Technology MX4 Case Study

About MX4

Technology MX4 is specialized in the development of web applications for K12 schools, which also includes providing training and user support.

ZK x MX4

ZK is used in our main product called Trapeze School for the automatic creation of school timetables. The SAAS application targets K12 schools and can handle multiple school configuration and constraints. This tool is offered in 2 languages (French and English) and is being used by more than 150 schools across Quebec.

The team is composed of 5 engineers; 1 for the User interface using ZK and the others are working on the backend micro-services and AI engine. We started the project in 2011 and we have an ongoing delivery process to offer new features every 6 months.

We use the following technologies in the project: ZK, Hibernate, Tomcat, Rest, Kafka, ActiveMQ and PostgreSQL.

Why ZK

We evaluated developing our web application in JSP and we built a small, but complete application that includes our principal needs using 3 different frameworks: OpenXava, Vaadin and ZK. ZK was the easiest and fastest one.

ZK was the easiest to use in the sense that it hides and handles the AJAX part, so you don't have to worry about passing information between the server and the client. As a result it saves the developing time a lot so we decide to go with ZK.

The Best of ZK

We recognize ZK's value: simplicity (AJAX) and rapid development. In particular we find ZUL and Zscript language very convenient as they allow us to try different looks and components for rapid mockup. This helps our clients to comment on our design before going in full development.

The Result

We developed the first version using the MVC pattern and now we are moving on to the MVVM pattern and we loved it.

We are looking to build a new product with more powerful features to extend our offer and the plan is to definitely keep using ZK.