An internal project for Space Air, the Daikin Document Finder is a customer only, password protected area of the company's website, that allows customers access to documents such as brochures, technical manuals and news snippets.
Directly connecting with the company's FileMaker database, documents can be searched for by narrowing down through document and product categories, searching by document name, or search by models (of air conditioning products) that are attached to each document. A document can then be downloaded. The web-based application heavily uses AJAX to make live search requests, through the use of the jQuery library. The graphical user interface is created with semantic HTML5 code and uses CSS3 to style buttons with gradient backgrounds and rounded corners, as well as unique icons created by the company's graphical designer.
The application uses the PHP API for the FileMaker SuperContainer object, which connects to the company's FileMaker server and retrieves the relevant PDF files, which the user can then download in their browser.
To create the iPhone web app, I used an excellent jQuery plugin called jQTouch that provides a framework for web based application to take on the look and feel of a native iPhone app. The app runs of the same database, but uses a different user interface, one that would be familiar to iPhone users and where PDF files open automatically in iBooks. The web app can be opened in Safari, and then saved to the home screen of an iPhone, complete with an icon and a loading screen.
The Daikin Document Finder is not publically viewable, access is for Space Air customers only.
