Database and website implementation for controlling Juki
Contents
1. Edit Delete 93 3 batman 11 5 2012 12 39 48 LINK Figure 7 Administrator page example 4 2 Code behind This chapter demonstrates some examples of the C code from the cs files that were used to create the important parts of the system functionality We will also describe significant classes from the solution for better understanding how our website works on the server 4 2 1 Data operations In the example below you can see how we approached the access for data to the database by using the LinQ classes The example method returns iterable interface with objects that match the given query in this case rows from the table Content The using construction takes care of closing the data connection to the database for us safely and shortens the code Inside the block you can see the LinQ SQL query that slightly differs from the standard SQL language In the end you can see the use 22 of Lambda expression to substitute the needed delegate with one input parameter and thus greatly clarifying the code Almost all the methods from the file Manager cs are written in this style public ITEnumerable lt Content gt GetContent string userName using var dc CreateDataClasses User user from p in dc GetTable lt User gt where p UserName userName select p SingleOrDefault int userID user UserId return dc Contents Where lt Content gt p gt p UploadedBy userID ToList lt Content gt F2. T PasswordHash T PasswordSalt FF Email Comment T Enabled DateCreated ies DateLastLogin EP DateLastActivity DateLastPasswordCha UsersInRole E Properties TT Hashld Z UserName T RoleName ee lt J E Properties F id Userld Pylonid Upload E Properties P Uploadid IdContent IdPylon Uploaded iy Time Role El Properties P Pylonld Name a Addres ey Ip amp Current E Properties F amp F RoleName Figure 4 Database scheme Our suggested database scheme consists altogether of eight tables There are four tables that serve us for working with user accounts We can store a lot of information in the table User Most of this information is necessary to be in the database In addition to this basic information we needed to store additional information related to the user and there is no possibility to store them in the User table because of a complicated database structure and the way provider components work We created the table UserProfile that contains properties Firstname Lastname Address and Company Having these properties we 16 can store additional information such as address of user and company which he belongs to Naturally we are able to add other information in case of need Every user has his own profile that is assigned to him by cardinality 1 1 between these
3. about other user accounts and also change their roles in the system Anonymous users do not have access rights and for access to the system logging is needed Application accepts the first rule that complies with the given user All rules are defined and saved in web config section for each given folder For example the rules for access to admin folder have their own web config and rules for access to user folder have their own web config These configuration files inherit all settings from web config of application 20 4 1 2 Normal user access example When a customer logs into the system by account with user role he gains access to the Pylon button in the top menu This is where he can upload new presentations to pillars that belong to him He can also delete the presentations or modify the times of their presenting separately on each pillar If the user does not have the zip file with an already created presentation he can use the Presentation Creator button from the main menu to access the Silverlight application that enables online creation and management of presentations These two pages offer all the demanded functionality that the user should have in order to manage all his needs around the pillars He can also access the Home and About sections where general information is to be found In the figure below you can see the main interface of the site when person with role user is logged in You are logged in as normalUser Juki PYL
4. e DataClasses dbml file is core file for LinQ technology that contains all the necessary data classes called when dealing with the communication with the database e Manager cs file is the most important core file that contains many methods which call LinQ functions and return data from the database It is used throughout almost every page 19 e PresentationCreator aspx file is a page which houses the Silverlight sandbox for presentation creating application built by the second team e Site master file contains the layout of our template and is responsible for the appearance of our site The top menu buttons are defined in this file e Web config file contains configuration of parameters concerning the whole site and its behavior There are more files of this name that inherit properties from the file in root folder and which add or alter the properties of each nested web page 4 1 1 Access rights for user accounts We have set access rights in a way that users who belong to role user do not have access rights to the configuration section They can use the functionality only from the section Pylon from the top menu We added three security rules The first rule allows access for all users who belong to role user The second rule allows access for all users who belong to role admin and the last rule denies access for all other users Users who belong to role admin have full access to the pages and can make changes related to various information
5. from inside custom made frames The company can also create big banners and eye catchers usually hung above main entrances of various shops depending completely on the specifications of the customer 1 2 Pylon Idea As the product line of Juki Lux company was certainly nothing special that would stand out in the current competing market the idea was to design a new product that would offer something new The idea of interactive advertisement is not new by any means and already exists in many forms throughout everyday life The corridors of shopping centers are full of colorful ads that attack your eyes every day you walk past them most of them glowing or even rotating as a canvas on motorized cylinders inside plexi glass frames Not often however you have the chance to interact with the advertisement yourself or see fully customizable multimedia content running smoothly in front of your eyes There are of course solutions that already exist offering such features but they surely are not spread out widely yet The second thing is that the prices of such solutions are mostly very high and not affordable for medium to small businesses Exactly for this described hole in the market the idea about media pillar came to minds of the people from the Juki Lux company The media pillar should be a device capable of showing slide show presentations of pictures play video files or both in combination depending on the current need of situation the time
6. needed for the maintenance of the database File Edit View Debug TableDesigner Tools Window Community Help T New Query iy G led gt Object Explorer AX AMALKAVSTUDENT eu dbo Users AMALKANSTUDENT bo UsersinRoles Connect 4 SY Column Name Data Type Allow Nulls T pylon_netstudent_eu bg Userid a 49 Database Diagrams UserName varchar 100 3 Tables PasswordHash char 86 3 System Tables PasswordSalt char 5 I dbo Content Email varchar 100 FG dbo Owner Comment text E dbo Pylon Enabled bit E dbo Roles dbo Upload FI dbo UserProfiles 2 7 I dbo UsersInRoles m lam Views EI General Lj Synonyms Name amp Lj Programmability Allow Nulls g Service Broker Data Type amp O Storage Default Value or Binding Lg Security E Table Designer DateCreated Column Properties E E F Figure 5 SQL Server Management Studio 4 Implementation This chapter tries to put some light on various things that we consider important to mention from the viewpoint of implementation We will mention significant files that contain essential configuration needed to control the site location of page files and explain design matters around skin files as well as classic CSS files Examples of usable user functionality according to given roles will be given We will also explain 18 what is accessible by normal users of the system and persons with administrator rights bec
