Web-Based Letter Generation
Reporting Royalties Automatically
A web-based application for generating letters directly from data in a D3 database removes the need for data replication in Access
Business Situation
One of the services that the client provides their customers is the analysis of sales to objectively measure the success of a music album. Using sales data, the client determines whether the album qualifies for an RIAA Gold®, Platinum®, Multi-Platinum®, or Diamond® award. After the client’s consultants finish the analysis they send a letter to the client to confirm the eligibility of the award. Ideally, the client wanted award information to be captured in a central database and automated creation of notification letters.
Technical Situation
The client has a business system that runs on a D3 database. In order to make the award date easily accessible to the business system, data was to be stored in new files in the same D3 database. Consultants needed a user-friendly method for adding/managing award information and for automatically generating notification letters. Multiple users needed to be able to easily access the application simultaneously without installing software on their workstations.
Before this project, our client stored all award data in a stand-alone Microsoft Access application. Modifying the letter was a difficult process. Access to the application required Microsoft Access, the application was not user-friendly, did not support multiple simultaneous users, and the award data was not stored in a central database.
Solution
Sierra Bravo developed a web-based application for internal users that replaced the existing Microsoft Access application used to generate letters. The application allows users to add, remove and edit records in the database. The D3 system was used as the database management system for this application.
Letters are generated in PDF format and are downloaded by the web users for printing. The application includes search facilities for record management and selection criteria for generating letters for specific groups of records.
The software solution is divided into the following components:
- User log-in
- Record lookup
- Record maintenance
- Control table maintenance
- Letter generation
- User management
Benefits
The client realized many benefits using the web-based award maintenance and letter generation software. These benefits include: user-friendly interface, multi-user access, easily modified letter copy, storage of award data in existing DBMS, limited license use of DBMS, and automatic letter generation.
Products and Services Used- Microsoft Internet Information Server
- PHP 5.x scripting language
- SierraDBC Database Connector
- D3 database management system
- FPDF library PDF generator.
- JavaScript, CSS, XHTML