Application Series 24
YOUR
INTERNET
DATABASE
David Baxter, Quality
Assurance Manager at SIR
Pty Ltd, explains the benefits
of combining the features of
a SIR database and the
Internet to provide company
wide or world wide access
for your SIR database.
Introduction
"SIR is a whiz at the web" says
SIR’s Quality Assurance Manager,
David Baxter, who has set up an
in-house Intranet for the
monitoring of SIR’s Software
Performance Reports (SPRs).
SIR lends itself ideally to the
World Wide Web. Where other
database products have to add on
tools to provide internet access,
SIR’s Procedural Query Language
(PQL), Report Generator and
batch processing ability allows it
to be used as an internet
database without any additional
modules.
Background
David used an in-house office
intranet to provide all staff with
direct access to the SIR database
system set up to monitor
customer’s problems as detailed
in their SPRs. "For a number of
years we have had a database
which contains all the details of an
SPR". These details include what
the problem is, who reported it,
when it was reported, how severe
it is, what the fix is, whether it has
passed the QA tests and so on.
These problems have to be
passed to a number of divisions to
ensure that a customer’s problem
was resolved satisfactorily and
permanently, and this could be a
cumbersome process. "SIR runs
on many platforms and almost
everyone in the company uses a
different system for their normal
work" David said. "Although we
all have access to the same
network, a full client/server system
is needed to provide direct access
to a single database and we
thought this was overkill for the
SPR database".
The Intranet Solution
"Originally we printed SPRs to
pass them to the relevant
divisions for action" David
admitted. "Then we got smarter
and used email. But now we have
a full Intranet site set up to directly
access our SIR database." By
using internet browsers, David’s
Intranet allows all SIR staff to
search on SPR number or key
words to find the details of an
SPR.
Maintenance can select all SPRs
which require fixing. QA can
select all SPRs which have been
‘fixed’ and require testing.
Customer support can bring up
the details of an SPR whilst on the
phone to the customer. Research
and Development can examine an
SPR which may require new
features to be implemented.
International Support, which
oversees the whole SPR system,
can monitor the progress of all
SPRs and ensure they are
receiving appropriate treatment.
How SIR Does it
David wrote a single database
retrieval program in PQL to
display database information,
prompt for query information and
display a list or the documents
themselves. "There was no need
to modify the database, I could
use it exactly as it had been
created." David explained. "But
if, say a new index or record type
was required then SIR’s dynamic
restructuring would make this
possible and simple." David’s
program ran in batch to access
the database and returned to the
Web Browser all of the requested
information with HTML code
embedded.
Advanced Features
"HTML codes can be embedded
anywhere within a report" David
pointed out "HTML forms can be
generated and can include
dynamic menus based on current
data values" As well as this SIR
has simple commands (eg
DBASE SAVE FILE) which will
write data in various formats
readable by other software. "We
can extract a subset of data from
a SIR database and have the
client browser automatically start
up a spreadsheet program with
the data included".
David is extending this system to
include direct updating of the
database through the Intranet by
staff with the required level of
security. "You can control access
to the database, specific records
or individual data items with SIR’s
31 levels of read and write
security."
"With internet browsers providing
access across all computer
systems, and SIR’s 4GL providing
the tools to do the interfacing,
there is no reason why any SIR
database administrator cannot
easily set up an Intranet on their
present databases for their users."
David said "It's as easy as pie".
For more information on the use
of SIR with the Internet contact:
David Baxter, Quality
Assurance Manager,
SIR Pty Ltd
1/10-18 Cliff St
MILSONS POINT NSW 2061
AUSTRALIA
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