Visual WebGui Showcases

NetworkD, a leading management software provider web-enables its Service & Support system, allowing interactive & responsive analyst access from web-browsers.

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Abstract
NetworkD, a leading provider of Infrastructure Management Software and Business Process Solutions sought to provide its Frontrange HEAT® service and support system's customers with a web access. NetworkD enabled web access to Frontrange HEAT® by developing iNferno using the .NET Framework 3.5 with Visual WebGui over Visual Studio 2008. The result enables web access from any system running a supported web-browser while maintaining the desktop system's interactivity and responsiveness. Mark Reed, NetworkD’s Group Development Lead reveals “Once we went to VWG we saw anywhere from 100%-400%+ improvement in speed those issues that took 15 seconds went down to 2-3 seconds."

Business needs
NetworkD’s customers have long yearned for web based access to Frontrange’s HEAT® service and support system. NetworkD decided to develop a product called iNferno which would answer that demand and provide analyst access via the web to Frontrange HEAT® customers without necessitating terminal services.

NetworkD needed to develop a complex web front-end to Frontrange’s HEAT service and support system. The web front-end needs to provide users with a data-rich user interface which responds to and manages requests at the original desktop system's levels of interactivity and responsiveness.

The goal was to achieve the same look & feel of the desktop based system without requiring any additional technologies beyond a browser and a regular HTTP server. NetworkD’s developers needed to find the means through which to recreate the complex user interface which was robust, secure and maintainable.

The Solution
In order to improve accessibility to the HEAT system, it was decided to develop iNferno. iNferno would enable access via an ordinary web browser to Frontrange HEAT® customers. The web based solution replaces Frontrange’s current practice of accessing HEAT via terminal services.

NetworkD first started developing iNferno using Microsoft Ajax and ComponentArt WebUI. The development team then encountered two major problems: limited performance with some actions taking up to 10-15 seconds and problems rendering screens correctly when accounting for different screen sizes and resizable forms.

NetworkD looked for a solution to these problems and decided to convert the project to Visual WebGui's Ajax framework. Mark Reed, NetworkD’s Group Development Lead reveals “Once we went to VWG we saw anywhere from 100%-400%+ improvement in speed those issues that took 15 seconds went down to 2-3 seconds. I stumbled upon VWG and installed it and after 1 hour I was convinced that we needed to port the entire project over and that any current time lose would be made up down the road with ease of maintainability…”

Using Visual WebGui, NetworkD was able to accurately re-render the HEAT (32-bit) interface and provide 80% of the functionality and add additional functionality like color coding the ticket lists with a single developer within 4 months. Mark attributes the efficiency gained by using VWG to “not having to worry about all the different web language (CSS, HTML, JavaScript, ASP.NET). We are able to concentrate on building the applications not the underlying technology.”. NetworkD is now working on additional projects using VWG including web dashboards for iLaunchpad and iRecall as well porting its iControl for Windows and iSurvey products.

Benefits
Because of the use of the Visual WebGui framework over Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5, NetworkD created a web application which provides improved accessibility and compatibility to IE7 & IE6 while maintaining the same levels of responsiveness, interactivity and security of the desktop system.

Visual WebGui also reduced the amount of time required to develop iNferno by providing a design environment similar to that of Windows Forms. The accelerated development time with VWG allowed NetworkD to introduce iNferno to the market more quickly and also reduced the cost of converting the system to a web application.

The fact that iNferno is a Visual WebGui application which leaves the client thin due to its 'on server' web paradigm allows a desktop levels of responsiveness. That and VWG's unique adaptation of desktop design methods bring the capability to create interactive web applications.

Customer reactions have been great and everyone who has experienced it is surprised at how well iNferno recreates HEAT screens. The main iNferno™ interface acts as a web-based alert monitor as well as adding additional features requested on many occasions by HEAT® users. Utilizing a truly web-based interface, iNferno™ provides a clear representation of the groups and work lists associated with an analyst including all of the important support data they require for their role.

For more information about NetworkD solution please visit: www.networkd.com