Distributed web automation system for public sector ecommerce
Published on Jan 07, 2024 by Tom Gracey.
System: Distributed web-automation application simplifying tasks on a public sector ecommerce portal
Client: MePATool
Technologies: Perl, Javascript, Mojolicious, Hypnotoad, SQL
Problem: The workflow required for public sector ecommerce in a particular jurisdiction can slow down business.
Solution: 7 subsystems have been created and are maintained by Virtual Blue, including client executables, API, Web Admin and web-automation processes. Multithreaded headless Chrome instances are controlled via a custom process management system. Rendering browsers tend to be memory hungry which is one reason the system is distributed across several servers, in order to cope with traffic spikes. Recently very low error rates have been achieved.
