Practical Internet Groupware

Uses and Limits of the Docbase Review Application

From the perspective of a user—that is, a docbase author or reviewer—there are two parallel interfaces to the docbase. You can start with the generated HTML table of contents, cross-linked with the HTML chapters (see Figure 9.5). Or you can subscribe to the newsgroup, where commentary intersperses with another view of the table of contents (see Figure 9.4).

The relationship between these two views of the docbase is admittedly a bit tricky. For example, to what URL should the comment handler refer you when you submit your comment? There are various possibilities:

• Back to your point of origin in the docbase

• To the newsgroup’s top-level view

• To the newsgroup at the location of the header governing the commented-upon element

• To the newsgroup at the location of the posted comment

The last option might seem best, since the posted comment includes a backlink to its origin in the docbase. Unfortunately both the Microsoft and Netscape newsreaders handle the transition from web space to news space poorly, as we saw in Part I. Neither establishes the desired context in which to view related comments. So the best we can do by way of newsgroup referral is to go to the newsgroup itself, using a URL like news://hostname/groupware.v3. Since this maneuver results in severe loss of context, it’s probably best to go with the first option—transfer of control back to the docbase at the comment’s point of origin. Arguably this is better anyway, since a reviewer ...