7. of a day or simply the wish of the customer The idea even exceeds the boundaries of passive presentation The plan is to develop such a system that could be controlled by touching the onscreen controls on the pillar to interact with it This would give anyone passing by an opportunity to experience something different than what one is commonly used to In addition to such features the pillar should be priced in a way to be available for smaller companies as well Figure 1 Multimedia pillar protoype 1 3 1 Hardware 1 3 Technological aspects The pillar itself is a custom made welded metal frame on a stand as a main skeleton This frame supports all the components that are placed inside it in order to secure them well against outside forces that could cause damage to them for example shaking the pillar or careless transportation From the outside most of the surface consists of clear plexi glass that protects the main front display in the front side as well as other parts from the back side of the pillar The plexi glass is inserted into the frame from the top as one big piece which prevents anyone from easily removing it deliberately or not The only thing going outside the pillar is a main cable for connecting to a classical electric power socket There are USB connectors on the pillar as well for the technician or customer to upload the desired presentation directly These will be of course secured behind a cover on the
8. potential risks such as a presentation of inappropriate content onscreen or making any unauthorized adjustments to the pillar itself 2 3 Our part of the solution We had to carefully decide which part of this big concept will be our part to work on as there are many difficult issues in each of them The work was also meant to be divided between two teams because of four persons that should work on it Because we had some experience from our past studies with technologies concerning the development of the internet pages we chose to make these It was clear to us that in order to realize the desired functionality we would also need a database to store the data in so we took that one as well In the end this turned out to be quite enough to work on The internet pages are the central part of the solution that connects almost all other parts together and they serve the customer as well as the company Taking care of all the things around this area proved to be challenging but we achieved to satisfy the demands set in the beginning The chapters below give detailed information on how we solved each part of our work 2 4 Team work In the beginning we did not divide the responsibilities and work tasks between the two of us We started our work by designing the database and from that point we were working together on things that simply needed to be done next When somebody knew how to do it or had some idea about the issue he took the task and tri
9. that have been assigned to the users during creation of their accounts It is not possible to change this email later We were unable to set the time format to any nice looking one in the GridView component fields We found a way how to do it but it cannot be applied with our dynamic data binding There are other ways to do so but it is a known bug that it actually does not work and we found it even admitted by Microsoft on the pages of MSDN That is the reason why time is shown almost with the precision of nanoseconds A slight functionality gap can be seen in the management of presentations too When the user selects the pillars he wants to put the presentation on and uploads the zip file he cannot assign the presentation to more pillars later He can change on which pillars the presentations will be shown but he cannot alter the number of them For doing so he has to upload the file again through the uploading page and select additional pillars 6 4 Space for future development Because of the whole idea around the multimedia pillar it is understandable that there are many features and functions that could be added to fully seize the 30 opportunity of such technology We worked hard to build the core functionality from the scratch and did not have much time to develop advanced possibilities of use that this idea offers We could however outline a few ideas that we had in mind while working on this project above fixing the bugs men
10. top or behind a small panel with a lock so nobody unauthorized could access them The insides of the pillar are mostly a normal personal computer In order to minimize the needed maintenance and assembly of standard computer parts forming a computer like most of us have at home in a big case an already assembled solution has been chosen A small EEE computer from HP has been bought This box of fairly small size contains everything a normal computer would packing a satisfactory computing power with all needed ports for external devices that would be needed as well as having a WiFi module already prepared inside This computer is the heart of the pillar that runs the applications needed to manage and present the media content on the main screen The main screen is just an LCD television placed vertically and connected by a cable to the graphical output of the computer Both the computer and LCD are powered from a small UPS that protects the technology from sudden power outages 1 3 2 Connectivity As mentioned above the computer already has a WiFi module inside it so the pillar is able to connect itself to any wireless networks in the area In case the customer has his own private network with the connection to the internet he can use it to make the pillar online accessible Other option is provided by a 3G USB modem module that uses mobile wireless network to the internet based on what service is bought from the provider This is a goo
11. works and met the expectations of the customer Nevertheless further development and maintenance is strongly recommended to bring all possible benefits of the proposed ideas Keywords ASP NET LinQ SQL Database Table of content S 1 About the project as selnelateateinrdens calctatieidais artes tdeetdaie tbe Sadeleaetndebenardalbudelgadelsideaddetiddceadebadsine 1 1 1 Juki Lux co 2 Pylon vred 1 1 3 Technological spedts Lussemnmsmmsasnensmmmesmntsnmmmneimgemnmestmskne 2 1 3 1 Hardware EE 2 1 3 2 Connectivity vasene seueded oicwenesetecutesedaceosdederetedcueeboeaceee 3 2 03 21001919 616 a eiteuttenpecceonsrbertseunseureeuieeveeusbunuyaute ane ceseenscuediveubeneieeyBomuie eter eneauee 3 2 1 What has been done s far cies siege csi deta severe teeeenetineranetdeeiascvoeeresausuomns 4 2 2 What needs to be dore uts s cccssiscssdsnasnsocohnaesdinedadnnedndapidaaadgoaoahmepnbeaudedaiadadades 4 2 3 Our part of the solution esseeeeeeennennnneeeeeererrrnrtrrseretnntnnnnrneeerrnnnnnnnneneeeeenne 5 2 4 Team ON ide 5 SF MG HAGA TENT 7 3 1 Centralized vb ANE agar acces anadacccencecca ma imecaicaccnaeh damar deta deasadauatins 7 3 1 1 ASP NET Technology ache cces lt secesebessangebadivevedensvessancdaevedecesesebeniaenedecevectend 7 3 1 2 Reasons why we use Nunan kodede eee 8 3 1 3 Users and NES cise cto teres tele cette eb ve nstrienracee deni dsteadcenccudemnentensens 9 314 UserProfles aces seca reasas has teed aavaslesscena
