Ink2Web
ViewStar Application Framework
Technical
Overview
Traditionally,
ViewStar applications were built using ViewStar's Application
Designer module. ViewStar workflow and scheduled tasks,
as well as all customization to ViewStar applications,
had to be done using ViewStar's proprietary language,
Script. Then, with the first release of ViewStar's Classic
Business Process Interface (CBPI) OLE object set, the
applications and tasks used to interface to the ViewStar
system could now be developed using industry standard
programming languages, such as Visual Basic and PowerBuilder.
By allowing applications to be developed using these
languages, ViewStar applications and tasks could now
interface with an endless number of other products,
such as, Microsoft Word, Novell Groupwise, and Attachmate
Extra, just to name a few. With the release of ViewStar's
new, lightweight BPI implementation, called Enterprise
BPI (EBPI), customers can now create Internet/intranet
applications and utilize the ViewStar InfoStore@Work
and Process@Work Internet/intranet products.
In
order to ease the burden of developing new, browser-based
imaging applications using EBPI technology, Ink2Web
has developed the Ink2Web ViewStar Application Framework
(IVAF) as a front-end to the ViewStar system. In other
words, IVAF provides the user interface to any ViewStar
workflow. The main purpose of the framework is to enable
customers to rapidly build browser-based applications
which enable access to folders in ViewStar queues for
document viewing, indexing, and manipulation, as well
as, the retrieval and viewing of library documents.
IVAF was developed using a combination of ASP, XML technology,
DHTML, and VB COM objects. Furthermore, the framework
is architected in such a way that each user session
is stateless, thereby enabling a user's application
session to automatically reconnect to the next available
web server if the server they are currently interacting
with goes down or is unavailable. This is an important
feature for customers who want truly fault tolerant
systems and the ability to load-balance work between
multiple servers.
IVAF
was also developed using Object Oriented Design (OOD)
principles. These principles allow the re-use of many
of the IVAF objects in all application modes, both in
the current application and for future applications.
The purpose of using an OOD approach is to provide a
software foundation which can be reused, and is easily
maintained and flexible. This approach establishes a
layer of "Core" objects that are intended
to be common across all IVAF application modes. Various
core objects control the application functionality,
presentation and user interaction; others control the
interaction with ViewStar's EBPI.
One
of the key features of IVAF is the processing statistics
which it captures. Every time a user has any interaction
with a folder, this information is captured in the IVAF
reporting tables. The data captured enables management
to produce the following types of reports (but not limited
to): total time logged into the application, number
of folders processed per day, number of documents processed
per day, and the average time to process a document.
Another
feature of IVAF is filters. Filters provide an extension
to ViewStar's security and queue logic. A filter provides
a mechanism of searching a queue or library index with
pre-defined search attributes. ViewStar grants rights
to all queues attached to a specific application node.
So, if a user has access rights to an application, the
user has rights to all folders in all the queues to
which the application has rights. We wanted to further
limit the rights of specific users to specific folders
within a queue, and filters provide this capability.
For example, one indexer might have rights to work on
Accounts Payable documents for company names which start
with the letters A - M, whereas a different indexer
may only have rights to documents for companies N -
Z. This functionality is accomplished by defining filters
and assigning user rights to these filters. The user
then selects the filter they want to use and selects
the Open button.
In order to limit the input errors invariably made during
the indexing process, the ability to pre-define the
values of certain document attributes (fields) is also
provided within IVAF. Attributes for which defaults
exist are easily defined via an IVAF associated table
along with the valid values. This feature increases
throughput and ensures the accuracy of the indexing
function.
Other
features included with IVAF are: user-definable filters,
multi-viewer capability, multiple open modes (manual,
auto-next, and popup), library/workflow search capability,
markup and annotation capability, and page/document
deletion (if desired).
In
conclusion, IVAF customers' will realize the following
benefits:
- Fault
tolerant and load balancing systems - the stateless
design provides continuous operation when a server
fails and prevents an individual server from becoming
overburdened during multiple application sessions.
- Management
reporting - one of the major advantages of implementing
an automated workflow is the ability to capture and
monitor employee productivity. IVAF automatically
records the necessary statistics allowing management
to easily produce productivity reports.
- Rapidly
create new applications - any developer familiar
with the ViewStar's EBPI interface and IVAF can create
new fully functional applications within minutes.
IVAF also reduces the support burden because all applications
are built using the same framework.
- Leverage
web expertise - because IVAF is written using
industry-standard technology, customers are able to
fully support and extend IVAF applications without
reliance on ViewStar consultants.
- User
Filters - enhance ViewStar's security and queue
logic by controlling user access to documents in queues
with wide-ranging flexibility.
- Attribute
defaults - this built-in capability greatly increases
throughput and indexing reliability.
- Reduces
programming mistakes - as with any development
environment, web developers are susceptible to producing
inefficient applications. For ViewStar, this happens
through the misuse of the EBPI objects. IVAF reduces
the developers' chance for making these mistakes by
providing a framework which readily employs the use
of all the EBPI objects relevant to a workflow or
library retrieval application.
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