[Macpartners] Coeus Java Release

[Stephen Dowdy]

MIT has created the COEUS system to assist MIT and OSP in proposal 
development and pre- and post-award management.  Our objective is to 
simplify and make more efficient, award acquisition and administration 
throughout the Institute and perhaps the whole country. The COEUS software 
is a fully operational post-award management tool, and the pre-award module 
facilitates the preparation and submittal of electronic proposals.

Currently, Coeus is a client server application written in 
Powerbuilder.  However, OSP has been working over the past 18 months to 
convert the entire Powerbuilder application to a Java swing 
application.  The user interface in the Java version of Coeus is identical 
to the Powerbuilder application; therefore, user training should not be an 
issue.  That is good news for the end-user.

But for you as the technical support provider in your area, I wanted to 
mention that our Java swing application will require JRE 1.4.2 on the 
desktop.  We are utilizing the Sun WebStart technology and therefore the 
new Coeus application will download and self-heal when the user access the 
web page or launches the application once it has been installed via the 
web.  The issue for you is that the JRE requires administrative permissions 
to install on the desktop.

I wanted to point this out in case you will be deploying new machines in 
your area over the next few months; or perhaps if you must visit a machine 
for other reasons, you might want to install the JRE at the same time.

Our time-line is still about 3 months away from releasing the full 
production version of the Java client.  I just wanted to give you a 
heads-up so you can prepare for the new application when it is released.

We will have pre-releases ready for the electronic proposal module to pilot 
before then.  We, of course, would work individually with departments that 
indicate a desire to participate in our pilots this Summer to insure the 
necessary infrastructure (JRE 1.4.2) is installed on the desktop machine.