12. ON Select pylons for upload Select for upload Address of pylon Pylon s IP address Current state Select for upload Pylon3 Laserkatu 12 3 4 El upload Pylon4 City center Upload uti No file chosen File description Figure 6 Normal user page example 21 4 1 3 Administrator user access example When a person in the administrator role logs in he gains more access rights than a normal user does He can access everything like a normal user but he is able to use the Configuration button in the top menu that contains pages for management of users pillars and content uploaded by all users On those pages the administrator is capable of controlling everything that is needed for smooth run of the pillar systems and he can solve problems or perform tasks for the customers Administrator is also the only one who can add new users and assign pillars to them In the figure below you can see the site from the view of logged in administrator Juki PYLON You are logged in as tomas Configuration Content management User Configuration lon Configuration Content ID Uploaded by Pyton Configuration File Description Date of upload Link to the file Content Configuration Edit Delete 188 LINK Edit Delete Edit Pylon Video 11 5 2012 0 07 43 LINK Edit Delete 5 3 cropped 11 5 2012 1 56 38 LINK Edit Delete full screen pictures 11 5 2012 12 28 13 LINK
13. Saimaa University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Technology Lappeenranta Information Technology Double Degree Tomas Bajar Jan Zahradnik Database and website implementation for controlling Juki Lux multimedia pillars Thesis 2012 Abstract Tomas Bajar Jan Zahradnik Database and website implementation for Juki Lux multimedia pillar 33 pages Saimaa University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Technology Lappeenranta Information Technology Double Degree Thesis 2012 Instructors Lecturer Pasi Juvonen Saimaa University of Applied Sciences Managing Director Jouni K n nen The bachelor thesis worked on a real task that came from the company Juki Lux This company has made a multimedia pillar to present advertisements The goal was to design and make the necessary software needed to run the background of this project ASP NET web pages technology was used to build a central website to control all the pillars and their content Also a custom database scheme was designed to support all the operations and connect all the software parts together into one functional unit The ideas and knowledge about these technologies were mostly gathered from our previous experience during studies in home university and from the internet mostly MSDN as all the technologies are from Microsoft In the end the thesis configured the access rights for user accounts did testing and responded to the feedback from the customer during the development The system
14. an take care of these things but we have to manually configure him We can change the provider for an alternative one without changing the code of our application On top of that if we are writing an application for the database which is done and contains information about users we can make our own provider without significant problems By creating such kind of provider it will be possible to verify users within that database Types of providers e Membership provider is a module that includes the functions for working with users creating deleting changing password or verifying password for instance e Roles provider includes functions for creating adjusting and deleting of roles as well as assigning users to these roles e Profiles provider enables remembering of additional information that is defined for example by user such as name surname phone address and so on Individual modules include methods by which we made operation with the tables from the database These operations were related to user accounts The provider object model in ASP NET provides us complete universality and the wide options of use For example we can store serializable types within profiles and information about more independent applications within one structure of table There is one fundamental disadvantage in this type of approach that is related to working with users in ASP NET It is quite complicated to include already defined tables to our own applica
15. ation to the table UserlnRoles The table UserProfile allows us to store additional information about user that is not possible to store in the table User The cardinality between these two tables is 1 1 which means that each user has his own profile 3 2 LinQ Language integrated query When developing the solution we found ourselves in a situation where we had the internet pages on one side and the database on the other We had to connect these two together in order to bring the demanded functionality We could have written the code manually for every access to the database and also make custom objects for mapping the data but we chose not to We used the LinQ 6 technology to take care 11 of these things for us and learned how to use it to our advantage which will be described in the sub chapters below 3 2 1 Description For us LinQ is a framework for object relational mapping that allows us to easily model our relational database by using classes from standard NET framework We were using the LinQ to SQL 7 functions on our database which served as a standalone layer between our server application and the database We were passing queries and parameters to this layer and it accessed the database for us and returned us classes that represented the desired database objects and their relations The LinQ layer also transforms the input queries to the language compatible with the database which is a great asset This meant for us tha
16. ause they differ 4 1 Web pages Significant files and folders e Account folder contains ASPX files concerning the pages that provide functionality for changing password logging in recovering lost passwords etc e Admin folder contains ASPX files that can be accessed by persons with administrator rights for purposes of managing all online content uploaded by users creating and editing users pillars etc e App_themes folder contains skin and CSS files responsible for customizing the looks and behavior of used components It also contains pictures for upload button and file icon o Skin1 skin is skin file that was used for setting the visual appearance of GridView and DetailsView components o Style css contains many styles used for formatting the positions and looks of components as well as standard HTML tags like lt div gt e ClientBin folder is used for the Silverlight part of our site that was developed by the second team e Styles folder includes Site css file that contains style classes responsible for setting the graphical appearance of the site template e Users folder contains ASPX files that are accessible by persons with normal user rights customers o PylonSite aspx file is the main page file for normal users which takes care of uploading new presentations to the pillars editing and deleting e About aspx file is a page visible for everyone that can serve for presenting information about the site or provider company
17. d choice for places without already existing WiFi networks and enables the pillar to be placed in almost any location because the 3G connection is well spread across the country of Finland Another option would be to connect the pillar to the internet by means of a standard UTP LAN cable which is also possible If the customer wished to have his pillar only for his own personal use without connecting to the internet he can still manage the presented content through uploading the presentation through the USB stick 2 Project inception The project of the media pillar was already in progress when it was encountered for the first time The company presented to us what has been done so far along with the presentation of the software side from the team that has been developing the applications for running and managing the content In the premises of the company a prototype pillar has been manufactured so that the people responsible for the development of the tools could test them directly on the device There were some minor modifications still going on but the rough and important parts of the pillar were already successfully completed 2 1 What has been done so far The first team consisted of two Finnish students from Saimaa University of Applied Sciences They have been working on the needed applications for the pillar for their diploma thesis for some months already They have done a client side application that is responsible for showing the med
