Visual J++
Microsoft's newest
compiler is used to create Java applets. We have several Java applets on the
web pages that we have created (main page and the
under construction page). The language is a lot
like Visual C++ in both the syntax and its object
oriented manner.
We were on site in Minot, ND doing customized software for a 60 seat call center for Show Biz Pizza's (they own the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain) centralized national reservation system (see the article in the Fall 1996 Netword published by Pacific Bell), when a need surfaced to have home based agents. This presented a problem which seemed best solved by using ISDN over the Internet. We created a sample web site to try to lock us in to the project when it becomes a reality. It demonstrates Data Access Objects (DAO) using a Microsoft Access Database with plans to convert it over to Remote Data Objects (RDO) using Oracle. This demonstration is based on a Java applet which uses a browser and Component Object Model (COM) security to access the database.
Component Object Model (COM) components can access any system resource, like files on your hard drive. To prevent this from being a major security problem, the browser allows only trusted files, downloaded from the Internet, access to COM objects. In order for an applet to become 'trusted', it mast pass the security measures in the browser. This is done using a 'signed' file. Signing a file is similar to signing your name to a document telling who this file is from. When a signed applet is ready to run, the browser pops up a signature dialog letting you know who the applet is from and allowing you to check the signature (i.e. from Verisign) to verify it is still in good order.
You, the user, may then decide whether or not to let the applet run.
JavaScript or VBScript
JavaScript (from Netscape) or VBScript (from Microsoft) is just
Java source code that is contained in the HTML document. We have used
JavaScript in the Customized Programming page to
help the user decide if customized programming would be cost effective for
his/her business. So far, we have not done this type of programming for our
customers since it is better and more secure to write a Java applet, but we can
and will do it this way if the customer requests it. So, see our above example,
or just look at our sample JavaScript page.
NOTE: Although the examples we used here had a lot to do with telephony, let me say now that they are only examples of some of the larger projects we have done in the last couple of years and by no means should that be taken as the only thing we can do (we've been in business 10 years), but should be recognized as an achievement and a display of our versatility, since, before these projects, we had no telephony experience at all!