Release Notes for PIA Release 1.1

Release Announcements

Announcements | New Features | Missing Features | Additional Information

Release Announcements

Release 1.1 Alpha

The PIA group is pleased to announce the minor upgrade of the Information Agency. The Information Agency is a proxy web server (implemented in Java) that provides an environment for document processing agents. This release includes security authentication, Template agent for generating new agents, and an implementation of PUT request.

We recommend that interested users start by installing and running their own Personal Information Agency. (See the Installation manual for instructions.) Once the agency is running, you can view further documentation and try customizing the demonstration agents.

New Features

Security Authentication

Security authorization: If a password file as the value of the "authentication" option of an agent, the agent will request basic authentication before returning InterForms to the user. The user name will be available as the AuthenticatedUser feature on a transaction.
digital signatures: the hash and sign tags can be used to create and verify digital signatures and manage public/private key collections. Because they use JDK1.2 features, these handlers must be compiled by hand and explicitly loaded (not a part of the standard tag set).

Template Agent

The Template agent can be used for quickly constructing the files necessary for a new Agent. You can install it using the form in /PIA/Agents/Template.

At the moment, only the Agent template really works, and it's rather slow. It can be very useful nevertheless. Developers might find the implementation of interest, since it illustrates the use of load-on-demand tagsets and forms built dynamically out of XML (well, almost) data files.

PUT request

PUT request is implemented, allowing agents to store documents.

Missing Features

While the core agency is stable and unlikely to change substantially, several features have not yet been fully implemented. Most important among these are the security model, the InterForm methods for accessing data structure, and the support for dynamic manipulation of "tagsets" by agents.

Templates are a work in progress, and only the template for Agent really works at this point.

Additional Information

The latest information regarding PIA technology can be found on the PIA group's web site: risource.org (Links fixed in 2001). All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your support,
The PIA Group (Greg, Steve, Rithy)