A reporting system on the WEB

Pål NavestadPhillips Petroleum Company Norway

Why reporting on the WEB

■ Intranets are becoming the maininformation channel in a company– Can not only be text, articles and ready made

presentations to succeed, must also includemore hard information.

■ Mixing text, graphics and pictures■ More manageable infrastructure■ Can use different products to develop, but

the end users will not see the difference.

Developing

■ Start small, think big■ Be certain that business logic and business

rules are applied on the server and NOT inthe implementation of the end user layer

■ Don’t be afraid to mix different solutions inthe same application

■ Learn to walk before You run

Developing (cont.)

■ Started with making standard graphs andtables using the GIF format and HTMLformatting tools.– Easy to learn– Fast– 100 % server programming

■ Very flexible, using e.g. Gplot, Gchart

– Very, very rapid development. New stuff canusually be put in production the same day

Development (cont.)

■ HTML formatting tools are easy to use, butnot flexible enough.– Used Data _null_ and put to write more flexible

HTML.– Very good for menus, flexible choice lists

■ E.g make a table with URL references to otherreports

– Can make just about every report

Development (cont.)

■ Static GIF/HTML disadvantges– Tend to grow, hard to manage– Very stable, but not thought of as products

■ When data change things might disappear■ Never found until Friday afternoon before a holiday

– Ownership, usually made for one specific user,when somebody want changes there is noproper owner

– Static

Development (cont.)

■ For more interactive applications usingWebAF®

■ Went straight for WebAF® and notWebEIS® since we have found that the typeof application needs full flexibility

■ Also using some IntrNet®

Development (cont.)

■ WebAF® has been easy to use, and is ratherintuitive

■ Most job is on the server side– Developing for the WEB makes it easier to

separate server/GUI programming.

Conclusion

■ Ideally all reporting should be on yourIntranet– Ensures common info for all– Ensures value for investment

■ The important aspect is server sideprogramming– Well known by IT

■ Application deployment is fast