Development of distributed and extensible building automation software systems

The current requirements for software systems, especially in Building Automation Industry, are first able to extend its functionality to adapt to customers’ requirement changes, second accessible over the network, third able to scale well with the varieties of client application needs, and fourth able to scale well with varieties of client devices and their platforms. This writing presents a four step methodology for development of software systems which satisfy these requirements. The four steps include Step 1: Development of a core server with functionalities implemented as add-ins, Step 2: Development of a communication channel as Web Service, Step 3: Development of the client applications and client components, and Step 4: Development of a GUI Designer and Client devices’ platforms’ simulators. These steps are realized after a real life experiment which develops a Building Automation System at Omniabit s.r.l. Milano, Italy. This experiment leads to a software system which has extensible functionalities implemented as add-ins. It is accessible over the network using Web Service as its communication endpoint. It scales well with the large varieties of customers’ client applications’ needs by providing customers a GUI Designer lets users (customers or developers) with little programming experience design the client applications visually. It also scales well with the large varieties of client devices and their platforms in building automation industry with simulators built for them. This proposed development methodology is applicable not only in the building automation industry software development but in general will help to develop software systems which adapt well with customer requirements change overtime.