Development and technical data
The fraDesk is a conceptual redevelopment of our previous helpdesk which fraLine had been using and testing in school-support for 5 years.
Nevertheless, the fraDesk was designed and programmed from scratch.
It was developed on basis of the freeware database management system MySQL and the script language PHP.
Several organizations can use the fraDesk independently on their own separate database. The separate database allows for high-level security interacting with transmission paths protected by a Secure Socket Layer (SSL), i.e. partly confidential data is kept on private servers and is largely protected against access.
Design, operation control and the database level are consistently being separated.
The implemented template system (Smarty) allows for design-changes without corrupting the underlying program logic.
Our new multi-user capable helpdesk involves four different levels corresponding with each other:
- Templates: template-files determine the layout.
- Includes: language-files or functions required by the scripts.
- Scripts: contain the program logic. Files are transmitted to the templates. Scripts also control incoming files.
- Classes: the class-files constitute the interface to the data base. They are retrieved by the scripts.
Credits:
Conception as part of a master´s thesis: Karsten Koch/ Christian Struck, supervised by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schrader
Implementation/programming: Karsten Koch/Axel Gehring
Conceptual consulting: Dr. Thomas Knaus
Further development/design: Axel Gehring
