Laboratory Information Management System for scientists. Collaboration tool for healthcare industry for equipment sharing with social networking features

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Case Study
Laboratory Information Management System

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The Laboratory Information Management System will provide scientists, engaged life science
practices with online tools that will increase their productivity. The best way to achieve this is by
providing such tools on a social networking platform. This platform will enable them to collaborate
with other scientists, manage shared laboratory equipment, order supplies and archive lab results
and documents.
The project is centered on organizing the laboratory. The site will help the lab scientists to manage
their colleagues and friends in groups and can share their reagent, protocol and facility details
accordingly. A Timer will help them to set audio or visual alarms or a text message.
From the Reagent section they can upload their reagent inventory online, network their inventory
with colleagues, place orders for reagents and read member comments.
Protocols are fully integrated with the reagent inventory and helps members to organize and
network their protocols with their lab mates. Facilities will help the lab administer to share facilities
such as microscopes and FACS machines. Timer will make it easy to time member's experiments
without carrying around a bulky timer.
Along with this, members can also set their profiles and share their academic pursuits, publications,
with the community. Other scientists can benefit from their expertise and experience.
Members can search other members from their profile details and can visit their profile. They can
manage their colleagues and friends from the network section. They can even add new members to
their group as well.
Members can communicate with others from message center with its sub-sections. It is divided into
different categories according to message. They can set their account related details and other
preferences from account settings section.
Client Requirement
Project Challenges
Team faced the following challenges while project development:
 Allowing the site to handle millions of users at the same time without slowing down.
 Incorporating web usability principles while developing numerous features designed
for enhancing the users’ community networking experience.
 Harmonizing the simultaneous execution of various integrated features and options
while maintaining consistent load balance.
 Developing a fully Ajax driven site with various features without compromising at the
performance and execution level.
 Ensuring safe and secure transfer of data while integrating third-party API’s and
JavaScript compatibility for all browsers.
 Developing a sturdy & dependable framework to support the real-time updating of
content on the site.

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Technologies Used
Manpower
Planning
The following four-tier development approach was adopted to equip the site with
numerous features and functionality mentioned below:
 The Database layer containing MySQL Server Database, Tables, Triggers and so on.
 The Data Access layer containing the Data Access DLL responsible for accessing data from the database.
 The Business layer DLL consisting of all the business logic procedures for modules like Reagent,
Protocols, Facilities, Timer, Profile, Message Center, Account settings, Network etc.
Operating System &
Server Management
Red Hat Linux OS, Multi-Server Architecture with Staging &
Production Environment through Version Controlling releases, Server
Optimization, Security & SSL Implementation, Scheduler for Back-ups,
Alert Monitoring System Integration, Server Performance Tuning at
regular intervals, Software Firewall Configuration & Maintenance
Development Tools &
Environments
PHP5+, Symfony Framework, Microsoft Visio, Zend Studio, AJAX,
Java Script, HTML5, CSS3, SVN etc.
Database MYSQL Database Server, DB Clustering, DB Optimization, Master
Slave Replication, Query Optimization, Scheduler for Backups
Project Leader 1
Developers 4
Designers 2
Quality Assurance Testers 1

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 The User Interface layer which forms the Graphical User Interface of the website.
Architecture
N-tier architecture was adopted to efficiently meet the needs of the enormous website. Following
are the layers involved which are loosely coupled with each other.
User Interface Layer: This will include the page level layer which will be accessing the other
layers beneath to present the data.
Business Specific Layer: This acts as a bridge between the User Interface Layer and Database
Layer. This will contain all the business logic for the different components involved in the project.
Database Specific Layer: This acts as a bridge between the physical database and the business
logic accessing the data.
Physical Database Layer: This includes MySQL with the tables, views, stored procedures etc.
Development Highlights
The design approach was built around PHP 5 and MYSQL SERVER 5 due to the social networking
nature of the website. Modules like User Profiles, Reagents, Protocols and Facilities were developed
in PHP such that they can be executed directly from the UI layer. In order to most effectively
access the database in an object-oriented context an interface translating the object logic to the
relational logic was used to communicate with the relational databases in an object-oriented
manner.
An intermediary abstraction layer was created for accessing data from the database. Triggers were
used only for complex updation and deletion of data from multiple tables and were entirely avoided
with conditional syntax to ensure smooth performance of the website. The UI layer was kept free of
any business logic with images, applications and data being called from their respective servers.
Web usability guidelines were strictly followed during development and the interface was made
easily navigable through judicious use of AJAX, CSS and HTML controls. The site was developed
and fully functional within a span of 8 months.