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Server Extensions

Increasing Mandoforms functionality

A number of Server extensions are available to increase the functionality of the Mandoforms Enterprise Server without requiring any programming by the Developer. Two examples of these; the Security Option and Database Plugin Pack are now bundled with the Enterprise Server at no extra charge.

Security Option

With Mandoforms you may choose to protect the data captured by your forms using standard 40 bit SSL encryption. However with SSL everything on your Web pages is encrypted including the images, and encryption occurs every time the browser communicates with the Web server. As a result, SSL can slow things down dramatically, hitting your server performance hard and providing a slower website experience for users. Hence the increase in vendors of SSL hardware accelerators.

Furthermore, if you wish to be confident of meeting the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998, you need to use 128 bit SSL, a stronger variant that costs more to obtain, and hits server performance even harder.

The Mandoforms Security Option is a simple alternative. This provides a higher strength 168 bit encryption, sufficient to meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act. It is also far more efficient than SSL, as only the form data you specify is encrypted. This can dramatically reduce the burden on your server, allowing it to service far more users and eliminating the need for costly specialised encryption hardware.

Finally the Security Option is provided at no extra cost, compared to SSL that requires an annual purchase and installation of a digital certificate.

Using the Security Option is simplicity itself, as it is enabled by default, protecting your forms both internally and externally from the very start.

Database Plugin Pack

If you need to store form data in a database, retrieve information to populate a form (as in a dropdown list of options), or simply add a save/restore facility to allow users to complete forms at a later time, then the Database Plugin Pack may be the solution for you.

This set of plugins allows you to store, update, delete or retrieve data stored in any accessible database using JDBC or ODBC. This includes all the commonly used databases such as Oracle, DB2, Sybase, Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server.

Postcode Plugin Pack

The Postcode Plugin Pack takes a standard UK postcode entered into a Mandoform and then pre-populates the form with a matching address for the user to verify and add their house number or name.

This feature not only helps the user to complete forms more quickly, but also greatly improves the accuracy of the completed forms. Of course, you don't have to return an address to the user, you could automatically add the address to the form as it is processed.

The Postcode Plugin Pack utilises the Capscan Zapcode System. This provides the underlying postcode database (Royal Mail PAF) and the interface to it. If you already have Capscan and/or PAF installed on an available server, then the Postcode Plugin Pack can be configured to use them.