The Tivoli Enterprise Portal can be started as a desktop application or through your browser by entering the URL for the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server. There are a few differences in operation between the two clients.
Tivoli Enterprise Portal can be used with either a desktop or a browser client. For a desktop client, the application software is installed on your system and you start it as you would any other application; for a browser client, the application software is installed on the Web server that is integrated with the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server and users log on from their browsers. The software is downloaded to your system the first time you log on to Tivoli Enterprise Portal, and thereafter only when software updates are available.
- Portal toolbar
- Tivoli Enterprise Portal functionality is the same for both types
of clients except for the
Back, 
Forward, 
New Window, and 
Stop tools, which are not on the portal toolbar because
they are already available browser toolbar. As well, keyboard shortcuts
also used by Internet Explorer such as F1 for Help and Ctrl+H for
the History Configuration window are not available in browser mode. - Workspaces have URLs
- When you are logged on to the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server through your browser, the address bar displays a URL for each workspace. You can log on and open to the workspace of your choice by adding the workspace URL to the logon URL. You can also send the URL in an email, include it in a hypertext link in an HTML page or other document, or bookmark it.
- Tabbed workspaces
- Every workspace has properties that control how it accessed and displayed. One of the options enables you to open the workspace in a new window instead of replacing the previous workspace in the same window. For browsers that are enabled for tabbed Web pages, the browser client uses those settings and opens the workspace in a new tab.
- Launch in context and with single sign-on
- You can launch products in context, such as to the IBM Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager from the browser client. If your environment and user ID are configured for single sign-on, you do not need to re-authenticate as you launch into other applications.
- Custom banner
- The browser client has a banner image and text that you can customize for your organization. See the IBM Tivoli Monitoring: Administrator's Guide for details.