CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Web-based applications 1
1.2 Research Methodology 2
1.3 Project aims 5
1.4 Project Objectives 5
CHAPTER 2
Literature review
2.1 Introduction 7
2.2 Overview of Web-based application 7
2.3 Review of Web technologies 9
2.3.1 Web 1.0 9
2.3.2 Web 2.0 9
2.3.3 Mobile Web 10
2.3.4 The semantic Web 10
2.3.5 Rich internet application 10
2.3.6 Client/server architecture 10
2.3.7 Distributed computing systems 11
2.3.8 HTML 12
2.3.9 HTTP 12
2.3.10 XML 14
2.3.11 JavaScript 15
2.3.12 CGI 15
2.3.13 PHP 16
2.3.14 MIME 17
2.4 Web application development platforms 17
2.4.1 Ajax 17
2.4.2 Adobe flex 17
2.4.3 Apex 18
2.4.4 ASP.NET 18
2.4.5 Windows 19
2.5 Design issues for Web application development 19
2.5.1 Navigation 20
2.5.2 Functionality 20
2.5.3 Interface and presentation 20
2.6 Design process 21
2.6.1 Model representation 21
2.6.2 Implementation 21
2.6.3 Evolution and maintenance 22
2.7 Web-based system development and challenges 22
2.8 Summary 23
CHAPTER 3
Project planning
3.1 Introduction 24
3.2 Methodology and technique 24
3.3 Requirement specification 25
3.4 Requirement collection 26
3.5 Application design 27
3.6 Defining the business process 27
3.7 Defining the business objects 27
3.8 Modelling the database 29
3.9 Establishing relationships 29
3.10 Architecture design 30
3.11 Implementation 30
3.12 Testing and evaluation 30
3.12.1 Functional testing 31
3.13 Summary 31
CHAPTER 4
Application design
4.1 Introduction 32
4.2 Application requirements 32
4.3 User groups 32
4.4 Functional requirement 33
4.5 Student functional requirements 34
4.6 Tutors functional requirement 34
4.7 Program leader functional requirement 35
4.8 Administration functional requirement 36
4.9 Page mock-ups requirements 37
4.10 Designing the database objects 37
4.11 Defining the application objects 37
4.12 Application pages design 48
CHAPTER 5
Application implementation and testing
5.1 Introduction 52
5.2 Creating object in object browser 52
5.3 Table features 52
5.4 Populating the table 53
5.5 Building a basic user interface 54
5.6 Creating the application in application builder 54
5.6.1 Secure login page 55
5.6.2 Form pages 56
5.6.3 Report pages 56
5.6.4 Navigation links 57
5.6.5 Developer links 57
5.7 Creating the Application users 57
5.8 Application security 58
5.9 Application testing 59
5.9.1 Testing the Application security 59
5.9.2 Information retrieval using report page 61
5.9.3 Information retrieval using SQL 62
5.9.4 Testing Application update 62
CHAPTER 6
Conclusion and evaluation
6.1 Evaluation 63
6.2 Conclusion 64
6.3 Future work 65
References 66
Appendix A Project Gantt charts 68
Appendix B Application login details 70