At 11:22 AM 7/23/2004 -0400, Joel Solomon wrote:
I have a question for the developers out there. First, a little history.
I am developing an application for our schools nationwide. Although the base application is the same for all the schools, some of the schools require customization due to geographic locations or operational issues.
Therefore, what is the best way to manage these changes? It would be quite a task to maintain a separate application for each school. What about general updates to everyone's application? What is the best way to approach these updates?
Thanks in advance for any feedback
Joel,
Here is MORE to add to the suggestions provided by fellow R:BASE Users and Developers:
Once you get your database organized, then the biggest challenge will be providing higher quality and more reliable software support and updates.
To address these challenges and avoid expensive mailers and delivery methods, think about a centralized WEB-based technology to automate the entire process.
The WEB-based technology of software updating consists of three primary stages:
01. Generating the update package 02. Managing the delivery of the update package 03. Performing the update of update package
Generating the Update Package: The initial stage in the process involves generating the software update package containing bug fixes or new features. In order to make this software update package as small as possible, and therefore suitable for delivery, the update package should include only the changes between the version that already exists and the updated version of the software.
Managing the Delivery of the Update Package: Once generated, the update package is published to a distribution platform. This distribution platform manages the various versions of the software update packages and handles the actual delivery (download) of the software packages to the authorized and/or registered users.
Performing the Update of the Update Package: In this third stage of the process, the downloaded update package is used to perform the actual update of the original software, database, as well as the application. The update package and the utility necessary to perform the software update occupy a small amount of learning and a knowledge of available tools and R:WEB Suite. This stage also validates that the correct software update package has been received and that the update process has been successfully completed.
Imagine the challenge of providing RBG7.1 and R:WEB Suite Updates!
At the upcoming Fall 2004 R:BASE Developers' Conference, we'll unveil these in-house built tools as well as the applications related to R:WEB Suite. http://www.rbase.com/conference
Very Best R:egards,
Razzak.