18. dn microsoft com en us magazine cc163933 aspx Wikipedia Iterative and incremental development http en wikipedia org wiki Iterative and incremental development Accessed on 18 May 2012 Microsoft ASP NET Forums Best practices for different CSS for different browsers http forums asp net t 1405575 aspx 1 Accessed on 18 May 2012 33 Figure and code example list Figure 1 Multimedia pillar protoype cceeceeeeeseseceeeeeeeeeeeeeeesnseeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeas 2 Figure 2 Lambda Expressions Lyeunemmmmassaismp sunu sager eds 12 Figure 3 LinQ graphical environment sic cscedeeen tees ieny teevecesteen nape deny eeexbesntetydneveeesbeedines 13 Figure 4 Database scheme rrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrrrnnnnnnnnsnennnnnnrrnnnnnenessennnnnnnn 15 Figure 5 SQL Server Management Studio nrrarnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnennnnnnnnn 17 Figure 6 Normal user page example cccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 20 Figure 7 Administrator page example srnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnennnnnnnnnn 21 Figure 8 Using LinQ ClaSS eS iccses cecssseccscscssecdanincicinsnece dienes cadiecdinediaisaschosdeescaddaees 22 Figure 9 Component data binding CxaMple cceeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 22 Figure 10 Dynamic code in ASPX file example cceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 23 Figure 11 Graphical scheme of our deve
19. ed to be crucial as many aspects of functionality differed from a locally hosted run When we found some errors we had 27 to understand them replicate them locally if possible and fix them Every day many versions of the project were uploaded and tested online to ensure stability 5 4 Meetings and presentation During the development we had appointed meetings with the supervisor the first developing team and the customer We prepared our current version and presented it on the meetings The feedback that we received on those meetings was the most valuable source of information We discussed what features we could improve from their current state or what new things could be added overall to our solution In the meantime we often found some issues on our own and asked how to easily fix the situation We also cooperated with the first developing team because we needed some technical details about the pillar its connection or the applications made by them From this point we often had to redesign parts of our already existing solution in accordance to the demands of both the supervisor and the customer 6 Evaluation This chapter will discuss the results of our work We will describe how much we satisfied the demands that were set in the beginning and if the customer was content with the outcome Also we will describe the project from our point of view to tell our opinion regarding the run of the project in general We will try to pinpo
20. ed to solve the problem If one did not know how he asked the other person for help of course and we found a way how to solve the situation together In the end the work and responsibilities have been divided between us like this Tomas Bajar e The first design of the database scheme realization in MySQL and testing e Website designing and coding o Custom skin file for components o Adding and testing CSS styles for particular pages o Designing and implementing the upload and management of presentations to pillars the main page for the customer o Designing and implementation of content management for administrators to take care of all the content uploaded by all users o Adding data handling methods to the manager class e Testing the website and troubleshooting issues in general e Author of the Silverlight addition idea realized by the second team Jan Zahradnik e Importing the database scheme to Microsoft SQL Server adding tables for user functionality e Web designing and coding o Security providers logging in password recovery and changes o Creating deleting and editing of users o Security and access rights for pages o Pages for assigning pillars to users and vice versa o Adding and testing CSS styles for particular pages o Adding data handling methods to the manager class o Master page design and menu management e Testing the website and troubleshooting issues in general 3 Theidea In the chapters below we will de
21. essing This class makes the LinQ technology available to use anywhere in the code e UsersAndRoles cs This class serves the purpose of putting together information about user accounts which are separated between two tables with cardinality 1 1 as will be mentioned in the database chapter below We created it because we could not modify the table User as we wanted e ContentAndPylon cs This class was created to represent easily the joining table Upload which realizes the M N cardinality between tables User and Content The reason for this class is the way LinQ layer works It puts these joining tables as nested data objects into the returning data sets so we could not access it directly Instead we made this class and filled it manually in the code 4 2 4 Dynamic code in the ASPX files When dealing with the ASPX files we needed to dynamically change the properties of some controls within the page Because the idea of ASPX files is to behave statically we had to use special code snippets that were executed in the time of compilation of each page That gave us the ability to dynamically change the displayed controls with every user postback In the code example below you can see the Bind and Eval code blocks responsible for this functionality lt asp TemplateField HeaderText Content ID gt lt EditItemTemplate gt lt asp Label ID ContentIDLabel runat server Text lt Eval id gt gt lt asp Label gt lt EditItemTem
22. ia content on the running pillar It takes a zipped file which includes the pictures and videos along with an XML file with configurations of times and effects and begins its presentation It basically switches the images indefinitely in desired time intervals or plays video instead of still picture The second tool that they developed is a desktop based application for the purpose of creating the zipped file with the presentation The customer can run it on his computer and add pictures or videos that he would like to run on the pillar He can also configure all the needed properties for adjusting the times of each picture or visual effects when the pictures are changing These two applications were already functioning when we became a part of this project 2 2 What needs to be done The applications that were created by the first team were crucial for the project and provided the basic functionality needed to start the project In the big picture however this has only been a beginning The first team prepared a whole concept of how the solution should work in details They have made a picture describing the idea from a perspective that is shown below If the customer wants to control what is happening on the pillar he needs a centralized online tool to do so That means that the internet pages need to be created and offer the customer such functionality There is going to be more of the pillars around so managing all of them will need to be based on
23. igure 8 Using LinQ classes 4 2 2 Component data binding In most cases we used the prepared GridView 10 components for easily understandable interpretation of data in tables The next example shows how to manually bind the data source to the GridView component In this case we needed to manually make our own class to represent the table responsible for connecting tables Content and Pylon which is named ContentAndPylon and fill the objects by data in the code This was because of the way how LinQ represents the nested structures In the foreach section we fill the data and add them one by one to the prepared list that is bound to the GridView component as a data source in the end protected void uploadBind TEnumerable lt Upload gt uplo manager GetUpload User Identity Name List lt ContentAndPylon gt CaP new List lt ContentAndPylon gt foreach Upload u in uplo ContentAndPylon newCaP new ContentAndPylon newCaP PylonName u Pylon Name newCaP FileName u Content FileName newCaP Time u Time CaP Add newCaP GridViewUpload DataSource CaP GridViewUpload DataBind Figure 9 Component data binding example 4 2 3 Used classes We used some classes in the project that may not seem necessary Here we will shortly describe their purpose and use 23 e Manager cs This class is created in the beginning of many other classes that use this manager to return data from the database for further proc
