Scott McMahan

Contents

Introduction

About This Site

SoftBase Systems

• Overview
• IBM Stack Setup
• Web-Based VTOC Report
• Java-based Test Framework
• 64-bit Software Development
• Websphere MQ
• .NET Research Project
• Hibernate Persistence Research
• Web Interface For Mainframe App
• XMI Backup Solution
• WORKOUT Test Suite
• Precompiler Re-launch
• Web Product Delivery
• Secure Web Site
• Automated Product Bundling
• Company Backup System
• Mainframe Systems Programming
• Flex-ES Systems Programming
• Mainframe Development/Testing
• Data Masking Tool
• Internet Presence/Administration
• Checkpoint-Restart Web Monitor
• Real-time Data Management Tool
• Java Checkpoint-Restart Tool
• Cross-Platform Checkpoint-Restart API
• Web-Enabled Customer Management
• In-house Phone Report Tool
• In-house License Tool

• Overview
• Channel Intelligence and Miva 5
• Quote Automation System
• Online Used Car Search
• User Validation Module

• Computer Answers

• Education

• Automating Windows With Perl
• Unix Administration
• Improvement
• RPM Planning With Software
• Languages
• Databases
• OS Environments
• Development Tools
• Web Related
• Low-level Programming
• The B.D. McKay Papers
• LaTeX Typesetting
• Media Upload Client
• Web Services For Media
• Open Source Contributions
• History of Computing
• Subversion (SVN)

• Building Computers
• Bare Metal Setup
• Handyman

SoftBase Systems, Inc (1994 - present)

Real-time Data Management Tool

Co-designer and implementer of a tool which harvests data from real-time enterprise sources (databases, call center switches, etc) and caches for delivery to user desktops. Most of these sources have "thin pipes" which allow only one data connection, and the source can't handle thousands of desktop requests for data; also the data harvested from these sources requires processing and reformatting to be usable, including the kind of summary, aggregation, and logic that only a programming language could provide. The solution to this problem was a fully object-oriented system with interfaces for writing harvesting components, processing data with a scripting language, caching data, and presenting it to the user (such as with HTML, JSP, XML, etc). Most important was the harvesting API, since each data source (particularly call center hardware, where each vendor had its own API) needed a custom-written harvester. The initial implementation was for Win32 in C++, and used Perl as its embedded scripting language. After real-world use, the feedback from this proof-of-concept led to a redesign of the software, which included many improvements to the core design and also a requirement that the software be scalable to high-end servers, which triggered a decision to rewrite in Java. I began much of the R&D for the rewrite, including implementation of a revamped and much more feature-rich core of APIs and interfaces, a full cron-like job scheduling subsystem, and a pluggable architecture for adding interpreted scripting languages whose interpreters were written in Java (initially including JavaScript and Python). After I had gotten the software to a point, the project was so large that several developers were hired to take over different components such as the core product, the creation of harvesting components, scripting and customization for customers, etc. Since this point, the core product has been enhanced, as well as extended in new ways using the various APIs. The flexibility afforded by the modular, OO design has allowed the product to be extended in ways originally unimagined.

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