Elevator Pitch 2

Here is my Elevator Pitch 2 for ITC565 Business Applications Development.

Exercise 25

M-commerce and the e-wallet: Innovation and mobile devices.

Explore some of the problems associated with mobile technology or their suppliers.

1. What is meant by a location based service.

A wireless-IP service that uses geographic information to serve a mobile user. Any application
service that exploits the position of a mobile terminal. (Steiniger. S., Neun. M., & Edwardes. A., n.d.)

2. Visit an airline website and search for information on WAP or SMS access to booking airline services. Do the same for WAP or SMS services in banking. How do both industries compare?

Jetstar: “lets customers change flights through the mobile Internet”, the following services are available via WAP and SMS:(Cian, 6 February 2009)

• Allows customers to change their fares over mobile devices;
• Access live arrival and departure information,
• Promotions;
• Schedules; and
• Info about airports and destinations

The Commonwealth Bank uses SMS to send a security code to customers using their online banking service in order to authorise certain transactions.:
“NetBank now provides access to NetCode SMS, a free service which allows customers with a mobile phone to receive a one-time code to authorize certain transactions”(Gedda, 27 March, 2007).

“Two-factor authentication — soon to be rolled out by St George Bank, and currently used at Commonwealth, NAB, and ANZ — has a limited lifespan, however.” and “SMS two-factor authentication will become redundant within three years, according to NAB’s Blair as increased mobile banking will render the SMS verification less secure.” (Tung, 07 March 2008)

The article goes on to further state that voice barometrics will replace SMS authorisation: “Voice biometrics is still considered an ‘early stage technology’ according to Commonwealth Bank’s spokesperson.” (Tung, 07 March 2008)

Using these two examples as a yardstick you could say that SMS and WAP in the banking sector is getting used for verification and authorisation, whereas in the travel industry it is getting used to provide information, update and change travel details.

3. Lucent Technologies designs and delivers the systems, services and software that drive next-generation communications networks at: http://www.lucent.com

I visited Lucent Technologies website and reviewed the services, the following mobile services are available: (Alcatel Lucent, n.d.)

• Applications for Mobile Networks.
• CDMA/CDMA2000 Access
• GSM EDGE Access
• Management of Mobile/Wireless Networks
• Mobile Backhaul/Interconnection Products
• Mobile Core Switching
• W-CDMA Access
• WiMAX

4. Visit the W3C website and find the status of the VoiceXML project. When do you think it will affect business on the web and what will its impact be?

Wikipedia describes VoiceXML as a “standard XML format for specifying interactive voice dialogues between a human and a computer”.(Wikipedia, n.d.)

Initially I thought that the project was stalled, as the first version came out in May 2000. On further examination they are now up to version 3, with a draft released June 2009.(W3C, 2009)

It seems to be gaining in use for accessibility services that help people, the Delaware officials in 2002 launched the initial phases of Access Delaware: “using VoiceXML that lets citizens access state Web sites and receive basic information over the phone that was otherwise unavailable.” (Thormeyer, 03 November 2006)

There are also companies that provide hosting and support solutions for developers who want to build and deploy VoiceXML applications like Nuance Cafe. (Nuance Cafe, n.d.)

Accessibility services are often seen as last resort by businesses but government organisations usually have to comply with standards so I can see more use in VoiceXML as people expect better support services and businesses find there is another way to reach people.

5. Investigate CDMA, GSM or other network technologies for mobile phones and circuit switched and packet switched data capabilities.

CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access, and GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications, they are two competing mobile network technologies. (Wisegeek. n.d.)

GSM has worldwide over 1 billion subscribers, whereas CDMA networks support over 270 million subscribers.(Wisegeek. n.d.)

GSM carriers, however, have roaming contracts with other GSM carriers, allowing wider coverage of more rural areas.(Wisegeek. n.d.)

CDMA networks may not cover rural areas as well as GSM carriers, and though they may contract with GSM cells for roaming in more rural areas, the charge to the customer will generally be significantly higher.(Wisegeek. n.d.)

CDMA has been traditionally faster than GSM.(Wisegeek. n.d.)

One of the major advantages of GSM over CDMA is international use: “Because GSM is used in more than 74% of the markets across the globe, users of tri-band or quad-band handsets can travel to Europe, India, and most of Asia and still use their cell phones. CDMA offers no multiband capability, however, and therefore you can’t readily use it in multiple countries.” whereas CDMA is used widely mainly in “the United States, Canada, and North and South Korea”. (Peacock, January 2006)

6. Why is a company like Nokia described as having end-to-end expertise?

Nokia describe their end-to-end offering as containing: “five key steps to create competitiveness through end-to-end innovation” (Nokia Siemens Networks, n.d.)

1. Conduct research
2. Identify the opportunities for innovation
3. Specify the solutions
4. Implement your plans
5. Evolve your services portfolio

My understanding of this: It is because they are large enough, have the technology and experience to offer a complete service, from research through to implementing and then further evolving an idea, that they are regarded and state themselves as having “end-to-end” expertise.

