Online Workspace

Abstract

Online Workspace is a web-native, team collaboration tool to increase organizational efficiency, individual accountability and managerial effectiveness by allowing businesses to share important information in a secure and easy-to-use environment. The software has been developed using ASP .NET for interface designing, C# to include object oriented functionality, SQL Server for data storage, and Adobe Photoshop to add special effects to graphics. The software provides each team with an online workspace that is constantly available. It’s a place to discuss ideas; manage documents, and view project details. Each team member also has a personal workspace where they can store their personal documents and even share them with other team members. A document can be attached to a project or be stored in users’ personal folders. Based on its access level, a project document is either available only to project manager or it can be made available to all resources associated with a project. An authorized member can share and un-share documents, from their personal folders, with other team members or with a publicly shared library. Users can assign rights to their personal folders and sub-folders to any other user of the Online Workspace, only read access would be given to other users on one’s personal folders. Only authorized users can enter the system. Hashed passwords are stored in the database in order to enhance security. Public and project discussion forums are established that let users convey general information to others and discuss their problems if they have any. One of unique features is client access to the system. With this feature, clients have controlled access to the system to view status of their projects and associated documents. They also have the ability to post messages and view the replies of messages in the discussion forums of their projects. A project is one of the main entities of the system. Authorized users are allowed to manage projects in the system including: adding of new projects, adding and removing members from projects and editing rights on project folders to control access to project documents. Each project is assigned a project manager, start date, and an estimated deadline.