An application of Web technologies is to provide an information infrastructure for within organisations, commonly referred to as intranets. The Web can be used for enterprise distributed networking: enhancing collaboration for the improve productivity and cost effectiveness. The current limitations and features of the Web makes it suitable for this use.
This paper describes the use of the Web for intranet applications. This paper is presented in three parts: the first section describes the features of current Web technologies, and how this makes them extremely suited to intranet applications; the second section provides examples of Web applications used at the DSTC; and the final section describes problems and future directions.
The main attention given to business applications of the Web have been towards electronic commerce. However, key elements for supporting this are not in place yet. The Internet is currently not suitable as an infrastructure for electronic business, because of deficiencies such as:
These deficiencies hinders its use for business purposes. However, if the Web is used internally within an organisation, these issues are no longer barriers. For example, once behind a firewall, security requirements can be relaxed; an organisation has complete control over their own network. Thus, when used within an organisation, the benefits from the Web can be obtained. These benefits include:
The DSTC is a Collaborative Research Centre, with about a hundred staff members, located at several sites across Australia. The Internet is used for communications between staff, both between and within sites. Electronic mail is heavily used, and the staff are exceptionally computer literate. We have a heterogeneous environment, with PCs, Macintoshes, Unix workstations and X-terminals all connected to the network.
The Web is used extensively for publishing and sharing information in the organisation. The Web is used for presentations, using tools developed internally. Documents are made available via the Web, such as papers, reports, forms and meeting minutes. The internal Web is indexed, so that documents can easily be found. This paper focuses on Web applications, describing in detail: the expense request system; the booking system; and the library system.
The user brings up the Web expense request form on their Web browsers (see figure 1) and fills it in. When the form is submitted, a CGI script checks that it is filled in correctly. The request is sent to the supervisor, via e-mail. The supervisor can approve the request and forward the request to administration, again via e-mail.
Although the Web form mimics the paper based system, there are some immediate improvements over it. The form automatically fills in some details, such as name and address of the requester, based on derived information about the user accessing the form. The system provides heuristic checking to see if it has been filled in correctly, and the system is integrated with the e-mail infrastructure used in the organisation.
The system has been successfully used throughout the DSTC for the last year: most expense requests are now being submitted through the system. The staff have found the system easy and efficient to use.
A major benefit of the system was how we could update it to reflect new needs and changes. To aid the administration staff, expense codes were added to the system. It was discovered that contact details were required from travellers, so the expense form was modified to require this information from travel expense requests.
Figure 1: Web expense request form.
The user first selects the room or item they are interested in (see figure 2). A table is then displayed showing the availability of the item; who has booked it and for what purpose (see figure 3). Active links allow the user to book a free time-slot, or cancel a booking. Multiple items can be displayed at the same time, and this is useful for examining alternatives or combinations of items. As well as displaying an entire week, a single day view is also available (see figure 4). When bookings are made, it is possible to book multiple time slots over several weeks at the same time.
The major advantage of this system is that it is easily accessed and available to everybody in the organisation, independent of location. The information is always up to date, and is immediately available; this makes it easy to plan for meetings and events. It is especially useful for booking a room at a different site, without having to go there or asking someone there to do it for you. It eliminates the bottleneck of having a single booking chart or a person in charge of bookings.
Authentication was a difficult issue to resolve, so the booking system does not place any restrictions on who can make or remove bookings. We rely on trust: that people will use the system responsibly. A log is kept should any disputes arise. The size and culture of the organisation is a major factor in this working; it was found that this approach worked well for us.
The booking system has been in operation for over almost a year, and has proven to be extremely popular. It was originally based on the public domain Calbook package [HREF3], however, it has been rewritten with improved functionality and correctness to suit local needs. It has shown itself to be very useful, and is being used by several other companies.
The booking system demonstrates the advantages of having an application that is available across the entire organisation via the Web. Taking advantage of the GUI provided by the Web, the application was simple to write and is accessible from every platform in the company. Having the source code allowed us to adapt and modify it to suit our requirements. A demonstration of the Web booking system [HREF4] is available on our public Web server .
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| Figure 2: Room/item selection. |
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| Figure 3: Bookings display for one week. |
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| Figure 4: Bookings display for one day showing multiple items. |
The user is initially presented with a search form where they can search for items by title, author, publisher or keywords. A list of matches is displayed and the user can make other searches or examine the details of the matched items (see figure 5). The details show all the copies of that item (see figure 6). Each copy is either: available for loan, where the user can enter in their details to take it out; or is out on loan, where the copy can be returned. When an item is out on loan, a hold list is available for people to add their names to.
The system uses a relational database back-end, and is integrated with e-mail. Mail is automatically sent to the borrower for verification when copies are taken out or returned. People with holds are informed, via e-mail, when the copy becomes available to them.
The hold system is useful for handling circulation lists. For our current requirements, there is no due date for the return of items; though this can be added in the future.
When entering new publications, it is automatically announced to the organisation by posting a message to an internal Usenet news group.
The library system represents a powerful application which has been made available throughout the organisation via the Web. It integrates into the existing work environment via e-mail, and was built using existing Web technology. After the initial task of populating the database, the system is running fine. A demonstration of the Web library system [HREF5] can be found on our public Web server.
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| Figure 5: Search results from library system. |
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| Figure 6: Details and list of copies. |
Different browsers behave differently. Although HTML is an open standard, non-standard extensions have been added to it. Also, not all browsers implement the full standard properly. For example, support for tables is still very limited. A decision needed to be made when using useful features which made the pages non-standard. It was necessary to test each browser to ensure that the applications worked successfully with them. An alternative would be to mandate that only one type of browser is used by everybody, however, that was not possible in our environment.
The features of HTML provide a usable, but limited, set of elements to work with. This can be very restricting to the design and behaviour of the application. This became apparent when solving user interface issues; either it was lacking the appropriate interface element, or there was not enough control over the behaviour and placement of elements. The introduction of Java applets [HREF6] promises to be a solution to this problem. However, the advantages are offset by loosing client independence, since not all browsers will support them.
The success of any application of technology rests with the users. There must be real benefits before people will adopt new systems and change work habits. There are cultural as well as technical barriers to be solved. For example, paper is tangible, something which people can understand and can control; the electronic world is complex and is awkward to control. The above systems take advantage of the Web and is readily available on-line, yet there still the desire to print the information onto paper.
The use of the Web in intranets is currently receiving great interest in the media. The staff at the DSTC have already been using intranets for some time, and this paper reports the benefits and experiences with it. Simple intranet applications, such as the ones describe in this paper, are not difficult to create and are extremely useful. Vendors are beginning to deliver a variety of intranet packages and solutions. However, it may be easier to develop your own applications. The added advantage of having the sources to the applications allows you to tailor it to your own needs. debriefing
The future will see such systems expanding beyond the organisation, when the infrastructure becomes available to support it. The DSTC is conducting research into the wider issue of inter-enterprise distributed computing, as well as related topics such as workflow, business objects, security and resource discovery.
The technology is useful and is already available. To derive the benefits from it, we need to use it and live the dream.
Z Milosevic and A Bond, "Electronic Commerce on the Internet: What is Still Missing?", The 5th Annual Conference of the Internet Society, INET'95, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, June 1995.
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