B.Tech Project Report: Development of Online Computer Based Test Suite, To Be Deployed On

B.
Tech Project Report
Development of Online Computer based

Test Suite, to be deployed on
www.uCertify.com
Development of a generic ASP based
toolkit for remote database manipulation,
with intermediate data transfer in XML
Project Guide
Mr. Madhup Sharma
Senior Project Manager
Ucertify.com
Project Undertaken By
Pratyush Kumar (19991034)
Pravi Tripathi (19991035)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We express our sincere gratitude and thanks to all those who have helped us in
the completion of this project.
Of all the persons who have helped us, we would first of all like to thank Mr.
Madhup Sharma, Senior Project Manager (uCertify.com), under whose able
guidance we have completed our project and who helped us at each and every
stage of our project.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to Mr. Prashant Gupta, CEO,
uCertify.com and his team Ms Priya, Mr. Varun, Mr. Deepak Jaiswal and
everybody else at uCertify.com for their cooperation and valuable support in
every way during the period of the project.
Pratyush
Pravi Tripathi
Eighth Semester
IIIT-Allahabad
Company Profile: www.uCertify.com

Conceived in 1996, uCertify.com specializes in the development of
computer assisted test preparation software. From the very beginning, the
company has devoted considerable resources in Computer Assisted
Learning (CAL) research. The findings from these researches have been
incorporated into their products. Hence these products are not only
effective in providing a realistic test simulation but also help preparing for
the certification tests.
The company covers
certification tests such as
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
major
internationally
recognized
computer
MCSE
MCSD
MCDBA
MCSA
CompTIA
Java Certification
CIW
Oracle
Their flagship project uC PrepEngine and uC PrepKit has already registered

widespread consumer base just during the first few months of its release.
The team is committed to enhance its knowledge base to contribute
constructively towards facilitating aspiring students of these certification
exams. Further the company plans to enter into the huge market of online
testing services, chiefly for the US, like the online nursing test and
GRE/GMAT to name a few.
The company also undertakes several offshore projects from companies
abroad. The projects usually harness the strong skill set of the team chiefly
in the areas of databases, portal design and general software consultancy.
Their major products include the uCertify PrepEngine and the uCertify
PrepKit. PrepEngine is a generic engine that has been written to read test
data from an installed PrepKit to simulate practice tests.
3
Assignment I
To Develop a Online Test Suite, to be
deployed on www.uCertify.com
Time Line
Problem Analysis
10%
Study
30%
Module Division
5%
Design
10%
Implementation Debugging and Integration
40%
Project Report and Presentation
5%
Table Of Content
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Abstract
Introduction
Problem Definition and Analysis: requirements
Design and Implementation
Testing and Deployment
Future Enhancements
Bibliography
Abstract
Companies existing on the web have several constraints. The primary
constraint with such companies is the way they interact with their customers.
The customer has to have an internet access for sufficiently long time before
they can really impress her and sell their product. Companies long for a
solution that can be viewed offline with almost same features as online ones
should be small in size and should protect their IPR. We have here tried to
explore a solution for such a scenario. The company, uCertify.com has been in
the business of selling online test preparation kits and wants a solution to reach
to its customers online as well as offline.
We propose the use of web technologies like DHTML and XML for designing
such a solution. The solution thus designed has the advantage of being used
into their flagship product uCertify PrepEngine and the PrepKit to render it
more flexibility and extensibility.
Introduction
Since advent of the computer aided learning paradigm, many companies have
started their online courses related to their technologies and products. To name
a few are like Cisco Certified Networking Administrator (CCNA), Microsoft
Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and Microsoft Certified Software
Developer (MCSD). These companies give a certification subject to clearing all
of their online tests under certain category. To cater the need of this growing
market segment, where online test preparation kits hold a great popularity,
uCertify has been in the forefront, developing simulation test preparation kits.
We as working with their team of creative professionals were given a task to
develop an online test kit on the lines of Microsoft, along with careful analysis
of competitors softwares for the similar purpose, so that we could create a
place for uCertifys software products. Major constraints before us were
performance along with reliability i.e. a user should not experience any glitches
and error messages while undergoing the online test. Also the interface along
with the usage procedures had to be as simple and user friendly as possible.
In such kind of application user interface design plays an important factor
when one has to compete with various other products of different companies.
The user will definitely opt for the one he feels more comfortable and user
friendly rather than one with complex features and handling issues.
Problem Definition and Analysis: Requirements

uCertify.com has its major business area in marketing simulation tests for
Microsoft and other similar computer based tests. Hence the project
requirements were to simulate similar test experience as on the Microsoft
online tests. There were many categories of questions that Microsoft corp. asks.
All such types of questions were to be included in the online test module. Also,
the company decided to keep this module for promotional purposes on the
internet as well. The company wanted a solution that could serve as a general
solution for all its requirements, the web, the uCertify PrepEngine and even for
promotional purposes application. It was to function as a generic solution for
the migration of companys dependence on rigid test application made with
regular programming languages, such as PowerBuilder and Sybase as backend
database towards a DHTML style. Hence, an important consideration of small
size and light weight application was imperative. Care was to be taken so that
the application developed could work with a wide variety of systems and
platforms, ranging from legacy windows systems, to the most modern
Windows XP, to other third party operating systems and browsers.
Major requirements can be listed as:
1. Light weight application
2. Single file that could easily be downloaded even on slow connections
3. Should work on various third party browsers (online web page version)
4. Should be able to use companys existing question database with
minimum changes made
5. Extensible
6. Should incorporate major types of questions asked by Microsoft Corp.
Depending on the requirements of the test, a PrepKit can have following types
of questions:
1. Single Correct in Multiple Choice
2. Multiple Correct in Multiple Choice
3. Scenario-Based
4. Exhibit-Based
5. Hot Spot
6. Drag & Drop
9
7. Choose and Reorder the List

8. Create a Tree
9. Establish a Relationship
Single Correct in Multiple Choice

The Single correct in multiple choice type questions have multiple answer options
with radio buttons. Radio buttons indicate that only one answer option can be
selected. This does not mean in anyway that only the selected answer option is
correct. All the answer options may or may not be correct, but only the most
appropriate answer option is to be selected.
Example:
A. Answer option 1
B. Answer option 2
Multiple Correct in Multiple Choice

The Multiple correct in multiple choice type questions have multiple answer
choices with check boxes. Check boxes indicate that there can be one or more
correct answers for that question. If the question requires three answers and only
two or less than two are marked, the question will be marked as incorrect.
Example:
A. Answer option 1
B. Answer option 2
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Scenario-Based
Scenario-based questions are based on scenarios and exhibits The question
requires the test taker to rate the suggested solution in terms of its aptness in
meeting the required and the optional results mentioned in the question.
Example of the Choices:

A. The suggested solution does not produce the required result.
B. The suggested solution produces only the required result.
C. The suggested solution produces the required result and both the optional
results.
D. The suggested solution produces the required result and one of the
optional results.
Exhibit-Based
Some questions include exhibits that act as supporting pictorial information for
the question. These exhibits are generally used to explain the scenario in the
question and help the test taker to understand the question. The Exhibit-Based
questions may have single correct or multiple correct answers or may even
require the test taker to Drag & Drop the correct answer in the placeholder
provided, or simulate the question in the exhibit, or click on the Hot Spot in the
exhibit. Other types of questions, which may have an exhibit, are Choose and
Reorder the List, Create a Tree and Establish a Relationship.
11
Hot Spot
In Hot Spot type questions, the test taker will be required to mark the appropriate
area on the image in the Hot Spot window.
12
Drag & Drop

