Figure 5: DDE Protocol
The NETSCAPE Client APIs (NCAPIs) are provided as part of version 1.1N release of NETSCAPE. They are designed to allow third party applications to remotely control the NETSCAPE Navigator client [9]. This mechanism includes both the so-called OLE AUTOMATION and DDE Protocol mechanisms.
Wherever interacting with these APIs, SOUR will regard its object repository as stored in a dynamically ``extended file system'' across the Internet. For that, SOUR and NETSCAPE will cooperate based on the client/server technology supported by the DDE implementation of NETSCAPE version 1.1N [2]. In this way, SOUR will manipulate NETSCAPE to execute and/or extract the information of a given URL.
The first step is to gain access to the NETSCAPE's OLE Automation object (the Netscape.Network.1 Automation Object to be more specific [1]). Using this object, SOUR will be able to access network data through the same mechanisms NETSCAPE uses. However, NETSCAPE's OLE AUTOMATION does not provide the functionality necessary to manipulate the NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR user interface. This is possible only by using the DDE protocol which will make SOUR to act simultaneously like a NETSCAPE client and server, as illustrated in figure 5.
Figure 5: DDE Protocol
While acting as a NETSCAPE's client, SOUR uses NETSCAPE
as a displayer for the URLs which have been conceptualized.
When it is working as a NETSCAPE's server, SOUR is notified
every time the loading of a URL occurs 
.
After the notification, the URL is mapped to a SOUR AO
(see section 3) while the HTML source text
is saved for further analysis
(see the sections 3.3,3.4 and 3.5
earlier in this paper).
After all these steps, the AO information is finally described
in the Conceptualization Batch Language format [17]
and saved into a text file. Finally, whenever SOUR becomes the active
application, it will verify and load all the files created by this process.
Once satisfactorily conceptualized, each URL will be classified
in the system's repository as a conventional SOUR object.
After that, it will be possible to use the
SOUR software system both for have access to its standard functionality
(available in the release 
of the system [19]) or to launch
a ``batch'' NETSCAPE navigation session, which is available through a
specially developed capability of SOUR's RM (Result Manager) subsystem.
RM is a generic SOUR service-tool for graphically displaying,
consulting and executing AO's related information which,
in the present context, becomes also a graphical environment
for browsing the Internet linked structure (see figures 3
and 4).
Figure 6 shows the result of activating the NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR for displaying a selected AO. This operation loads the correspondent URL (using the OLE AUTOMATION mechanism) into the current NETSCAPE window.
Figure 6: Activating Netscape Browser