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Cap-Net – Database-Driven
Content Management and Regional Networking for IWRM
UNDP, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IHE Delft and UNOPS
launched the Global Water Partnership program to promote information
exchange and human resource development for Integrated Water
Resource Management (IWRM). To implement this program, they
required a comprehensive content management system that would
be used for training & education, establishing regional
networks and developing relevant materials and tools. Icreon
developed this application for the Global Water Partnership
program. Cap-Net was developed as a Capacity Building Network
for IWRM. Aiming to strengthen the information exchange process,
Cap-Net facilitates the establishment of regional IWRM networks
for creating and managing content, globally.
Customer Profile
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNDP, IHE Delft, and
UNOPS are non-profit organizations working in various areas
of welfare for the United Nations and other such bodies. United
Nations Development Program (UNDP) operates in more than 166
countries and assists the UN system and its partners to raise
awareness and track progress. It connects countries to the knowledge
and resources needed to achieve development goals defined by
the UN system. IHE Delft specializes in water education and
conducts post-graduate education and training programs for more
than 40 years. UNOPS works in partnership with the UN Development
Program and the Global Environment Facility to establish regional
institutional arrangements to protect and manage seas, rivers,
lakes and other bodies of water that surpass national boundaries.
Business Requirement
International bodies such as UNDP, IHE Delft, UNOPS and Dutch
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, collaborated for an extensive and
Global Water Partnership program, that would educate and train
people about water related issues and how these issues can be
managed. In this effort, the program required extensive content
management for regional and global bodies. Thereby, the concept
of an online content management system – Cap-Net came into
existence. This application had to cater to the needs of authors,
editors and publishers, who supply online content about various
water resource issues. The basic requirement was to develop
Cap-Net.org as the largest networking portal in the area of
water management.
Solution
Benefits
 Global
accessibility and management of content
High
data integrity & reliability over a networked setup
Language
compatibility for easy content usage in different languages
Technologies Used
PHP:
Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP),
EditPlus.
Apache/1.3.23
Linux
MySQL
HTML/SHTML
Javascript
Requirement
Water is a precious natural resource. Various countries and
regions are dealing with water related problems and issues.
IHE Delft, UNDP, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and UNOPS
are non-profit organizations, who launched the Global Water
Resource program for educating and training water professionals,
individuals, and organizations about water related issues in
various regions. Since the scope of this program catered to
a global audience, the program required an Internet based solution,
which would enhance its reach to a worldwide audience. Cap-Net
would serve the needs of the Global Water Partnership program
by allowing individuals and institutions to contribute their
knowledge base towards training and educating water professionals.
Cap-Net required to allow water professionals from over 130
countries to interact, and learn from each other’s experiences.
To implement this, the application required functionality to
allow water professionals, worldwide, to create their sub-networks
and manage & publish content on the local network.
Icreon, in co-operation with IHE Delft had to design and develop
Cap-Net as a dynamic and comprehensive content management portal,
with capabilities to edit and publish content, while maintaining
data integrity. In addition, the application required to allow
water professionals to setup their own regional networks and
manage content, news, & events on these networks.
Agile Content Management over
a Robust and Scalable Architecture
The objective behind developing Cap-Net as a Web-based content
management solution was to provide a common platform to organizations
& individuals dealing with water related issues, worldwide.
We realized that Cap-Net required to be compatible with different
languages because the application would be used by different
types of users in many countries.
After studying all the aspects of this project, the most evident
fact was that the audience was highly diverse. So, we had to
consider the requirements of all types of users, while developing
the application. We developed Cap-Net as a knowledge portal
for dispersing information for new networks, where project studies,
reports, training material and other content related to IWRM,
would be displayed. In addition, we had to make Cap-Net compatible
for use by water managers in developing and developed countries.
The entire project was carried out in modules and the hardest
part of this was that the we worked on the project with an Indo-European
company without interacting with client.
Before detailing the modules of Cap-Net, it is essential to
understand its process flow and its user types. Being a content
management system, there are five types of users of Cap-Net
–
Portal
Webmaster - can add or delete regional Webmasters. At this
level, the user can add or modify the content
on the portal www.cap-net.org.
Region
Webmaster - can add or delete date entry operator, editor,
or publisher within the content management
system.
Author
- can add content such as text, pictures, or other file
types, on the Website template. There are several
programs, which enable the author to convert the file in the
required format, on the server. For example,
if an image on the Website has a resolution of 300 by 400 pixels,
the backend automatically converts it
to the desired format for the specified template.
Editor
- can combine several content types such as, pictures, sound,
and video into one article. The content types
can be categorized, while the ongoing content is managed by
the editor, easily.
Publisher
- is responsible for every publication on the Website. At
this level, the user can add a certain publication
time/date and area on the Website.
The whole publication process starts with the digitization from
several sources into one digital content library. The publisher
or editor will use one or more templates to create a publication
article. For an author (data entry operator), the editor may
or may not approve the publication. People in the closed user
group can access the publication by using an authenticated login
ID and password. The publisher can also publish the article
for access by the Internet community.
Icreon developed Cap-Net to allow publishing of articles, events
and creating user defined networks. With predefined format of
articles, events, and networks, the layout is structured and
organized keeping in mind the consistency and the need of various
users. The data is stored in a database and is parsed through
different templates. This enables users in different countries
to view articles and events in their native language. Cap-Net
is a user-driven networking portal, which facilitates communication
between water professionals across the world. The portal allows
the facility to create virtual communities, and conduct distance-learning
programs to enable capacity building of the network. In addition,
the distance learning program allows water managers to access
training material and seek past references.
The Cap-Net architecture uses PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP),
which increases the effectiveness and functionality of the application.
The Cap-Net site was built using Apache Web server, which
runs on Linux. The database server is powered by MySQL.
Much of the code used for Cap-Net was customized from HTML/SHTML
based templates. Javascript was used as a client-side
scripting language for client-side validations.
The architecture for Cap-Net is displayed below: |
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Summary
Cap-Net is a vast and dynamic content management system that
can be easily used by different countries, in their native language.
Allowing complete integration of IWRM resources across the globe,
this application enables the Global Water Partnership program
to achieve its aim of reaching out to water managers and professionals,
and allow them to interact through a common platform. At Iceron,
we identified the level of diversity of the audience that Cap-Net
had to cater. Designing a vast application such as Cap-Net,
as per global standards and within the specified timelines,
has been an achievement for Icreon and one of the key success
factors for the Global Water Partnership program.
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