...
The presentation tier, where users see and manipulate costs, shows data in the HTML markup language (view) driven by a custom JavaScript codebase (controller). The RAFT presentation tier uses a popular JavaScript framework, jQuery, to abstract browser-specific coding issues and make it easier for other developers to maintain the code. RAFT uses AJAX to retrieve all data from the service layer, and it maintains all user state (what data the user has chosen to view and manipulate) in the browser. This makes the application perform more like a desktop application, in that it does not need to make repeated calls to the database to save and retrieve the user state. Please see this whitepaper <TBD> for a more indepth explanation of RAFT presentation-tier code.
The RAFT service layer is designed to fulfill two overlapping needs: create a RESTFUL application programming interface (API) to Cost Object data so that MIT developers can create custom applications and reports easily; and form the services RAFT needs to get Cost Object data and save user budget forecasts. This service API is written in PHP based on a standard PHP framework called Zend. This API provides two main functions: the interface for finding and displaying Cost Object data and the