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Client Requirement
Client required a site designed to provide fact-based insights into the product quality and performance to help patients, providers, payers, manufacturers and others make informed decisions. The huge structure of the site demanded some explicit functions:
- The database technology required to be both reliable and scalable.
- Database performance should be such that it supports millions of events and alerts.
- There had to be better algorithms for manual cleaning and logical linking of different datasets.
- Security features had to be advanced.
- Use of latest graphical representation technology.
- Several features for rating system, importing reports etc.
- Better divisions for categories.
- Advanced search features.
- Login features.
- Printing options and filters.
- Dashboards in order to summarize the information.
- Social Networking features.
Challenges
- Apache Solar was used as the base technology to fulfill the project demands. The client
demanded a high ranking search technique and the application should be able to search according to various sections such as search according to tags, geographical focus, category based related disciplines etc. - Automated Meta tagging, cross linking and creating extended core taxonomy was a challenge.
- Drupal framework was selected for social networking features
- Data import via CSV and quality graphical representation at all places on the website was a challenge.
Technologies Used
| Operating System & Server Management | Linux OS, Multi-Server Architecture with Staging & Production Environment through Version Controlling releases, Server Optimization, Security & SSL Implementation, Scheduler for Back-ups, Alert Monitoring System Integration, Server Performance Tuning at regular intervals, Software Firewall Configuration & Maintenance |
| Development Tools & Environments | Drupal 6.22, Solr Server, Java Script, AJAX, Apache 2.0 Handler |
| Database | MYSQL Database Server, DB Clustering, DB Optimization, Master Slave Replication, Query Optimization, Scheduler for Backups |
Manpower
| Project Leader | 1 |
| Developers | 1 |
| Designers | 1 |
Planning
A four tier approach was selected due to the enormous structure of the website:
- All databases like MySQL, Tables and stored procedures formed the database layer.
- Interface layer and Database Abstraction layer: for Conversion of data between incompatible type systems in databases and accessing data from the database.
- Business logic layer: for modules such as profiles, invitations, forums and blogs.
- User Interface Layer for the GUI of the application.
Architecture
The website featured rich user data and had extensive social networking capabilities. This is why Drupal was selected along with MySQL for database purposes. The development structure was based on the “Faster to Market” concept. The use of drupal facilitated the features such as User Profiles, Invitations, Forums, Blogs and other modules such that direct execution from the UI layer was possible. Effective access to the database in an object oriented context was implemented using an interface translating the object logic to relational logic so as to communicate with the relational databases in an object-oriented manner. The access to the database was implemented using an intermediary abstraction layer. Scrum Methodology was used for development to manage risk more effectively and manage changes on the go.
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