To answer Drag & Drop type of questions, the test taker must drag the correct
item from the list of items given, and place them in the given placeholder area.
To remove the already placed object, drag n drop it anywhere outside the
placeholder area. This action brings the item back to the list of items.
Question grading:
One mark is awarded for these types of questions. These marks are awarded if
all the items are placed correctly. No marks are awarded if any one of the items
is placed incorrectly.
13
Choose and Reorder the List

To answer Choose and Reorder the List type of questions, the test taker has to
select the correct items from the list of choices on the right hand side of the
screen and bring them to the left hand side of the screen. To bring items, one by
one, to the left hand side of the screen, click on the item in the right hand side of
the screen and then click the left arrow button.
Once the items have been selected and brought to the left hand side of the
screen, they can be rearranged as desired. To rearrange the list of answers, one
has to select the items to be moved up or down, and then use the up or down
arrow button to move it.
To remove an item from the left side screen, select the item and click the right
arrow button.
Question grading:
Two points are awarded for each correct item in the list of answers. One point is
awarded for each item that appears in the correct order with respect to the other
correct items in the list of answers. Two points are deducted for each incorrect
item in the list of items. The minimum score is zero
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Create a Tree
To answer Create a Tree type questions, the test taker must select the
appropriate item from the list of items on the right side of the screen and place
them under the node of the tree.
To add Items under the nodes, she should select the destination node on the left
side of the screen, select the item from the list of items on the right side of the
screen, and then click the left arrow button to move the items.
To remove an item from the tree, she can select the item and click the right arrow
button, or she can drag the item from the tree back to the list of items on the right
side of the screen.
Question grading:
Two points are awarded for each item that appears under the correct node in the
tree. One point is deducted for each incorrect item. The minimum score is zero
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Establish a Relationship
These type of questions present the test taker with several connectors that she
can use to join the objects on the screen. Depending on the question, she should
connect the objects using the appropriate connector from either the Relationships
box or the Data connector box.
To create relationships between two objects, she should first drag the two objects
to an open area of the screen. Next, use shift + click to select two objects she
wants to connect. Once she has selected the object, the object border changes
and shows a 3D-lowered effect. To deselect the object, point to the object and
use shift + click again. She must select two objects before she can choose a
connector to create a relationship. While defining relationships only two objects
should be selected at one time. If two objects are already selected and the test
taker wants to select another object, she must first deselect one of the objects.
After selecting the two objects, double-click the connector she wants to place
between the two objects. She can place a maximum of three connectors between
two selected objects. To remove a connector between two objects, she must
right-click the connector she wants to remove. Right clicking brings up a pop-up
menu from which she can select the Delete option to remove the relationship
connector. To reverse the defined relationship of the connector, right-click the
connector and select the Reverse option. Simply moving two objects on the
screen will not change the relationship.
Question grading:
Each correct relationship between two objects is worth four points. One point is
awarded for each correctly selected object that exists in the relationship. One
point is given for identifying the correct relationship, and one point for identifying
the correct direction of the relationship. Two points are deducted for each
incorrectly identified relationship between two objects. The minimum score is
zero.
16
17

Ucertify has long been in the area of online testing. The earlier solution was
based on a database front-end application, using Powerbuilder and Sybase SQL
Anywhere as the database. The new strategy of the company was to migrate
from this rigid application towards a more general and more flexible approach,
which could be used simultaneously on the web as well as in the UC
PrepEngine. After reviewing the power of the standard tools available, an
approach based on XML and HTML was suggested. The new design of the
PrepEngine uses IE placeholder to display the web contents, hence additional
need for UI programming is obliterated, at the same time providing a single
solution for application as well as web requirements of the company. This has
been a big paradigm shift for the company.
The major advantage of using HTML with XML as data source is particularly
derived from the fact that XML provides generality of data as well as support
for its formatting, thats paramount for a good user experience. The use of
HTML as the front end provides excellent integration with powerful scripting
languages such as Jscript (or JavaScript) and VBScript. The seamless integration
with the DOM (Document Object Model) standard also lends it extra ease of
Object Oriented programming.
Before the introduction of HTML+XML approach, the company targeted testtakers only interested in Microsoft certification exams, such as the MSCE and
MCSP etc. with the migration of the platform to HTML+XML standard, the
company can now cater to the needs of a wide variety of users, often not
interested only in Microsoft certification. As XML and HTML are general and
platform independent implementations, they are pretty well supported on a
wide variety of systems.
Another problem now addressed by the XML approach was the ease of data
upgrade on client machines. Earlier, the data was distributed in form of MS
.mdb files that were registered with the ODBC to serve data to the PrepEngine.
With the release of a new PrepKit, it was difficult to upgrade just the database.
All the dependencies were first to be closed before any replacement of the
database was done. It was also difficult to download just the database from the
internet and update the database. With the XML database, it becomes relatively
simple to download and update the database. Also the size of the bundled
package reduces considerably as the .mdb database required ODBC drivers for
those machines that did not have proper mdb drivers installed in them. No
such dll's or drivers are required with XML files. They are easier to access using
the MS XML parser bundled along with Internet Explorer.
18
Consequently, the main aim was to migrate the existing data from RDBMS to
an XML file. We worked separately on this module, providing extra
functionality of exporting files of a remote database, through a web server and
capturing it in form of XML.
The conversion of this RDBMS to XML required additional design issues that
could faithfully depict the relations and hierarchy that was already stored in the
database.
The solution designed can be explained with the help of the following block
diagram.
uCertify
Question
Database
XML
Data Module
Test Module
UI Creation
Navigation
Event Response
Result
Exhibit
The company decided to keep the online test application on the web for
promotional purposes. Making a rigid application would hamper the size
considerations. Also, just keeping a webpage on the web for testing requires the
19
test taker to be online for a considerable period of time. Considering the large
variety of test takers, this was a big assumption to make. Hence, after
considering all the possible alternatives, we finally settled on developing a single
module that could function as a standalone test, but light weight in size. An
application with all its dlls is demanding in size. The best alternative was a
Compiled Help Module, or commonly called a CHM file. A CHM file is a
Microsoft standard for making HTML help for applications, and is very widely
used by software vendors to include product help. The file being just a single
one, is easy to download on the web for offline viewing by a prospective client.
Also, the CHM compiler compresses the data while compiling, thereby
reducing the size further. All the facilities available in scripting languages work
effectively in such file, with extra functionality of full text search and index.
Although full text search and indexes were not required with this application,
nevertheless, it is an important tool with the company can enhance the user
experience of their online test module in future, whenever desired so.
A compiled help module also hides the coding from an end user, thus
safeguarding commercial aspirations of the company from its competitors.
Database to XML Conversion:

