1. Scott Stocker November 18, 2002
Technical Overview
Scott Stocker
November 18, 2002

2. System Requirements Solaris or Linux operating system (recommended)
Java 1.3 or later
Java Servlet Container
Oracle 8i or later
Apache Web Server (recommended)
Oracle DB
JDBC
Servlet Container

3. Version History
Major releases each Fall, minor maintenance updates in Winter and Spring:
Version 1.0 released Fall 2001.
Version 1.1 released January 2002.
Version 1.2 released March 2002.
Version 2.0 released September 2002.
Version 2.1 scheduled for January 2003.
Version 2.2 scheduled for March 2003.
Version 3.0 scheduled for September 2003.
We are distributing pre-release code for 2.1 to you.
Version 3.0 will probably be first true open-source release.

4. Java Web Application Installs as a Web Application Archive (WAR) file.
Runs in a Java Servlet Container
We use Tomcat 3.2.3
Java Servlet Specification 2.2
Plans to update to Tomcat 4 and Servlet Spec 2.3
Uses only servlets, no JSPs.
We use Apache Web Server/Tomcat combination
mod_jk

5. Oracle Database Oracle 8i (8.1.7)
Oracle 8i JDBC drivers (classes12.zip)
Thin Driver or OCI-8 driver.
OCI-8 requires installation of Oracle client on app server.
Oracle 8i Connection Pool implementation
Single user schema

6. CourseWork Web Application
Core packages
edu.stanford.coursework.core
edu.stanford.coursework.common
Tool packages
edu.stanford.coursework.coursehome
edu.stanford.coursework.announcements
Etc
Dynamic Templating Language (DTL)
edu.stanford.coursework.dtl
Servlets
DTL Templates

7. Core Objects
Person, Nexus, Tool, Content
Nexus
Person
Tool
Content

8. Core Objects (continued)
Person Object
Represents a user in CourseWork
Nexus Object
Represents a course, a section, a department, etc.
Grouping of people, tools, and content.
Definable NexusTypes.
Tool Object
A tool that shows up in the navigation bar
Allows tools to be turned on/off for each Nexus
Content Object
A single piece of content that is used in a Nexus.
Referenced by URL and/or filepath.

9. Person Object (example object model)
Person.java
fields map to database fields
get and set methods for each field
toDTLObject method
PersonController.java
Methods to get, create, save, remove object in DB
Other static methods to use/manipulate object
PersonSQL.java
SQL query strings used in preparedStatements to interact with the database

10. Dynamic Templating Language (DTL)
Developed at Highwire Press, Stanford University
Installs as a JAR file
Parsed HTML Templates with rich variable replacement capabilities
Also provides date/time display functionality and configuration file parsing functionality for CourseWork
Simple Examples:
[[VARDEF $COLOR]]#CCCCCC[[/VARDEF]]
This font color is <FONT COLOR=[[$COLOR]]>grey</FONT>.
Or in Java Code:
DTLObject mainDTL = new DTLObject();
mainDTL.put(“COLOR”, “#CCCCCC”);

11. Tool Model Two servlets – student view and admin view
Eg, Announcements.java and AdminAnnouncements.java
edu.stanford.coursework.<toolname> package.
Uses same object model as core object
DTL Templates
Database tables

12. CourseWork Documentation Site
Javadocs
Database Schemas
DTL Javadocs and instructions
3rd party packages used by CourseWork (oreilly, etc)