“Permission to come aboard” is being granted to remote customers running a Navy Research Labs (NRL) application designed to automate and optimize the forecasting process at operational U.S. Department of Defense and National Weather Service tropical cyclone warning centers.

The Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecasting System (ATCF), developed by the NRL in Monterey, CA, is a computer based application built using XVT so that it could be deployed on both Windows and Linux servers with a single development effort. The sophisticated forecasting application was locked away from internet access behind hyper-secure systems.

When the NOAA and the Navy wanted to provide remote ATCF access to customers of the National Hurricane Center in Miami and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, they turned to XVTnet, an extension of the XVT Multi-Platform Development Toolkit. XVTnet allows remote access across the web for XVT developed software via a thin client. The unique “come aboard” requirements were to provide high security access with initial connection through the standard web server ports 80 and 443, but then rerouting via a proxy to the application servers. The XVTnet toolkit was modified to meet these demands, and NRL has now been able to maintain their stringent security requirements while still allowing remote web access. The XVTnet solution offers a wide range of configuration capabilities, including SSL/TLS, proxy connections, firewall port selections, and multiple server and client platforms. The single development effort for multi-platform delivery afforded by the XVT suite of tools dramatically reduces the development cost, time and maintenance required over other methods.

The XVT product line allows developers to completely design their application’s GUI (Graphical User Interface) using a WYSIWYG layout tool and then generates standard ANSI source code automatically. The resulting source code can be copied to any of 14 Windows, Linux, Apple or Unix platforms and compiled into a native version of the application. Applications written using the XVT API can be converted for use with the XVTnet product with a simple recompile. For added convenience, the XVTnet thin client is designed to be launched via a standard web browser using Java Web Start technology. The thin client provides a much richer user interface than web browsers allow and maintains the client  user’s look and feel they are accustomed to seeing.

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