Design and implementation of an online media database

Client

TopMedia, Berlin

Brief

Web application with charging platform

The Challenge

Design and implementation of a web application for presenting “Unter Drei” media manuals in the internet with various different search options for individuals and organisations. The complete address data could only be accessed by the user in return the download charge.

Solution

DResearch planned the web application using the latest software strategies. Where amendments were necessary the developers chose those which deliver ease of use. This meant their strategy was to create components in the form of Java Servlets or Java Beans. The display of pages in JavaServerPages (JSP) meant the design was easy to format in stylesheets but nevertheless sophisticated in appearance. DResearch recommended a good database (MySQL) and the right webserver (Tomcat) and set up the necessary connections for the client.

DResearch realisierte zudem drei Vergebührungsverfahren:

1. In the TopMedia subscriptions section, customers can register for a subscription on the website and receive an HTML form with a direct debit mandate to sign.

2. Firstgate is one of the best known providers of charging solutions for web content (top reference: Stiftung Warentest). With Firstgate the internet user has to have completed a free registration. If web content is made available to the user via a link for a charge, then the link is diverted via Firstgate. Consequently Firstgate has to know how much each page costs (recognisable from the URL or parts thereof). Charges are made monthly via Firstgate.

3. T-Pay is Deutsche Telekom’s charging system. In fact this incorporates 5 payment systems which can be combined in various ways. Payment is by Telekom bill (via the customer number), using a prepaid card (Micromoney), per call (by parallel call to an 0190 number), by debit or by credit card.

The complete “Unter drei” application has been running successfully online since mid 2004 at: www.berlin-unter3.de