Cerealize - database grand unified theory

Data data everywhere--yet nobody can answer my simple question



Screenshots


Cerealize's Schema

Problem: When managing a half-billion dollar construction project, one of the hardest questions to answer is, "How are we doing?"

Solution: Cerealize gobbles data from anywhere and presents it from whatever angle you want. The screen shot to the left is presenting scheduled man-hours against actual man-hours worked. It is easy to see that the blue line is running a little behind schedule.

Cerealize is an associative database environment. The user interface of Cerealize started out as an Access 2000 application--the picture to the left will take you to screen shots of the Access application at work. The back end lives in SQL Server. HBC is currently porting it's hLight application to Cerealize.

The picture at bottom left is the entire schema of Cerealize. All information is stored in the table 'data'. Associations are recorded in the table 'ass'. The sole purpose of table 'cereal' is to generate a series of numbers that act as a spinal cord for the rest of the information to hang off of. 

Since the desired schema is stored as data, it does not need to be programmed into the back-end. Attributes and transactions are hung onto the various elements of the schema as desired. Import routines are used to pull data from Access db's, SQL Server, CSV files, you name it. This opens up some interesting possibilities. It allows people who are not database techs to design their own databases. Cerealize is its own development environment. Changes in business rules do not require reprogramming. Multiple 'schemas' can live side-by-side in the same application.

As mentioned earlier, HBC is currently porting its hLight application to Cerealize. But Cerealize is capable of so much more. For instance, the concept of a double entry accounting system is just screaming out to be housed in a Cerealize back end, the more natural model for such an application. The same goes for a Baseball Accounting System. Cerealize is a natural for web-site content management as well. Actually, the possibilities are endless.

Make Cerealize your Enterprise Solution

If you have an application on the horizon, please do not hesitate to contact HBC to discuss how your application could benefit from Cerealize's associative model.

Spend NO time on back-end development. Cerealize is general enough to handle any conceivable schema.

Spend LESS time on UI development. With already developed custom web-controls, much of the UI development is simple drag-and-drop. The coding behind the UI is less than would be necessary with conventional relational models.

With the use of commonly available user interface controls, the hierarchical information is presented in a familiar format. Manipulating data is very similar to surfing through a desk-top file management application.

Though Cerealize has already made a significant impact by reducing the man-power necessary to handle repetitive, data-intensive tasks, it is still a work-in-progress. It is shown here to illustrate HBC's prowess with hierarchical/associative data structure and presentation. HBC is currently in the process of porting its hLight application to an ASP.net web app utilizing the Cereal elegance. There is still a lot of work to be done, but you can kick the tires on it by going here.