Waterstone's

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Tools Used:
IONA's Orbix, Java, CORBA, HTML

Description:
Hyperlink plc., one of the UK's longest established Web agencies, has built new Web based kiosk and intranet applications for the staff and customers at leading book retailer, Waterstone's. The integrated applications work together using a common infrastructure provided by IONA Technologies' Orbix ®.

To meet the continuous challenges facing their business, Waterstone's recognized the need for a flexible book database which would be accessible to both internal staff and its customers. The applications, however, were diverse, including daily database updates and integration with its order processing systems on the internal staff side and frequent web page modification at the customer end to reflect new products and services. In order to meet the demands of both internal and external applications, Hyperlink required a flexible architecture around which to build the new solutions: they selected IONA Technologies' Orbix.

The staff application, known as Virgil, consists of a Java client, which executes in a Web browser on each branch terminal. Hyperlink chose the Object Management Group's (OMG) CORBA standard and IONA Technologies' Java™ product, OrbixWeb™ as the infrastructure to enable communication between the Java™ client and the book database and order processing system, residing on heterogeneous servers. The customer application was built in HTML, due to the necessity for flexibility in frequently updating Waterstone's webpages. As a result, Hyperlink deployed a solution based on HTML and server-side common gateway interface (CGI) and DLL programs. Orbix was chosen as the infrastructure to enable communication between the various CGI programs and Waterstone's internal servers.

Orbix has been designed to enable developers to make software work together. OrbixWeb is the leading Java™ CORBA development environment which enables the creation of full featured Internet ready CORBA applications.

"The logistics involved in managing the inventory of approximately one million book titles and making this inventory accessible to customers quickly and easily is an onerous task," commented John Lambert, technical director at Hyperlink. "Building a flexible application that was easy to maintain on the customer side and was tightly integrated with the company's existing resources meant we could offer a best of breed solution. OrbixWeb enabled us to create the application by providing us with the flexibility to use the best technologies we needed, safe in the knowledge that those applications could communicate with the existing servers."

"Hyperlink's work illustrates the great benefits possible from integrating today's powerful web technologies with existing resources," commented Colin Newman, executive vice chairman of marketing at IONA Technologies. "Waterstone's have leveraged modern technology to build an effective system which can be enhanced and updated quickly and easily while still ensuring complete interoperability with the company's internal servers. It is a good example of the benefits that Orbix and OrbixWeb offer in removing integration worries from the equation of making great applications."