uCertify uses a database to keep track of questions related to a particular exam
paper, its possible options, correct options and other related details. Related
details of a question can vary and can potentially be quite large in number. Such
details include the type of question, telling the PrepEngine if the question is a
single option type, multi-option type, an exhibit based or a special module, or
any other question type formed by Microsoft in its exam pattern, the major
types of questions can be listed as:
1. Single option Radio Button
2. Multiple answer check box
3. special module type
a. Drag Drop type
b. HotSpot type
c. Choose and Reorder
d. Tree View type
e. Relationship
4. Exhibit type
The exhibit type might again be any of the other type, with an extra picture or
case study as an exhibit.
20
Other information also includes the exhibit name and its type, if any, the
number of answers, and number of choices.
Also, a separate database takes care of storage of respective answer options and
the correct ones in them. The database also stores whether a question is a
normal question, with a single/multiple answer or is a question of special
module. The demarcation of special module questions is essential as its
comparatively challenging to implement these questions and check their
answers. For example, there is no single and efficient method of checking
special module of relationship forming, that is normally asked in database table
relationship questions. The user might choose potentially an infinite
combination from the displayed combination of databases on the screen, and
can relate them in another infinite ways, though such infinite choices normally
do not arise with limited databases displayed, the choices do multiply up to
large numbers. User answer checking does become a challenge under these
circumstances.
There are additional problems associated with the keeping of the choices and
correct options in questions relating to choose and reorder type and the
treeview type of questions.
Following is the snippet of a node of the XML file, company now uses as the
database for online testing.
- <QUESTIONS PAPER_CODE="M70-100" PAPER_NAME="Analyzing Requirements
and Defining Solution Architectures">
"
- <QUESTION UCID="0004135" CASEID="0000000" IMG="" Q_TYPE="0">
- <DETAIL>
- <![CDATA[
You are working on an application using Visual Basic as the front-end and
SQL Server as the back-end. Both, Visual Basic and SQL Server, run on
the same machine. Which application model does this application use?
]]>
</DETAIL>
- <ANSWERS>
- <ANSWER UCID="0012492" CORRECT="0" USERANS="0">
- <![CDATA[
N-tier
]]>
</ANSWER>
- <![CDATA[
Single-tier
]]>
</ANSWER>
- <![CDATA[
21
This type of application cannot be written using the current technology.

]]>
</ANSWER>
- <![CDATA[
Two-tier
]]>
</ANSWER>
</ANSWERS>
- <SMUSERANS>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</SMUSERANS>
- <SMCORRECTANS>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</SMCORRECTANS>
- <ANALYSIS>
- <![CDATA[
Although the tiers run on the same machine, they are conceptually
separated. Thus, two-tier application model is used in the given
scenario maintainability, as the business rules can be modified
without having to modify the other layers of the application.
border="0"> <tbody>
<tr><td height="2"><img src="M70100/blank.gif" height="2" width="2"></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br>
<div class = "reference">Ref: MSDN, Topic: "Three-tier Application
Model"</div>
<<<<THE COMPLETE ANALYSIS IS NOT GIVEN HERE IN THE REPORT DUE TO
COMPANY POLICY>>>>
]]>
</ANALYSIS>
</QUESTION>
Following tags and attributes are used to store relevant information in the XML
file
1. PAPER_CODE: Microsoft specified code name of a particular test
2. PAPER_NAME: stores the name of a particular paper.
22
3. UCID: unique ID of a question. It corresponds with the primary key on

the UC Question database. This field helps identify a question uniquely
so that it can be referenced any time desired.
4. CASEID: stores the name of the case study to be displayed with a
question, if any. If none, this field is a string of 0's.
5. IMG: stores image exhibit. NULL if none
6. Q_TYPE: stores type of a particular question that identifies it as a single
answer type, multiple answer type, or one of the special module, etc.
7. DETAIL: stores the question
8. ANSWERS: a structure that hierarchically saves all the answer options,
their UCID and whether which one of them is correct.

- <ANSWERS>
- <![CDATA[
N-tier
]]>
</ANSWER>
- <![CDATA[
Single-tier
]]>
</ANSWER>
- <![CDATA[
This type of application cannot be written using the current technology.
]]>
</ANSWER>
- <![CDATA[
Two-tier
]]>
</ANSWER>
</ANSWERS>
- <SMUSERANS>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</SMUSERANS>
- <SMCORRECTANS>
- <![CDATA[
]]>
</SMCORRECTANS>
23
9. SMUSERANS: stores the snapshot of user's interaction with a

particular question, so that it might later be reproduced when
working in review mode.
10. SMCORRECTANS: stores the correct answer of a question.
Used when working in review mode to generate snapshot of
correct answer.
11. ANALYSIS: stores the analysis that is to be provided with a
question when working in the review mode.
Data Module:
The data module takes the responsibility of parsing the XML database provided
into a runtime data structure. This data structure generated during runtime is
then used throughout the interaction scenario. All the user events are captured
into this data structure and the same data structure is then used when working
in review mode or result generation time. When working in the review mode,
the user is allowed to see his answer of a question, and the correct answer side
by side so that he may compare and see his mistakes. The analysis of the
question is also displayed at that time. All these fields need to be read and fed
into a database so that they may be generated on runtime.
24
The hierarchy of the database can be depicted diagrammatically as:

Structure Questions
Detail
ID
Case ID
Image
Answers
User ID
Total Correct Answers

Correct Answer
Total Answers
Correct Answers
User Answer
User Answers
Detail
Current Position
Case Name
Question Type
Result
The structure of the data structure designed can be explained by the following
code snippet:
function question()
{
this.detail;
this.id;
this.caseid;
this.img;
25
this.answers;
this.totalcorrect;
this.totalans;
this.analysis;
this.smcorrectans;
this.smuserans;
this.smcurrentpos;
this.smcurrentpos1;
this.casename;
this.q_type;
this.result;
}
This is a structure declared in JavaScript. All the fields correspond to the fields
of the XML database.
Answers are stored in the subfield answers, which are further declared at
runtime to be a structure of the type ans. The structure ans can be defined as:
function ans()
{
this.id;
this.correct;
this.userans;
this.detail;
}
These, then form array of structure during the runtime to keep track of
questions and their interaction with the user. Note that all these data elements
declared are not specifically typecast. The type of these elements is decided by
JavaScript at the run time.
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Test Module:
The test module is the one dealing with generation of the online test ans user
interaction. It can be divided into following main submodules:
1. Test module
a. UI Creation
b. Event capture
i. Navigate event
ii. Show exhibit event
iii. Result generation
iv. Review mode
UI Creation:
The user interface created depends on the type of question asked. If it is a
single answer type question, the options must accompany radio button grouped
together so that only a single selection can be made. If it is a multiple answer
type question, check boxes need to be made. Complex measures are adopted if
any of the special module questions are to be asked. The UI creation module
also takes care of initializing the user answer datastructure so that any
interaction can faithfully be reproduced when navigating back and forth or in
review mode. Also, steps need to be taken to evaluate user response depending
upon the type of question asked.
Further implementation details shall be discussed according to the different
question scenarios.
Event Capture:
This submodule deals with the interpretation of user response to a question.
The events are broadly divided into 4 categories. The navigate event essentially
maintains a state variable to keep track of current question.
The variable curq holds value of surrent question. This variable is incremenred
or decremented depending on the direction of navigation. The following code
snippet demonstrates the loading of a new question based on the present value
of the variable curq.
27
var rc;
rc = curq + 1;
pos.innerHTML = rc + "/" + totalq;
var uans,casedetail;
casedetail ="";
pagecontent = "<table border=0><tr><td id=qresult> </td></tr></table>"
if (questions[curq].casename !="")
{
casedetail = '<a href="'+ "c"+questions[curq].caseid+".htm" + '"
target="_blank">'+questions[curq].casename+'</a>'
}
pagecontent = pagecontent + "<table border=0><tr><td>"
+casedetail+"</td></tr></table>"
pagecontent = pagecontent +"<div class=question><b>Q: </b>" +
questions[curq].detail + "</div>";
pagecontent = pagecontent + specialinstruntction(questions[curq].q_type);
pagecontent = pagecontent + '<FORM name = "testform"
ACTION="&[documenturl];action=show" METHOD="POST"><table>';
for (var i = 0; i < questions[curq].totalans; i++)
The result generation and review mode both work in similar manner. A
Boolean state variable identifying whether the test is in "test" mode or "review"
mode is set true to signify review mode. When working in the review mode.
Answer options are disabled and analysis is displayed along with a question.
Also, there is an option to see correct solution or the solution given by the
user. All these values are fetched from the data structure that keeps track of
user activity with a particular question. The information about user moves is
stored in the data structure called ans.userans which is used to display when
working in the review mode or during navigation.
The show exhibit event occurs when there is either a case study or an exhibit
associated with a question. The name of the case study or image is given in the
xml tags with same name. When a show exhibit event occurs, these data
structures are searched for adequate information, and if present, they are
fetched and displayed. Another thing to notice is that the even show exhibit is
tied down to the onclick event of a button at the bottom corner of the screen,
and it is disabled if the question provides no exhibit or case study.
The UI module and the test module simultaneously implement functions that
deal with all kinds of question scenarios that can occur in an online test. A
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general use case scenario occurs when a particular type of question is to be

