Free Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework

Federal government workers often have to access many different systems to find all the information they need to make critical decisions. Developers looking for a cost-effective way to streamline this process may find the solution in an unexpected place: Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003. By implementing solutions based on the free Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework, developers can configure Microsoft Office System programs to query a wide variety of line-of-business programs and display the collected data in a single viewing panel with hyperlinks.

The Information Bridge client side consists of an Office Professional Edition 2003 add-in: a single file that can be easily installed on multiple desktop computers using automated deployment software such as Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003. To create the metadata used by the Information Bridge client, developers use the Information Bridge Metadata Designer, a Microsoft Visual Studio .NET plug-in. When a user receives a Microsoft Office System document that contains items corresponding to metadata in the Information Bridge metadata service—such as a business name, region, or serial number—Information Bridge registers a smart tag for that item.

When the user clicks the smart tag, the client interprets the context of that item and connects it to relevant actions available for retrieving information from Web services. If, for instance, the user clicks a business name, Information Bridge queries the various systems on the network that store information about that company. Information Bridge presents the resulting data to the user in an Office task pane that opens in the same program as the document.

Information Bridge in action

Imagine an employee in the Department of Widget Safety receives an e-mail message in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 reporting that a widget manufactured overseas has malfunctioned. The only specific information the message contains is the malfunctioning widget's serial number. To take action, the employee needs to know:

All of this information is contained in different systems, ranging from a 30-year-old AS/400 green screen system to a recently installed Web services application.

Office Professional Edition 2003 attaches a smart tag to the widget’s serial number based on custom Microsoft .NET code that recognizes the serial number in the e-mail message. When the employee clicks the smart tag, Information Bridge queries the systems containing widget serial numbers, manufacturers, certification records, shipping companies, and retail outlets.

Information Bridge aggregates all of this data from these disparate systems and displays it to the user in a task pane in Outlook 2003. The query results contain hyperlinks that the employee can click to get more information about that item. The employee does not need to know where this data comes from or how to use all the different systems containing it. The employee only needs to know how to use Office Professional Edition 2003, and Information Bridge manages the back end systems.

The employee can insert the information directly or copy and paste the information displayed in the task pane into a new document in Outlook 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, or Microsoft Office InfoPath. A recipient who is on the same network and has the Information Bridge client installed can click the smart tags in the document and perform the same queries in his or her own task pane in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003.

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Many systems, one simple interface

By implementing Information Bridge, developers can increase employee productivity and reduce development costs. For example, when an older system is upgraded or replaced, work typically slows down while employees are trained to use a new system. However, if developers in an agency using Information Bridge deploy the same type of Web service for the front end of the new program as they used for the old one, and the Web service presents the same information, developers can also reuse the existing Information Bridge interface. Workers who access information using Information Bridge the morning after an entire back end line-of-business system has been replaced will not notice any change to their interface. The task pane in Office Professional Edition 2003 displays the same information in the same order it did before the migration.

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Centralize deployment, simplify development

The Information Bridge desktop client needs to be installed only once to the desktop, where it draws down the information and application assemblies it needs from rich-client applications at the server level. Developers can implement new features and functions centrally, with a minimum of desktop configuration.

Information Bridge's smart client technology and service-oriented architecture make it easy to develop a solution in pieces that are independent of one another. Developers can build, test, modify, and replace individual components while leaving other components untouched.

The recent Microsoft release of Information Bridge Service Pack 1.5 adds even more features to the program. For example, it adds an integrated debugger and XSL transformation capability, InfoPath 2003 and Microsoft Internet Explorer support, branding capabilities, and additional guidance in the form of wizards.

Information Bridge is not a replacement for rich client interfaces. Employees who do in-depth work on a specific system would continue to use that application’s interface to perform their daily functions. Information Bridge is a useful, powerful, free tool for the worker who primarily uses Office Professional Edition 2003 and needs fast access to many sources of information but doesn’t need to know where that information is stored on the network.

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