I have to design a school web ERP for a client of mine.
The following modules need to be present as of now:
Student
Inventory
Cafeteria
Admissions
Please help me with the required links or book which can guide me with the steps that need to be followed to create the design. Difference between different designs that can be used for e.g. in one of the links i read that Component based design should be used.
Also, Please note that the modules need to be licensed. i.e. The user must be able to choose one or more modules of his interest and only those modules should be installed.
I am new to this area and this exercise is primarily for learning process so I WANT TO DO THIS FROM SCRATCH AND NOT USE THE EXISTING OPEN SOURCE AT THIS POINT OF TIME.
Please help me with the required links / books / papers etc...
This question is way too broad to be completely answered with a single post. But if you're looking for a book to explore architectural approaches I can highly recommend the following, which in my opinion is a must-read for every developer anyway:
Patterns of Enterprise Architecture by Martin Fowler
Related
I'm newbie to Quality Center, Hence please clarify that one has to have some knowledge on QTP while learning Quality Center tool. Since found a module exist as QTP-QC integration.
Anxiously Awaiting,
Thanks,
You don't need to know QTP to learn QC. They are both different tools. QTP-QC integration is required when using QTP as an automation tool to execute/manage QTP scripts and resource in Quality Center.
I agree--you don't need QTP, but if you want to use it you can integrate it by following this tutorial. However, I work for IT Central Station, a crowdsourced review site for enterprise tech products including QC, and our users say that if you’re new to QC or ALM, they have a "steep learning curve" so it would be helpful to take a course in it. This user recommends that you check out HP’s “tutorials (PDF, movie files, online resources) on how to use the application, as well as a number of classes to familiarize yourself with the product...to learn about many best practices, ways to organize your projects for maximum reuse through libraries and templates, configuring KPI and dashboards.” Hope this helps.
The DevExpress XAF does much basis work for you, it creates a database based on your business objects, and dynamically generates a UI based on these, with basic functions like add, delete, sort etc. already present.
This leaves me wondering how to go about properly designing and modelling an application built on this framework. I could only model my business objects, or I could identify functions provided by the framework and include them in a details model down to sequence diagram level, but so much is being done by 'external' calls that I feel I would be wasting valuable time.
I am hoping someone with experience modelling application designs for this specific framework can give me some advice on what areas I should focus on.
As for DC, as Leon mentioned above, it has many benefits compared to the regular persistent classes. If all goes according to plan, we will release the Domain Components technology in the near future, and resolve all the remaining issues with it.
If you feel that it is hard to learn, please let us know the most difficult parts you experienced. We will be glad to review them and possibly make the things easier for you and other users.
P.S.
I apologize for the delay in responding; I was on sick leave. You will receive more timely responses if you post your questions in the DevExpress Support Center.
#ProfK:
Am I correct that you are looking for something like visual designer for your business models?
If so, then I am afraid that XPO (XAF) does not currently provide such a functionality. However, you can use free third-party tools for modeling, such as Liekhus ADO.NET Entity Data Model XAF Extensions
I hope you find this information helpful.
I'm using XAF for almost two years now and I'm very happy with it. Developing an app is very quick, nice architecture, both Win and Web the same time and great UI. As with all frameworks, it has a learning curve, but if your already familiar with DevExpress controls that it's not very hard.
As Dennis mentioned, most behaviour can be overriden or extended. Regarding your modelling question, if think an important choice you have to make is whether or not you will use their Domain Components technology. Basically they have 2 ways: the old fashion way by inheriting from the XAF or XPO base classes or by using DC. DC allows a clean separation in modules and allows multiple inheritance. They can do that by generating classes runtime, but it still has some issues.
And the framework comes with a Business Class Library, a set of common classes which may be useful.
When I get stuck or cannot find the answer myself, I always use their fantastic Support Center. Most issues I ran into were already asked and answer on that site.
Briefly, each XAF application consists of Modules. There can be standard (system) and extra (user-defined) modules. Each Module can contain business objects, so-called Application Model customizations, Editors, Controllers, and Actions to provide additional business logic, customize UI and provide interaction between framework parts. You can model and customize your application on each level listed above, including but not limited by the underlying framework's metadata and data store ones. You can find more information about the framework's architecture here:
http://documentation.devexpress.com/#Xaf/CustomDocument2559
I should emphasize that it is possible to override behavior of almost every part of the framework. For instance, create your own editors for detail and list forms, override certain standard controllers, etc.