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References

1. Steiniger. S., Neun. M., & Edwardes. A. (n.d.)
   Foundations of Location Based Services, Lesson 1, CartouCHe – Lecture Notes on LBS, V. 1.0.
   [Fact File]
   Retrieved 24th July 2009 from
   www.geo.unizh.ch/publications/cartouche/lbs_lecturenotes_steinigeretal2006.pdf
2. JetStar.(n.d.)
   Retrieved 24th July 2009 from
   http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/index.aspx
3. Cian (6 February 2009)
   GoMoNews.
   Jetstar lets customers change flights through the mobile Internet.
   Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
   http://www.gomonews.com/jetstar-lets-customers-change-flights-through-the-mobile-internet/comment-page-1/#comment-4137
4. Rodney Gedda (27 March, 2007)
   Computerworld.
   Commbank sends SMS for security.
   Text messaging first form of two-factor authentication.
   Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
   http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/166689/commbank_sends_sms_security
5. Liam Tung. (07 March 2008).
   ZDNet.com.au.
   Analysis: CommBank alone on voice biometrics
   Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
   http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/security/soa/Analysis-CommBank-alone-on-voice-biometrics/0,139023764,339286595,00.htm?feed=pt_mobile_phone
6. Alcatel Lucent (n.d.)
   Mobile.
   Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
   http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLd4w3dnTSL8h2VAQAEGck9g!!?LMSG_CABINET=Solution_Product_Catalog&LMSG_CONTENT_FILE=Product_Categories/Product_Category_000037.xml&LMSG_SELECTEDCATEGORY=Y
7. W3C. (02 June 2009).
   Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0
   Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml30/
8. Wikipedia. (n.d.).
   VoiceXML.
   Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml30/
9. Nuance Cafe. (n.d.).
   Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
   http://cafe.bevocal.com/
10. Rob Thormeyer. (03 November 2006).
    Government Computer News.
    Good call.
    Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
    http://gcn.com/Articles/2006/11/03/Good-call.aspx?Page=2
11. Wisegeek. (n.d.)
    What is the Difference Between GSM and CDMA?
    Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
    http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-gsm-and-cdma.htm
12. Joe Peacock. (January 2006).
    PC Today.
    CDMA vs. GSM. Why you should know the difference.
    Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
    http://www.pctoday.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F2006%2Ft0401%2F24t01%2F24t01.asp
13. Nokia Siemens Networks (n.d.)
    The Nokia Siemens Networks Vision.
    Retrieved 25th July 2009 from
    http://www.connectivityscorecard.org/vision/#end-to-end

Exercise 24

Virtual business worlds and cyberagents.

Search the web for a site that uses a cyber character or cyber agent to host a business site.

A good example is NewsHub as it uses agents to compile lists of related news information.

1 Describe what software agents are.

Wikipedia describe a software agent as: “a piece of software that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency”. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

2. Differentiate the various types of software agents.

1. Intelligent software agents

   Have the capabilities of adaptation and learning. They have sensory algorithms that allow them to adapt and artificial intelligence that allows them to learn through trial and error.(Wikipedia, n.d.)

2. Autonomous agents

   Are self-contained and capable of making independent decisions, and taking actions to satisfy internal goals based upon their perceived environment.(Wikipedia, n.d.)

3. Distributed agents

   Can be loosely coupled and it becomes easy to have them executed as independent threads and on distributed processors.(Wikipedia, n.d.)

4. Multi-agent systems

   Occurs when many agents “collaborate with other agents” to share data.(Wikipedia, n.d.)

5. Mobile agents

   Agent code that moves itself, including its execution state, on to another machine, to continue execution there. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

6. Fuzzy agents

   A fuzzy agent is a software agent that implements fuzzy logic. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

3. Decribe how techniques such as artificial intelligence and statistical techniques are used in software agents.

They are used in intelligent agents to enable the capabilities of adaptaion and learning and they are used in data mining agents to compile trends.

4. List popular software agents currently in use in the commercial world.

1. Buyer agents or shopping bots
2. User or personal agents
3. Monitoring-and-surveillance agents
4. Data Mining agents

5. Identify various activities in e-commerce where software agents are currently in use.

A common agent in use on Amazon.com is a shopping bot that provides feedback on your shopping habits when compared to other shoppers, to give you an idea of similar buying patterns.

Other agents include those used by search engines to track users and data mine there results to produce trends or key indicators.(Wikipedia, n.d.)

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References

1. Wikipedia.(n.d.)
   Software agent.
   Retrieved 24th July 2009 from
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_agent#Examples

Exercise 23

Searching Mechanisms

1. How do search engines such as Alta Vista differ from information directories?

I used to use Alta Vista, before the year 2000. It was and probably still is a good service. I may start to go back and use it again, because I have concerns about the privacy implications of using some other search engines. Nope just tried it and didn’t like it.

Doctorow, describes AltaVista and Lycos as ranking “documents that matched our keywords”.(Doctorow. 08 March, 2002)

He also goes on to say: “AltaVista tried to get computers to do both the repetitive parts (capturing billions of documents) and the creative parts (figuring out what the documents are about). This yielded the largest collection of randomly organized documents in the world, a Web-accessible version of a library where all the books have been re-shelved by axe-grinding illiterates who wanted to make sure that no matter what you were looking for, you’d find porn.” (Doctorow. 08 March, 2002)

“Altavista is a hybrid engine. It independently gathers results from its own index of 550 million pages, and supplements this with data from LookSmart and listings from Overture.” (Metamend., n.d.)

Search engines offer different ways of cataloging websites and articles, the following list summarises many of those ways:

• By using an automated service that browses the web and indexes words used within the site
• Using people to catalog sites, which as long as is responsible is probably the most reliable way for search engines to create meaningful and accurate site listings. The downside of this is that it is intensive and therefore time consuming, and cannot keep up to pace with the growth of the internet.
• Using a combination of automated services and human cataloging.
• By using data mining algorithms in combination with automated indexing to sort sites that are considered rel event word based search.

2. What is a spider? What does it do?

In the context of search engines it is an automated searching mechanism that downloads content or pages within a site for later indexing by a search engine which then indexes the text and media within websites. This indexed text and media is then cataloged and the information used to pinpoint searches based on keywords contained within the search.

Wikipedia describe a spider as “Web crawler is a computer program that browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner”.(Wikipedia, n.d.)

3. Describe a search situation where the requirement for recall is high ?

The health services would require a service that uses large amounts of statistical evidence and specific diagnostic information that requires correct dosages, in order to diagnose a problem or support insightful analysis.

Law, would require a large database of past cases as well as laws and regulations outlining cases and approaches.

Engineering would require specific information about strengths and weaknesses of certain structures.

4. What is a meta-search engine? Provide examples.

Wikipedia describes it as: “a search tool that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source”. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

Examples: (UC Berkeley n.d.)

