Strada
The Strada data transfer system is designed to automate the data (files) transfer between different applications operating in far-off company departments. Among the other purposes, the system is used to ensure the communication between instances of various systems, such as Flash-2001 , Runner, RunPlanner and RunnerWWW.

There are lots of applications, which require a systematic data exchange between different users or programs working in various places, in different local nets or outside them. The traditional way of exchanging the data - the electronic mailing system, with the use of typical e-mail programs, contains crucial flaws as far as the regular directions of data transmission are concerned. It requires manual ordering of sending the messages, choosing the addresses of the recipients, attaching the files intended to be sent etc. Besides the onerousnesses of performing the repetitious activities it brings the danger of oversights and mistakes. What's more this method is not 100% proof with respects to the place of origin of an e-mail, whether it has been sent by a trusted sender or if it was not modified on its way.

Strada provides the simple maintenance and also enables the automation of data transmission.

While designing the system three main guidelines were taken under consideration:

	The only thing required of the message sender is to place the message in the right folder without leaving the application in which the file was created. It can also be done by the process which does not require any intervention from the user.
	The recipient should not need to perform any additional activities pertaining to the transit - all he needs is simply the access to the files that had been sent to him, directly from the application that he works with. Also the programs that work without manual monitoring can receive the information from the folders which they monitor themselves.
	The system has to provide the security during the information transfer - protection against sending unwanted data by mistake, or on purpose, verification of the item through checking if it had not been modified wile on its way or if it contains sender's signature that is known to a recipient, as well as the protection against unauthorized reading through the data encription.

The main part of the Strada system is the transmission layer which consists of two parts: dispatching and receiving. Its task is to transmit information between applications operating in different sites of a net. The transmitting layer is realized in two technologies with the use of:

	an e-mail,
	the NetDrive technology by Novell corporation.

Dispatching end:

The applications which produce the data place it in sender's folders - one folder for one or more data recipients,

The dispatching part of the transmitting layer takes information from dispatch folders and

	in the version with the use of mail - it uses the SMTP protocol and sends it to the inbox (one or more boxes can be assigned to every dispatch folder),
	with the NetDrive version - it sends it to the working folder of the recipients.

Receiving end:

The receiving part of the transmitting layer:

	in the version with the use of mail - using the POP3 service, it downloads the information from the mail boxes and places it in folders of the local net  (one receiving folder is assigned to each mail box ),
	with the Net Drive version - it downloads the information from the working folders and places it in the folders in a local net.

The information "consuming" applications take the data directly from the proper receiving folders.

The system can guarantee different levels of security depending on the requirements:

	sending information which is not secured at all,
	controlling the cohesion of the item sent with the checksum control, which protects the item against modifying it,
	authorization of the sender through identifying his electronic signature,
	encrypting the data which ensures the confidentiality of the information as well as its authentication and cohesion.

The security level in the system is defined individually for separate transmission channels.