FastTrack’s committment to innovation has empowered Collective Management Organizations to be more productive and has helped them to transform the way they work. The new CIS-Net 5 released in July 2016 proposes new solutions to its users.
WHY DO WE NEED A NEW RELEASE?
The CIS-Net release policy expects an enhanced version of the product every six months. This time, the upgrade of the device resulted for the need of a new framework. From its inception, CIS-Net has been based on underlying frameworks. The first version of CIS-Net, dating back to 2001, was developed using Microsoft ASP Visual Basic framework. The ergonomics and user experience of CIS-Net were conceived at that time. From 2004 onwards, CIS-Net was ported to Java in order to support more operating systems than Microsoft Windows. The current framework, Struts1, was introduced in 2007 and gave birth the CIS-Net powered by FastTrack we have today . However, the Apache Foundation announced the end of the official support of Struts in April 2013. As a consequence, a need for a new framework came out. On top of that, new security requirements resulting from the need to prepare the ground for opening CIS-Net to Rights Holders appeared. Taking the opportunity to change the underlying framework, it was decided to modernize the interface of CIS-Net, too. All that has been done in order to make the tool more secure, more intuitive and the users’ workflow more efficient. It is worth adding that all functions in CIS-Net 5 have been entirely preserved and one new feature called the Single Work Dashboard has been added.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING CIS-NET 5?
The modern version of CIS-Net offers many benefits. First of all, it assures the improved security (enhanced password management policies, prevention against screen-scrapping attacks, display of user identity and enhanced logging functions). Secondly, a support for the new framework in terms of compatibility, security and bug fixes is guaranteed. All that leads to its easier maintenance. Thirdly, the refreshed architecture allows improved ergonomics of CIS-Net in the future. What is more, it is an open source solution offering modern interface features and is more dynamic and suitable for the type of interactive transactional usage performed in CIS-Net.
WHAT IS NEW IN CIS-NET 5?
The main principle of the new framework was not to introduce any functional changes, in order not to create any additional training costs, but to refresh the existing infrastructure while improving the overall user experience at the same time. The new functionalities that improve daily work with CIS-Net 5 are common for each domain. Let us have a look at the main changes that have been introduced to CIS-Net 5. The new look introduces a consistency of icons, colours and menus to make browsing simpler and more intuitive. A compact view offered by CIS-Net 5 allows for browsing multiple tabs on the same page without jumping between pages. The incorporated print button on the bottom of the page enables to print the search results. The added work progress bar helps to control the time as it indices the time remaining to retrieve results. The progress bar blinks when the results are about to be provided. The new CIS-Net 5 feel gives the opportunity to customize work according to the needs. The columns can be rearranged on the screen to fit the needs of the user by dragging and dropping the columns to the desired position. Only one column can be moved at a time. The window adjusts all of the search work results to the current change. The columns can also be resized. It is also possible to hide columns. All of the aforementioned features concerning the table display customization, plus many additional options, are available in User Preferences. With sortable tables the data may be arranged in the way that makes more sense to the performed task. The modern look and feel of CIS-Net 5 makes the device easy to use and thus does not require any additional training. The enhanced security policies assure the reduction of the threat of any unauthorized interception. The added new feature called the Single Work Dashboard has been designed to provide information on any single musical work that has been posted to CIS-Net by contributing Societies. For further details on it please read the included in this issue article ‘Introducing the Single Dash Board’.
With its modern 2016 look and feel and the Single Work Dashboard, CIS-Net 5 is meant to simplify the workflow by making it more efficient and intuitive.
Didier Roy, Technical Director, FastTrack
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