Improving the Deployability of Existing Windows-Based Client/Server Business Information Systems Using ActiveX

Abstract

Today, increasingly large and complex business information systems (BISs) are being built as client/server (C/S) applications. Unfortunately, for the most common C/S BISs, that is, the Windows-based C/S BISs (WinBISs), client programs must be manually deployed to each end-user machine bringing about a heavy BIS maintenance load. ActiveX, if used properly, is more cost- effective than alternatives in improving the deployment of existing WinBISs. Yet, ActiveX has three shortcomings, namely insecurity, complexity, and bulkiness. The purpose of this paper is to overcome the shortcomings of ActiveX, and then develop an ActiveX-based solution to automate the deployment of existing WinBISs. We first propose a downloadable architecture, which supports the development of automatically-deployed BISs. Then we propose an architecture transformation process, which transforms existing WinBISs into the downloadable architecture. Additionally, we show an example of how to use the downloadable architecture and the architecture transformation process. The example also provides evidence to support the feasibility of such architecture and process.