The cattaDoc system architecture

cattaDoc is a web-based application, ie. it has a client side - the user's part of cattaDoc - and a server side.

The user's cattaDoc

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All the user needs is a web browser and a URL - a web address - for cattaDoc. The user interface is browser-based and no other installation is required in order to run cattaDoc.

There are, however, a few, more specific user requirements for cattaDoc. You can read about these under the Requirements tab.

The server side of cattaDoc

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The server side of cattaDoc consists of a web server with PHP, a relational database, MySQL, and a document repository, i.e. an area on a file server for storing documents. Documents are not stored in the database. The database only has a link - a pointer - to the document.

System setup

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cattaDoc can be installed on a single computer and run from this single computer, eg a laptop.

cattaDoc can also be installed on one or more servers in a local area network (LAN) and used by clients with only a web browser. With more servers, the database can be on one server and the web server on another.

cattaDoc can even be run over the Internet, provided adequate security measures are applied.

Advantages and limitations

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The cattaDoc architecture has a number of advantages as well as limitations.

Amongst the advantages are:

• Everything can be installed and maintained on a server - or more servers, if you need to
• It requires no prior installation on the user's PC
• It can be run from any PC, be it Windows, Linux or Mac
• It can be run from any server platform to which PHP is ported - or is portable

Some of the limitations are:

• The architecture is not suitable for big enterprises with many concurrent users on the system - it is limited to small and medium-sized organisations
• It does not allow for close integration with office packages, since this will require local installation of software on the user's PC - software which will have to be operating system-specific and office package-specific

The limitations can of course be corrected, but only with changes in the architecture and at the expense of some of the current advantages.