ITcon Vol. 6, pg. 45-56, http://www.itcon.org/2001/4

A Web-Based Information System For Diagnosing, Servicing And Operating Heating Systems

submitted:nn
revised:August 2001
published:September 2001
authors:Jouko E. Pakanen, Dr.,
VTT Building and Transport, Oulu, Finland.
email: Jouko.Pakanen@vtt.fi


Veli J. Möttönen, Mr.,
VTT Building and Transport, Oulu, Finland.
email: Veli.Mottonen@vtt.fi

Mikko J. Hyytinen, Mr.,
VTT Building and Transport, Oulu, Finland.
email: Mikko.Hyytinen@vtt.fi

Heikki A. Ruonansuu, Mr.,
VTT Building and Transport, Oulu, Finland.
email: Heikki.Ruonansuu@vtt.fi

Kaija K. Törmäkangas, Mrs.,
VTT Building and Transport, Oulu, Finland.
email: Kaija.Tormakangas@vtt.fi
summary:Diagnosing a heating system may turn out to be necessary even for an ordinary customer, like a residential building owner or a facility manager. The need is usually triggered by a technical problem in the system. The customer wants to know how to solve or handle the problem. This paper presents a Web-based information system, called WebDia, which is designed to assist customers with such heating problems. WebDia is a prototype system, constructed for district heating substations and oil heating systems. WebDia incorporates a Web server integrated with a back-end database, accessible from a browser of a PC, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) mobile phone. The general idea behind the development is that the server computer shares its resources and knowledge with the user. Besides fault diagnosis, instructions for servicing and operating the heating system are also essential topics. The information content is gathered from various publications, material provided by manufacturers and interviews with experts. A great deal of the professional information also comes from the fourteen co-operating companies assisting in the system development. WebDia is a collection of dynamic HyperText Markup Language (HTML) pages, but it also includes pictures, photographs, video and audio recordings, and animations. Most of the pages are created using server-side scripting based on Active Server Pages (ASP) technology, but Java applets are also used. Building a system like WebDia turns out to be a tedious process, which requires knowledge and expertise from several disciplines in addition to modern Web authoring and multimedia tools.
keywords:Web engineering, multimedia, database systems, WAP, PDA, diagnostic methods, heatin
full text: (PDF file, 0.713 MB)
citation:Jouko E Pakanen Veli J Möttönen Mikko J Hyytinen Heikki A Ruonansuu and Kaija K Törmäkangas (2001). A Web-Based Information System For Diagnosing, Servicing And Operating Heating Systems, ITcon Vol. 6, pg. 45-56, https://www.itcon.org/2001/4