Designing the CML/LitCrit User-Services Tier

The requirements for the CML/LitCrit application, defined in Planning and Research, specify two clients: Microsoft® Outlook® and Internet Explorer. The user interface of the LitCrit Outlook application, created by the Fitch & Mather book club, needs modification to support interaction with the FmLib SQL Server™ database, and the existing version of the Corporate Media Library (CML) browser interface requires additional Web pages to implement critique functionality.

This section discusses how the book club's LitCrit Outlook form and the CML Web pages are enhanced to share critiques, mail invitations to submit critiques of library items, and optionally support approval of critique content.

The tasks required to create the CML/LitCrit user interface are:

• Review functionality of the original LitCrit Outlook application. The LitCrit Application in Stand-Alone Operation describes the original LitCrit Outlook form, created by the Fitch & Mather book club.
• Modify the LitCrit Outlook application. Enhancing the LitCrit Outlook Application describes all the changes and additions to the original LitCrit Outlook application that are required to make critiques submitted in Outlook available to the CML.
• Design a consistent user experience between the LitCrit Outlook and CML Web applications. Designing Consistent User Interfaces describes what the two user interfaces have in common and the available technologies that can assist in creating a similar user experience.
• Add critique enhancements to the CML application. Critique Enhancements to the CML Application describes the new critique CML Web pages and the modifications to existing Web pages.

Each application, the LitCrit Outlook and the critique-enhanced CML, must work as a stand-alone application though limited functionality is acceptable. The user interface for each application must change dynamically when the companion application is not available. The two topics, When the LitCrit Outlook Application is Missing and When the Critique-Enhanced CML is Missing, describe how the user interface changes when only one application is installed.