Glossary

COM

Microsoft's Component Object Model.  The COM specification helps developers create component software that is compatible with a variety of languages, including C, ADA, Delphi, Java, and Visual Basic.

Denial of Service Attack

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are attempts to overload a networked computer system so that it crashes, disconnects from the network, or becomes so overloaded that it cannot respond to legitimate requests.

DTD

Document Type Definition. A DTD defines the XML tags that can be used in an XML document, the order in which tags may appear, and limited information about data types.  A DTD can be part of an XML document or can be referenced as an external file.  The validating XML parser compares the DTD to the XML document and flags any errors.  DTDs have been deprecated in favor of XML Schemas.

Handler

A program built in Interaction Designer that performs some action or actions in response to the occurrence of some event. A handler is a collection of steps organized and linked to form a logical flow of actions and decisions. Handlers are similar in structure to a detailed flowchart. Handlers can start other handlers called subroutines. A handler contains only one initiator step which identifies the type of event that will start the handler.

HRESULT Codes

All COM functions and interface methods return a value of the type HRESULT, which stands for 'result handle'.  HRESULT returns success, warning, and error values. HRESULTs are 32-bit values with several fields encoded in the value. In Visual Basic, a zero result indicates success and a non-zero result indicates failure. Common HRESULT values are:

0x8000FFFF	E_UNEXPECTED	Unexpected failure.
0x80004001	E_NOTIMPL	Not implemented.
0x8007000E	E_OUTOFMEMORY	Ran out of memory.
0x80070057	E_INVALIDARG	One or more arguments are invalid.
0x80004002	E_NOINTERFACE	No such interface supported.
0x80004003	E_POINTER	Invalid pointer.
0x80070006	E_HANDLE	Invalid handle.
0x80004004	E_ABORT	Operation aborted.
0x80004005	E_FAIL	Unspecified error.
0x80070005	E_ACCESSDENIED	General access denied error.
0x80000001	E_NOTIMPL	Not implemented.
0x80020001	DISP_E_UNKNOWNINTERFACE	Unknown interface.
0x80020003	DISP_E_MEMBERNOTFOUND	Member not found.
0x80020004	DISP_E_PARAMNOTFOUND	Parameter not found.
0x80020005	DISP_E_TYPEMISMATCH	Type mismatch.
0x80020006	DISP_E_UNKNOWNNAME	Unknown name.
0x80020007	DISP_E_NONAMEDARGS	No named arguments.
0x80020008	DISP_E_BADVARTYPE	Bad variable type.
0x80020009	DISP_E_EXCEPTION	Exception occurred.
0x8002000A	DISP_E_OVERFLOW	Out of present range.
0x8002000B	DISP_E_BADINDEX	Invalid index.
0x8002000C	DISP_E_UNKNOWNLCID	Unknown LCID.
0x8002000D	DISP_E_ARRAYISLOCKED	Memory is locked.
0x8002000E	DISP_E_BADPARAMCOUNT	Invalid number of parameters.
0x8002000F	DISP_E_PARAMNOTOPTIONAL	Parameter not optional.
0x80020010	DISP_E_BADCALLEE	Invalid callee.
0x80020011	DISP_E_NOTACOLLECTION	Does not support a collection.

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the markup language used to create World Wide Web pages.

CIC Module

One of the many applications that make up the CIC server. These applications have names like manager, server, and services. For example, Queue Manager, Fax Server, and Directory Services are all IC modules.

IDispatch Interface

The IDispatch interface provides a late-bound mechanism that can be used to access information about the methods or properties of an object.

Initiator

The first step in a handler that waits for a specific type of event to occur. When that event occurs, the Interaction Processor starts an instance of any handler whose initiator is configured for that event. An initiator is a required step that starts a handler. There can be only one Initiator in a handler. Initiator names describe the kind of event used to start a handler. Initiators can pass information from the event into variables that can be used within a handler. Subroutine initiators are not configured to watch for an event. Rather, they start when called from another handler.

Customer Interaction Center (CIC)

The Customer Interaction Center Platform^TM is a powerful platform for implementing comprehensive interaction management covering not only calls and faxes but also e-mail messages, Internet text chats, Web callback requests, and voice over Net calls. Using the Customer Interaction Center Platform, enterprises, contact centers, and service providers can centralize the processing of all customer interactions and provide a new level of service and consistency.