drawn on the user interface and the user's responses need to be evaluated.
Consequently separate functions were written to take care of these needs of the
online test application. The design and implementation of these scenarios can
further be explained as under.
Single answer type questions:

The single answer type questions are the simplest ones to implement, check
and keep track of. There were particularly minimal challenges posed by such
questions. The XML database straight away provides options for such
questions, and also indicates which one is the correct. An important step is that
of distinction between single answer type and multiple answer type. Counting
the number of correct answers can easily do that. This number is stored in the
questions data structure member totalcorrect.
For the user interface design, such questions need a radio button drawn infront
of each option. The navigate event of each question page captures the
snapshot of user action in the userans structure which can later be used to
evaluate the result in the end, or whenever demanded. No computations are
done while a question is being answered, chiefly for the following reasons.
1. A user might return back to an answered question before he finishes the
test. Calculation each time he clicks only tends to make the test module
slow on lower end machines.
2. Additional code needs to be written that is unnecessarily complex and
deals with repeated answer array parsing, which increases temporal
complexity of the online test. Instead of making computations at each
step, the options are stored and all computations are done in the end, so
the user has to wait only once, and not at each click. This results in a
better user experience.
if(reviewmode)
{
pagecontent = pagecontent +
"<tr
valign='top' align='left'><td width='10'><img src='RB"+uans+".GIF' height=20
width=20></td><td><b>"+ String.fromCharCode(i + 65) + ". "+"</b>" + sca +
29
questions[curq].answers[i].detail
+
eca+
"</td></tr><tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr>";
}
else
{
pagecontent = pagecontent + "<tr valign='top'
halign='left'><td width = 1%><input type='radio' " + strchecked + " name='ans'
value='1' onClick='uans(" + i +")' > </td><td width = 1%><b>" + String.fromCharCode(i
+ 65) + ". " + "</b></td><td ><a href = name='ansstr' class='menu_link' " + ls_href + "
onClick='uans(" + i + ");return false'>" + questions[curq].answers[i].detail +
"</a></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr>";
}
Multiple answer type questions:

The implementation of multiple answer type questions is essentially similar to
that of single answer type questions with three major changes.
1. The radio buttons are replaced with check boxes so that more than one
of them can be selected simultaneously.
2. Nn the navigate event of the page, instead of just one alternative, all the
selected check boxes are saved as answer.
3. At the time of evaluation, instead of checking just one answer node, a
loop has to be initiated that checks the entire array of useranswer, till a
NULL node is reached.
if(reviewmode)
{
"<tr
valign='top' align='left'><td width='10'><img src='CB"+uans+".GIF' height=17
width=20></td><td><b>"+ String.fromCharCode(i + 65) + ". "+ "</b>" + sca+
+
eca+
"</td></tr><tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr>";
}
else
{
30
"<tr
valign='top' align='left'><td width = 10><input type='checkbox' " + strchecked + "
name='ans" + i + "' value='1' onClick='uans(" + i +")' > </td><td width = 1%><b>" +
String.fromCharCode(i + 65) + ". " + "</b></td><td ><a href= name='ansstr'
class='menu_link' " + ls_href + " onClick='uans(" + i + ");return false'>" +
+
"</a></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr>";
}
Drag and Drop type questions:

In the drag and drop questions, the user is to select an object and fit it into its
adequate place holder.
Problems with XML+DHTML implementation and their solutions:
The primary problem with the implementation of drag and drop was in the
very nature of designing an interface that could support drag and drop in
DHTML. Primarily the web browser when rendering a HTML page moves
sequentially and displays each objects one after an other as soon as a tag get
completed. This essentially means that no two objects can occupy the same
place on a web page if plain HTML is used. But to get a working drag and
drop, position of droppable objects must change during the runtime. Hence
ways must be devised so that not only two objects occupy the same place but
they can also be dragged and dropped one over the other.
This problem has been handled in the UC online test tool by the use of
invisible layers. The use of layers gives the flexibility of putting one layer on top
of another. Objects then on different layers can not only be superimposed, but
they also provide better design and control features. In the present scenario, an
image is identified as parent image and the objects to be dragged and dropped
form its child. Thus, the relative positioning of the object is then calculated
with respect to the parent image and not the whole document. This helps in
positioning the drag-able object accurately, and also check whether it has been
dropped on the correct position of not.
31
This can be illustrated by the following diagram.
Parent Image
Parent image with drag-gable objects and place holders superimposed.
Parent Image with Object being dragged
A major problem that DHTML poses is that no such even as drag and drop
has been devised. Languages such as VB and others support a native
implementation of drag and drop. For DHTML, this support was absent. So a
32
simulation of dragging and dropping was designed for these types of questions
in the UC online test.
The use of layers gives the flexibility of superimposing one object over the
other. For drag and drop, two identical images are displayed one over another,
with one of them as invisible. The algorithm can be written as:
1. On mousedown event over dragable object
a. Toggle invisible image as visible
b. on mousemove event
i. set image co-ordinates = mouse position
c. on mouseup event, check if co-ordinates correspond to container
i. if yes, set container image = dropped image
ii. if no, toggle image as invisible
This algorithm very beautifully simulates the required drag and drop event for
the UC online test.
HotSpot type Questions:

In the HotSpot types questions, the requirement are to get the user identify a
particular spot on a picture displayed to him. The question asks the user to
mark a particular area. if the user can identify the correct area, he is awarded
full marks, otherwise not.
The implementation of HotSpot was quite similar to the implementation of
Drag and Drop. A simple solution would have been to get the on the
mousedown event the current mouse position and check them with correct
positions. The problem in such an approach would occur in the manner
question database is developed at uCertify.com. The data entry procedure at the
company uses in house custom made application to do most of the jobs
visually rather than typographically. Hence, the solution devised had to keep in
mind the ease of question entry into the database. For HotSopt type questions,
the hotspot is identified during the question entry process by drawing a
rectangle over the image, thus telling the area. This information is then
converted to a layered rectangle, so that the hotspot could be highlighted finally
in the user interface during review process. User answer to such questions is
thus checked by comparing the mousedown positions with the periphery of the
33
rectangle. A mouse click inside the rectangle registers as a correct answer;
otherwise it is treated as wrong.
Correct answer of this type of question is kept as html script, which is displayed
when the user wishes to see the correct answer. His response to this question is
also kept as html snapshot.
This process can be explained in the following figure:
User
Response
HotSpot
Choose and Reorder type questions:

In these types of questions, two lists are provided. Items from one list are to be
chosen and moved to the other list in an ordered fashion. Hence the name;
Choose and Reorder. Such questions pose immediate problem as HTML
provides a very weak list object in its native implementation. Very few
operations are possible in a list object. Very basic features such as selection of a
node in a list are also not implemented. Special functions need to be written for
that.
34
The solution for this problem was found in the Select box.
The select element creates a menu. Each choice offered by the menu is
represented by an option element. A select element must contain at least one
option element.
The optgroup element allows authors to group choices logically. This is
particularly helpful when the user must choose from a long list of options;
groups of related choices are easier to grasp and remember than a single long
list of options. In HTML 4, all optgroup elements must be specified directly
within a select element (i.e., groups may not be nested).
<!ELEMENT SELECT - - (OPTGROUP|OPTION)+ -- option selector -->

<!ATTLIST SELECT
%attrs;
-- %coreattrs, %i18n, %events -name
CDATA
#IMPLIED -- field name -size
NUMBER
#IMPLIED -- rows visible -multiple
(multiple)
#IMPLIED -- default is single selection disabled
(disabled)
#IMPLIED -- unavailable in this context tabindex
NUMBER
#IMPLIED -- position in tabbing order -onfocus
%Script;
#IMPLIED -- the element got the focus -onblur
%Script;
#IMPLIED -- the element lost the focus -onchange
%Script;
#IMPLIED -- the element value was changed
->
A major limitation of the select box was that of scrolling. Select box does not
provide native option for horizontal scrolling. Scrolling is only provided for
long vertical list. The select box wraps itself around long text.
A working solution to this problem was devised by using a parent container
along with select box as its child, thereby utilizing the scrolling features of the
parent to scroll complete select box.
35
Select Box within Text Placeholder
Choosing and reordering of options in one of the select box utilizes the DOM
object of the same. The DOM object provides functionality for swapping of
internal nodes in the select box.
A partial code snippet for the same is:

function swapitem(aSel, updown,checksort)
{
for (i=0;i<aSel.options.length;i++)
{
if (aSel.options[i].selected)
{
if (updown==1)
{
if (i > 0)
{
aSel.children(i).swapNode(aSel.children(i - 1));
i = 100;
}
}
else
{
if (i < aSel.options.length - 1 )
{
aSel.children(i + 1).swapNode(aSel.children(i));
i = 100;
36
}
}
}
}
CheckResult(aSel,checksort);
}
Treeview type Questions:

The tree view type questions require the test taker to assemble information
given in a hierarchical fashion, thus depicting its relative ordering. Typical
questions in this type, query about the parent child relationship between items
given.
Unlike visual programming languages there is no tree component provided in
HTML. Hence, the major task was to simulate tree behavior with the limited
components provided and the use of scripts.
HTML provides the concept of an Unordered List, that is a list, displayed

according to its design, resembling a hierarchical tree as:-
o
o
o
one
two
three
o
o
three one
three two
three two one
three two two
three three
four
five
37
The corresponding HTML code is:

<ul>
<li>one</li>
<li>two </li>
<li>three
<ul>
<li>three one</li>
<li>three two
<ul>
<li>three two one</li>
<li>three two two</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>three three</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>four</li>
<li> </li>
</ul>
There are three noticeable problems in such an approach. One of the margin
images, which by default are round or square bullets, second of large indenting
and finally the list, is passive. By list being passive we imply that the list does
not respond to collapsing or expanding actions, like normal lists do.
The problem of formatting was solved by using .CSS stylesheets to identify
nodes and setting margin images and indenting for the list.
.node1{list-style-image:url('node1.gif');margin-left:20}
Each list node was given a unique name and was assigned a unique picture. The
indenting was set using the margin set property. The assumption taken is that
never in a question one encounters a list having more that five subtrees inside a
node. Thus the hierarchy would finally look like:
node1
o node2
node3
node4
o node5
For lists beyond the scope of this hierarchy, a simple addition of one more
node with similar settings would do.
38
For setting behavior of this UL as a tree component, it must collapse and

expand on mouse clicks. For this, a script was written that recursively makes all
the children of a collapsing node invisible, this producing the effect of
collapsing.
The moving of adequate nodes from the option pool to answer placeholder
was implemented by inserting new element into the DOM object of the list.
The DOM object provides address of all the object instantiated in a page, from
which relevant objects can then be chosen to perform actions as desired.
Another problem even after implementing the list was to save its state and
display correct answer. This was made possible by the capturing the html
snapshot of the page for correct answer as well as the user answer, and then
rendering each one when asked to do so. The final effect is:
The Tree View with expanded trees
39
Collapsed tree view
40

During the testing, debugging and deployment phase we found few problems
in our implementation, that we successfully removed and hence enhanced the
overall functionality of the test suite.
First parameter we stressed on while testing was platform independence, since
we cannot always guarantee the platform being used at the other end. So this
needs a seamless running of our application over all operating system
platforms. The uCertify online test was successfully tested on various platforms
such as Windows NT/9x/2000, Server as well as Professional.
Our next parameter in this phase was the Web Browser. Many times this has
been neglected by the developers that as a result give various minor usage
problems to the users, such as the default resolution used while coding and the
resolution while rendering on screen. This gives mismatched alignment pattern
of the various objects in the frame over the browser. We checked this with all
possible resolutions on different screen sizes. Later we also added the
functionality of Auto-Adjust, if the online test suite finds the mismatch
between the resolution set by the user and the application.
This phase also disclosed few minor bugs in the Microsofts IE version 5.5,
that we reported to them. In the Internet Explorer 5.5 the list object could not
be redrawn if the visibility is set False. On reporting this bug to the Microsoft
they agreed on the same and intimated us that the bug has been removed in IE
version 6.0. DOM is not supported in IE version below 4.0. Since version 4.0 is
largely out of use, we kept an assumption that the user should be using the
version beyond 4.0. The uCertify online test works fine with other browsers,
such as Netscape Navigator, Opera and IE version 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0.
41
The Road Ahead: Future Enhancements

The online test module is a self contained solution for the requirements of
uCertify.com. The solution is already being used for promotional purposes and
also forms the chief framework for the new architecture of uCertify PrepKit
and PrepEngine. Nevertheless, there is room for further work on the online
test module to improve its usage and user experience.
Following enhancements are suggested by the team.
1. A module could implement adaptive testing based on difficulty level of a
question and test takers response. The basic framework has already been
designed for PrepKit and PrepEngine and just needs to be ported for
the online test module. At present, adaptive test is disabled for free and
promotional tests. The online test module is used for the same purpose.
Nevertheless, CAT can be implemented with relatively little pains.
2. Questions for the special module relationship have not been
implemented in this version of the uCertify Online Test.
42
Assignment II
To develop a generic ASP based toolkit
for remote database manipulation, with
intermediate data transfer in XML
43
Table of Content
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Abstract
Introduction
Problem Definition and Analysis
Future Enhancements
Epilogue
Bibliography
44
Abstract
Remote database manipulation has long been an area of constant product and
solution development. Major concerns of code developers are primarily the
ease of use, generality of the solution, easy maintenance of system and above all
ease of integration across various platforms and solutions. These concerns
transform such problem into a multiple constraint job. While one factor
compels use of a technology, other discourages it. Here we have tried to strike
a sensible balance. Our main stress has been to design a solution that could be
seamlessly integrated with a gamut of products. Consequently, we decided
upon using a vendor neutral medium of data communication between the client
and the server, XML. Use of XML allows us to fetch data from a remote
database from a variety of platforms and different applications, conforming to
XML data interchange standard.
45
Introduction
A lot of work is being done these days in the area of vendor neutral data
standard of communication between processes for exchange of messages and
data. The effort of the XML group has been in the forefront in this regard. We
have tried to take advantage of this standard that can be easily employed to
depict hierarchical ordering of data and its relative positioning. Use of HTML
like style sheets enables formatting of the data at the same time, thereby
enabling XML to act as a total data facilitator. The same concept was used
while designing of this project. When a remote database needs to be updated,
the only method available to database administrators was either make an online
form, using ASP and related authentications to display the data online and then
let the data entry operator edit it. The other approaches were writing of a
custom application to do the job, which in all cases was a lengthy process, and
often proved cumbersome in scenarios where computers on different
platforms needed to interact. The final brute force approach was to replace the
entire database file altogether.
The clear solution visible in such scenarios was to develop an application that
could remotely manipulate the data reliably. Working along the same lines we
discovered that using some custom protocol for data transfer while on one side
reduces network overhead, it heavily limits the scope and generality of the
solution developed. Hence we focused on the use of XML for data transaction
between client and the server. This provides a loosely coupled architecture that
is not only independent of the client-server platform but is also scalable and
generic.
46
Problem Definition and Analysis

