So you have collected valuable data using various Quality Window applications such as quality, process, product and raw material data creates a vast reservoir of data that is easily shared by local users. But what about external needs like head office and sales office users or even customers and suppliers? The speeds and availability of the Internet globally has made the sharing of this valuable data possible and a simple task. Now sales people who have access to the Internet can review current manufacturing and quality data 24 hours a day 7 days a week without having to contact somebody at a plant to answer questions. Customers can review product release data at their leisure even prior to it arriving at their loading dock.
The Quality Window solution is a Client/Server based function and as in most cases this capability is included with your Quality Window 5 product. The requirements are to setup a server based application that will handle the security and requests for data. This application (QWDataServer.EXE) would run on a local server that has access to the Quality Window applications you wish to share. Typically a site network or IT Support resource would handle the setup of the QWDataServer to ensure security is set to local standards. Through the Administration panel in QWDataServer you would define User Ids and passwords as well as what Quality Window Applications a specific User has access to.
The remote user would have Quality Window 5 installed on their computer and would run the QWDataClient application (located in the Busitech\QW50 directory). This application would prompt for the Server and User Ids and Passwords to gain access to the data located on the Server. The user would then select an application and the QWDataClient utility would request the data from the Server and once received it would pass the data to Quality Window 5 and typically the Logsheet screen will appear. All screens in Quality Window 5 are then available to the viewer of the data with the exception of the Add and Edit data functions.
The transfer protocol used for communicating between Client and Server is TCP and data is transported in a special QW 5 XML compressed format. The QWSERVER Administration panel has options for the configuration of ports and the number of concurrent users. In addition, individual users with passwords can be defined and the QW Applications these users have access to are also assigned using this tool.
The QWDataServer Utility is available by contacting Busitech (support@busitech.com) and requesting the utility and setup requirements.