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Civil-Comp Proceedings
ISSN 1759-3433
CCP: 14
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
Edited by: B.H.V. Topping and A.I. Khan
Paper III.2

A Multimedia Product Selector System for the Construction Industry

M. O'Brien and A. Al-Soufi

Department of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England

Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
M. O'Brien, A. Al-Soufi, "A Multimedia Product Selector System for the Construction Industry", in B.H.V. Topping, A.I. Khan, (Editors), "Information Technology for Civil & Structural Engineers", Civil-Comp Press, Edinburgh, UK, pp 25-28, 1993. doi:10.4203/ccp.14.3.2
Abstract
The need for an up-to-date building product data is very important issue in construction industry. Both for suppliers who provide and update these informations, and the customers for example contractors) who enquire them. However the existing hard copy catalogues of building products, or even the ones which are stored on a CD-ROM have several disadvantages. Among them are expensive, out-of-date information, difficult to update by suppliers, etc. The solution to these problems lies in an on-line system that can be accessed by both suppliers and customers. Multi Media Product Selector (MMPS) which is described in this paper is such a system. MMPS is a distributed database system holding information on manufacturer's specific product data together with bibliographic information. It is a shared product database which will be accessible by firms with network capabilities within the construction industry. The system is based on X.500 Directory System as a navigation engine for the distributed data. The system is implemented using QUIPU; an implementation of the 1988 standard for CCITT/X.500. This paper represents a progress report on the development effort of this system. The directory system model is described with some of the services used in the system. The data structures of the system is explained, and finally the need for such system, its usage, and advantages are highlighted.

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