Organising Information
With so much information stored electronically there is an urgent need for software to help us to organise it. Much of this is specific to one type of information such as the software that organises images from your digital camera. General-purpose organising software, such as an Explorer or Finder, is not very powerful and mainly allows you to put files into folders.
With openJean it is straightforward to organise all sorts of information such as sounds, pictures, website addresses and text and to provide links between them.
Screenshot 1 shows openJean holding several different types of data. The user moves from address book data to notes, images or calendar simply by pressing a tab.
OpenJean Catalogs
At the heart of openJean is the catalog. OpenJean provides a framework into which you can slot one or more catalogs: AddressBook, Images, Notes etc. A catalog allows you to organise your information in the most useful way for you. Unlike a conventional filing cabinet, you can index and group the same information in a variety of different ways and file the same piece of information under different categories without having to make copies. You can easily link information between the different catalogs. Screenshot 2 lets you move between catalogs.
Analysing information
Once you have organized your data appropriately, you can use openJean to analyse it.
OpenJean comes with powerful searching, sorting and indexing capabilities. For example, the AddressBook may be used to keep customer contact details. It is easy to add an attribute, such as region or age, and to use indexing to segment customers according to region or age.
OpenJean can also export information in industry standard formats, allowing you to use your current data analysis tools and techniques.
Ease of Use
You may think that with all these options, openJean might be difficult to operate. It isn't. Because the same straightforward concepts are used throughout, you will find openJean easy to get to grips with and consistent in its behaviour. For example, data entry is done using wizards. Screenshot 3 shows the AddressBook wizard.
Modularity and flexibility
OpenJean is modular and extensible. The basic framework contains a number of Java components that can be used in other applications. In addition to the framework, openJean comes with a number of predefined catalogs to cover many requirements. These catalogs can be simply extended by adding extra attributes. The catalogs can be further extended by anyone with knowledge of Java and/or XSL by using the SDK to add new operations accessible from the menus; these new operations can easily run or make calls into other applications. The SDK can also be used to create entirely new catalogs.
