ivata groupware is a free Groupware/Exchange/Intranet system. It comes with a web-based front-end, and you can use ivata groupware to:

• find contacts in team and private address books
• post articles & notes
• comment on articles
• receive notifications via mail
• plan meetings and other events in the calendar
• access email via the web

ivata masks is a library of routines developed in Java/JSP/Struts. They automatically create masks and lists, based on java reflection and settings specified in XML. This saves a huge amount of time.

Rather than develop input screens and lists for each value object class, you need to define just 2 screens - one for lists, the other for input masks. An XML file defines which fields should be displayed or filtered out in each, and the library automatically interrogates the value object classes to discover which fields are available for display. We use the Struts messages to automate the field labels, based on the field name as a key.

Last year, we used this approach to replace a system in development by a large UK retail bank. Before we applied this approach, the client had coded each input screen and list by hand. The unified approach dramatically reduced workload by a factor of several weeks.