“IntraWeb made it possible for us to migrate an existing application onto the web, without having to concentrate on web technology. All resources went instead into application features. Only IntraWeb made it possible to present an acceptable development project, timewise and featurewise.”
Dominique Willems, Developer, Domus Software Development
Domus Software Development
Domus Software Development is involved in medical and industrial application development, boasting a government certified general practitioner package and several industrial contract projects, involving a variety of Delphi-centric technologies.
Situation
In 1990, DSD was contracted to develop a lab analysis reporting tool for a Fortune 5 oil company, allowing industrial and transport sector customers to monitor the state of oil samples through a remote polling client, over a short-term modem connection. The application migrated over time from DOS to Windows.
In 2001, the urgent need arose to migrate the application to the Internet, making the tedious client-software installation and modem configurations redundant, and allowing a far broader range of customers to access their reports.
Solution
IntraWeb allowed very rapid prototype deployment, first through the use of the stand-alone server, later through the ISAPI solution on a separate server.
Most of the work went into the development of the laboratory client software and report design application. In the lab client software the analysis results are read from the mainframe and consequently transformed into reports, which then are commented by laboratory staff. Since the internet connection with the outside world was extremely slow, we opted for a briefcase model and wrote a synchronization server from scratch. This now works like a dream, even when the internet connection is lost for a considerable amount of time.
Reports are automatically printed, faxed, e-mailed, and put online.
The IntraWeb server and synchronization server are hosted externally, needing absolutely no hardware investments or infrastructure from the part of the contractor.
Implementation
Checkplan handles the entire cycle of oil sample analysis, from the on-line registration of a sample by the customer all the way to the final reporting of the analysis results. A tracking system allows the user to monitor the arrival of the sample at the lab and the entire processing progress. An infinite amount of report types is possible thanks to IntraWebs ability to create forms at run-time (almost exactly as you would create a TForm). Reports contain scrollable interactive tables, interactive charts, and text. The user has the possibility to change his equipment description on-line. All changes are reported to the master operator, who then gives her approval, makes changes, or refuses the proposed changes.
Technology
Tools: IntraWeb, Delphi
Number of Users: 200
Number of Developers: 1
Time to Develop: 6 months