• Clusty
• Dogpile
• SurfWax

5. What is spamming?

My understanding of spamming is that in many countries it is illegal including Australia. It is the process and application of taking email addresses from businesses and individuals and sending those users email messages or some other forms of messages without their prior consent. It is an ethical privacy issue because unless that company or individual has provided you with their details, then obtaining their email addresses without their consent and sending them unsolicited email’s can be regarded as spam. The problem is that many people display their email’s for others to freely use, in the past spammers have argued that they obtained email addresses legally, but the law now regards this farming of email addresses as illegal unless you are sending information that can be regarded as related to their business in some way.

How can you get your site listed at major search sites; and how could you improve your site ranking?

Actually its a black art, in that nobody knows because the search engine companies keep their secrets closely guarded or closed source. Therefore a lot of SEO sites will provide you with techniques but those techniques tend to change.

The following ways help, but cannot guarantee success:

• Building clean standards compliant webs sites (sites that pass the W3C standards), and thats a really good thing!
• By not trying to add meta information to the site that isn’t true. Like adjusting the meta tags in your pages to have keywords and description about text or information that doesn’t exist on the site.
• In the past adding meta-tags like keywords, description and author was regarded as the main way to get high rankings, but now this is not necessarily the case. It doesn’t hurt to do it and it may have other benefits.
• By submitting your site to one or more search engine, not sure this helps because it can’t be measured.
• By adding a sitemap to your site, to help spiders index your site.
• By using third party tools like google sitemaps and analytics that provide services for viewing traffic visiting the site. The tradeoff is that you are invading the privacy of users who visit your site, by sending their details to google, without their consent.
• Paying to have your site at the top of the pile.
• Making sure you have something relevant to say.
• Don’t get blacklisted, by having some of the things mentioned earlier ie untruthful meta-tags.
• Updating your information on a regular basis so that you get return visitors.

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References

1. Wikipedia.(n.d.)
   Web crawler.
   Retrieved 24th July 2009 from
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler
2. Cory Doctorow. (08 March, 2002).
   How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Panopticon
   Retrieved 24th July 2009 from
   http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/03/08/cory_google.html

3. Metamend. (n.d.)
   The Search Engine Altavista
   Retrieved 24th July 2009 from
   http://www.metamend.com/altavista.html
4. Wikipedia.(n.d.)
   Metasearch engine.
   Retrieved 24th July 2009 from
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasearch_engine
5. UC Berkeley (n.d.)
   Meta-Search Engines
   Retrieved 24th July 2009 from
   http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/MetaSearch.html

Exercise 22

1. Use the coordination theory framework to describe the contribution of ERP software to organisational goals such as efficiency and flexibility.

I really found this question hard to follow and find relevant information that links the two concepts together.

Malone and Crowston (1994), define coordination as “managing dependencies”. The coordination theory framework is used to describe the dependency between a task and a resource. Tasks are either goals or activities and according to the simple model of actions, activities have preconditions and effects. Goals are considered as having effects but no preconditions. The preconditions and effects are the resources, required, consumed or created by an activity. (Crowston, n.d.)

In order to assign resources to a task, the following steps must be performed: (Crowston, n.d.)

1. Identifying what resources are required by the task;
2. Identifying what resources are available;
3. Choosing a particular set of resources;
4. Assigning the resource (in the case of an actor, getting the actor to work on the task).

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP is a way to integrate the data and processes of an organization into one single system. Usually ERP systems will have many components including hardware and software, in order to achieve integration, most ERP systems use a unified database to store data for various functions found throughout the organization. (tech-faq.com, n.d.)

I was unable to find a reference that links the concepts ERP and Coordination Theory Framework, so I therefore will have a “stab” at the question trying to link the various topics together.

The Organisational goals of efficiency and flexibility are sometimes at odds with each other or at different ends of the scale, so to speak. Usually an organisation that is extremely efficient is also inflexible. The reason is because efficient systems tend to be strictly controlled, brittle, strongly led, and follow a set of protocols or rules that are adhered to. In contrast a flexible system may not have the strictness or the rules and may be open to interpretation and creativity, however this often leads to inefficient use of resources because the assignment of resources is not strictly controlled and monitored.

Using the tasks mentioned earlier, ERP would do the following in order to find a balanced medium between the organisational goals of efficiency and flexibility, so that resources could be assigned and removed easily thus achieving a balance of flexibility and efficiency:

1. Identify resources, and prioritise them according to their importance
2. Identify those that change and those remain the same, and those that cannot be used. In essence a template design pattern.
3. From the resources choose a set of usable resources.
4. Assign resources based on priority, change and availability.

Therefore the coordination theory framework within ERP provides a basis for resources to be allocated with controlled efficiency to ensure the highest prioritised resources are used, and with flexibility to enable switching between resources as they become unavailable or available.

2. Differentiate between software systems such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, Business-to-Business e-commerce programs and Supply-Chain-Management (SCM) software.

Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a combination of enterprise strategies, business processes and information technologies used to learn more about customers’ needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them.(bNet, n.d.)

CRM includes many aspects which relate directly to one another: (Wikipedia, n.d., Customer relationship management)

• Front office operations
• Back office operations
• Business relationships
• Analysis

Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce includes transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. (Wikipedia, n.d., Customer relationship management)

So if we compare B2B and CRM the main difference is that B2B refers to interactions with businesses only, whereas CRM overlaps to include clients who are businesses and clients who are retail customers as well.

Supply-Chain-Management (SCM) refers to software which is used to manage a network of interconnected businesses. Supply Chain Management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. (Wikipedia, n.d., Supply chain management). Ince, also describes the supply chain as having a symbiotic relationship, with each member in the chain reliant on the other for some of its resources.

As stated B2B covers business relationships only, CRM covers all clients both business and consumer, and if we include Supply Chain Management it would include both CRM software to track clients and B2B in order to submit and process transactions between businesses within the supply chain..

What are the limitations of the EDI platform? How does a web-based platform for inter-enterprise communication rectify these limitations?

