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community networking portal for academic group
Download PDFClient Requirement
Client required a website to promote an advanced way of learning. He required a comprehensive e-learning platform equipped with characteristics that would help students communicate and share information such as course material (video, Mp3, journals, etc), book reviews, manuscripts and online research tool among each other. Client sought a proficient team acquiring extensive knowledge in implementing web 2.0 features along with several complex functionalities involved in the project, as follows:
- Provide all the academic content (Images, Videos, Manuscripts, books, etc.) under a single platform to make it convenient for the users to find everything under one roof rather than surfing various sites for it.
- Enable Social interaction by inviting people.
- Allow knowledge exchange through file sharing, downloading, and uploading feature.
- Allow user to create his/her profile to showcase accomplishments.
- Create "Public Profile" feature so that users can create profiles for scholars they admire.
- Create an absolute category-based design and maintain proper Discipline using parent-child system.
- View version history and implement various high-ranking search techniques.
Challenges
Team faced the following challenges:
- According to requirement, client demanded high-ranking search techniques to be implemented in the application. Apache Solar which is a competent technology was used to meet user requirement. The application can now search according to various sections such as search according to tags, geographical focus, category based, related disciplines, related videos, and so on.
- Adding discipline-based content was another crucial requirement. Project team adopted parent-child system to create each category within the application.
- Project team developed several modules to incorporate social networking feature using Drupal Framework.
- Other challenges include synchronization and incorporation of an extensive list of features designed for enhancing the user's community networking experience.
- Provision and maintenance of the database of a range of interactive features like mail service, blogs and forums to ensure user participation.
Technologies Used
| Drupal | Most appropriately suited to create dynamic web pages. Drupal is a free software package that allows anyone to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. |
| JavaScript and AJAX | (Client-side Language) Cross browser support & faster loading time with light web pages that require no plug-in downloads. Scalable JavaScript based controls to provide flexibility and enhance user experience and involvement. |
| My SQL | A versatile low maintenance database management system which acts as a cross-platform compatible database component of the LAMP platform. |
| Linux | Linux is a sturdy platform with open source code for extensive customization and with powerful multitasking abilities. |
| Apache 2.0 Handler | Apache handlers can either be built into the server or included in a module. Supports a variety of features while offering extendable core functionality |
Manpower
| Project Leader | 1 |
| Developers | 1 |
| Designers | 1 |
| Quality Assurance Testers | 1 |
Planning
The enormous structure of the website and the challenges involved necessitated the adoption of a four-tier approach that consisted of:
- MySQL Server Database, Tables, stored procedures etc... incorporated within the database layer
- Conversion of data between incompatible type systems in databases and accessing data from the database for the Interface layer and Database Abstraction layer respectively.
- All the business logic procedures for modules such as User Profiles, Invitations, Forums and Blogs etc... forming the Business Logic Layer.
- The GUI of the website formed by the User Interface layer
Architecture
The website was mainly characterized by rich user data and featured extensive capabilities of social networking nature which entailed MySQL Server and Drupal. The development structure was specifically implemented to facilitate the 'faster to market' transition of such concepts. Drupal Framework was used to develop modules like User Profiles, Invitations, Forums and Blogs other modules such that direct execution from the UI layer was possible. Effective access to the database in an object oriented context was implemented using an interface translating the object logic to relational logic so as to communicate with the relational databases in an object-oriented manner. Access to the database was enabled through the creation of an intermediary abstraction layer. Only the complex retrieval of data from multiple tables was facilitated through stored procedures and everywhere else conditional syntax was implemented to ensure seamless performance of the website. Images, applications and data were called from their respective servers keeping the UI layer free of any business logic and scalability was guaranteed by implementing sub-domains for various areas of the website.
Development Highlights
Greater accuracy in handling user status, user information and other user-related validations ensure privacy and security of content. Comprehensive search & browse options are offered within optimized query features using Apache Solar. The entire framework was kept highly scalable in order to provide adaptability & ease while incorporating new features. Web usability guidelines were strictly adhered to during the development and the interface was easily navigable through the judicious use of CSS and HTML controls. Search Engine Optimization activities were regularly resorted to with a view to ensuring high visibility for the site over the internet. The site was developed and fully functional within a span of 1 year.
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