"Facilitating the exchange of soil and providing information about material availability is what DirtMarket is all about. Whether it’s for estimating or a real-time problem, our members know where and when soil will be available near their job sites," says Tim Cottrell, Executive Vice President at Construction eMarkets.  "With Broden's team based development approach, and outstanding technical experience, we were able to achieve and even surpass our initial vision." With a solid business plan and customers already signed up, Construction eMarkets’ DirtMarket.com venture is sure to be a success. Join us for a look behind the making of DirtMarket.

Robust Design

If there is one key to DirtMarket's rapid development, it has to be its separation of business logic from the user interface. This n-tier deployment model (coined iRAD by Broden and modeled after Microsoft’s Windows DNA) has a number of distinct advantages (See the iRAD White Paper for a thorough coverage of the iRAD methodology):

1. All features supported by the system are mapped to objects and methods deployed as one or more server-side components. The object model serves as a great tool for communicating functionality and validating system requirements.
2. Web developers are able to proceed with coding even while middle tier folks are writing the business layer.  All this is made possible by a well-crafted and documented business layer.
3. Since only the business layer is allowed to communicate with the data layer (e.g., via stored procedures), adjustments to the database only impact this layer.
4. Of course, DirtMarket carries a fully normalized database under the covers. Broden's collective decades of experience in database design are reflected in a data model that not only meets current system needs but also handles constantly changing requirements.

Vicinity Search

At the heart of DirtMarket's responsibilities is the ability to match available material with requested needs. Early on, this was identified as one of the most critical functions of the system. All dirt posts are "geocoded" with latitude and longitude values. Distance (as the crow flies) can then be calculated between any two geocoded points with a standard formula. (This calculation is known as Great Circle Distance, and takes into account the curvature of the earth. There are a number of variations of this formula.) "However, it had to be fast," says Don Culbertson, Broden President. "The matching algorithm would be engaged every time a dirt post or need was made, and every time a User browsed for available material. We couldn’t settle for on-the-fly use of the Great Circle Distance formula with all its trigonometry. So, our engineers went to work." Tests were performed on a database loaded with years of projected data. The final algorithm chosen can locate all available material in the region surrounding the construction site in under half a second. "This was possible by tuning our algorithm to rely entirely on the SQL Server optimizer," says Don.

A Full-Service Solution

Broden has provided a full-service solution with DirtMarket.com. The systems group was involved right from the initial phase with recommendations for hardware, systems management software, and an appropriate co-location site. Their involvement continued through installation, including hardware firewall configuration, and right up to production system monitoring via remote management software. Every effort has been made to ensure high availability including a warm-standby server and an early warning system that e-mails and pages support personnel within minutes of any important event such as the stopping of a key NT service or the failure of a scheduled job.

Partnering for Success

DirtMarket's success is also due to pieces supplied by outside vendors. MapQuest, for example, provides the key latitude and longitude data necessary for deriving distance. They also provide driving directions for the integrated Maps and Directions page. AccuWeather makes up-to-the-minute weather for a User’s job site possible. Third-party components are employed for critical functionality such as data encryption. Broden’s years of experience importing data in a variety of formats, including XML, were a clear advantage here. Not to be overlooked is the professional look to the site developed by the LiquidDesign group. A consistent color scheme and sharp, appropriately placed graphics make for a pleasant user experience. Key pages are designed with fixed width elements so that they can be easily printed by the on-the-move construction audience. The Broden web development team is happy to leverage the graphical design skills of other groups, be it outside companies or its own internal art department.

Contact: Don Culbertson, President/Sales Manager
Broden, Inc. 36 Midvale Rd. Mountain Lakes, NJ 07046
800.499.8743
donc@broden.com 
 
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