WRQ offers security, updates Web platform

Reflection for Web 4.5, security modules position Web as app platform

HP 3000 sites have a mission to modernize application interfaces, sometimes while cutting desktop deployment costs. Connectivity supplier WRQ is offering new versions and solutions in its Reflection line which hope to meet those two objectives, while adding the benefit of system security.

WRQ announced it has released the 4.5 version of its Reflection for Web product, along with new Reflection Security Components and the WRQ Webfront Service. The security components — a free download from the WRQ Web site — can be deployed on all Reflection versions 8.0.6 and higher, including Reflection for the Web 4.5.

The Web product, written in Java, is taking steps to make browsers as viable a desktop platform as anything WRQ has sold for Windows PCs. WRQ is catching up the product to offer pass-through printing functionality and integrated FTP file transfers, items first introduced in the 4.0 release for IBM’s platforms. The company said 4.5’s features are customer-driven enhancements.

“This is a great release to get that functionality and move to a new platform — namely the Web,” said WRQ Web to Host product market manager Kristin Connor. Security has been an issue standing between HP e3000 sites and full Internet access to their data, so the company is adding 168-bit SSL encryption to any data streams which Reflection handles. These features require a security proxy server, a host which can be an HP 3000 or not, and be located either inside the corporate firewall or outside it.

Reflection for the Web customers have had access to this security. WRQ is now making many of these capabilities available to its Reflection for Windows users who run Version 8.0.6 or later.

“Users connecting to the 3000 can have an encrypted data stream,” Connor said. “Security seems to be an increasingly important issue among HP 3000 customers.”

Reflection Security Components will be offered to current Reflection customers at no charge. WRQ Reflection Security Components are available for download, at no charge, on WRQ’s Web site, www.wrq.com.

The components enable organizations to eliminate the need for users to send “clear text passwords” over networks. In addition, the components ensure data security and integrity over the Internet and intranets, can be used to reduce the number of “sign-ons” and enable the use of smart cards for access to host systems.

Such security isn’t a new item in the HP 3000’s Web landscape. Minisoft’s Javelin and Web Dimension products have offered security since 1999. Donovan Deakin, technical product manager for Web to Host at WRQ, said forthcoming changes in the US healthcare laws could make security a greater priority.

Deakin also said that printing from HP 3000 applications was a feature which WRQ’s customers “could not live without, despite the [Web] benefits of a thin client’s reduced cost and centralized administration.”

Host-initiated commands are supported in the Reflection for Web 4.5 release, so administrators can use automated logon scripts they’d created for Reflection users in the Web product.

HP 3000 escape sequences which generate Reflection Command Language commands, generated by applications like Ecometry/MACS, are now understood by WRQ’s Web product. “The logon scripting we do can use the API for the product, and Javascript or Java,” Deakin said. Users can also generate macros for automated login scripts, a feature first introduced in the 4.0 version.

The component-based redesign of Reflection for the Web lets the software install modules in a local desktop cache as needed, to keep the size down.

“It allows us to keep adding additional functionality like HP printing,” Deakin said. The integrated FTP file transfer in the 4.5 version is another example, something WRQ pointed out is not part of Minisoft’s product. “We’re able to provide that functionality without a big applet to download,” Deakin said.

“The emphasis for our Javelin product is thin,” replied Minisoft’s Doug Greenup. “We could do file transfer, but it would increase the size significantly.” Customers who need file transfer use Minisoft’s full Windows client, he added.

With Reflection Webfront, WRQ consultants program Reflection for the Web’s API using JavaScript to control how information from the HP 3000 is presented in a Web browser, without modifying the original 3000 application. WRQ says because the Webfront consultants use JavaScript (rather than a proprietary language), they build a framework that’s easy for any programmer familiar with JavaScript to maintain.

WRQ is also getting more aggressive on pricing. In addition to its $115 per seat entry price for Reflection for the Web, it’s offering a $60 per seat competitive upgrade from other products — including its own Reflection for HP clients.