The EASA system enables an organization to create simple, web-enabled tools that automate and simplify the use of existing software and data, such as spreadsheets, databases, or other third party applications. Published on a corporate Intranet, these custom applications my be made available to anyone at the organization via a web browser. EASA empowers a wide range of personnel at an organization, giving each of them simplified access to software that might lie outside of his or her skill set.

EASA amplifies and transmits the experience, knowledge and best practices of the experts within a company to the rank-and-file decision makers. EASA contains Authoring tools that enable specialists in a commercial software application or an in-house code to create and publish an application with a simplified, web-accessible interface.

This 'Author's Guide' provides information and instructions for Authors to help them successfully create and publish custom EASA applications called EASAP's.

• Web Browser Access

A User may access EASA via a web browser, as such, EASA is readily available within an organization. In addition, EASA can be configured for Internet access for a User external to an organization, such as customers, partners, suppliers, etc.

• Application Library

This central repository for EASA Applications or EASAP's consolidates storage of software tools in an organization.

• Results Library

This is a central repository for the information and data derived from successive runs of an EASAP in an organization. The Results Library allows a User to view other User's results, avoiding duplicate work.

• Authoring

EASA contains tools to allow a specialists in a specialized domain to Author an EASAP. The Authoring process captures knowledge, expertise and best practices and embodies these elements within an application. This facilitates consistent, high-quality processes throughout an organization.

• GUI Generation

EASA’s Authoring tools create easy-to-use graphical user interfaces that simplify the use of complex underlying software, and allow a flexible approach that will adapt to the task at hand. specific.

• Results Processing

Reports generated by EASAPs and stored in the Results Library may be tailored by an Author to meet the specific needs of an organization.

• Integration with Existing Systems

EASA contains capabilities for interacting with existing software tools and systems in an organization. EASAP's interact with databases that may be integral to other systems. Also, EASA content can be embedded within other software applications via special URLs and API calls.

• Queuing

The queuing system in EASA manages the running of EASAPs and will maximally utilize software licenses and computing resources.

• Low Bandwidth

EASA was designed to be run over the Internet and therefore the amount of information exchanged between a user’s computer and the EASA system is kept to a minimum. Thus, connection to EASA via cellular networks is possible.

EASA recognizes three levels of access or roles: User, Author and Administrator.

All EASA users will need an EASA account with a user name and password.

An Administrator is primarily responsible for installing and configuring the EASA system. An Administrator will have access to both Administrator and User mode.

An Author is responsible for creating and publishing EASAPs for use by the rest of your organization. Author access to EASA allows both Author and User mode.

A person can be both an Author and an Administrator. This enables access to all three modes, User, Author and Administrator.

A User as the name implies, operates the published EASAP's on an EASA system. This means they will make use of the tools available in the Application Library and the information available in the Results Library. By default all accounts in EASA always have access to User mode. In most organizations, the User role will be the most prevalent. To set up a User account in EASA, see Creating a New User Account.

An EASA Application, or EASAP, is a simple Web-enabled application to drive a software package, a batch script, an in-house code, database processing, live Excel spreadsheet computation, to name a few possibilities.

An EASAP is created by an Author who is a specialist of some kind and uses computer software to fulfill a role. An Author will need to gain expertise and familiarity with the EASAP Builder, EASA's development environment.

All EASAPs generated using EASA’s Authoring tools will have a similar look-and-feel. Once a User has mastered the use of one EASAP, learning to use another EASAP is straightforward. The figure below shows an example of a typical EASAP GUI. In this EASAP functionality is specified by an Excel spreadsheet which takes a few inputs and generates a graphs and tables as output.

In addition to being simple and easy-to-learn, an EASAP should also generate useful results for a User. The popularity of an EASAP may depend to some extent on its ease-of-use, but ultimately, the value of an EASAP will be measured by the quality of the results it generates and inserts in the Results Library. Therefore, defining the report structure and format for presenting results to the User is an integral part of Authoring an EASAP.

An EASAP may allow a User the ability to effortlessly submit multiple runs as a Parametric Study. The User specifies a sequence of multiple explicit values for inputs and multiple runs are then queued and processed from a single EASAP submission. EASA provides special tools and content within the Results Library for aiding users in analyzing the results from the multiple runs.