Yet we developers found Domino and Notes a superb content management system. As developers, we could extend solutions to create content management applications embedded within Domino. However, I don't know of any Domino and Notes applications that place robust content management templates, tools, and features in the hands of end-users themselves.

Unfortunately, users want to create, maintain, and extend their own intranet publishing sites as a matter of routine. Multimedia authoring to support planning, reporting, presentations, and product management is now the order of the day in the most competitive corporations. If our users can't do it themselves, they'll expect IT professionals to do it for them. And who has that kind of time?

Learning more about Frontier
Ironically, perhaps, those of you who have mastered Domino's mountainous terrain should find Frontier just a refreshing hike through the hills, not because it's a smaller or limited product (though, in some measure, its design is more constrained) but because you have already "grokked" groupware and collaboration as a concept.

In essence, Frontier is an object-oriented, table-driven database that exposes all its objects, properties, and methods for your inspection and editing. As you can see in Figure A, Frontier employs a thoroughly consistent outliner model. Can anyone say twisties?

FIGURE A


The root database enables drill-down through the entire platform. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Several "root" databases make up Frontier, with Frontier.Root at the top of the hierarchy. Note that most values within Frontier tables are directly editable. I have opened a table in Figure B from the selected item of the Root table.

FIGURE B


All Frontier values are addressable and most are directly editable. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can address every item within Frontier through the usual point-and-click or through dot notation. Convenient shortcuts and jump-tos are provided as well to reveal tables that are lower in the hierarchy.

The Manila.Root database, pictured in Figure C, is especially interesting because it illustrates how UserLand wraps rich end-user applications that are fully visible to all developers around the core Frontier engine.

FIGURE C


The Manila root contains a series of mini-database tables and applications. Roll over picture for a larger image.

For instance, because Manila features simple but effective workgroup publishing, a complete framework for defining and managing editorial roles was provided. The Manila Root Editor is pictured in Figure D.

FIGURE D


A set of scripts provides default behavior for managing editorial access. Roll over picture for a larger image.

While Manila is entirely end-user directed and editable within a standard browser (Dave Winer is passionate about the benefits of direct manipulation on the Web itself), Manila sites can be hidden from everyone but editors, as can be seen in Figure E.

FIGURE E


Customize this script to fine-tune editorial access in Manila. Roll over picture for a larger image.

This documented script restricts the scope of the Web site in question. Note that the proprietary scripting language falls well within the family you're already familiar with from LotusScript and JavaScript. A powerful debugger supports statement stepping and a lot more. For details, you can consult the fragment of documentation at http://frontier.userland.com/stories/storyReader$1046#debugging.