University of Washington CUMREC 2003

Uncompromised Web Applications: Variety Without Chaos

University of WashingtonCUMREC 2003

Copyright University of Washington , (Joe Frost and Marcia Tufarolo 2003. This work is the intellectual property of the Author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright

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University of Washington CUMREC 2003

University of Washington

•State Research University

•3 Major Campuses

•40,000 Students

•24,000 Faculty & Staff

University of Washington CUMREC 2003

Joe Frost - System Engineer

Marcia Tufarolo - Technology Manager

Computing & CommunicationsClient Services Project Consulting

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Client Services Project Consulting

•Consulting group for UW

•Self-sustaining operation

•CSPC hired for work

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Development Architectures

•Custom Application

•Universal Application

•Custom Compromised App

•‘Generic’ Application

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Custom Application

• Developed for one area• Meets all needs• No resource leveraging• High cost - develop & maintain• Risk of many similar applications

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Universal Application

• One application & feature set • Used by many areas

• Limited use of some application functions

• Re-definition of functions to meet needs

• Leveraged development costs

• Committee modifications/enhancements

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Customized Compromised Application

• Cloned Custom or Universal app

• Modified to meet ‘real’ needs

• “If statements”

• Redefinition of fields

• Cost savings?

• Fragile to modify

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Types of Development Architectures

CustomizedCompromised

Application

UniversalApplication

CustomApplication

GenericApplication

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Generic Application

• Meets common need

• Flexible to customize

• Serves specific needs of many areas

• Leverage dev & maint costs

• Not for high transaction volume apps

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UW ‘Generic’ Applications

•UW Web Conference

•UW Web Donation

•UW Web Store

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UW ‘Generic’ Applications

•Architecture Goal –Meet a common need

–Ability to customize content

–e-commerce functions

–Scaleable

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Central UW InfrastructureWeb-based Credit Card Processing

UW Web Credit Card Project

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UW Web Credit Card

Goal – Increase usage of secure, central application

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UW Web Credit Card

•API for Interface•Specific Requirements

–Database–SSL–Security Callbacks

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UW Web Credit Card

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UW Web Credit Card Users

•Tuition

•UW Computer Training

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UW Web Credit Card Interface

•Many areas could not interface–Complex programming & environment

–Limited basic Web skills

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Credit Card Acceptance

•Email•Fax•Phone•Yikes!

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Customized Common Needs

•Conferences–Health Policy Analysis Program

•Pledge Drives–KEXP Radio Station

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Project Approach

•Defined timeframe of operation

•High Visibility

•‘Always a rush’

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‘Generic’ Application

•Conferences–User registration & payment–Administrative application

•Standard report•Data extract•Registration maintenance•Conference management

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Project Team

•Database Expert•Java Expert•Student Staff - ‘The Gaber’

•Project Manager

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Project Method

•High Level Design•Prototype/Code•Implement

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Computing Environment

•Win2K•IIS•SQL Server•Java•JavaScript

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User Registration & Payment

ConferenceRegistration

Page

RegistrationConfirmation

UW WebCredit Card

Payment

PaymentReceipt

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UW Web Conference Registration Demo

Alt

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Generic And Custom• Form elements are defined in a database

• Departments control data and form appearance

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UW Web Conference Registration

• Sample Registration Page REG

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Web Page Form Elements• Form Elements built from database rows

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HTML Tag Attributes•Attributes of the input tag saved as columns

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HTML Input Tag Types

Standard HTML tags•Select, Text area, Radio, Checkbox

Subtypes of Text•Text, Integer, Date, Money

Display Only•Any HTML fragment

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Types of Form Elements• Same data structure for each of the standard

HTML form elements

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Text Tag Subtypes•Data type determines client-side processing

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Select Tag Form ElementSelect and radio buttons can also be generated.

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Select Tag Values•Radio and select require multiple rows.

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Scripting Functions•Scripts for form elements

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Serving The Page• Page Builder generates the form

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Saving The Results• Retrieve the Attribute descriptions

• Edit the form data

• Store Registration and RegValue rows

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Database Backbone•Two tables for display

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Attribute Maintenance

• Attribute Maintenance Search AM

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Database Backbone•Two for display •Two for storage

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Using The Data

• Get data into simple table form

• Append the regValue columns to the Registration columns

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Table Pivoting• Convert flat tables to deep tables

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Create Temporary Table

• Select the distinct attribute rows in a cursor

• Build a “create table” statement with the attribute names as columns

• Execute the create table statement

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Create Table• Select attribute_names into process loop

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Load Temporary Table

• Insert an empty row for each registration

• Select the distinct attribute names in a cursor

• Build and execute update statements using each attribute name as a column name and selection criteria

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Update the Temporary Table• Update each column in a loop

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Administrative Application

• Most of the application is behind the scenes.

• Conference Administration CA

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Another Application

• The same architecture can be used for other applications.–KEXP Donation (Sample) KD

–Donation Administration DA

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Development Efficiencies

• Conference App – 3 months• Donation App – 6 weeks

• Add a new conference or pledge drive: 8 hours

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Where We Are Today

• Applications have evolved

• New features added to meet a general needs

• Still expanding

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Challenges

• Money for development

• Levels of cost to department

–Setup Fee

–Credit card usage fees

• Changing technologies

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Lessons Learned

• Strong database design

• More generic = Better design

• Java is better than JavaScript

University of Washington CUMREC 2003

Uncompromised Web Applications: Variety Without Chaos

University of Washington

projects@cac.washington.eduhttp://depts.washington.edu/cac/projects