The Challenge:

Stratum New Media manages and maintains the official web site of the California Olive Industry. Stratum devised a new look for the site, part of which is an interactive "Recipe Box" application, written in Java using the WebObjects application server. Recipe Box allows visitors to find, input, and share recipes that use olives, request brochures and other merchandise, and enter quarterly contests. The redesign included major changes to the behavior of the application.

Stratum wanted to incorporate the new design into the Recipe Box, and have it upgraded to the latest technology. Stratum called on Tyrell to integrate the new HTML and graphical assets, and convert it from the legacy bridged Java/Objective-C environment of WebObjects 4.5 to the current Pure Java 2 environment used by WebObjects 5.1. The existing data also needed to be migrated to the latest version of Frontbase, along with a mechanism for pushing the changes from their staging environment to the production site.

To make things even more interesting, the new CalOlive site was scheduled to launch in just three weeks!

The Tyrell Solution:

Tyrell had the application ported to and functioning correctly on WebObjects 5.1 with the latest Frontbase server, a mere three days after receiving the original source code and database. Once the application was running smoothly in the new environment, and the design assets were delivered, Tyrell folded in the new graphic design, implemented the behavioral changes, and wrote a synchronization script that Stratum could use at any time to commit their staging site to production.

A flexible administration interface was created for working with the collected data, using Direct To Web, the powerful rules-based rapid-development framework for WebObjects.

As development neared completion, versions of the new application were deployed on Stratum's staging server so they could review the effort and provide timely feedback.

The Results:

The new California Olive Industry web site and Recipe Box application debuted on time. Stratum was very happy with the result, and blown away by the power of the administration interface, which greatly exceeded their expectations. Since then, Stratum has tapped Tyrell to implement a number of further enhancements and scheduled changes to the Recipe Box.