Document Management in the Material Sciences
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In cooperation with a leading provider for material data we have developed a sophisticated
document management system. The system is able to manage and distribute a wealth of material data,
documents, images, tables, diagrams and micrographs through the internet. Using a client/server concept, the system enables material scientists to create, edit and evaluate documents. Also, anybody licenced can access the documents and related data. The licencing scheme allows to limit the access to a certain depth. E.g. users with a low licence level may only access textual data whereas users with a higher licence level may access the full information with diagrams, tables, etc. Queries can be entered user-friendly in various ways. One particularly efficient way is via a "periodic table of the elements" dialog. Furthermore, material scientists who are creating and editing documents and data can work remotely and off-line. The system also takes care of check-out, check-in and versioning of the documents edited. With the help of a specifically, towards material science adjusted editor, scientific authors can create and edit documents. This includes textual information, phase diagrams, material data tables and more. Multiple authors may form "author groups" who are then jointly editing documents and exchange them. Edited documents can be included in a workflow to evaluate and possibly certify the contents. All this is supported by the software. In addition, an integrated chat module provides a forum for discussion and information exchange. The complete software system has been developed in pure Java TM and can be used on different platforms (WindowsTM , Linux, Solaris). An ORACLE database on Linux is currently used at the backend. |