24. in a small team and shared the current version of the project through our free student hosting server For the database we found a free limited Microsoft SQL Server that we used for the development and the first deployment of the solution for the means of presentation During the development of the system we had appointed meetings with both our supervisor and the customer On the meetings we presented what we had done so far and collected 31 valuable feedback that helped us correct errors in the system and also add new features After the last presentation that we had with the customer and the supervisor of our thesis both expressed satisfaction with our result The web pages were tested in the presentation to show that they are functional and that they meet the objectives which have been set in the past The core functionality is done and we managed to add even some features that extended our idea from the beginning of the project We learned many things during the development of this project We worked with technologies that were not familiar to us before and gained valuable experience from it Combining more prepared frameworks together into one functional whole proved to be a challenging task but we successfully managed to do so We also learned the importance of structured and planned approach to work without which we would not be able to put together such an extensive solution from scratch Luckily we had some knowledge of these issue
25. int weaknesses of the systems and acknowledge what could have been done better In the final sub chapter we will propose some features that could be added in the future to make the solution better or what could be improved above the current state 6 1 Meeting the demands Because of the few meetings that we had with the customer and the thesis supervisor we had valuable feedback for our development This feedback made it possible to create the system in a way that was expected We were heading the right direction from the start but many essential modifications were made during the development stages too Both the customer and the supervisor came up with new ideas during the time of development and we realized them successfully In the end the customer expressed his satisfaction with the project and admitted that it even 28 exceeded his expectations The customer also appreciated that the site does not look complicated and does not contain any distractive elements so the work seems intuitive even without reading the user manual At the final presentation of our work we did not receive additional demands for adjustments or corrections 6 2 Personal review In the beginning of the project we were in a hurry because we got assigned to it very late due to a failed attempt to place us in different position It helped us very much that our supervisor was able to set up meetings in the customers company and showed us the pillar in reality along wi
26. ios ainsi N a i R eased 10 32 LinQ Language integrated query musmsrsmemmenmenvjnev uden vadis 10 JAN I SSCHDMON o cscceccxeansensideyadcoadedteansdajeecuubebindaaeanten e a 11 322 Lambda 6xpresslons nmvnumivninseeinisunieskmndesmeienk min niv 12 32 3 EE re 12 3 3 DE Leed 13 3 3 1 Reason for DB sunsuenmemnnntenenen eainebandbidnetb jektst 14 3 3 2 Database scheme nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnennee 15 EG EG EN 109 EEE EEE E 16 2 MP SEAN 17 4 1 Web pages seere 18 4 1 1 Access rights for user accounts ccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeees 19 4 1 2 Normal user access example ccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeensaaeees 20 4 1 3 Administrator user access example cccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 21 4 2 Code behind os sancesediniendetade soewrnbegwndudieboatoned eahonbidybdaaadedhoeshotedasedebioebonniauiie 21 421 Data operallons y msme ndnenmekdrnndnendnekdnekdeektnnideenene 21 4 2 2 Component data binding eeeennnnnnnnnnnvrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrrrnnnnnnnvnernnnnnrrnnnenn 22 42 3 WGC CAG SOS sagene 22 4 2 4 Dynamic code in the ASPX files rnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrvnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 23 43 WSU ERE 24 5 Development method acct eth tthe eden 25 5 1 Solid bESG Lee 25 5 2 VV CD AD ORO ACI ossein iania a A E EEE ENE 26 SE RNE EEE EE EE 26 5 4 Meetings and presentation rnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnrnnnnnn
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28. m That is where the saved files came in handy 5 2 Web approach Having the database to build on we started to add basic functionality to our pages At first it was simply handling the inputs and outputs of data We were designing and coding the components necessary for presenting the data in a readable form making the methods to retrieve data from database by use of the LinQ technology administering the user rights of access and also altering the appearance of the whole site through skin files and standard CSS files Functionality for the users came as first because we wanted to have something done what could be presented to the customer and the supervisor After consulting these main features more complex things were designed and done We added functions for the administrators of the site to modify data about users pillars and content so they could fix problems themselves or help the customers In the latest stages when the pages were nearing completion we set up the user access rights that differentiate normal users from administrators and restrict the visible features 5 3 Refine While testing the pages on our computers through Visual Studio we often encountered problems that needed to go back to the database and make some changes there so there can be seen a loop back At this point we also uploaded the current version to the real server that provided hosting for our pages and tested the solution in real online environment That prov
29. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 27 6 05111 0 Nsei rna aa EET Pern Pe Te eee me ET ae ee 27 6 1 Meeting the demands mrarrrnnnnnnvvvvnnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 27 6 2 Personal review suensussmmnisnpedunanuiunsddundsaeaund 28 6 3 Known bugs or incomplete functionality ccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 28 6 4 Space for future development rnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnen 29 7 Summary and discussion use eee eee 30 References cited tactics cacti tnt cle ities ceded st eae ince eisbrcaltvteastnciscntes 32 MPANY OVESEN ssccteccuicesicantemusncudreuamaviuessummiuediueudenysvavbrouanerluemmeauts 1 Figure and code example NST LL vvvvmainannsnuajnammnijuniidmq tvndat 33 1 About the project The next chapters give a detailed description of the project background and where it originated The project was offered to us by our thesis supervisor among other options We chose it because we saw a great potential for self realization and space to develop ourselves further in already known technologies 1 1 Juki Lux company overview The Juki Lux company is a small enterprise that resides near the city centre of Lappeenranta The main business of this company is to offer various ways of advertising to its customers Most of the products provided by the company consist of traditional posters and passive advertising spaces that can be illuminated by use of standard gas tubes
