Research Projects Extranet

Date : 2000 - 2001

BSRIA Profile

BSRIA is the UK's premier centre for building services technologies, information and consultancy. They offer independent and authoritative research, information, testing, consultancy, management and market intelligence.

Website aims

BSRIA needed a way of sharing research project documents online - from sales brochures to meeting minutes to final publications - with their research project sponsors. They needed a system where any of their project leaders or administrative staff could input project summaries and easily upload documents.

They also needed a system that would be secure, and only display project information to the sponsors of those projects.

Involvement with a construction industry portal - www.construction.co.uk - meant that they needed the system to generate XML for the project information for exchange with the portal.

Our solution

Stamper Consulting developed an extranet where membership, administration, data input and document upload were controlled entirely by a web browser-based interface.

Project Editing

Project information is edited entirely online. Document uploads are made through the browser using SoftArtisans SAFilUp component which resides on the server. News items and image galleries can also be associated with projects.

Access control

Multiple access levels means that site administrators (webmasters, project leaders and administrative staff) can only access tools and features relevant to their security level.

A membership system enables the site administrators to input sponsor details to the system, and a "project access" control panel allows them to tell the system which projects the sponsors are allowed to view.

Tools and utilities

Reporting system - allows webmaster to see when documents have been uploaded, who has been uploaded, who hasn't been uploading.

Dashboard - enables webmaster to see at a glance how many document files are held by the system, which projects they are used by and how much disk space they are taking up.

XML conversion tools - transforms project data into XML format for transfer to construction industry portal.

Content generator - outputs HTML pages for database records, to allow site to be searched by Microsoft Index Server

Summary

BSRIA are delighted with the system. They find it an easy to use and powerful way of sharing research project information online with their research sponsors.