Developing an Information Management Tool with Existing Technologies - Microsoft Technologies Used (cont'd)
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7. Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI)
The primary and recommended application-programming interface (API) for Active Directory is Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI). ADSI enables access to Active Directory by exposing objects stored in the directory as COM objects. A directory object is manipulated using the methods on one or more COM interfaces. ADSI has a very simple programming model. Since ADSI is fully scriptable, it is easy to develop rich Web applications. ADO and OLE DB are supported for querying. By supporting ADO and OLE DB, Active Directory is just another OLE DB data provider.
ADSI makes it easier to perform common administrative tasks such as adding new users, managing printers, and locating resources throughout the distributed computing environment. ADSI also makes it easy for developers to "directory enable" their applications.
In this portal application, ADSI was used to access the Active Directory to gain user profile, role, and computer information and make modifications.
8. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a directory service protocol that runs directly over the TCP/IP stack. The information model (both for data and for namespaces) of LDAP is similar to that of the X.500 OSI directory service but with fewer features and lower resource requirements than X.500. Unlike most other Internet protocols, LDAP has an associated API that simplifies writing Internet directory service applications. The LDAP API is applicable to directory management and browser applications that do not have directory service support as their primary function.
Microsoft also provides the ADSI for developing client-side directory service applications. ADSI consists of a directory service model and a set of COM interfaces. These interfaces allow you to develop network directory service access applications for Windows NT/2000 and Windows 95/98. ADSI uses an LDAP provider to communicate the Active Directory and is the recommended API for directory services. ADSI can communicate with various directory services by using their native providers.
This portal application queries the Active Directory with LDAP through the use of ADSI. It is used to locate other users’ profiles, their computer information and even their online status with the help of the Microsoft SQL Server and some scripting.
9. Active Server Pages
Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) is an open, compile-free, server-side scripting environment that you can use to build powerful web applications and to create interactive web pages by combining HTML pages, scripts, and Microsoft ActiveX server components.
When the server receives a request for an ASP file, it processes server-side scripts contained in the file to build the web page that is sent to the browser. In addition to server-side scripts, ASP files can contain HTML (including related client-side scripts) as well as calls to COM components that perform a variety of tasks, such as connecting to a database or processing business logic.
ASP offers native support for Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) and Microsoft JScript, and supports other scripting languages such as REXX, Python, and Perl through Active Scripting plug-ins. ASP also supports ActiveX Scripting, allowing virtually any scripting engine to be used. It allows web developers to write scripts that are executed on either the server or the client.
The portal application is written using Microsoft Active Server Pages for the reasons mentioned above. For client side scripting of the Active Server Pages, Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) was used, but for the client side Dynamic HTML effects and XML Document Object Model (DOM) management scripts, the choice of the scripting language was a combination of both JavaScript and VBScript.
10. Dynamic HTML
Dynamic HTML is a set of innovative features in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. By enabling authors to dynamically change the rendering and content of a document, Dynamic HTML gives authors the ability to create visually outstanding HTML documents that interact with the user without the burden of relying on server-side programs or complicated sets of HTML pages to achieve special effects.
Dynamic HTML achieves these effects by modifying the current document and automatically reformatting and redisplaying the document to show changes. It does not need to reload the document or load a new document, or require a distant server to generate new content. Instead, it uses the power of the user's computer to calculate and carry out changes. Typically, Dynamic HTML documents are self-contained, using styles and a little script to process user input and directly manipulate the HTML tags, attributes, styles, and text in the document.
In the portal application, current look and feel such as the drag and drop effects of the service window iframes and selection highlights are achieved by using Dynamic HTML special effects. With the help of these special effects, users can minimize and maximize, add and remove, and alter positions of service windows. When these modifications are made on Dynamic HTML document window, an associated piece of vbscript code is triggered and user preferences are saved by the help of Dynamic HTML.
11. Microsoft Indexing Service
Indexing Service is a base service of Microsoft Windows NT/2000 that extracts content from files and constructs an indexed catalog to facilitate efficient and rapid searching.
Indexing Service can extract both text and property information from files on the local host and on remote, networked hosts. The files can be simply members of a selected file system or part of a virtual web hosted by, for example, Internet Information Services (IIS).
The Indexing Service then merges the extracted information into catalogs of indexes for efficient searches. Indexing is the overall process of filtering, creating index entries and merging them into catalogs.
The final step in the indexing process is the creation of a catalog that contains a master index (and any temporary word lists and shadow indexes) storing words and their locations within a set of indexed documents. Subsequently, searching, or querying the catalogs for particular word combinations uses the master index as well as word lists and shadow indexes to execute queries quickly and efficiently.
The project management application of the portal application enables users to update their files to a file server in order to share them with other authorized users. These updated files (usually Microsoft Office documents) are automatically indexed and a catalog is created by the Indexing Service of Microsoft Windows 2000. Whenever a project document is needed, users can search for specific keywords about that document on the Indexing Service’s catalog to retrieve that document. This helps portal users to share and locate their project documents easily.
12. ActiveX Controls
Microsoft ActiveX controls, formerly known as OLE controls or OCX controls, are components (or objects) you can insert into a web page or other application to reuse packaged functionality that someone else programmed. For example, the ActiveX controls that are included with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 or higher allow you to enhance your web pages with sophisticated formatting features and animation.
There are literally hundreds of ActiveX controls available today with functionality ranging from a timer control (which simply notifies its container at a particular time) to full-featured spreadsheets and word processors.
The portal application uses Outlook View Control and Netmeeting ActiveX Control objects. Users of the portal application are able to check their mailboxes, manage their contacts and tasks with the help of Outlook View Control. In addition, with Netmeeting ActiveX Control users can communicate with each other via voice, video and/or text messaging. All these tasks can be achieved within a single web browser by using these ActiveX Controls.
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