Expert System Builder

1. How much does ESB© cost ? (answer)
2. How much does JavaESB© cost ? (answer)
3. What can I use ESB© and/or JavaESB© for ? (answer)
4. What does buying a license entitle me to ? (answer)
5. How does ESB© and JavaESB© work ? (answer)
6. Do you supply the source code for the system to registered users ? (answer)
7. How many questions can I have in my system ? (answer)
8. How many recomendations (results) can I have in my system ? (answer)
9. What can ESB do for me that a simple logic system cannot ? (answer)
10. Can I edit the question and data files manually ? (answer)
11. How do I change the external appearance of ESB© and JavaESB© ? (answer)
12. We are a large organisation can we have a discount for multiple orders ? (answer)
13. Where can I get the JavaESB© applet ? (answer)
14. Can I add more than 9 options to a question? (answer)
15. My question isn't listed here, what should I do ? (answer)
16. I've been using ESB© for a while and can no longer use the QE or KA programs (answer)
17. I changed the date on my PC backwards, now the QE and KA programs don't work (answer)
18. I have a system developed with ESB 3.1, can I use it with ESB4.x and JavaESB ? (answer)
19. What operating systems does ESB4 work with ? (answer)
20. Are there any known problems ? (answer)
21. Where can I get a copy of the FREEWARE Expert System Builder (Version 3.1) (answer)
22. I'm having problems installing on Windows 2000. The setup programs says files are out of date, the machine reboots and the same problem is reported. (answer)

Answers

1. How much does ESB© cost ?
Expert System Builder© 4.x is now FREE.

2. How much does JavaESB© 1.3.1 cost ?
JavaESB© v1 is FREEWARE. The cost of JavaESB© v2 (including shipping) is $25. You can purchase a license here.

3. What can I use ESB© and/or JavaESB© for ?
The ESB series of programs develops smart questionaires in order to provide some form of decision support mechanism. Such a system is useful when expertise in a particular domain (area of knowledge) is scarce, difficult to disseminate, or only available for short periods of time. The decision support system captures the knowledge and then provides a user friendly way of accessing that data when the expert is not available. Such systems can include product recommendation, fault diagnosis, etc.

ESB© is particularly useful when used as a 'first line' support tool. It provides a means of filtering problems, providing automatic solutions to day-to-day issues, so that support teams can concentrate on those problems that are less obvious.

ESB© is tolerant to erroneous input. Traditional logic systems rely on users having sufficient knowledge to be able to answer the questions presented sensibly, a single error in these systems leads to the completely wrong answer. ESB©, on the other hand, analsyes user input to provide the most probable solution even when erroneous answers are given.

4. What does buying a license entitle me to ?
Registered users of JavaESB© v2 are provided with the latest version of JavaESB© v2, an authorisation key to allow the applet to execute at specified domain (i.e. http://www.mydomain.com), e-mail support for 30 days and instructions on how to configure the applet within an HTML page..

5. How does ESB© and JavaESB© work ?
For obvious commercial reasons the algorithms used by ESB© and JavaESB© are not covered here. In essence ESB© and JavaESB© use a form of fuzzy 'matching'. User input is 'fuzzily' compared against information stored in the systems knowledge base taking into account the questions that the user has been asked and their importance. After this comparison the system calculates a how well each 'possible solution' in the system has fared assigning each a confidence score expressed as a percentage.

6. Do you supply the source code for the system to registered users ?
No.

7. How many questions can I have in my system ?
In versions 4.0 and above there is no limit to the number of questions that can be in the system. The actual figures will be constrained by the amount of memory in the system.

8. How many recomendations (results) can I have in my system ?
In versions 4.0 and above there is no limit to the number of records that can be in the system. The actual figures will be constrained by the amount of memory in the system.

9. What can ESB do for me that a simple logic system cannot ?
ESB© is tolerant to erroneous input. Traditional logic systems rely on users having sufficient knowledge to be able to answer the questions presented sensibly, a single error in these systems leads to the completely wrong answer. ESB©, on the other hand, analsyes user input to provide the most probable solution even when erroneous answers are given.

10. Can I edit the question and data files manually ?
You can using a simple editor such as notepad but we do not recommend you do. The entries in the question file and data files are maintained by the ESB programs themselves, use them to modify the contents of the files. If the question file is corrupted (or not in the correct format) the QE will inform you of the error.

11. How do I change the external appearance of JavaESB© ?
See the instruction supplied in JavaESB v1. Instructions on how to do this in JavaESB v2 are supplied to registered users.

12. We are a large organisation can we have a discount for multiple orders ?
There are no discounts for multiples orders of JavaESB v2. The standard PC based ESB is FREE and so is JavaESB v1.

13. Where can I get the JavaESB© applets ?
The JavaESB© v1 applets is available via the download page of this site. The JavaESB v2 applet and other associated files, are only supplied to registered users. There is no direct download from the Internet.

14. Can I add more than 9 options to a question ?
Not directly, but this problem can be solved as follows:
Question 1 Which of the following...........etc
Option 1 ........
Option 2 .......
etc .................
Option 9 None of the above

Question 2 Set this to the same question as question 1
Option 10 ........
Option 11 .......
etc .................

Then setup Question 2 so that it is dependent on Question 1 Option 9.

15. My question isn't listed here, what should I do ?
Firstly please read the associated help files included with ESB©. Questions that are covered in the help systems will be ignored by support. if you are sure that your question is not answered on this site or in the help system then please contact us and I will try to help. I will be more inclined to help if you have contributed to the cost of this site via the make a donation page.

16. I've been using ESB© for a while and can no longer use the QE or KA programs
The most likely reason for this is that you are using a version of ESB pre version 4.3.5. Please download the latest version which is now Freeware..

17. I changed the date on my PC backwards, now the QE and KA programs don't work
ESB© detects any attempt to change the system time in order to fool the trial period. If you revert your system time then the ESB© QE and KA programs will no longer work unless a license is purchased.

18. I have a system developed with ESB 3.1, can I use it with ESB4.x and JavaESB ?
No, ESB 3.1 systems are incompatible with ESB4.x and JavaESB.

19. What operating systems does ESB4 work with ?
ESB4.x has been tested on 98, Me, NT4 and Windows 2000 (US and English versions) and XP. One error report has been received regarding Windows 98 (international russian edition). ESB4.x is incompatible with Windows 3.1

20. Are there any known problems ?
These are known problems (Please report any more you might have):
a) ESB4.x does not work on the International (Russian) version of Windows.

21. Where can I get a copy of the FREEWARE Expert System Builder (Version 3.1) ?
Version 3.1 is no longer supported and as such is no longer available from this site.

22. I'm having problems installing on Windows 2000. The setup programs says files are out of date, the machine reboots and the same problem is reported.
This is a Windows 2000 problem with the Microsoft Package and Deployment Wizard (PDW). Please upgrade your Windows 2000 installation to the latest service pack.