The Solution: To keep all lines of business and technical teams up to date on the current configuration, I created a set of scripts to generate an easy to read report in HTML from the actual system XML configuration files. This allowed business users, as well as technical users, to view product, security, and workflow data models.

The Technology: Created using XSLT and windows batch scripts, the program would fetch the current system configuration files from Rational ClearCase, generate the HTML using Saxon, and then publish the HTML report to a central location. All team members were able to access the current version at all times, saving many hours of wasted communication and time lost correcting conflicts that could have been avoided if everyone was working from the same set of data.

PJAS.net Screenshot

The Problem: The Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) is an organization that gets middle school and high school students actively engaged in science research. They host regional and state-wide meetings annually to allow students to present their work. Historically, students had to type (with a typewriter!) their forms and give them to their sponsors. The sponsors then collected the forms, proofread them, and passed them on to the regional director. There was a lot of paperwork and information was slow to be distributed to the key stakeholders.

The Solution: PJAS uses the website I created to collect student research project registration data, distribute current forms, and dynamically determine what forms are required for individual projects.

Sponsors (usually the student’s teacher) can then view the project information, make changes, and approve the project.

Finally, the students project information is sent to the regional directors.

The site also allows judges to register online and receive the necessary information in an automated fashion.

The Technology: Built in PHP using MySQL. Adobe Acrobat was used to create editable PDFs.

Visit www.pjas.net