The Need

The client an athletic software company in the US wanted to develop an information management system that would easily manage large amounts of data relating to coaches, players, former players and new recruits of different universities in different sports. The objective was to create an easy to use interface for sharing information amongst players, coaches and support staff as well as provide the coaches with critical information regarding the players. The need was to also go away with any manual entries and automate the entire process of updating relevant data from the registered university sites. The key challenges to meet this requirement were to create an intuitive interface, integration using a custom web service layer and managing large volume of data.

The Solution

Chimera leveraged its expertise in Sharepoint application development to develop the information management system using Sharepoint to enable the application to store, retrieve, manage, search and provide data. Segregation of the information from universities, sports facilities and their respective access permissions were set using different Sharepoint site collections and list collections. The application was built around a Sharepoint Object Model to add, update and delete the data from the Sharepoint List. A rich and easy to use user interface was built using Telerik controls. These controls were also used to develop rich calendar interfaces on the web. The application enabled the coaches to create their own custom views which were managed internally as Sharepoint list views. The organizations registration process to the Sharepoint is done dynamically and the corresponding site collection URL is assigned to the users. The nature of using lists as the data storage mechanism allowed the coaches to create their own custom attributes in the system. With Chimera's engagement the client was able to achieve a highly robust and scalable system.

Technologies

WSS 3.0, SQL Server 2005, ASP.Net, Telerik Controls, Sharepoint Object Model

The Need

The client is a leading provider in creating solutions and extensions for Microsoft Sharepoint Technologies. The need was to develop a web part that provides users with easy navigation across sites. The objective was to develop a webpart with an easy drop down menu solution along with a site hierarchy listing. This webpart also needed to have multiple user configurable properties.

The Solution

To meet the objective of the client a detailed study was initially done to get a consensus on the design of the webpart. Once this was finalized a C#.net based web part was developed along with an installer. The initial success of this web part led us to develop successive versions of the same. This web part was also featured in the partner's site of Microsoft. An installer was provided as a part of the download that ensures a smooth deployment at the client side. Some of the key features of the webpart included unlimited levels of submenus, configurable menu style, and dynamic updation of the site as it grows. Following the success of the first webpart, Chimera continued to develop several webparts that included Active Directory Self Service Webpart, Treeview for WSS Webpart and People Search Webpart. Customers using these webparts are primarily Fortune 500 companies including major airlines, defense departments, retail giants and healthcare institutions.

Technologies

Microsoft .Net Technologies - ASP.Net, C#, Microsoft Sharepoint Server