Providing web and database services to the Austin metropolitan area.

Database Austin Case Study – Local Austin Laboratory (page 5)

More Design Decisions

Ease of Use

Ease of use was an important design consideration. To reduce training time for new employees and to accommodate staff members who have a limited amount of computer experience, it was important to design a system that was intuitive, easy to navigate, forgiving of errors, and diligent in its form verification.

Java Script

Java Script is used extensively in Wildcat to ensure that the user has correctly entered form information. The advantage of Java Script error checking is that the error checking takes place on the client side, and does not require a round-trip to the server. This makes efficient use of the server, and allows the user to correct mistakes immediately.

HTTP Server

Initially the Windows 2000 Professional version of IIS (the Personal Web Server) was used as the HTTP server for this design. It’s limitations became apparent (not the least of which is the artificial limit of 10 connections), and a decision was made to switch to the open source Apache 2 HTTP server. This free, high quality program has worked efficiently and near-flawlessly ever since.

Design Tools

The primary database management tool being used is phpMyAdmin. This open-source tool works very well, contains many useful features, and is easy to install and maintain. Occasionally the mySQL command line utility is used. Although less user-friendly, it performs efficiently and flawlessly.

Another benefit of the php programming language is that it does not require an expensive IDE. A text editor is all that is required! There are many good text editors available. Our favorite is vedit.