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Tom Watts
Monday, November 20, 2006
It's been a while since we blogged, so I want to share some of what's coming down the track in our next release; 3.0. For a while now, typical DS systems have been either Web applications or GUI applications. The advantages and disadvantages of both types of applications are well know. For web, the benefits are the ability to use the system from anywhere with an internet connection. Whilst this is great, there are some clear downsides to this also. As David Hill has remarked:
The usability of the applications was often much reduced and common
features that the user had grown accustomed to, such as drag-and-drop,
undo-redo, context sensitive help, and so on, were no longer available.
Furthermore, the responsiveness of the application was diminished,
especially for business applications, such as those in customer call
centers, which demanded heavy data entry and navigation across multiple
screens...
To summarize, whilst web interfaces have many advantages, they also 'suck' in some ways:
- Security and the inability to host the system yourself
- Inability to take advantage of all the power of your desktop PC
- Managing complex tasks with a web page, even with advanced browser UI can be a frustrating experience
- Managing large files round-tripping to a remote server can be soul destroyingly frustrating
- Being off the air if your ASP's web server is down
On the Application side, there are also some clear disadvantages, namely:
- Requiring a complex install to access your project
- The inability to access your project from anywhere
CampaignManager 2007 (or 3.0; we haven't quite decided) will eliminate these problems associated with a traditional non-web application by using what's called "Smart Client" technology. This means that whilst you will still have all the power and richness of a windows application you will also be able to access your Digital Signage network from anywhere on any Windows machine! In addition, the system will allow you to work off line and always be within the rich and powerful windows environment. We're in the thick of development now but as features come available, I'll blog them here. This new method of access, which brings the CampaignManager product away from project file based management to a relational database opens up a huge range of new features which will make this release a real leap in terms of power. Hence, 1.2 -> 3.0 :)
More to come...