Interaction Designer

The CIC graphical application development tool for creating, debugging, editing, and managing handlers and subroutines.

Interaction Processor (IP)

Interaction Processor is the event processing subsystem of Customer Interaction Center that starts instances of handlers when an event occurs.

IUnknown Interface

Every COM component implements an internal interface named IUnknown.  Client applications can use the IUnknown interface to retrieve pointers to the other interfaces supported by the component.

Method

A method is a software subroutine that performs some type of data processing on an object in a computer system.  Methods are sometimes called functions.  Data can be passed when methods are called to perform some kind of work.  For example, you might call a method named GetStockPrice and pass it a stock symbol to receive the current stock price as the return value.

Microsoft SOAP Toolkit

Microsoft's SOAP Toolkit makes it possible for programmers to invoke a web service as easily as invoking a method on an object.  The Microsoft SOAP Toolkit reads in an WSDL file, and dynamically generates COM interfaces for operations described in the file.  It packages method parameters in accordance with WSDL service descriptions.

Namespace

Since XML allows tags and attributes to be defined as needed, name collisions occur when the same name is assigned to a tag or an attribute, in different databases.  For example, a teacher might define an element named "Grade" to represent a student's score.  In the context of an agricultural operation, "Grade" could have a different meaning, as in "Grade A" eggs.  Namespaces resolve collision issues by associating XML attribute and element names with a specific context, or "namespace".  A namespace is an identifier that helps computer programs determine whether identically named elements refer to the same type of data.   Using namespaces, a program can determine that a data element named "Grade" in the "Schoolwork" namespace is different from an element called "Grade" in the "EggQuality" namespace.

Notifier

The CIC module that acts as a communication center for all other modules. Notifier listens for events generated by other modules and notifies other interested modules that the event has occurred.  Notifier uses a publish-and-subscribe paradigm.

Package

A SOAP package contains information needed to invoke a web service.

Payload

A payload contains data in XML format that is passed to or from a function.  Request payloads contain everything needed to execute a function, including data and arguments passed as parameters.  Response payloads contain the values that are returned from a function. 

Processing Instruction

Processing instructions are read by application-level code (such as parsers) and are used to communicate information without changing the content of an XML document.  For example, <?xml version="1.0"?> is a processing instruction that indicates that a document conforms to XML 1.0 specifications.  Processing instructions use <?target declaration ?> notation; where target is the name of the application that should process the instruction, and declaration is an instruction or identifier that is meaningful to the application.  In the above example, XML is a reserved target that identifies XML parsers.

Protocol

A protocol is a set of rules that one computer uses to communicate with another.

Schema

XML Schema are the successor to DTDs for XML.  XML schemas describe method calls, and can recognize and enforce data-types, inheritance, and presentation rules. A schema can be part of an XML document or can be referenced as an external file. 

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol.  SOAP is an XML-based protocol that requests or receives information from peer computers in a decentralized, distributed network.  SOAP defines the minimal set of conventions that are needed to invoke code using XML and HTTP.  SOAP is used to invoke methods on servers, services, components and objects in another computer.  SOAP specifies the XML vocabulary needed to specify method parameters, return values, and exceptions. 

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

Tool

The definition of a single action that can be performed within a handler. This definition includes name, label, runtime information (DLL and function), possible return codes, and parameters. Tools dragged into a handler become steps in that handler.

Valid 

A valid XML document conforms to a document structure defined by a schema or DTD (Document Type Definition).  Valid documents are well-formed documents that have a DTD or schema applied to them. 

Vocabulary

A vocabulary is the set of tags and attributes that are used in an XML document.

Web Service

A web service is a method that can be invoked across the Internet.  A web service can perform virtually any data processing activity, ranging from simple information lookups to complicated business transactions.   SOAP is frequently employed to invoke web services.

Well-Formed

Well-formed documents follow the rules of XML.

WSDL 

Web Services Description Language—an XML-based language that defines the functionality offered by a web service and how to access it.  WSDL makes it possible to describe services on CIC so that a worldwide audience can find and use them. WSDL describes a service, the parameters required to invoke it, and the location of the endpoint where the service can be accessed.

XML

Extensible Markup Language.  XML provides a structured way to define data in plain text format, so that data can be exchanged between computers.

XSL/XSLT

Extensible Style Language (XSL) is a specification used to transform XML documents into HTML.  XSL Transformation (XSLT) provides similar functionality that transforms XML data into a different XML structure.