Developing an Information Management Tool with Existing Technologies - Microsoft Technologies Used
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1. Internet Information Server 6.0
The Microsoft Internet Information Server is designed to deliver high speed, secure information publishing while also serving as a platform for developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to extend the Internet's standard communication capabilities. The Microsoft Internet Information Server is tightly integrated with Windows 2000 Server to provide an efficient, reliable, scalable, and secure platform for administrators.
The portal application is a web-based application that uses Internet Information Server (IIS) as the web server. The main reason to use IIS is its support for Active Server Pages. Since the portal application is written with Active Server Pages and VBScript, the web server of choice had to support these technologies and work on Windows 2000 Server.
2. Microsoft SQL Server 2000
The portal application relies on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database for handling the database needs of the application. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database is a Structured Query Language (SQL)–based, scalable, relational database with integrated Extensible Markup Language (XML) support for Internet applications. It is also easily accessible by any Active Server Page by the help of Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), and is therefore suitable for using in this project.
3. Microsoft Data Access Components
Microsoft Data Access Components include ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). Data-driven client/server applications deployed over the Web or a LAN can use these components to easily integrate valuable information from a variety of sources, both relational (SQL) and non-relational.
In this portal application, the ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) component was used to access and store information about user preferences, weather conditions, dictionary, etc. User preferences of the portal application’s service window layouts are stored in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. Using ActiveX Data Objects, these preferences are retrieved from the database server and stored in a client side XML DOM Document. When the user logs out or the user session expires, the data in the XML DOM Document is send back to the database server for storage. This is also done by using ADO.
Microsoft ADO provides consistent, high-performance access to data and supports a variety of development needs, including the creation of front-end database clients and middle-tier business objects that use applications, tools, languages, or Internet browsers. The primary benefits of ADO are ease of use, high speed, low memory overhead, and a small disk footprint.
4. Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is the emerging Internet standard for data. XML is a set of tags that can be used to define the structure of a hypertext document. XML documents can be easily processed by the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which is the most important language for displaying Web pages.
In this portal application, XML was used to store window layout information on the client side until the user leaves the session. Instead of accessing the database every time a user changes something on the portal window, all the settings are loaded to a XML DOM Document on the client side. Therefore, every time a user changes something, these changes are saved to this client side XML DOM Document, thus reducing the network traffic and the load on the database server. In order to save all these modified settings, the XML DOM Document is sent back to the web server when the session terminates. Then it is written back to the database server.
5. XML Document Object Model (DOM)
The Document Object Model (DOM) class is an in-memory representation of an XML document. The DOM allows you to programmatically read, manipulate, and modify an XML document. Editing is the primary function of the DOM. The XML DOM provides a standardized way to access and manipulate the information stored in XML documents. The DOM API serves as a bridge between applications similar to the portal application and XML documents.
This portal application also uses XML DOM to access and manipulate the XML Documents that contain data on user preferences. On each user session start, user’s preferences are loaded to a client side XML DOM Document. After every modification, the processing for that modification is done from this XML DOM Document. When the user session terminates, these modifications are saved back to the database server.
6. Active Directory Service
The Active Directory is the directory service included with Microsoft Windows 2000. It extends the features of previous Windows-based directory services and adds entirely new features. Active Directory is secure, distributed, partitioned, and replicated. It is designed to work well in any size installation, from a single server with a few hundred objects to thousands of servers and millions of objects. Active Directory adds many new features that make it easy to navigate and manage large amounts of information, generating savings for both administrators and end users.
Microsoft Active Directory Service is a fundamental service for distributed applications. It provides features such as location transparency, information on people and services, rich query, high availability, and more advanced features like support for Internet standards (LDAP, DNS), tightly integrated and flexible security, and scriptable interfaces for easy access (ADSI).
The portal application makes a great use of the Active Directory Service. The portal application uses Active Directory Service to gain information about user profiles, user roles, user computer information, listings of phone and address details, and hierarchical listing of the organization.
The portal application accesses the Active Directory Service by the use of Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI).
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