An overview of the technologies used for SiteStream is given below, more detailed explanations are available within the technology section, or by contacting us directly.

Land, Build & Care

These modules are termed "thick client" and are designed to have the software installed on each client computer. Both modules are built from a large set of shared components, using Microsoft's Visual Basic 6 as the development platform.

Sales

This module designed to be a "thin client"; this allows it to be run within a web browser. No extra software is required to be installed on the client computer. The browser-based software is written using Microsoft's .net platform, and re-uses Land, Build and Care components, on the web server, where identical functionality is required.

Data Storage

All SiteStream modules use a common database running under Microsoft's SQL Server 7 or 2000.  Because a single database is used throughout, no kind of manual or automated data transfer is required between modules.

Development Methodology

Rational's Unified Process is used in all development projects, which is a set of industry standard best practices to delivery high quality software in a controlled manner.

Component Based Development (CBD)

CBD is primarily concerned with breaking down the functionality of an application into many discrete components that perform a particular job and have a published (and fixed) interface. This has the benefits of:

• Once the interface for each component has been fixed, development of many components can occur in parallel, with guaranteed integration upon completion.
• Components can be easily re-used, to save writing the same code multiple times. Third Party components can also be utilised to save development time and cost.
• Components can be tested individually (unit tested) before being integrated to form a complete system.
• As long as the interface remains the same, the implementation of a component can change over time without affecting any other parts of the system.