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QARE - (Quick Agent Runtime Environment) is pronounced as "Care".

Contents

QARE is the Answer

• How do I share information with some friends? Or offer a service to my customers? Without giving it away to everyone?
• My friends already have too many account names and passwords. It is difficult to get them to remember another. But they will not (or should not) give me an account name and password that they use for other services. What is the alternative?
• Email does not have the security issues that I face with web pages/services--I can sent what I want to whoever I want. But my friends/customers don't always want all the updates I send. They just want to see it when they need it.
• Is there an alternative to building an Xtra-net?

What is QARE?

• Think of a QARE Portal as a web-based mail client that runs on your computer or LAN. Access is always fast--there's no world wide wait. And you don't normally wait for a reply when you send a message.
• Like a mail client, you can send and receive information. But instead of exchanging information directly with another human being, you use software agents (application plugins) that exchange email with agents running on other QARE Portals.
• QARE gives you control. You decide who can send information to your agents. You decide what information is to be sent, and to whom. The agents handle the email, and collect the information you want in your inbox.

Extensibility

• QARE builds on Tomcat and MySQL. Application plugins are Servlets packaged as WAR files. Each application has its own JAR class loader and its own resource files.
• XML encoding is used for messages and various database columns. Conversion to Java objects uses application-specific Quick binding schema, to construct and configure object graphs using the application's own classes. (Quick works with multiple class loaders.)
• QARE includes an API for generic persistant tables, so applications can retain the information they need.

Security

• The identity of a QARE Portal is its URL. All Messages sent to a Portal are sent to the same URL.
• Messages are typically both encrypted and signed using DH and DSA key pairs. A Portal's public keys can not be changed without changing its URL.
• A delegation model is used to control access to the various capabilities of the application plugins. Portal administrators can define default permissions granted to new users and new remote accounts. (Remote accounts are used when accessing a portal via another portal.)
• Messages can not be sent to a Portal without permission, except as a response on a channel opened by a prior request. (Channels are always specific to a single application and user.)
• Messages are encoded in XML and are validated against the schema used by the destination application. Messages do not contain executable code or script, as these can not be validated to assure safe execution.