CIRLab has been designed applying design patterns and an object-oriented middleware platform to maximize its reusability and adaptability in new contexts with a minimum of programming efforts. The distribution and communication facilities of CIRLab are ICE (Internet Communications Engine – http://www.zeroc.com) conforming. ICE applications are suitable for using them in heterogeneous environments: client and server can be written in different programming languages, run on different operating systems and hardware architectures, and communicate using a variety of networking technologies. CIRLab also wraps some open-source three party APIs (e.g. search engines and a database engine).