Building a Database Design Laboratory on the Internet Building a Database Design Laboratory on the Internet Stefano Ceri, Piero Fraternali, Stefano Gevinti, and Stefano Paraboschi Politecnico di Milano Commercial tools for software engineering include many development environments to support the design process. These integrated tools are usually distributed through traditional retail channels, with vendors increasingly giving customers the option of downloading products from the Web. The tools are installed on user client machines and are usually duplicated for actual tool use at customer sites.
Users are responsible for installation, maintenance, and upgrade procedures.
The Web Lab was designed to help disseminate the research results. It enables remote use of a design environment for database applications, including a repository for application development that provides a protected workspace. Web Lab demonstrates the feasibility of this idea for commercial software distribution. In this article, we describe the Web Lab project, its implementation, and plans for further development. Inc. All rights reserved.