Rain City Consulting

MAx

MAx is a collection of web applications built for Pearl Jam. There are three main web applications:

1. An online store: http://pearljam.com/goods
2. User and warehouse management application (this is a private web application)
3. Reporting/data warehouse application (this is a private web application)

Store Features

• Credit card processing.
• Horizontally scalable. Currently, 8 nodes are run behind a load balancer to handle traffic peaks.
• Handles high traffic ticket sale loads. The store handles tens of thousands of simultaneous users and tens of thousands of requests per second.
• Object caching. Caching is used between the software and the database to increase performance.
• Order restrictions. Restrictions are checked each time a user attempts to add products into their cart. (See below for more about restrictions.)
• Coupons. There are thee types of coupons: percent off, fixed amount off, and free. Coupons can be restricted to a particular product or user (i.e. the coupon is only valid for a specific product). Coupons can have a valid date and an expiration date. Coupons can have a max-use count i.e. after so many uses, a coupon is no longer valid. Coupons can also be restricted by any product, order, or visitor attributes giving great flexibility.
• Modular design allows for easy addition of new features. A plugin architecture allows jars to be dropped into the application to modify and enhance system behaviour.
• Digital downloads. Users can purchase and download (music) files. Downloads links are valid for a specified amount of time and can be accessed up to a specified number of times.
• Inventory management. Precise inventory management ensures that limited products are not over sold.

User and Warehouse Management Application Features

• Manages orders, products, users, and batches (groups of orders). Create, edit, delete, search, and browse.
• User membership management. Users can purchase memberships, which give them extra privileges in the store, on the main site, and in the forums.
• Order restriction management. Restrictions are placed on products and checked when a user attempts to add the product to their cart. Restrictions are implemented using Javascript and stored in the database making it easy to create and edit restrictions without requiring application re-compilation or application re-starts.
• Batch workflow processing. (A batch is a group of orders.) This includes capturing credit card authorizations, updating inventory, printing pick lists to pick orders off the shelves, printing invoices, printing shipping labels, and emailing users letting the know that their order has been shipped.
• Automated PDF creation. PDFs are generated for shipping invoices, shipping labels, customs forms (for international shipments), and purchase orders.
• Shipping integration with USPS and DHL. USPS ships domestically and to Canada. DHL ships internationally. Customs forms are automatically generated for international shipments.
• Mass user email. Groups of users can be emailed using templates that allow user-specific data to be included in the email. Groups of users are created from searches, making it possible to email all current members, all members whose membership will expire in the next 30 days, all members who have purchased a certain item, etc..
• Search. Orders, products, visitors, and batches can all be searched. There is a simple search and an advanced search for each object type.
• Purchase orders. Purchase orders can be created, printed (and sent to vendors), and received (added to inventory).

Reporting and Data Warehouse Application Features

• Updated hourly.
• Orders. Can see individual orders or aggregate orders (by hour, day, month, and year) by product or product category.
• Payments. Payments are displayed by type (e.g. credit card or cash) and aggregated over a duration of time
• Inventory. Inventory levels can be viewed for any product for any hour.

Ship Track

Ship Track is an application built to track clinical shipments to Gene Expression Laboratory division of Rosetta from collaborators around the world. (Rosetta was a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck. They were purchased by Covance in August 2009.) This is a private web application so a public URL cannot be provided.

Ship Track Features

• Automatic generation and processing of PDF forms. Because this is a private (in-house) application, external collaborators could not access it. To overcome this obstacle and still allow external collaborators to submit data, a PDF form is generated and sent via email to the collaborator. The collaborator then fills out the form and sends it back. The returned PDF form is automatically processed by Ship Track. In the event of errors, the external collaborator is is emailed a list of specific errors and given another chance to fill out the form.
• User management. Users can register and log in. Users are associated with a client. Clients must authorize a user after they register before they are able to use the system (unless the users has an email in a client-specified domain)
• Configurable. Most everything in the application is configurable (the goal was to build a system that required as little maintenance as possible).
• Usability testing. Usability testing was done to ensure a usable produce. The tests were to simply put a random person in front of the application and ask them to do certain tasks.
• Modal pop-up forms. Modal pop-up forms make it easy to create new shipment locations and other entities on the fly.
• Daily alerts. Alert emails are sent to a configurable list of emails to warn about late or missing shipments and other situations that may require intervention.

College Football Reference

College Football Reference (CFR) is the largest collection of college football statistical data on the Internet. CFR depends on user submitted data, much like Wikipedia. You can view CFR here: http://cfreference.net.

CFR Features

• Data-driven. The site is completely data-driven including the front page e.g. the front page displays the four player awards that have been around for the longest.
• Schools. Schedules, results, rosters, season records, etc..
• Players. Game and season statistics, personal information, professional draft, etc..
• Polls. Final and in-season.
• Bowl and BCS Games. Complete history of all major bowls and BCS games.
• Awards. Complete history of all major awards (Heisman, Maxwell, etc.).
• Much more. There is much more on the site and more is being added all the time.