML format. SOAP is a protocol that is created to be used over any HTTP connection. SOAP messages look a lot like ordinary HTML messages. The XML messages that are exchanged between the different Metatude components are encapsulated in a SOAP message. Because any HTTP connection can be used to exchange messages, including HTTP Proxy servers, the Metatude Dialogue Server can usually be deployed quite easily in any office intranet or other network.
The Metatude Dialogue Server listens on port 6382. The Metatude Project Manager and the Metatude Channel Integration Components connect to the Metatude Dialogue Server on this port. The Metatude Dialogue Server itself does not initiate any connection to other Metatude components. The port number 6382 is the default port number. It can be changed after the Metatude Dialogue Server is installed.
The Metatude Dialogue Server connects to an SMTP server for sending out e-mails. It sends out e-mails just as any normal e-mail client would do. You can configure the hostname and port of the SMTP server.
An empty database is used for storing results of survey projects. The Metatude Dialogue Server connects to a database using TCP/IP. You can configure the hostname and port for this database.
In order to retrieve stakeholder information, the Metatude Dialogue Server connects to a stakeholder directory over TCP/IP using the LDAP protocol. Stakeholder information can also be retrieved from any database.
The Metatude Channel Integration Components (MCIC)
The Metatude Channel Integration Components are web applications that need to be installed on your webserver. The Metatude Channel Integration Components serve the dialogues to stakeholders through HTTP. The dialogues can be viewed with any browser, such as Internet Explorer, Opera or Mozilla Firefox. After a stakeholder has received an invitation through e-mail, they request a dialogue by clicking on an URL.
Your webserver receives this HTTP request. It starts the MCIC web application. Then, the MCIC makes a network connection with the MDS. The MDS looks up the stakeholders information and sends the correct dialogue to the MCIC. The MCIC then serves the dialogue in HTML format to the stakeholder.
You can read how to install an MCIC in the MCIC Installation Manual.
The Metatude Project Manager (MPM)
The Metatude Project Manager is used to create new survey projects on the Metatude Dialogue Server. A project consists of a dialogue, a target group, an invitation and possible reminder e-mails and the results of a survey.
A target group is a selection of stakeholders. These stakeholders are present in your stakeholder database or directory server. With the Metatude Project Manager, you can select a group of stakeholders by setting certain criteria. Such a group is called a target group.
To each stakeholder in the target group an invitation e-mail is sent. In this e-mail, you invite the stakeholder to participate in your survey project. You can personalize this e-mail in various manners. The invitation e-mail contains an URL to the dialogue. When a stakeholder clicks this URL, a browser window is opened and the dialogue is presented.
You can schedule different reminder e-mails for each project. If a respondent has not filled out a dialogue, a reminder can be sent automatically.
After stakeholders have filled out a dialogue, you can download the results using the MPM. These can be downloaded as an Excel sheet, as an SPSS (Statistical) file or as a plain text file.
When you start the MPM, you need to login to the MDS. You need to provide the hostname of the MDS, and a port number, if the MDS does not run on the default port. You also need to enter your username and password. It is possible to use a proxy server for connecting to the MDS. This can be any ordinary HTTP proxy server that is located between the MPM and the MDS. You can enter the hostname and the portnumber of the proxy server on the login screen of the MPM.
The Metatude Dialogue Designer (MDD)
With the Metatude Dialogue Designer, you create dialogues. These consist of an introduction, a list of questions and an epilogue. It is possible to create interactive dialogues. This means that stakeholders can be asked different questions, based on their input from previous questions.
A dialogue is saved as an XML file. This file is uploaded to the MDS when you create a project using the MPM.