Food Smart 5's Extreme Flexibility
for Network and Web Users

The big news about Food Smart 5 is the extreme level of flexibility it provides network and Internet users.  No other nutrition software company currently offers these unique features!  Particularly noteworthy is the unique way in which it can use a SQL-based "backend database engine" (click here to better understand what a "SQL-based database engine" really is).

• For better performance and scalability in larger installations, Food Smart 5 allows users the choice of using Microsoft's SQL Server database management system.

• This, in itself, is not unique in the nutrition and foodservice management software world.  What is unique is the fact that users can choose whether or not to use SQL Server at all, or if a SQL Server backend is used, a choice of whether or not to use the program while connected to the SQL Server.

• Changes made in the database while disconnected from the SQL Server (and changes made on the server's data as well) will be automatically synchronized in both directions between the SQL Server and the client computer that had been disconnected from it!  In part, this is accomplished through the use of "GUID's" ("Guaranteed Unique ID's") assigned to database items - click here to better understand the significance of "GUID's" in Food Smart 5.

• Other companies that have opted to use a SQL-based database management system have developed their software in such a way that it cannot operate independently from the SQL database engine.

• This has rendered their software particularly vulnerable to the whims and program changes of whatever company's SQL-based database engine they have opted to use.  It also forces users (even users of their software on standalone (non-networked) computers) to install the SQL engine.  Unlike Food Smart 5, their software will not operate without the SQL "backend database engine".

• Use of a SQL Server backend is also allowing Food Smart to develop a highly efficient and scalable web-based version of their software.  Because of Food Smart's unique ability to seamlessly move data between SQL and non-SQL versions of the software, users of both the web and non-web versions will be able to easily move data between the two platforms.

• This flexibility also holds tremendous potential for food companies that wish to allow their customers to plan menus and track their dietary intake using the company's food products and other "generic" foods.  Click here for more details about how this could be set up between an organization's web server and their internal corporate network!

• A similar type of scenario could be set up between a counseling dietitian using Food Smart on their PC, and their clients using Food Smart's web-based software.  The dietitian would not necessarily need to have their own web server, since their practice could be set up as an "organization" on the Food Smart web server and each client set up as a separate "site" under the dietitian's "organization".  Clients would only be able to access their own information, but the dietitian could access all client records held under her/his organizational entity.