Sun Java Communications Suite 5 Deployment Planning Guide

Instant Messaging Email Notification (Calendar Alert) Architecture

You can deploy Instant Messaging to support email notification to offline users, as well as Instant Messaging based notification of calendar events to users.

An Instant Messaging architecture that supports email notification and calendar alerts provides the same functionality as Basic Instant Messaging Architecture. To provide this functionality, you need to include the components listed in Basic Instant Messaging Architecture. To support email alerts, you also install an SMTP server such as Sun Java System Messaging Server. To support calendar alerts, you also install Sun Java System Calendar Server.

To enable email notification, you are prompted to identify the SMTP server to use with Instant Messaging during installation. If you do not have an SMTP server installed, you must install one before installing the Instant Messaging software. Figure 21–3 shows Instant Messaging with email notification enabled on the network.

If you do not have Calendar Server installed, you must install it before installing the Instant Messaging software. Figure 21–4 shows Instant Messaging with calendar notification enabled on the network.

Authentication flow in this architecture is the same as in a basic deployment. See Authentication in a Basic Architecture for more information.

Figure 21–3 Instant Messaging Architecture with Email Notification

This diagram shows the relationship between components
in an Instant Messaging deployment with email notification enabled.

In this example:

The LDAP server provides user entries for authentication and lookup.
The Instant Messaging server forwards messages intended for offline users to the SMTP server. The SMTP server then sends the message as an email to the user’s mailbox.
The clients download the Instant Messaging resources from a web server (or application server).
Clients always connect to the Instant Messaging server through an Instant Messaging multiplexor.

Figure 21–4 Instant Messaging Architecture with Calendar Alerts

This diagram shows the relationship between components
in an Instant Messaging deployment with Calendar event notification enabled.

In this example:

The LDAP server provides user entries for authentication and lookup.
The Event Notification Server (ENS) sends notifications of calendar events to the Instant Messaging server which then forwards the notification on to the appropriate end user.
The clients download the Instant Messaging resources from a web server (or application server).
Clients always connect to the Instant Messaging server through an Instant Messaging multiplexor.