Following implementation of the E-Science Fora (E-SF) for the Science Directorate, a number of similar sites for other parts of Defra were created as copies of E-SF. To fit in with Defra's IT strategy it was decided to develop a Dynamic Web Application (DWA) based upon the functionality of E-SF. Development used:
- Windows 2000 servers
- IIS (Internet Information Server) 6.0
- Local PCs running Windows 2003 Server
- Visual Studio .NET
- ASP.NET 1.1
- VB.NET
- HTML
- XML web services
Ambica has developed the following:
- Home, menu and security pages.
- User administration pages
- Document and information library administration pages.
Following system testing and bug fixing, first implementation of DWA , called Sustainable Development Forum, was user acceptance tested by users from Defra's Sustainable Development Unit. As a result a number of enhancements were added:
- Ability to have zone icons on the site and private home pages.
- Facility to search across all discussion forums and document libraries a user has access to.
- Additional file types (e.g. MS Project, Visio) were added to the file upload facility.
The site went live and can be found at http://sdforum.defra.gov.uk.