Abstract:
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An interface related to an information management system that allows the users to search by different attributes of the products, and get information about the selection made is part of a typical OLAP system. This web based interface combines different techniques to make the search and data presentation more easy and user-friendly. It divides the window of the browser in three areas, search, data and chart area, connected among them. The interface works on top of a relational database instead of an OLAP system. The search area is developed under the idea of faceted search, which allows the users to choose any combination between the different available attributes of the product, without following a hierarchy, leading him through several non-empty steps during the criteria selection. The data area shows to the user more information that fulfills the selection steps. The chart area shows, in a graphical way, more information about the product selected in the data area. The entire interface is dynamically updated so the user just has to navigate through the interface. The performance study is using different database sizes through different version of the interface. This research investigates, following the model-view controller pattern, a new architecture in which the performance of an interface of that kind would be fast enough to be useful on a web framework, without taking into account the speed of the server connection. |