Low-cost Internet app

1. End users at participating federal agencies download and install the

Java application on their desktop PCs. The Java application offers greater

security and programming flexibility than a traditional World Wide Web

browser-based application.

2. Users get their log-on identifications from the State Department,

then enter their agencies' data into the system. The application's help

files are available to users via a Web browser interface. Using the Web

for this part of the application allows the system developer, Development

InfoStructure (deviS), to make changes to the help files once on the server,

as opposed to updating every client.

3. The data is transmitted in Extensible Markup Language (XML) via the

Internet to a database that deviS hosts at its Arlington, Va., headquarters.

The entire back end of the solution is built with open source software running

on Linux. The system uses an object-oriented database called Zope (www.zope.org)

to publish reports, and a database server product from PostgreSQL (www.postgresql.org).

4. The State Department office then takes the data, refines it and makes

it available online to all the other federal agencies.