If you experience any further difficulties with our framework, feel free to contact us through our Support Center. We will be always glad to not only answer you questions, but advice a certain technical or design solution, provide some example code, etc.
Out of Drupal and Umbraco, in your opinion which CMS would be easiest for a junior dev / designer to come to terms with?
Initial configuration will be by an experienced developer, with handover to an in-house junior. I'm not a programmer, so forgive my terminology - but is one built using a more common language than the other, for instance? Are there particular traps / benefits of each one? Also, which one has a more active developer community?
I realise it's really hard to do this if you haven't worked in both, but I'd really appreciate any thoughts to help with choosing between these two systems - both of which meet our stated business requirements.
Thanks so much for your help,
V
As I said in my comment, ideally you should leave this decision up to the developer in question. As choosing a CMS based on their choice of language will cut down development time considerably.
The strongest trait Drupal brings onto the table, is the fact that it has been around for quite some time and has a huge community supporting it. Its choices/options of modules are also very extensive as this would be a good point to factor into your decision. The documentation and guides that are available freely on the net may also aid your junior developer.
Just my 2 cents.
Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 7 years ago.
Improve this question
I am currently facing a situation where I as an advocate of test driven development have to compete with an advocate of model driven software development (MDSD) / model driven architecture (MDA).
In my opinion, code generation is a valuable tool in my toolbox and I make heavy use of templates and automation when needed. I also create diagrams in UML when I think this helps to understand the inner working or to discuss architecture on the white board. However, I strongly doubt that creating software via UML (creating statecharts and sequence diagrams to create working code not only skeletons of code) is more efficient for multi tier applications (database layer, business/domain layer and a Gui, maybe even distributed). It seems to me when it comes to MDSD, the CASE tooling suddenly isn't just a tool anymore but it is the thing to satisfy: As I see it, on the one hand, MDSDevelopers profit from the higher abstraction UML gives them but at the same time they are struggling with modifing the codegenerator/template/engine to fullfill their needs which might be easily implemented (and tested) if used another tool out of their toolbox (VisualStudio, Eclipse,...).
All this makes me wonder if there has been a success story (suceess being that the product was rolled out in time, within the budged and with only few bugs and parts of the software have been reused later on) for a real world application which fullfills this creteria and has been developed using a strict model driven approach:
it has nothing to do with the the Object Management Group (OMG) or with consultants related to MDSD/MDA/SOA/
the application is not related to Business Process Modelling and is not a CASE tool itself
the application is actively used by end user
it has at least three tiers, including a user interface which goes beyond displaying raw table values and is not one of the common MDA/MDSD examples ("how to model a coffee machine, traffic light, dishwasher").
A tiny, but nevertheless useful testimonial on the use of MDSD has been posted on the Model Driven Software Network:
http://www.modeldrivensoftware.net/profiles/blogs/viva-mdd-follow-up-building-a?xg_source=activity
It is a relatively small app being developed, but still a good example of MDSD in action.
More success stories are listed at Metacase's site (http://www.metacase.com/cases/index.html). Metacase sells MetaEdit+, which implements DSM (Domain-Specific Modeling). DSM is just a form of MDSD.
I am also developing ABSE (Atom-Based Software Engineering), another form of MDSD, very close to DSM. ABSE is outlined at http://www.abse.info.
I used MDA and code generation on an embedded system project using 4 processors connected via CAN. We had over 20 axes of motion and many, many sensors. The system was highly robust and maintainable as the mechanical components were evaluated and modified.
We worked in the models and generated code so the models were always up-to-date. We did a careful domain analysis to achieve subject matter isolation. The motor control required very high performance and so was not modeled or generated. Our network drivers were also hand-coded, and we wrote interfaces that allowed bridge services to send events to any service anywhere in the system as needed (although this was tightly controlled so as to minimize interprocessor dependencies).
Using the method took a bit of discipline, but having working models was great because they can be reviewed by non-software types.
Version control and differencing of the models was a bit of a challenge but we had a small, localized team so we were able to avoid merge issues.
The good people at Pathfinder Solutions (our tool vendor) can help mentor you through the project.
You could also take a look at the slides from previous Code Generation conferences. Several of these talks were from successful case studies e.g. http://www.codegeneration.net/cg2009/slides.php
I am working on one of the project for legacy modernization and its using MDA tool named Bluage. Its for a big healthcare organization and its in production so i could say that its successful. MDA is better in case of legacy modernization as it can generate KDM model from some technologies like pacbase which are going to be out of support.