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange and refers to the structured transmission of data between organisation’s by electronic means. (Wikipedia, n.d., Electronic Data Interchange)

The limitations of the EDI platform:

• Discrepancies by real world descriptions of how the information should be interpreted by the business receiving it. (Wikipedia, n.d., Electronic Data Interchange)

The limitations of the EDI platform from Samtani, Healey, Samtani, 2002.

• Traditional setup procedures can be expensive, complex and time consuming.
• Operational and maintenance costs can be high as well.
• Often requires business partners to synchronise their internal systems and business processes with those of their partners.
• Often requires business partners to synchronise EDI software with those of their partners.
• Different systems tend to use different schemas and data exchange protocols.
• The transfer of data of one computer system using EDI to another in the past has been relatively complex.
• Flow of EDI traffic can be expensive.

How does a web-based platform for inter-enterprise communication rectify these limitations (EDI basics, n.d. ):

1. EDI Provides Speed:
   • The process takes seconds or minutes instead of days
   • Data is available immediately for use in internal applications
   • The electronic document has not been handled by any mailroom staff, postal or delivery service or data entry staff. It will not wait in any in-basket waiting for collection and it won’t have to wait while staff are on the phone
   • Buyers receives rapid confirmation of receipts
   • Reduced business cycle times provide a competitive edge in any business
2. EDI Improves Accuracy:
   • Electronic data is usually derived from a database, where data has been subject to prior validation
   • Electronic documents are transferred accurately regardless of size. If transmission of a large document is not successful, users can invoke re-transmission procedures rapidly
   • Even if several different parties process the electronic document, with each party adding data to the existing document, none has the ability to alter previously entered information
3. EDI Reduces Costs
   • Storage space is reduced.
   • Human handling resources are not as needed.
   • Reduced error rates
   • Reduction of inventory costs through shortening order processing and delivery cycles
   • Electronic invoicing provides discount advantages for buyers and sellers
4. Operational Efficiency:
   • Improved Trading Partner Relationships
   • Increasing awareness of data throughout the business cycle
   • Improved planning and processing
   • Finally, EDI can improve cash flow due to overall efficiencies that EDI provides.

Describe the CRM lifecycle and the different segments of the CRM software.

Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a combination of enterprise strategies, business processes and information technologies used to learn more about customers’ needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. (Zhang, 2005)

CRM consists of three phases – customer acquisition, customer relationship enhancements and customer retention. (Zhang, 2005)

CRM software streamlines CRM activities at each phase of customer relationship management. (Zhang, 2005)

Customer Acquisition:

• Contact management module and direct marketing module.
• Allow companies to effectively promote and market their products and services to prospects.
• Reduces the cost of acquiring new customers and
• Helps speed up the acquiring processes.

Customer Relationship Enhancements:

• Customise products and services to individual customers.
• Helps companies better understand existing customers’ needs and behaviors and enhance the profitability from existing customers by cross-selling.

Customer Retention:

• Customer support
• Allows companies to reduce support costs
• Reduces the cost of acquiring new customers.

Upon completing Exercise 22 I’ve since found out that it wasn’t required.

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References.

1. Thomas W. Malone, Kevin Crowston. (1994). The Interdisciplinary Study of Coordination [Fact Sheet]
2. Thomas W. Malone, Kevin Crowston. (1999). Tools for inventing organizations: Toward a handbook of organizational processes Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://ccs.mit.edu/21c/mgtsci/index.htm
3. Kevin Crowston. (n.d.) A Taxonomy Of Organizational Dependencies and Coordination Mechanisms Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP174.html
4. tech-faq.com (n.d.), What is ERP?. Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://www.tech-faq.com/erp.shtml
5. Webopedia. (24 July 2003 ). CRM. Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://isp.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CRM.html
6. Wikipedia. (n.d. ). Customer relationship management. Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management
7. Darrel Ince. (2004) Developing Distributed and E-commerce Applications. (pp 6-8). : Pearson, Addison Wesley.
8. Wikipedia. (n.d. ). Business-to-business. Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business-to-business
9. Wikipedia. (n.d. ). Supply chain management. Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_management
10. Gunjan Samtani, Marcus Healey, Shyam Samtani. (2002). B2B Integration: A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-Commerce. (pp 155-156): World Scientific Publishing Company.
11. EDI basics. (n.d. ). The Competitive Advantages of EDI. Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://www.edibasics.co.uk/benefits_edi/benefitsC.html
12. Bruce Zhang. CRMNewz. (07 April 2005). CRM And Customer Life Cycle Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://www.crmnewz.com/crmnewz-18-20050407CRMandCustomerLifeCycle.html
13. bNet. (n.d.). CRM and Customer Life Cycle Retrieved 18th July 2009 from http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=264924&promo=100511

Exercise 21

Shopping Cart Specifications

Develop the class diagram for the following shopping cart specifications:

A shoppingCart object is associated with only one creditCard and customer and to items in itemToBuy object. Persistent customer information such as name, billing address, delivery address, e-mail address and credit rating is stored in the customer object. The credit card object is associated with a frequentShopper discount object, if the rating for the customer is good. The customer can make or cancel orders as well as add and delete items to the shopping cart product. the Credit Card object contains the secure method for chaecking that the charge is authentic.

Assumptions: The attributes and operations not mentioned in the specifications above will not be displayed.

Exercise 20

Modelling with UML

Use Case, Class, Sequence, Collaboration, State Chart, Activity, Component and Deployment diagrams are used in UML. Describe each of the eight (8) main diagrams used in UML.

1. Use Case:

   Use cases are text stories, used to discover and record requirements. They are primarily functional or behavioral requirements that indicate what the system will do.(Larmen, 2005.)
   A Use Case Model Diagram is distinct from a Use Case. A Use case model diagram is represented by one or more Actors, one or more Use Cases and the System the use case or cases are describing. Interconnecting lines between the Actors and the Use Case make up the a use case model. The following illustration describes the relationship of the three elements that make a Use Case Model diagram: (Schmuller, 2004.)

