1. Using ASP.NET and Web Services in Courses Paul Roe Queensland University of Technology p.roe@qut.edu.au

2. © Paul Roe 2003 2 Discuss Two Courses Software Development for the Web –Run twice, focus on ASP.NET –Some web services –IT Degree, third year elective subject –(¼ full time student load × one semester) Web Services –New course, to commence Feb 2004 –Postgraduate elective subject –(¼ full time student load × one semester)

3. © Paul Roe 2003 3 Software Development for Web: Objectives Understand issues of s/w dev for web –Different from PC s/w dev. –Client server –State management –N-tier architecture, data access –Security, performance, web UI etc. Teach standard technology e.g. HTTP, HTML, XML, web services Give students experience with ASP.NET –Why? State of the art, easier than Java, useful, sexy…

4. © Paul Roe 2003 4 New Strategy for this Year Give students an existing system, ask them to make modifications –Study a well architected system –Easier marking –No need to bake one ourselves (to gauge complexity) –More realistic – don’t start from scratch

5. © Paul Roe 2003 5 Example System: gasTix gasTix example event ticketing system like Ticketek http://www.gastix.net Example system –best practice –well architected –Uses C#, VB.NET, database, security, ASP.NET, web services –Comes with all source code Described in: G. Sullivan, “NET e-Business Architecture”, SAMS, 2002 (ISBN: 0672322196) Other possibilities on MSDN: IBuySpy, …

6. © Paul Roe 2003 6 Other Reference Material Visual Studio and SDK doco –Walk throughs –Tutorials –Reference Web, particularly for generic technology: HTTP, HTML, XML MSDN Academic Alliance notes

7. © Paul Roe 2003 7 Course Structure Prerequisites –Java –Intermediate level object oriented programming –Basic HTML –Basic databases / SQL 2-3 hour lecture & 1 hour prac X 13 weeks Some guest lectures Assessment: 35% assignment, 65% exam

8. © Paul Roe 2003 8 Lectures Topics: –Web basics, HTTP, HTML, CGI, ActiveX, ASP/JSP (evolutionary perspective) –.NET basics: CLR, C#, VS.NET –ASP.NET, form lifecycle –ADO.NET, N-tier architecture –Security –XML, web services –Real world issues: deployment, testing, team management etc. –New developments: UDDI, GXA, P2P Most lectures mix of: –Concepts, design, architecture –standards (e.g. HTTP, XML, web services) –.NET: practice inc. demos –Guest lectures

9. © Paul Roe 2003 9 Assignment Work in pairs Extend the gasTix system Gave them a database with some new tables –Force them to use that database, only access via stored procs! Additional features –Customer registration –Support different counties –Web services address validator Assignment required them to understand existing code, but less coding for them to do

10. © Paul Roe 2003 10 Lab Setup Students developed and tested code on individual machines –run web server and database on each PC Machine configuration –Windows 2000 Professional –Internet Explorer –Visual Studio.NET Professional –IIS (optional Windows Professional component) –SQL Server Deploy final system on a server to make grading easier (xcopy deployment!)

11. © Paul Roe 2003 11 Ok so what happened? (2003) Lots of interest from students Got 230 students, and most stayed the duration despite it being on a Friday evening! Lot of material to cover Made good use of academic alliance program –Students can work on assignment at home –couldn’t run the unit without this! Assignments –Initial results good (being graded now!) –Marked by tutors (research students, finding staff with expertise is difficult) Guest lectures went really well –Better student behaviour and participation than for academics!

12. © Paul Roe 2003 12 Web Service Unit New, never run, this is the plan… Postgraduate elective Content –Why, big picture, business reasons –Core technology: SOAP, WSDL, UDDI –Case studies –New developments Use Java and.NET, WS are about interop!

13. © Paul Roe 2003 13 Environment Run on single machines Windows XP Run IIS and Tomcat – two web servers –.NET web services –Java web services: Apache Axis / IBM / Sun Also program against some existing web services such as Amazon, Google, Terraserver, UDDI test servers Perhaps use Windows server 2003 for UDDI

14. © Paul Roe 2003 14 Teaching Subject will be taken by CS and IS students Want to support specialisation, hence: –First Half: intense lecture series –Second half (specialisation): group projects, associated readings Books? Probably won’t use one

15. © Paul Roe 2003 15 Lectures Teach how web services can and are being used – business case, case studies(?) Web service architecture – where they fit in Basic web service technology –XML, Schema, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI –.NET and Java implementations Teach how to design web services, web service evolution, versioning, reusing WSDL, schema Generic web services:.NET Passport, Alerts etc. How to secure web services New technologies: WS-Security, WS-Coordination, BPEL4WS – some projects using these

16. © Paul Roe 2003 16 Software Development for the Web: Assignment: 2002 [Students built a system from scratch] Pizza ordering system for work group “Here’s one I made earlier” Incorporate some web services and other issues Required: ASP.NET, ADO.NET, data base Emphasized simple and elegant design

17. © Paul Roe 2003 17 Assignment Constraints Work in pairs Only use ASP.NET and C# Use at least one custom web control Use code behind and minimal inline program code Start from scratch

18. © Paul Roe 2003 18 Best Assignment

19. © Paul Roe 2003 19 Best Assignment

20. © Paul Roe 2003 20 Best Assignment