Often in a large organization condition arises when a central database needs to
be updated through a remote client, generally running a TCP/IP network.
Traditionally such cases are dealt with by developing a customized application
which can communicate with such a database and can perform necessary
functions on it. This is essentially a wastage of resources as each time a new
database scenario is established, an entirely new set of changes are to be made
in the application. The situation becomes more complex if such changes are to
be performed via a web interface and across varying platforms and across
various vendors.
The requirement in such a scenario is to provide a generic solution that
separates server from the client by a loose, generic interface. The solution
required should make server accessible from any platform with relatively minor
changes in the existing setup.
As a database web developer, there is often a problem getting direct access to
the database data - if it's an Access database, the only way is to download the
.mdb file, make amendments and then upload it again (often annoyingly
resetting write permissions in the process.) SQL Server has the excellent query
analyzer, but one may be away from the server, without access to Enterprise
Manager, or over a slow connection that would take logging in half an age.
In the present scenario, the client specifically wants a solution that can be
implemented on his existing server, running Microsoft Windows 2000
Advanced Server, with IIS as web server.
The remote database manipulation interface has to be made generic, using
internet explorer as passive data displaying media. The data manipulation is to
be done using applications written in any language, especially VB6.0 and
VC++6.0. The major challenge is the intermediate data communication
between the server and client which has to be made adequately generic so that
new applications can easily interpret it.
47

Based on the requirements of the system, loosely coupled client-server
architecture is suggested. Various parts of the system and their interactions can
be depicted with the following diagram.
Web Server
Connection
request +
Authentication
ASP
XML
Processor
XML Response
Query
Record set
Database
Client Application
The overall design can be broken down into three main modules, the client
application, the server encapsulating the database and the xml processor.
Further details of the modules can be discussed as follows.
48
The Server Side:

Web Server:
The web server interacts with the client request and forms the link
between the database and the remote machine. The web server is responsible
for listening to the client request, interpreting it and interacting with the xml
processor. The web server components make database connections and
execute transactions based on clients command. The web server is mainly asp
based server side scripting that transfers the entire processing load to the server
side.
The architecture of a typical windows based web server can be explained as
under.
IIS Architecture:
The standard Internet Services (FTP and Web servers) reside in a process
called Inetinfo. In addition to the Internet services, this process contains the
shared thread pool, cache, logging, and SNMP services of Internet Information
Server. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the protocol used to transfer files
between two computers on a network that uses Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). FTP was one of the earliest protocols
used on TCP/IP-based networks and the Internet. Although the World Wide
Web has replaced most of the functions of FTP, FTP is still a reliable way to
copy files from a client computer to a server over the Internet.
Internet Information Server is integrated with Microsoft Windows NT Server.
IIS uses the same directory database (user accounts) as Windows NT Server.
Using the same directory database eliminates the need for additional user
account administration. Internet Information Server administration also uses
existing Windows NT Server tools such as Performance Monitor, Event
Viewer, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support to
maintain similar administrative procedures.
49
IIS Architecture
In addition, the following products are tightly integrated with IIS:
Microsoft Management Console

Microsoft Transaction Server
Active Server Pages and Microsoft Script Debugger
Microsoft Index Server
Microsoft Certificate Server
Internet Services for Remote Access Services
Site Server Express
Microsoft Message Queue
Microsoft Data Access Components
Programmability Architecture
Web applications are maturing to become mission-critical, line-of-business
applications. Before the Web, most applications were written and executed on
stand-alone computers as single-user applications, and most shared server code
was written and executed within databases. Web applications are deployed in a
distributed, disconnected environment often running on many different data
stores. IIS adds the necessary technologies to the Windows NT Server platform
so that organizations can develop and deploy reliable and scalable multi-user
Web applications.
The diagram below illustrates the programmability architecture of IIS and the
components described in this section.
50
Programmability architecture of IIS
Developing Web applications can be as complex as developing multi-user

server applications. For example, when creating a multi-user application,
developers must invest time building complex routines for managing server
process pools, thread pools, database connections, user context, and
transactions usually associated with server applications. IIS and the Windows
NT Server 4.0 Option Pack eliminate much of this complexity by providing
these routines within their server technologies. Along with Windows NT Server
4.0, these features provide developers with a platform for developing Web
applications.
For client interaction, server side scripting languages, such as ASP are used.
51
What ASP Is?

Active Server Pages is a programming environment that provides the ability to
combine HTML, scripting, and components to create powerful Internet
applications that run on your server. If one is already creating Web sites that
combine HTML, scripting, and some reusable components, one can use ASP
to glue these items together. One can create an HTML interface for your
application by adding script commands to your HTML pages and one can
encapsulate your business logic into reusable components. These components
can be called from script or other components.
INTRODUCTION TO ASP
An Overview
Active Server Pages is an open, compile-free application environment in which
we can combine HTML, scripts, and reusable ActiveX server components to
create dynamic and powerful Web-based business solutions. Active Server
Pages enables server-side scripting for IIS with native support for both
VBScript and Jscript
Simply put, Active Server Pages (ASP) is a mix of HTML, scripts and ASP
code that enables us to build dynamic and database-driven web sites. Microsoft
describes it as "a server - side scripting environment that we can use to create
and run dynamic, interactive, high - performance Web server applications."
While standard HTML is only a display language, ASP allows us to tailor the
information displayed on the page based on user interaction.
Like other tools such as Perl and CGI, server-side ASP is interpreted by the
server and the information is returned to the browser to display. Therefore,
ASP is cross - browser compatible if used as server-side scripting - in other
words, if the script is interpreted on the server, is server-side. There are certain
things that will not work, however, if a browser does not accept cookies - we
will not be able to use scripts that require session variables and/or cookies.
There is also client-side scripting, which is interpreted by the browser. We can
definitely do some very cool things with client-side scripting, but unfortunately,
we're faced with browser compatibility issues if this is the way we go. However,
if one is aware of and can work around compatibility issues, using client-side
scripting can help take a load off her server - a definite boon for heavily
accessed sites.
52
Request - to get information from the user