   

   • The System is represented by the rectangular border and represents the boundary between the system and the outside world.
   • The Actors are represented by the stick figures, sometimes they are drawn on both sides of the diagram to represent the initiating actor on the left and the receiving actor on the right. They can also be represented by a single initiating actor. The definition of an Actor is something with behaviour, such as a person, computer system or organisation.(Larmen, 2005.)
   • The use case or cases are enclosed by the system and represented by ellipses.
2. Class:

   A Class is a blueprint of an object that contains attributes and operations. A Class diagram describes the relationship between two or more classes. (Schmuller, 2004.)

   • An Association describes classes connected together conceptually.
   • Multiplicity describes the number of one class that relate with a single object in an associated class.
   • The qualifier indicates that one class has ID information.
   • Generalisation is the Unified Modelling Language (UML) term to refer to the object-oriented state of inheritance.

   

3. Sequence Diagram:

   A Sequence Diagram is a picture that shows, for one particular scenario of use case, the events that external actors generate, their order and inter-system events. All systems are treated as a black box.(Larmen, 2005.)

   • Objects (classes) are laid out near the top from left to right. (Schmuller, 2004.)
   • Messages are to go from one objects lifeline to another objects lifeline. The shape of the arrowhead determines what message it is.
   • Synchronous messages, or calls, are a request from the sender object to the receiver object.
   • Asynchronous messages occur when the sender sends messages to the receiver but does not wait for the message.

   

4. Collaboration:

   A Collaboration or Communication diagram is an extension of the object diagram.(Schmuller, 2004.)

   Whereas an Object diagram shows how instances of classes are linked together in an instant of time, a Collaboration diagram shows interactions among those instances over time.(Schmuller, 2004.)

   

5. State Chart:

   A State Chart diagram is used to model the way objects change their state in response to events and time.(Schmuller, 2004.)
   

6. Activity

   A UML Activity Diagram shows sequential and parallel activities in a process. They are useful for modelling business processes, workflows, data flows and complex algorithms. (Larmen, 2005.)
   

7. Component

   Component modelling diagrams are used to emphasise that the interfaces are important and its modular, self-contained and replaceable. They are a design level perspective that map to concrete artifacts such as files.(Larmen, 2005.)
   

8. Deployment

   A Deployment Diagram shows how artifacts are deployed on system hardware, and how the pieces of hardware connect to one another. The main hardware item is a node.(Schmuller, 2004.)
   

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Note: All diagrams are referenced from Schmuller, 2004., see references below.

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References.

1. Craig Larman. (2005). Applying UML and Patterns, Third Edition.: Prentice Hall.
2. Joseph Schmuller. (2004). Teach Yourself UML in 24 Hours.: Sams.

Workshop 8: Ruby on Rails Workshops Report and Evaluation

Topic objectives

Upon the completion of this workshop, developers or managers should be able to:

• Identify and evaluate the Ruby on Rails workshop series
• Think critically and analytically about what you knew before and after the experiences
• Share and post your Report and Evaluation with peers via the subject forum.

Evaluation and Report

Please answer each question in this evaluation section. In your answer, please consider content/topics presented and the technologies and teaching strategies used during the Ruby on Rails Workshops. Results will be collated and used to modify the workshop series.

1. List what you consider to be the three strengths of Ruby on Rails workshop series.
2. List what you consider to be the three weaknesses of Ruby on Rails workshop series.
3. List what aspects of Ruby on Rails workshop series that you found to be most difficult.
4. List what improvements could be made to the Ruby on Rails workshop series.

Free response and reflective questions:

5. Reflect on your experiences with the other Web framework used in this subject: Was it effective? How can it be improved? Should other Web frameworks be used as well or instead of Ruby on Rails?
6. Did the Developer’s or IT managers Team that you joined after workshop 4 have a preference towards using other tools to facilitate collaboration? Comment on the differences between these use of the sub-forum or Interact wiki tools from your experiences in this subject.
7. Further comments to add?

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1. List what you consider to be the three strengths of Ruby on Rails workshop series.

Despite the fact that we didn’t use the online tools for the workshop series and we didn’t have an online production server I found the workshop series to be a good introduction to the Ruby on Rails framework. I enjoyed the RailsSpace book we had to read in Workshop 6, Hartl, M & Prochazka, A, (2008). RailsSpace. I believe the online tutorials were helpful and insightful as well.

Strengths of the Ruby on Rails workshop series:

1. The book RailsSpace, introduced in Workshop 6. It’s strength lies in its ability to give insights into the framework and tie in the underlying paradigms whilst allowing you to apply it. In my opinion the best way to learn and retain anything is through cognitive exploration, in this case, developing a small application, which is why I got more out this book than just watching screencasts and reading about the MVC design pattern that Rails employs in its framework. Further, because it discussed and applied the topics associated with the Rails conventions as you moved through the book, you gained a stronger understanding of the framework itself. By creating an application you can visualise and commit to memory the theoretical concepts like the MVC design pattern.
2. The Ruby and Ruby on Rails tutorials and developing the OTBS application, introduced in Workshops 3, 4, 5 and 6 although small and trivial, as in the case of Workshop 4, at least presented a more applied learning approach. Without this approach I found myself struggling to understand concepts like symbols and block structures.
3. The constant reenforcement of the underlying paradigms that Rails uses, including the Model, View, Controller design pattern (MVC), Convention over Configuration (CoC), Don’t repeat yourself (DRY). As I did Workshop 6, I could see how each paradigm is applied to the Rails framework, one could see the MVC pattern in the structure of the directories, and the way controllers actions are used by the Views and how the Model directories apply the ORM ActiveRecord. As I learnt about the Layout’s and Partial Views I could see that how the convention of DRY was applied, and as you learn about how Ruby is fairly open language in terms of the way you can liberally employ it’s programming syntax, the Rails framework is quite strict in that it has its own conventions and standards for doing things that makes it easy to build around hence Convention over Configuration.

