Create a solution to provide reports through the internet, fax, email, or pager

Case Study - Production Reports

The Problem:

The existing reporting application is tied to the desktop of the user. Data entry is initiated manually from the application and so is the report generation. The new solution should separate the data entry operations and let the user access the reports from any machine with Internet access. Further, the user should be able to "bookmark" his favority reports and have them dispatched to his email, fax, or pager periodically.

The Approach:

• Worked with Clients users and business analysts to gather requirements
• Analyzed the existing report generation logic.
• Identified common routines/sections that are repeated.
• Applied Enterprise-wide Web Application Architecture Framework.
• Designed data access, processing and presentation models.
• Developed a scheme for generating new reports with the same framework.

Architecture Design Benefits:

• A separate data access model that hides the details of getting data from the underlying data source and provides the data in a predefined format.
• A separate data processing module that modifies, if necessary, the data obtained from the data access model.
• A template, for each report to be generated, that specifies the layout and look and feel of the report.
• A common strategy for generating new reports using the above building blocks
• An interface to access the reports from the world wide web browser.
• A dispatching mechanism to enable the user to have reports sent to him periodically or on a fixed future date.

Technologies Used:

JSP/Servlets, EJB, Oracle, InetSoft's Style Reports.