Overview

This is an RIA created for CIMA – Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

The client was in need of a solution for creating a range of documents for print, without having the time and expense of using graphic designers each time they needed a new variation. The application was designed to allow staff with no particular experience of design to create posters, invitations, certificates and various other printed materials up to A3 in size. There was also a need for a full document creation and management system.

The application in action

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Methodology

After evaluating different software solutions, we decided the build the application with Adobe Flex and AMFPHP with PHP and jQuery for the client administration section. One of the various challenges presented by this project was the need for multiple user environments linked to user permissions or access levels. Flex proved to be the ideal solution.

XML was used for the saving and retrieval of document data. Each document is composed of a variable number of text elements. The user can add, remove, format, resize and reposition text elements as they wish. At the end of a session, the user can save their work and the application compiles a new XML document to save each and every detail of the document and saves this to the database. When a user chooses to retrieve and edit documents, this XML is reloaded and the application would parse and rebuild the document ready for editing again.