2. List what you consider to be the three weaknesses of Ruby on Rails workshop series.

1. The text RailsSpace should have been introduced earlier. In fact the workshop series should have been moved to the first week of the course with RailsSpace introduced as the first Workshop along with some basic exercises on the Ruby programming syntax. The paradigms could then be added as one moved through the text. In its current form the Workshops I believe are undermined by a lack of continuity as you progress one workshop to the next. Also the fact that in one Workshop, Workshop 6, we are expected to read and apply the whole text in a single sitting in order to gain a much deeper understanding of everything that has been stated in preceding Workshops. In my view it is too much to expect from full-time students or full-time workers studying part-time. I would like to see the book used, but its material presented over a longer period of time. For me it would seem that Workshop 6 is a pivotal learning point but the timing couldn’t be worse with exams three weeks away, therefore it would make more sense to move this Workshop or re-structure the content so that it is available at a less critical moment in the course.
2. There should be more practical workshop exercises. Workshop 4 had several small exercises but none that really challenged and linked the Ruby language to the Rails framework. I would have liked to have seen more of a discussion about the Rails framework, in the form of practical development topics that linked directly to the paradigms Rails uses. For example RailsSpace demonstrates Partials to explain DRY and compares multiple possibilities of the Ruby syntax to what the Rails conventions expects you to use.
3. The scope and specification of the OTBS application were not clearly defined. I wasn’t sure where the OTBS application was heading and what was required. The workshops seemed disjointed as well by not mentioning or providing a practical developmental continuous approach to building the OTBS application with each workshop.

3. List what aspects of Ruby on Rails workshop series that you found to be most difficult.

• Initially understanding the paradigms (MVC, CoC and DRY), eventually as I completed the workshops and specifically Workshop 6, I gained a stronger understanding which I could link to the Rails framework.
• Initially understanding elements of the Ruby syntax. I found concept symbols confusing, although again it wasn’t until after completing Workshop 6 that I developed a better understanding of them.
• Workshop 6. It was without a doubt a massive effort to expect us to get through 500+ pages and apply the knowledge. I managed in four continuous days to get up to chapter 9 and then after that read other chapters I thought would help but it is not a realistic expectation in my opinion.

4. List what improvements could be made to the Ruby on Rails workshop series

• As I stated earlier the workshops needed to be bought forward so that it gives the students more time to apply and develop with Rails.
• The text, RailsSpace, needs to begin in Workshop 1, and the relevant chapters marked to provide more direct guidance. Also the content needs to be spaced evenly over more than one Workshop.
• The OTBS application should have a more clearly defined scope and set of requirements. That way we can test what we have completed and also discuss and compare notes. At the moment when I see the other blogs I’m not sure what the requirements are because everybody has their own interpretations.
• More practical and better quality exercises that link directly to the Rails paradigms.
• Lastly, this is first time I’ve used WordPress. As a free tool it does the job (barely), but I’ve found it to be extremely limiting in allowing me to showcase or demonstrate my work. The solution I believe would be to provide some directory space on a web server that allows us to upload our work and to setup a blog rather than using a free blogging engine that limits your creativity.

5. Reflect on your experiences with the other Web framework used in this subject: Was it effective? How can it be improved? Should other Web frameworks be used as well or instead of Ruby on Rails?

Apart from the fact the we never looked in any great detail at any other web framework other than Ruby on Rails, I’m not sure if I can answer this question. We looked briefly at PHP, Perl, Java and Python in the exercises. We discussed MVC design patterns and how Ruby on Rails has kick started a move in that general direction from all the players including those mentioned but we didn’t build anything significant with any other framework or language.

I think a more effective approach would have been to take three languages and an associated MVC framework like PHP with Cake or CodeIgniter, Python and Django and Ruby with Ruby on Rails and build a blogging engine with each, then compare the processes. Then get the students to develop other small applications with a language of their choice, or continue with Ruby on Rails.

I think the approach taken so far was moderately effective and needs to be improved. As I’ve mentioned Workshop 6 was a pivotal learning point that significantly raised my level of understanding of Ruby on Rails, and as I believe a better approach would be to move the Workshops ahead to give the students more time practice what they’ve learnt and absorb the information they’ve gained.

6. Did the Developer’s or IT managers Team that you joined after workshop 4 have a preference towards using other tools to facilitate collaboration? Comment on the differences between these use of the sub-forum or Interact wiki tools from your experiences in this subject.


Again this is another question that cannot be answered deeply. The Answer is we didn’t use any of the online collaboration tools other than the forum. I believe this to be for the following reasons:

• Blogging is a time consuming process and we are all time poor. This is not an excuse I am stating this because when you consider that this is the primary task than you start to see that getting together online becomes a lower priority especially when the amount of work we have to do for both the exercises and workshops is overwhelming.
• It was difficult to organise. I know I am in a different time zone than most of the other students. Again this shouldn’t be an excuse but I think it hasn’t helped the situation.
• We started the workshops late in the course. More time may have given us something to talk about.
• No clear direction for the OTBS application. Conversely you could argue that this should stimulate conversation, but it didn’t. I think this was because we didn’t really cover Rails in depth until Workshop 6 and by that time everyone is scurrying to complete and finish other higher priority tasks.

The Forum has been used with moderate success but again there was just too much exercise work and workshop work that had to be completed so that online collaboration was a lower priority. Topics dicussed included Convention over Configuration and Security features of Rails.

7. Further comments

I have enjoyed the course and learning Ruby on Rails and the MVC design pattern. I think the next step would be to continue learning Rails and setup a production environment on Ubuntu so I cant test deployment correctly. From there develop small applications and build on my understanding of Rails.

I would also like to look at other MVC frameworks, specifically Django as seems to have a strong focussed community similar to Ruby on Rails.

Workshop 7: End of the Line

Production site migration and maintenance.

Topic objectives

Upon the completion of this workshop, developers or managers should be able to:

• Discuss and choose the Rails production deployment configuration;
• Identify and evaluate the ways to take move the development site on your computer to the online production site;
• Evaluate and devise how to integrate a new Rails site into an existing or future e-commerce structure;
• Conclude the development of the OTBS as a Ruby on Rails application;
• Think critically and analytically about the policy for site maintenance and further development.
• Share your findings with your peers and examine what the other team is doing.

