The DEVise JavaScreen collaboration feature allows users to work together interactively, even if they are widely separated geographically.
The essence of JavaScreen collaboration is as follows: one user is the "leader", and the other users are "followers". The leader interacts normally with their JavaScreen applet; whatever actions they perform are mirrored by the followers' applets. For example, if the leader moves a cursor, the same cursor will be moved in the followers' applets, and the results of that movement will be the same.
While in collaboration mode, the followers' JavaScreen applets do not accept most user input (cursor moves, for example).
Starting collaboration is a two-part process: first, the leader JavaScreen must create a collaboration; second, the follower or followers must connect to that collaboration.
At the present time, the leader must have a session open to successfully allow collaboration. To enable collaboration once a session is open, perform the following procedure:
Follow the link to get a JavaScreen follower.
Once the leader has created a collaboration, the followers can connect to that leader and start the actual collaboration. To do so, perform this procedure:
The leader can end the collaboration as follows:
The leader can also end the collaboration by simply exiting. In either of these cases, the followers will all return to their pre- collaboration state.
At the present time, collaboration does not work in CGI communication mode. (CGI mode is a special mode to deal with the problem of firewalls that prevent the JavaScreen client from connecting a socket back to the JSPoP on the web server machine. You can tell that you're in CGI mode because the text just to the right of the JavaScreen buttons says 'CGI' instead of 'Socket'.)
At the present time, you must exit and restart the collaboration to switch leaders.
Last updated 2002-05-08.