Selectors Technology

Finanz tools use only industry standard technologies, avoids downloading any special or third party software, and does not require any special firewall ports to be open.

The technical details set out in this item are only relevant where you wish to install the finanz tools software onto your own servers. Infosys Technologies offers a web hosting service for finanz tools applications as an alternative that you may prefer to explore first as a simpler and lower cost option. However, for higher traffic sites and mission critical applications, the finanz tools software can be licensed for installation on client equipment.

The server-side component of finanz tools is written entirely in Java and is a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application. It uses a service-based architecture that interacts with data stored in an SQL database using DAO objects.

The product comprises a server-side component, and a client-side user interface. The server-side component analyses requests for service and decides which user interface to serve based on the user's browser and preferences. The normal choices include:

• standard HTML web pages enhanced with Javascript to provide a very high degree of interactivity on the client's computer without requiring continual server-side support. This user interface is AJAX based and utilises Javascript running on the client to interact with the various services which run on the server. This interaction is accomplished through the use of an XmlHttpRequest.
  
  
• a conventional Web Application. Where Javascript is not available or not enabled, as is often the case with search engine web crawlers and for certain disabled users, the finanz tools user interface employs only pure HTML web pages, excluding all Javascript. This user interface is a Web Application written in Java/JSP that utilises standard Java calls to the various services. This interface is provided as a fall back in case a client is not running a modern or known browser and is suitable for search engines web crawlers to traverse.
  

Where the browser kind is not one we have conducted full Javascript tests against, such as occurs when new browsers first emerge or when a web crawler visits an finanz tools application, we serve the non-interactive Web Application.

Note that in all cases, Java is only employed as a server-side technology and is not required on the end user's computer. The choices described above are the standard options built into the base product. We can however develop and supply user interfaces in any other client-side technology preferred by a client making use of products and technologies such as Macromedia Flash, Microsoft .NET and IBM Websphere.

The standard software distribution kit for finanz tools requires:

• an SQL database within which finanz tools can create and maintain its own tables. The product distribution kit is supplied with a script to create the tables in the database. We currently support MySql 4.1 (or higher) and Microsoft SQL Server and will soon be supporting Oracle. Contact us to discuss other databases as required.
  
  
• a Java Development Kit (JDK) V1.5 (or higher). We recommend Sun JDK V1.5.0.
  
  
• a J2EE environment supporting at least the Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2 specifications. We recommend Tomcat V4.1.

There are no other special requirements for installing and supporting finanz tools.