Topic reading from Safari Books Online

Hartl, M & Prochazka, A, (2008). RailsSpace: Building a Social Networking Website with Ruby on Rails, Pearson Education

Both teams of developers and IT managers examine the Rails application deployment considerations as described at http://rubyonrails.org/deploy and in Chapter 17 of ‘RailsSpace’. This raises issues around which advice to follow in the migration of the Online Taxi Booking Service to the production site. Both teams consider which deployment and maintenance procedures to adopt.

Focus Question

As either a developer or as an IT manager, what are the options available when deploying and maintaining the Ruby on Rails application online?

DEVELOPER’S THREAD (RED team)

To Do:

Developers conclude their work with the OTBS and look at the options for deployment of the site. Examine the various platforms/software tools used for deployment such as UNIX environment suggested in the Discussion Notes, Mongrel or Mongrel cluster, Nginx, Subversion or Capistrano (during development stage), JRuby in the Java environment.

Which way?

The choice is up to you as this workshop present just one option and you may like to use another, such as deploying the OTBS in a .NET or J2EE environment

Can you get the OTBS Running in production mode as a minimal production server?

Share your success by posting progress comments and links etc to the Developers sub-forum site that has been set up for the Red team.

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As either a developer or as an IT manager, what are the options available when deploying and maintaining the Ruby on Rails application online?

1. Phusion Passenger: http://www.modrails.com/index.html
2. Jumpbox: http://www.jumpbox.com/app/rubyonrails
3. Proxy setups: A simple single mongrel configuration
4. Apache and FastCGI: Serving Multiple Rails Applications on Windows with Apache and
   Mongrel.
5. JRuby for J2EE using Glassfish and Warbler
6. Capistrano: Capistrano Getting Started
7. IronRuby
8. Netbeans

2. Phusion Passenger

According to the rubyonrails.org site this is the “The preferred deployment setup for Rails”. (rubyonrails.org. (n.d.). Deploying Ruby on Rails is Easy.)

If there is one thing that at this stage bothers me (although I am starting to get used to it) it is the hype and marketing of Ruby on Rails. The community makes a lot of claims and uses noisy marketing techniques to stand out, I question if it’s really that necessary. I assume they want to gain market share in the web dev sphere this way, but some sites seem overly bloated with hype and less concerned with trying convey information in a readable way.

I watched the online screencast movie passenger.mov to get an understanding of the deployment option Phusion Passenger. After seeing it I felt that I would probably use this application as it seems relatively hassle free and only requires minor modifications to the apache web server. The screencast also mentions the location of the documentation which I will now review and see if it is more helpful than the Phusion Passenger home page.

After reviewing the documentation I found that it does not support windows so I can’t use this option.

2. JumpBox for Ruby on Rails Deployment

JumpBox is described as an application that, “allows you as the developer to concentrate on your development rather than having to accommodate the potentially infinite number of configuration possibilities that one might otherwise encounter in attempting to distribute Rails applications to end user systems.” (JumpBox, n.d., JumpBox for Ruby on Rails Deployment.)

JumpBox works in the following way: “The JumpBox for Ruby on Rails is a self-contained Ubuntu Linux environment that, upon startup, immediately hosts fully functioning Apache, Ruby, MySQL, and Ruby On Rails environments. With only a minimal amount of preparation, you can use your favorite deployment method to install and host your Rails application on the JumpBox.” (JumpBox, n.d., JumpBox for Ruby on Rails Deployment.)

Looks like a good option, but not one I would consider because I don’t have Ubuntu running.

3. Proxy setups

Not sure what this is but is was on the list of the rubyonrails.org

I found these instructions on the mongrel site, regarding “A simple single mongrel configuration” with Apache. Basically what you are doing is configuring your apache web server to act as a proxy for any requests that are sent to the web server. The apache web server, acting as the proxy, then passess those requests through to the mongrel web server.

Now I just have to test this proxy method on my machine.

This is also the option described in Hartl, M & Prochazka, A, (2008), Chapter 17. Looks similar to the tutorial above and also the tutorial by Brian Hogan.(4 May 2006). Serving Multiple Rails Applications on Windows with Apache and Mongrel, I will try this at a later stage.

4. Apache and FastCGI

I set the Apache configuration as outlined in the following document, Brian Hogan. (4 May 2006.). Integrate Rails into an Existing IIS Web infrastructure using Apache and FastCGI, unfortunately I followed the I got a 403 Forbidden error. Back to the drawing board.

Next I tried the tutorial by Brian Hogan.(4 May 2006). Serving Multiple Rails Applications on Windows with Apache and Mongrel, so far seems overly complex.

My conclusion at this stage is that the windows os is hardly considered as important for Ruby on Rails production deployment. Being an open source community who can blame them in some respects. However I think that if more development was directed at making this part of their main strategic goals or roadmap, more windows centric developers would start using Ruby on Rails. I probably would. My next step going forward is to set up Ubuntu, it seems I have no other choice.

5. JRuby for J2EE using Glassfish and Warbler.

I’m looking at this in conjunction with using Netbeans, as Netbeans allows you use JRuby natively.

6. Capistrano

Capistrano is described as a “tool for automating tasks on one or more remote servers. It executes commands in parallel on all targeted machines, and provides a mechanism for rolling back changes across multiple machines.” (Capistrano, n.d.)

I’m not sure I need it at this stage worth a look at, later once I get a production site up and running.

Ruby in Rails deployment options:

Deployment Option	Operating System	Web Servers supported	Environment	Download Size
Phusion Passenger	Any POSIX-compliant operating system: Ubuntu Linux: 6.06, 7.10, 8.04 Debian: Sarge, Etch, Lenny/Sid CentOS 5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Gentoo FreeBSD MacOS X: Tiger and Leopard. Does not work on Microsoft Windows.	Apache Nginx	-	-
JumpBox	Ubuntu Linux 8.04 LTS	Apache	Apache, Ruby, MySQL, and Ruby On Rails	186 MB
NetBeans	Windows, Linux, Mac OS X	Nginx	NetBeans 6.0 or greater	-

Evaluate and devise how to integrate a new Rails site into an existing or future e-commerce structure.

