Business Intelligence
version: 1.0date: 2000-11-25 16:04:27
Work on BI project for Commercialware
Nov.2000
We have been directed to work on a project called " Business Intelligence ". Insert your own joke here.
Kelly + Micha are taking the lead on this, I'll be providing infrastructure/implementation support as well as doing the migration from linux based to windows based sales demo.
The fundamental idea is that people in various roles in the co need to have access to customer/order info and they don't currently have a single framework in which do to so.
Enter: The Customer 360. php front end, the demo uses MySQL but it can run against any db (Note to self: proof of concept Oracle integration on unix-y systems).
Customer 360 provides role-based access to all info about customers/orders. read/write/create/update permissions affects UI (e.g. input boxes -vs- straight text, button displayed/not displayed). Graphs charting cust hist of returns/problems/purchase amounts/etc generated dynamically via php graphics lib. Intended use is catalog/retail call centers, proof of concept is solid enough that it will be migrated to JSP (rdc runs WebSphere) and released as a product.
Update:
the pains of lin -> win sales demo migration. Need to come up with install instructions that will allow salespeople to install Apache, PHP, MySQL on Windows, load the web pages and database, and have it all actually work.
BI on Windows 98 SE
instructions have been sent to Rose, along with all relevant files.
Success at last.
3.11.2001 - Adding WinCVS to the mix, which is an incredibly well documented application...
update: some changes were made to the structure, so I will be revamping the documentation and adding a new module ( phpMyAdmin ) as well.
2.13.2001 - I now have gotten the test system to the exact same point as Rose's laptop (font errors and all) and will start determining what the solution is for this...
There was a problem with the fontroot variable somehow, which we've fixed, and now the graphs are showing, though inconsistently. Rose will be providing us with a summary of the the graphs that are misbehaving and we will fix them.
2.14.2001 - provided Rose with phpMyAdmin and instructions, Kelly is sending her an sql file to update her local db with.
Rose has become a regular PHP wizard. phpMyAdmin is working on her machine, on to the next step: updating her db.
2.20.2001 - new build has been published, along with new install guide. Installation should now take about 15 minutes and 3 reboots on Win98 SE. Note that on a Linux laptop it would take about 3 minutes and zero reboots. Just thought I'd mention that.
