Component architecture for building Web-based synchronous collaboration systems

Competent technology gains popularity as its benefits, the reusability and simplicity of use become more and more evident. We demonstrate how component technology can be effectively applied to the process of building collaborative applications in the Web environment. In order to support development of collaborative tools, the components must satisfy a set of requirements inherent for a synchronous collaboration environment. The distribution of arbitrary events and objects, the access to the collaborative session state, and the means of synchronizing operations on the shared resources must be provided. Tango Beans is a set of components based on the Tango Interactive framework that has been implemented to facilitate rapid development of collaborative applications. We explain how Tango Beans work and how they can be used to develop collaborative tools for synchronous distance learning and Web conferencing.