If I were to use Ruby on Rails in the future I would consider integrating into an e-commerce structure from the very beginning. Rails is a framework that requires the developer to adhere to the conventions otherwise you can’t take advantage of the framework abstractions that automate boilerplate tasks.

One of the areas I have noticed where Ruby on Rails seems deficient or less advanced than other more recent MVC frameworks is in the area of web content management. I beleive this is important when considering any option for web development because in my own experience clients will request and want to test the CMS being used. Therefore if I was to use Ruby on Rails I would need to develop a CMS or find an existing open source Ruby on Rails CMS that could be incorporated into the application seemlessly.

The other application to consider would be an existing open source e-commerce system rather than building your own. Why?, because there are thousands of projects out there and to build your own would be wasting time and money and would not be tested to the same degree as an existing open source project.

Conclusions.

I’ve looked at and tried a couple of options, the one that stands out at the moment as the the most likely way of getting a production site running is to use a proxy web server with Mongrel, the tutorial “Serving Multiple Rails Applications on Windows with Apache and Mongrel” outlines this process. Yet to look at the Netbeans/JRuby option hopefully I can get back to this at some stage. (I having a few problems installing the JRuby plugins into Netbeans.)

If I were to develop an application for a client I would not bother with testing it on a windows environment for the deployment of Ruby on Rails. It’s just not supported well enough and to test a production deployment you have to overcome to many obstacles. The next best option would be to get it working on Ubuntu Linux using either Phusion Passenger or Jumpbox.

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References.

1. JumpBox. (n.d.). JumpBox for Ruby on Rails Deployment. Retrieved 15th July 2009 from http://www.jumpbox.com/app/rubyonrails
2. rubyonrails.org. (n.d.). Deploying Ruby on Rails is Easy. Retrieved 15th July 2009 from http://rubyonrails.org/deploy
3. Charles Brian Quinn. (n.d.). mongrel.rubyforge.org. Apache Best Practice Deployment. Retrieved 15th July 2009 from http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/wiki/Apache
4. Brian Hogan. (4 May 2006). Integrate Rails into an Existing IIS Web infrastructure using Apache and FastCGI. [Fact Sheet]. Retrieved 15th July 2009 from http://www.napcsweb.com/howto/rails/deployment/railsonIISWithApacheFCGI.pdf
5. Brian Hogan. (4 May 2006). Serving Multiple Rails Applications on Windows with Apache and
   Mongrel. [Fact Sheet]. Retrieved 15th July 2009 from http://www.napcsweb.com/howto/rails/deployment/RailsWithApacheAndMongrel.pdf
6. Capistrano (n.d.) Retrieved 15th July 2009 from http://www.capify.org/index.php/Capistrano
7. Hartl, M & Prochazka, A, (2008). RailsSpace: Building a Social Networking Website with Ruby on Rails. Addison-Wesley (pp 505-516): Addison-Wesley

Workshop 6: OTBS source

Generate a controller and an action by adding a method(s) to a controller.

Along with auto-generated application controller, controllers were created for passengers, site, and user:

The site contorller is used to for the static view templates such as the Home, About Us and Help.

The user controller is used for the registration views. It is the following actions:

• index,
• edit,
• register,
• login, and
• logout.

The passengers controller is used by the CRUD operations generated through the scaffolding process. Even though I’ve left the original scaffold generated model, controller and views I’ve had to make modifications so that the users table is linked to the passengers table. The passengers controller has the following methods:

• index,
• show,
• new,
• create,
• update, and
• destroy.

Here is the code for the passengers controller:

class PassengersController < ApplicationController # GET /passengers # GET /passengers.xml def index @user = User.find(session[:user_id]) @passengers = Passenger.find_all_by_user_id(session[:user_id]) respond_to do |format| format.html # index.html.erb format.xml { render :xml => @passengers }
end
end

# GET /passengers/1
# GET /passengers/1.xml
def show
@passenger = Passenger.find(params[:id])
if @passenger.user_id == User.find(session[:user_id])
respond_to do |format|
format.html # show.html.erb
format.xml { render :xml => @passenger }
end
end
end

# GET /passengers/new
# GET /passengers/new.xml
def new
@user = User.find(session[:user_id])
@passenger = Passenger.new

respond_to do |format|
format.html # new.html.erb
format.xml { render :xml => @passenger }
end

end

# GET /passengers/1/edit
def edit
@passenger = Passenger.find(params[:id])
end

# POST /passengers
# POST /passengers.xml
def create

@passenger = Passenger.new(params[:passenger])
@passenger.user_id = session[:user_id]
respond_to do |format|
if @passenger.save
flash[:notice] = ‘Passenger was successfully created.’
format.html { redirect_to(@passenger) }
format.xml { render :xml => @passenger, :status => :created, :location => @passenger }
else
format.html { render :action => “new” }
format.xml { render :xml => @passenger.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end

# PUT /passengers/1
# PUT /passengers/1.xml
def update
@passenger = Passenger.find(params[:id])

respond_to do |format|
if @passenger.update_attributes(params[:passenger])
flash[:notice] = ‘Passenger was successfully updated.’
format.html { redirect_to(@passenger) }
format.xml { head :ok }
else
format.html { render :action => “edit” }
format.xml { render :xml => @passenger.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
end
end
end

# DELETE /passengers/1
# DELETE /passengers/1.xml
def destroy
@passenger = Passenger.find(params[:id])
@passenger.destroy

respond_to do |format|
format.html { redirect_to(passengers_url) }
format.xml { head :ok }
end
end
end

In the first method, index, is where the main adjustment has been made the line:

@passengers = Passenger.find_all_by_user_id(session[:user_id])

Passes the user_id which is the foreign key to the passengers to do the lookup for all entries whith that user_id.

The other notable additions to the code occur in the model, the following line is added to the user model:


class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :passengers
.
.
.


And to the passenger model:


class Passenger < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :user
end