I worked on a MDSD system that generated admin style web apps in Google Closure. I believe that your question is compelling. Too much complexity and your MDSD system is too hard to use. Too simple and you won't generate apps that are useful in the real world. Where MDSD really shines is in saving developer time typing lots of plumbing style code but how can MDSD remain effective over multiple releases? Requirements can go in many directions. That is the real challenge. I recently blogged about my MDSD lessons learned on that project.
I would like to learn ASP.NET (Complete .NET Framework 3.0 / 3.5) and not getting time to attend training classes in any training center.
Kindly let me know if you know if there are any other good alternates/options to learn.
Kindly provide the details too.
you can start at http://www.asp.net/get-started/
To really learn any language and supporting platform you need to code, and code a lot. Resources are quite numerous out there, so in this sense I can understand your questions, i.e. what are some recommendations. Below is a list I would consider to get that initial push that will enable you to begin your journey to becoming a solid coder.
1) Microsoft's MSDN, Codeplex, ASP.NET website, and development tools are where I would start. Microsoft offers all the tools needed to build/code in the .NET framework which you can freely download. Their online documentation has really become a solid resource and their examples, along with others, can be found at Codeplex.com. The ASP.NET also has a wealth of resources and a pretty good forum for user discussion and knowledge sharing.
2) SourceForge: Look for Open Source initiatives and become involved in them. At first you will be learning but if dedicated, i.e. you like the project, you will be helping others in short order. An example of a Microsoft ASP.NET Open Source initiative I would recommend is DotNetNuke. The core team members are very nice and the community as a whole very helpful and continually growing. You may even find one day that you are developing and selling your own custom modules for extending DotNetNuke at snowcovered.com - so there is a monetary benefit I've provided for your efforts!
3) Learnvisualstudio.net: I joined this several years back and purchased a life-time membership for very little. This site offers video based training which is not bad. In addition to life-time memberships there are other plans which might suite your needs and all of which are very affordable. BTW, they have had a new series out for a few months on Visual Studio 2010 .NET 4 - "First Impressions Visual Studio 2010 - ASP.NET 4.0". They also offer two video formats; one for desktop programs, i.e. Win Media Player and VLC, and one for mobile devices such as iPhone/iPod Touch.
4) Informit's Books Online or Books24x7.com: As a possible alternative to purchasing books at Borders/Amazon/etc. you might find the option of an electronic bookshelf a valuable resource in which you can load up your own bookshelf with much more technical books that you'll ever need. The all inclusive offerings are about $40/month or $500/yr. They both have a trial period so you can see what each is like since they both have their +/-'s. Consider how much you normally spend on technical books a year for starters and go with a comparable plan (Informit's Books Online has more pricing options, I believe). If you find a book you wish to have in hand, you can purchase it for a reduced member's price. Finally, if you own a mobile device such as a Blackberry, iPhone, etc. you can browse your bookshelf with your device in a format they provide, which is live online and very readable (in contrast with Apple’s safari book bag used to browse downloaded PDF versions of content purchased at Safari’s Books Online - which I find sorta tough to read).
5) Get a nice computer of your own if you can afford it. I like Dell desktops and Lenovo Thinkpad notebooks, and if not sure what manufacturer to go with take a look at reviews by CNET. An investment like this might give you a little added push from behind to learn and you can configure your machine as you wish. Windows 7 is terrific and you can use Virtual PC 2007, which is a free tool you can use to host server and other OS’es if you wish to develop in SharePoint or learn other server based technologies.
My final comment is that not a single one of these resources will mean anything if you believe that just by purchasing something you will learn how to code. This list represents just some random thoughts and it is just a begining. It takes time, dedication, and honesty with yourself about your goals … and expect to be frustrated at times. A good friend who shares similar aspirations as you can make a huge difference when embarking down the path to becoming a good "anything”. It is heavy lifting at times and you’ll want a spotter around when it is so.
Start small and be reasonable with your expectations. Best of luck!
John
I found this publication to be very helpful:
Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# (Apress)
I like this author's writing style since it's put in straightfoward, understandable terms. You can download some sample material on the Apress site. Additionally, it looks like used copies can be had for a pretty decent price as well if you check on Amazon.
Hope this helps!
Best way to learn any framework is to write in it.
Best advice I can give is to go the web site start here, and move forward.
Keep writing applications in it and you will learn it.