30. ons with LinQ even in the form of graphical designer When we wanted to generate the core source file that contained all the automatically generated data classes all that was needed to do was to drag and drop the desired tables onto the designer field and save the project The designer also showed us the relational scheme of our database to ensure us of its correctness In the figure below the look of this interface is shown 13 Mic JE Edit View piper Build Debug Team Data Tools Architecture Test Analyze Window Help rar d ua aj9 e o Gjp b r ORARAA BI I J Pubis d v 2 X DataClasses dbml x eget pe aes ContentConfig aspx Manager cs PylonSite aspx cs PylonSite aspx 2 1 3 Data Connections amp amalka student pylon_netstudent_eu i Database Diagrams UserProfile 4 User 13410jdxg uonnjos e Content Properties E Properties SF UserName F Userld E Properties T LastUpdate Q 2 UserName TA id EP FirstName PasswordHash 2 FileName 2 LastName 2 PasswordSalt gt Descriptis Su SF Address SF Email A DateUplo at ep Company 2 Comment gt Uploadec C UserProfiles E UsersInRoles Og Views E Stored Procedures 0 Functions E Synonyms Types gg Assemblies i PylonDB mdf PH id Servers F Userld W Lich PC ET Pylonld SharePoint Connections T Enabled SF FilePath 2 DateCreated amp DateLastLogin og a DateLastActivity Owner 2 DateLastPasswordCha Prope
31. plate gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt asp Label ID ContentIDLabel runat server Text Bind id 3 gt lt asp Label gt lt ItemTemplate gt Figure 10 Dynamic code in ASPX file example 24 4 3 Testing We were testing every version of our website that we produced During the day we often made around five new versions of the site We were testing them first locally through the Visual Studio environment and after successful local runs we uploaded the version to the hosting server and tested the newly added functionality online Testing the site on a real hosting proved to be very important because the environment and capabilities differ from those local ones and we discovered different errors and behavior in the online release It is also important to mention that extensive testing of the whole ASP NET site that we produced should be done once again after deploying it to different hosting server Every hosting might have different versions of NET framework libraries so the functionality should be carefully checked over 25 5 Development method This chapter will describe the process in which we were constructing our proposed solution In the beginning we had nothing done that we could start building on We decided to start from the bottom and make the underlying database level After having this first building block we began our work on the internet pages to manage inputs and outputs as well as first features of functionali
32. reason why we used ASP NET was that many of the things and components were already done The majority of us had some experience with this technology and with C programming language as well Using ASP NET C programming language and the capabilities of Visual Studio environment made our work easier and more comfortable Many data handling components for effortless presentation of content were already prepared and needed just a slight customization Note for example the GridView component which we used the most By means of Masterpage site 3 we were able to set uniform appearance of all our pages The configuration and various settings include connection string so we did not have to write it repeatedly in the code This information is centrally stored for the whole application in web config file Css files and skin files for setting component appearance are stored in a special folder 3 1 3 Users and roles Working with users in ASP NET is quite easy and we utilized the technology that is already included in framework 2 0 These components allowed us to use the methods which are included in so called boxes Membership Roles and Profiles Because we are using the provider model we can use the functions belonging to Membership Roles and Profile in our application By using this technology we do not have to care whether the information about users and roles is stored in a text file or in a database or any other place Any given provider 4 c
33. rties Figure 3 LinQ graphical environment 3 3 Database As we mentioned before a place to safely store data on which all the pages will be based on is needed We had to choose the way how to realize the database and tables inside it At first our selection was the freely available MySQL 9 technology that we downloaded and tested locally on our computers We designed the first database schema with a few tables and tested its functionality in the MySQL Workbench tool that came as a part of the installation Later wnen we managed to find the real online hosting we had to change the technology to Microsoft SQL database This did not pose any problems for us because the core of this technology is still the SQL language However we had to download the new tools necessary to work with it and learn how to use them which took a short time In the end everything worked out well and our latest version successfully runs on the Microsoft SQL server located on the domain mssql amccomp cz student Still it is important to mention that our solution is not dependant solely on working with Microsoft SQL server because of using the LinQ technology If the provider of the database will change and a different SQL database technology will be used adjustments to the system will take only a short time which is an important advantage of using the LinQ 14 3 3 1 Reason for DB Why do we need the database or what benefits do we get out of using it When
34. rty Description There is also one very important property called FilePath In this property we stored the path where each file on the server is stored Later on the client side of application will utilize this property Another binding table is needed between tables Pylon and Content Table Upload saves information about the content that will be uploaded on the pylon 3 3 3 Tools Working with the database demanded a set of tools that would make all the important adjustments possible For the first version that we tried with the MySQL the MySQL Workbench worked fine and offered an all in one environment to take care of everything easily When we switched to use the Microsoft SQL server we tried to work with the database through our Visual Studio 2010 IDE We could carry out the 17 basic operations but often we found that the offered functions are not enough for us We downloaded the SQL Server Management Studio from Microsoft and started to use it There we were finally able to perform all modifications to the database that we needed While working on the development of ASP NET pages in Visual Studio we worked with the access to the database layer simply by dragging and dropping the tables as pictures in designer view which proved both easy and intuitive In the figure below you can see how the SQL Server Management Studio looks Being able to see clearly and easily all the needed parameters was of big help to us and greatly shortened the time
35. s from our past studies so we did not have to struggle to find out In the end we surely realized how important the feedback from the customer is for the resulting quality of the project 32 References 10 11 12 Microsoft ASP NET ASP NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Web development overview http www asp net whitepapers aspnet4 Accessed on 17 May 2012 Microsoft MSDN CLR Hosted Environment http msdn microsoft com en us library ms131047 aspx Accessed on 17 May 2012 Microsoft MSDN ASP NET Masterpages http msdn microsoft com en us library wtxbf3hh aspx Accessed on 17 May 2012 Microsoft MSDN ASP NET Providers 2 0 Introduction http msdn microsoft com en us library aa478948 aspx Accessed on 17 May 2012 CodePlex Altairis Web Security Toolkit http altairiswebsecurity codeplex com wikipage title Simple 20SQL 20Pro viders amp ProjectName altairiswebsecurity Accessed on 17 May 2012 Microsoft MSDN LINQ Language Integrated Query http msdn microsoft com en us library bb397926 aspx Accessed on 17 May 2012 Microsoft MSDN LinQ to SQL http msdn microsoft com en us library bb386976 aspx Accessed on 17 May 2012 Microsoft MSDN Lambda Expressions C Programming Guide http msdn microsoft com en us library bb397687 aspx Accessed on 17 May 2012 MySQL Downloads http dev mysql com downloads Accessed on 17 May Microsoft MSDN Magazine Move over DataGrid there s a new grid in town http ms