Response - to send information to the user
Server - to control the Internet Information Server
Session - to store information about and change settings for the user's
current Web-server session
Application - to share application-level information and control settings
for the lifetime of the application
How ASP Works

When one incorporates ASP into his Web site, here's what happens:
1. The user brings up a Web site (like MSDN Online Web Workshop)
where the default page has the extension .asp.
2. The browser requests the ASP file from the Web server.
3. The server-side script begins to run with ASP.
4. ASP processes the requested file sequentially (top-down), executes any
script commands contained in the file, and produces an HTML Web
page.
5. The Web page is sent to the browser.
Because the script runs on the server, the Web server does all of the processing
and standard HTML pages can be generated and sent to the browser. This
means that the Web pages are limited only by what the Web server supports.
Another benefit of having the script reside on the server is that the user cannot
"view source" on the original script and code. Instead, the user sees only the
generated HTML as well as non-HTML content, such as XML, on the pages
that are being viewed.
The Active Server Pages object model

Not only can one write scripts to build dynamic Web pages, there's an entire
object model that one can use to maintain a "conversation" between the user
and the active server. In other words, by using ASP's objects, the server can
"remember" information the user has supplied from the moment he or she
accessed the Web site. The connection is still broken, but things like cookies
and application- and session-level variables give the illusion that there's still a
connection. These objects expose an interface that allows the Web developer to
perform the following tasks:
53
Make requests of the HTTP header information gathered from the user's
browser
Gather data that a user entered into a form
Output an HTML response to a browser's request
Maintain session- and application-level state
Traditionally, the way one would communicate with a server was through
HTML forms. Data entered into a form by a user was submitted to a server
CGI program that would, in turn, create an appropriate HTML response.
Another way was to append parameters to the end of a URL to create a query
string. The URL would look something like this:
http//localhost?ID=0&FORMAT=1
The Active Server Pages object model enables us to retrieve this information so
that it can be used in ASP scripts. The client- and server-side data that can be
collected provides the intelligence the developer needs to be able to make
flexible, user-interactive Web pages.
The ASP object model forms a hierarchy with the Server object at the pinnacle.
The properties and methods of this object can be used to make your scripts
even more powerful by providing one with tools to manage her application.
The other four main objects, together, round out the Active Server application.
These objects are called Request, Response, Application, and Session
Benefits of Active Server Pages

With ASP, it's easy to build applications that run on a Web server.
Scripting. ASP enables HTML authors and Web professionals to create
powerful Web pages by simply adding in-line scripting to any HTML
page. ASP supports any scripting language (with native support for
Visual Basic Scripting Edition [VBScript] and JScript). Web
developers can write scripts that are executed on the client or on the
server.
Server components. ASP uses ActiveX server components running on
the local server (or on another server on the network) to access
databases and applications, and to process information. One can use
54
server components written in any language, including Visual Basic, C++,

COBOL, and Java. Internet Information Server (IIS) 3.0 ships with a
core set of components, including the ActiveX Data Objects (ADO),
which provides easy access to any OLE/DB or ODBC-compatible data
source.
Browser support. Scripts and components included in ASP files are
processed completely on the server. The page that's delivered to your
client is pure, standard HTML and viewable by all browsers.
Customization. ASP provides easy access to all HTTP server variables,
including browser type and referring page, so one can develop pages that
are customized for each user.
Tight integration. ASP is very tightly integrated with IIS, the web
server provided by Microsoft.
55
THE XML Processor:

The communication between the client and the server is done using XML
format. This relieves the communication of being vendor specific. The
XML Processor accepts results of execution of a query on a database and
adequately formats it, adding up XML tags to depict hierarchy, so that the
client can interpret it comfortably.
The earlier system used by customer was based on a propriety protocol that
employed use of simple TCP/IP packets with comma delimited rows for
serving the data across remote connections. The protocol was simple and
can be explained by following algorithm:
Step 1. client opens socket to server application
Step 2. client sends authentication and connection request
Setp 3. server opens connection to database
Step 4. server receives SQL query from the client and executes on the database
Step 5. receive query result (recordset) and make a comma separated field
Step 6. open socket and write the result
Step 7. connection close
As evident, the inherent problem with this approach was tight integration
between the server and the client. If the server was changed, the whole
client was to be revamped and vice-versa.
Also the communication protocol used does not specify any hierarchy in the
data itself and is hence situation specific. This makes use of the same server
with outside clients difficult, unless a decision has been reached on the
communication protocol itself. This poses grave problems to further
software up-gradation and integration between various departments of the
same firm.
56
Why Is XML Important?

There are a number of reasons for XML's acceptance as part of the
solution. This section lists a few of the most prominent.
Plain Text
Since XML is not a binary format, one can create and edit files with
anything from a standard text editor to a visual development environment.
That makes it easy to debug your programs, and makes it useful for storing
small amounts of data. At the other end of the spectrum, an XML front end
to a database makes it possible to efficiently store large amounts of XML
data as well. So XML provides scalability for anything from small
configuration files to a company-wide data repository.
Data Identification
XML tells what kind of data we have, not how to display it. Because the
markup tags identify the information and break up the data into parts, an
email program can process it, a search program can look for messages sent
to particular people, and an address book can extract the address
information from the rest of the message. In short, because the different
parts of the information have been identified, they can be used in different
ways by different applications.
Stylability
When display is important, the stylesheet standard, XSL, lets one dictate
how to portray the data. For example, the stylesheet for:
<to>[email protected]</to>
can say:
1. Start a new line.
2. Display "To:" in bold, followed by a space
3. Display the destination data.
Which produces:
To: [email protected]
57
Of course, one could have done the same thing in HTML, but one wouldn't
be able to process the data with search programs and address-extraction
programs and the like. More importantly, since XML is inherently style-free,
one can use a completely different stylesheet to produce output in
postscript, TEX, PDF, or some new format that hasn't even been invented
yet. That flexibility amounts to what one author described as "futureproofing" your information. The XML documents authored today can be
used in future document-delivery systems that haven't even been imagined
yet.
Inline Reusabiliy
One of the nicer aspects of XML documents is that they can be composed
from separate entities. One can do that with HTML, but only by linking to
other documents. Unlike HTML, XML entities can be included "in line" in
a document. The included sections look like a normal part of the document
one can search the whole document at one time or download it in one
piece. That lets one modularize your documents without resorting to links.
One can single-source a section so that an edit to it is reflected everywhere
the section is used, and yet a document composed from such pieces looks
for all the world like a one-piece document.
Linkability
XML has great ability to define links between documents. This initiative lets
one define two-way links, multiple-target links, "expanding" links (where
clicking a link causes the targeted information to appear inline), and links
between two existing documents that are defined in a third.
58
Easily Processed
As mentioned earlier, regular and consistent notation makes it easier to
build a program to process XML data. For example, in HTML a <dt> tag
can be delimited by </dt>, another <dt>, <dd>, or </dl>. That makes for
some difficult programming. But in XML, the <dt> tag must always have a
</dt> terminator, or else it will be defined as a <dt/> tag. That restriction
is a critical part of the constraints that make an XML document wellformed. (Otherwise, the XML parser won't be able to read the data.) And
since XML is a vendor-neutral standard, one can choose among several
XML parsers, any one of which takes the work out of processing XML data.
Hierarchical
Finally, XML documents benefit from their hierarchical structure.
Hierarchical document structures are, in general, faster to access because
one can drill down to the part she need, like stepping through a table of
contents. They are also easier to rearrange, because each piece is delimited.
In a document, for example, one could move a heading to a new location
and drag everything under it along with the heading, instead of having to
page down to make a selection, cut, and then paste the selection into a new
location.
59
Introduction to XML
Each XML document has both a logical and a physical structure. Physically,
the document is composed of units called entities. An entity may refer to
other entities to cause their inclusion in the document. A document begins
in a "root" or document entity. Logically, the document is composed of
declarations, elements, comments, character references, and processing
instructions, all of which are indicated in the document by explicit markup.
A software module called an XML processor is used to read XML
documents and provide access to their content and structure. It is assumed
that an XML processor is doing its work on behalf of another module,
called the application. This specification describes the required behavior of
an XML processor in terms of how it must read XML data and the
information it must provide to the application.
XML is a text-based markup language that is fast becoming the standard for
data interchange on the Web. As with HTML, one identifies data using tags
(identifiers enclosed in angle brackets, like this: <...>). Collectively, the tags
are known as "markup".
But unlike HTML, XML tags identify the data, rather than specifying how to
display it. Where an HTML tag says something like "display this data in bold
font" (<b>...</b>), an XML tag acts like a field name in a program. It puts
a label on a piece of data that identifies it (for example:
<message>...</message>).
Tags and Attributes

