CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT

TUI UNIVERSITY William Witt Module 1 Case Assignment CSC320: Applied Scientific Inquiry Dr. Ali Choudhry 23 April 2012

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT Body In this assignment we are to find one or two examples each of the categories of web site specified in Schroeders Introduction to Web Engineering. The categories are a follows: Documentbased, Interactive, Transactional, Workflow-based, Collaborative, Web portals, Ubiquitous, and Semantic Web. Document-based Document-based web pages are the simplest of all sites, containing static HTML and images.

This example from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Humanoid Robotics Group contains an image map, where clicking different coordinates on the tree in the center of the page correlate to different links on the site. While the page does contain some JavaScript for the for the webmaster's mailto link and, as a result, could technically be considered interactive. Because the purpose of the JavaScript is to prevent SPAM instead of adding client side interactive features, I will still classify it as document based.

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT Interactive

Interactive web sites provide some simple dynamic capabilities for the user, this is done through the use of web forms and JavaScript client side scripting. While this type of site is becoming less common, they are still in use by small organizations with an informative messages. This example from Catoma Baptist Church shows some of the interactive drop down menus common with this classification of site.

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT Transactional The defining characteristic of transactional web site is that eh user can modify the data is presented. While this was possible with interactive sites, transactional sites are typically connected to

databases to provide components of the output. The example below, lowestfare.com, provides the user with the ability to query airline rates and book tickets. The the user's desired arrival and departure dates and locations are input into the system, which dynamically generates a page with prices based on a database query. The user can then purchase the tickets, which stores the purchase information in the database for processing.

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT Workflow-based Workflow based systems model and automate processes between organizations or individuals. Because of the custom nature of these business processes, these tend to be confined to corprate intranets and secure communication channels on the internet. I personally work on several workflow based systems, however they deal with a significant amount of personally identifiable information and would not be suitable for displaying here. However, the federal government provides us with a ubiquitous workflow model in the income tax system. TurboTax, an income tax preparation and filing system is available to the public to guide them through the processes that are necessary to file their taxes.

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT Collaborative Collaborative web sites provide a framework for individuals to for groups and communicate.

While the earliest collaborative pages were probably the web forums that attempted to replace Usenet's use-groups, the quintessential collaborative web pages these days is the wiki. While, Wikipedia is probably the most popular wiki in use, because of the open source nature of wikis there are many others in use. This example from Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution, permits community editing of documentation.

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT Web portals Web portals often provide a jumping off point for web browsing. The United States Air Force began using an Air Force Portal several years ago to consolidate information from multiple organizations into a uniform, searchable, location with information centered around Air Force life and

careers. In the private sector, companies like Google created portals with configurable widgets, like the example below, that pull information from other sites to form a coherent dashboard of news, weather, and entertainment.

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT Ubiquitous With the recent popularity of smart phones, the ubiquitous web has finally become a reality even though the buzzword changed. Cloud Computing provides the promise of information everywhere it's needed. In the example below Gmail is displayed in a web browser, the same email is

aslo available on my cellular phone or tablet computer. The data also flows from one device to another, one email as read updates it everywhere and adding a contact also updates my cell phone's address book. To the same extent, Google Docs, which recently became Google Drive, allows users to edit their word processing documents and spreadsheets anywhere, any time, on any computer, tablet, or smart phone.

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT Semantic Web The semantic web attempts to discern the meaning documents on the web, so the searches can yield more productive results. For instance a search for the cougars could return results for documents with references to jaguars, pumas, and mountain lions. The example site below, SWSE attempts to do just this. Unfortunately this kind of information cataloging is difficult to automate and even more difficult to convince original authors to do. Conclusion

The web has changed greatly since inspection and continues to change at a blistering pace. The basics are still there however: pages are still delivered via HTML, JavaScript is still used for client side scripting, and pages are still provided by web servers. The real changes have come from increased bandwidth and client processing power. Overall, the web is an exciting place to work these days.

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CSC320: MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT

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Catoma Baptist Church. (n.d.). Catoma Baptist Church. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from http://catomabaptist.com/ GMail. (n.d.). GMail. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from https://mail.google.com/ Humanoid Robotics Group. (n.d.). Humanoid Robotics Group. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/ Kubuntu. (n.d.). Kubuntu. Retrieved July 16, 2012, from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kubuntu Lowestfare.com - Travel, airfare, airline tickets, cheap tickets, Flights, hotels, hotel rooms, rental cars, car rentals, vacations, vacation packages, cruises, last minute travel, and more!. (n.d.). Lowestfare.com - Travel, airfare, airline tickets, cheap tickets, Flights, hotels, hotel rooms, rental cars, car rentals, vacations, vacation packages, cruises, last minute travel, and more!. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from http://lowestfare.com/ SWSE -- Semantic Web Search Engine. (n.d.). SWSE -- Semantic Web Search Engine. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from http://swse.deri.org/ accessing. (n.d.). TurboTax Tax Preparation Software, FREE Tax Filing, Efile Taxes, Income Tax Returns. TurboTax Tax Preparation Software, FREE Tax Filing, Efile Taxes, Income Tax Returns. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from http://turbotax.intuit.com/ iGoogle. (n.d.). Google. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from http://www.google.com/ig

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