36. s on the server We chose this technology because we are familiar with it and because we have seen many real applications and sites based on it For example even companies from the bank sector use this technology for their internet banking online systems which proves both its unmatched functionality and security along with opportunity for a fully customizable visual environment Here are some of the main advantages e ASP NET makes development simpler and easier to maintain with server side programming model e drastically reduces the amount of code required to build large applications e The source code is compiled the first time the page is requested The server saves the compiled version of the page for use next time the page is requested e The web server continuously monitors the pages components and applications running on it In case that he notices memory leaks or other illegal software activities it seamlessly kills those activities and restarts itself e The source code is executed on the server This gives the pages a great potential for powerful functionality and flexibility e The HTML produced by the ASP NET page is sent back to the browser The application source code you write is not sent and is not easily stolen e There is no need to register components because the configuration information is built in e The source codes and HTML codes are together pages are easy to maintain 3 1 2 Reasons why we use it The main
37. scribe the aspects of our core ideas into more detail We will argument the use of each technology and give explanation and examples of use Basically all the technologies belong to Microsoft which made it easier for us to connect them together Many parts of our solution were directly designed to work together and offered already prepared parts for customization However some of the parts needed to be done from scratch 3 1 Centralized web pages As described in the chapters above the internet pages present the centre of control over the whole system and were designed to offer functionality both to the user and to the administrators of Juki Lux company It is important to mention that the site does not serve to attract customers and serve broad public Therefore the visual design was kept simple to offer clarity and easy orientation in the system We manually customized the appearance of each control so that operations within the site could be as intuitive as possible 3 1 1 ASP NET Technology ASP NET is part of NET Framework and when coding ASP NET applications we can use classes in the NET Framework 1 There are few languages that are compatible with the common language runtime 2 Microsoft Visual Basic C and C are languages that enable us develop ASP NET applications and take advantage of this common language runtime This common language runtime makes execution of the code we write ASP NET code is a compiled into CLR code that run
38. some exact data about them For this reason a database will surely be required to provide necessary data for the internet pages and the pillars to be configured properly The applications on the side of pillar as well as the internet pages should be able to read and write to and from the database Even the company of Juki Lux needs some control over the customers and what they do with the pillars This should be incorporated into the internet pages as well to reduce user confusion If the company plans to expand their business also into other countries more language versions will be needed online If the pillar should be interactive and react to touch input from anyone tools for doing so will have to be created or bought and adjusted for the use on the device The security side of the whole solution should be taken into account as well In order to provide such a non trivial functionality there will be need to merge many technologies together which always presents many security holes that could easily be exploited The connection to the database for example needs to be secure The same applies to the pillar If the pillar is connected through the means of WiFi the data transmission will have to be secured and encrypted Other security problems arise on the internet pages and present a whole area that needs to be taken care of If the pillar accepts inputs from the user from the touch screen its scope will have to be restricted tightly to avoid
39. t we were writing the queries mostly in Lambda expressions and LinQ transformed them into SQL for us This is how the mapping was done e Table Object e Column Property Advantages e Queries can be dynamic e Tables are automatically created into classes e Relationships are handled in classes as well e Columns are automatically presented as properties e Lambda expressions are easy to use e Data is easy to setup and use e tis clean and type safe Disadvantages e Small data sets will take longer to build the query than execute e When queries are moved from SQL to application side join commands are very slow 12 3 2 2 Lambda expressions Alongside LINQ we used Lambda Expressions 8 that are commonly associated with LINQ Lambda expressions are typical for LINQ as they enable the user to put parameters and commands into places that would normally need methods or functions with delegates These lambda expressions return a single output even though they can have more inputs Typical methods where we used such expressions are Where and Select In the example below the method will return single output by calling Single method public User GetUser int UserId using var dt CreateDataClasses return dt Users Single h gt h UserId UserId Figure 2 Lambda Expressions 3 2 3 Use Working with LinQ was very intuitive for us because of using the Visual Studio 2010 IDE which supports operati
40. tables The tables are connected by means of the UserName property This means that every user that is in the database has to be matched up with some role There are two roles admin and user that we created in the database The configuration permits only one role per individual user Users that belong to the admin role can perform tasks that other users are prohibited from doing These two roles are represented by table Roles By creating a new user a new record is stored to the table UserInRoles That is the binding table where we keep the list of users and roles they belong to There is cardinality between these tables is 1 N The foreign keys in that table are UserName and RoleName All of these tables have exclusive use only for operations related to users their accounts and roles assigned to them Other tables in the database scheme are Owner Pylon Upload and Content There is cardinality M N between tables User and Pylon which means that one user can have access to more pillars and one pillar can belong to more users That is why we made the binding table Owner The properties in this table Userld and Pylonld are foreign keys and simultaneously primary keys in tables User and Pylon The last part of the database scheme is composed by tables Upload and Content In the table Content we stored name of the file in property FileName In the property UploadedBy who was that content uploaded by Some description related to files can be stored in the prope
41. th the description from the first team that have been working on it for two semesters We quickly understood what our position is and started to plan what to do We learned to concentrate on the most important things that are needed to begin working which will surely be of use in the future We came with the idea that has been described in the chapters above which was mostly based on our past experience from developing smaller applications for our studies in home university We risked a little bit by using technologies that were not so known to us but in the end this proved to be a good choice The technologies were not so difficult to work with and even made some things that would otherwise have to be done manually easier for us The ability to use them together in one project in the future is surely an experience worth that little risk We also learned that other things around the project are important too and influence the course of the whole project significantly Without any doubt working on real demand from a customer is completely different than what we have done so far in ordinary lessons and we gained skills that we would not gain the other way 6 3 Known bugs or incomplete functionality One of the biggest problems for us was to make the website look the same in various web browsers We were mostly testing and developing the site through the Google Chrome web browser occasionally Mozilla Firefox and the latest Internet Explorer We tried
42. tion because of complicated database structure For this reason we decided to use the Altairis library 5 with simple ASP NET SQL Providers This set of providers 10 was made by Michal ValaSek just for this reason By using these providers the integration to our own application will be much easier The Altairis library includes 3 providers 1 Altairis Web Providers SimpleSqlMemebrshipProvider membership provider for administration users 2 Altairis Web Providers SimpleSqIProfileProvider profile provider for storing additional information about users 3 Altairis Web Providers SimpleSqiRoleProvider role provider for administration of roles and assigning users to roles 3 1 4 User Profiles Individual providers that we used in our application are not so universal They do not support anonymous profiles they include only some types of properties within profile and also they do not allow more independent applications within the database Their main advantage is simple integration with the rest of the database structure of arbitrary application The Tables User UserlnRoles and Roles have a specific structure and there is no possibility to change their content In the table User we are storing basic information about new users We have set the identification number id for each user of system Each user of the system has to have an assigned role from table Roles In order to determine which role belongs to a concrete user we add inform
43. tioned in the earlier section Better time management of the presentations could be created Now the pillar shows the presentations the same way every day It would be very useful to have the ability to schedule presentations differently for each day of the week for example because the needs for advertisement might change during the weekends or other special days The site itself could offer more services to the customers in general It could show new customers coming to the page the pillars their capabilities and make it possible for the customer to register themselves Once registered the customers could order new pillars by filling in some forms and even pay electronically for them Localization of the site to support more languages would also come in handy and offer expansion of the business for Juki Lux company in the future 7 Summary and discussion The thesis dealt with designing the solution for management of multimedia pillars that were designed by the customer Juki Lux company from Lappeenranta From what has already been done by other teams before us we decided what could be our part of work and designed a central we pages to control the pillars We needed a database to store the necessary data for the operations on the web pages and designed its relational scheme We chose the LinQ technology as a layer between the database and the web pages to work with because of the above described benefits We were developing this solution
44. to make the behavior and visual appearance of the site the same in every one of them but we were unable to do so completely For example each browser interprets the CSS styles a little bit in its own way which can cause a slight difference in the looks of the pages Also some components like FileUpload were represented 29 differently One browser showed the text field on the left side with only the file name inside the second one showed it on the right side with a full path to the file We do not have much experience with tuning such things but we have done what we could We studied this issues a bit and found out that conditional style sheets could be added to work with different web browsers in order to fix the differences 12 There was some trouble with the security as well When users want to reset their passwords they have to write their username to the input field When this system finds the matching user it resets his password and sends a notification by email to him The problem is that anybody can type in any username without checking so they can possibly reset the passwords for everyone if they guessed their usernames Fixing this problem is not easy at all because it has to be done through the security provider components Luckily resetting the passwords is all that can be done and it does not give any user the possibility to gain the login information of others because the notifications will be sent only to the email addresses
45. ty for the users Our work on the pages uncovered things that needed to be changed added or deleted so from this point the process might resemble an iterative approach 11 In the end real testing of functionality and presentation on the meetings with the supervisor and the customer revealed the most important issues that needed attention lt P Solid base design of database Web approach ASP NET Vv Refine evaluate amp improve Vv Meetings amp presentation ideas Figure 11 Graphical scheme of our development method 5 1 Solid base The database structure was the first thing that was designed At first only the most important tables were created and connected by relations We made tables for users pillars and content along with the needed tables to realize M N relations between 26 these After each change made to the schema we also did some testing to ensure that everything works the way we wanted Mostly the testing was done in the SQL Server Management Studio by creating and executing our own SQL commands to insert and delete data By this we tested the constraints and verified the functionality of foreign keys We also saved the used queries into files in order to use them later which proved very useful When we were working on the higher levels of our solution we had to return a few times to change something in the scheme of our database which needed to even drop some tables and recreate the
46. we saw the scope of our proposed solution we understood that a place to store all the data safely will be an integral part of the big system The ASP NET pages work with the database the most That is because they take care of almost all the functionality presented to the users and thus need the data as input for their methods Almost every operation done on the pages interacts with the database in some way The client application that runs on the pillar itself needs the data as well The listener application that was done by our second team connects to the database remotely and reads the necessary data for downloading the presentations that it should run along with data about the timing of these presentations The benefits of using centralized data storage are many We can separate the web server with the pages from the data server running the database which promotes security in case of an attack or failure on the pages It is also possible to change the hosting of the pages without affecting the database The data in the database can also be backed up to prevent their loss in case of disasters etc which is strongly recommended when dealing with business applications 15 3 3 2 Database scheme UserProfile Content E Properties P id kp LastUpdate kp UserName ep FileName ET FirstName ST LastName Address ey Company E Properties E Properties UserName TET Userid y Description y DateUpload y UploadedBy FF FilePath
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