Tags can also contain attributes -- additional information included as part of
the tag itself, within the tag's angle brackets. The following example shows
an email message structure that uses attributes for the "to", "from", and
"subject" fields:
<message to="[email protected]" from="[email protected]"
subject="XML Is Really Cool">
<text>
How many ways is XML cool? Let me count the ways...
</text>
</message>
60
As in HTML, the attribute name is followed by an equal sign and the

attribute value, and multiple attributes are separated by spaces. Unlike
HTML, however, in XML commas between attributes are not ignored -- if
present, they generate an error.
Since one could design a data structure like <message> equally well using
either attributes or tags, it can take a considerable amount of thought to
figure out which design is best for ones purposes.
Empty Tags
One really big difference between XML and HTML is that an XML
document is always constrained to be well formed. There are several rules
that determine when a document is well-formed, but one of the most
important is that every tag has a closing tag. So, in XML, the </to> tag is
not optional. The <to> element is never terminated by any tag other than
</to>. Sometimes, though, it makes sense to have a tag that stands by
itself. For example, we might want to add a "flag" tag that marks message as
important. A tag like that doesn't enclose any content, so it's known as an
"empty tag". We can create an empty tag by ending it with /> instead of >.
The XML Prolog
Note that an XML file always starts with a prolog. The minimal prolog
contains a declaration that identifies the document as an XML document,
like this:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
The declaration may also contain additional information, like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="yes"?>
The XML declaration is essentially the same as the HTML header, <html>,
except that it uses <?..?> and it may contain the following attributes:
version
Identifies the version of the XML markup language used in the data. This
attribute is not optional.
encoding
61
Identifies the character set used to encode the data. "ISO-8859-1" is "Latin1" the Western European and English language character set. (The default is
compressed Unicode: UTF-8.)
standalone
Tells whether or not this document references an external entity or an
external data type specification (see below). If there are no external
references, then "yes" is appropriate
The prolog can also contain definitions of entities (items that are inserted
when we reference them from within the document) and specifications that
tell which tags are valid in the document, both declared in a Document
Type Definition (DTD) that can be defined directly within the prolog, as
well as with pointers to external specification files.
Processing Instructions
An XML file can also contain processing instructions that give commands or
information to an application that is processing the XML data. Processing
instructions have the following format:
<?target instructions?>
where the target is the name of the application that is expected to do the
processing, and instructions is a string of characters that embodies the
information or commands for the application to process.
Since the instructions are application specific, an XML file could have
multiple processing instructions that tell different applications to do similar
things, though in different ways. The XML file for a slideshow, for example,
could have processing instructions that let the speaker specify a technical or
executive-level version of the presentation. If multiple presentation
programs were used, the program might need multiple versions of the
processing instructions (although it would be nicer if such applications
recognized standard instructions).
62
Basic Standards
SAX: Simple API for XML
We can also think of this standard as the "serial access" protocol for XML.
This is the fast-to-execute mechanism we would use to read and write XML
data in a server, for example. This is also called an event-driven protocol,
because the technique is to register the handler with a SAX parser, after
which the parser invokes your callback methods whenever it sees a new
XML tag (or encounters an error, or wants to tell us anything else).
DOM: Document Object Model

The Document Object Model protocol converts an XML document into a
collection of objects in the program. One can then manipulate the object
model in any way that makes sense. This mechanism is also known as the
"random access" protocol, because one can visit any part of the data at any
time. She can then modify the data, remove it, or insert new data.
DTD: Document Type Definition
The DTD specification is actually part of the XML specification, rather than
a separate entity. On the other hand, it is optional -- we can write an XML
document without it. And there are a number of schema proposals that
offer more flexible alternatives. So it is treated here as though it were a
separate specification.
A DTD specifies the kinds of tags that can be included in your XML
document, and the valid arrangements of those tags. We can use the DTD
to make sure we don't create an invalid XML structure. We can also use it to
make sure that the XML structure we are reading (or that got sent over the
net) is indeed valid.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to specify a DTD for a complex document in
such a way that it prevents all invalid combinations and allows all the valid
ones. So constructing a DTD is something of an art. The DTD can exist at
the front of the document, as part of the prolog. It can also exist as a
separate entity, or it can be split between the document prolog and one or
more additional entities.
63
Namespaces
The namespace standard lets one write an XML document that uses two or
more sets of XML tags in modular fashion. Suppose for example that we
have created an XML-based parts list that uses XML descriptions of parts
supplied by other manufacturers (online!). The "price" data supplied by the
subcomponents would be amounts we want to total up, while the "price"
data for the structure as a whole would be something we want to display.
The namespace specification defines mechanisms for qualifying the names
so as to eliminate ambiguity. That lets us write programs that use
information from other sources and do the right things with it.
Schema Standards
A DTD makes it possible to validate the structure of relatively simple XML
documents, but that's as far as it goes.
A DTD can't restrict the content of elements, and it can't specify complex
relationships. For example, it is impossible to specify with a DTD that a
<heading> for a <book> must have both a <title> and an <author>, while
a <heading> for a <chapter> only needs a <title>. In a DTD, once we
only get to specify the structure of the <heading> element one time. There
is no context-sensitivity.
XML Schema
A large, complex standard that has two parts. One part specifies structure
relationships. (This is the largest and most complex part.) The other part
specifies mechanisms for validating the content of XML elements by
specifying a (potentially very sophisticated) datatype for each element.
Linking and Presentation Standards

Arguably the two greatest benefits provided by HTML were the ability to
link between documents, and the ability to create simple formatted
documents (and, eventually, very complex formatted documents). The
following standards aim at preserving the benefits of HTML in the XML
arena, and to adding additional functionality, as well.
64
XML Linking
These specifications provide a variety of powerful linking mechanisms, and
are sure to have a big impact on how XML documents are used.
XLink: The XLink protocol is a proposed specification to handle links
between XML documents. This specification allows for some pretty
sophisticated linking, including two-way links, links to multiple documents,
"expanding" links that insert the linked information into your document
rather than replacing your document with a new page, links between two
documents that are created in a third, independent document, and indirect
links (so we can point to an "address book" rather than directly to the target
document -- updating the address book then automatically changes any links
that use it).
XML Base: This standard defines an attribute for XML documents that
defines a "base" address, that is used when evaluating a relative address
specified in the document. (So, for example, a simple file name would be
found in the base-address directory.)
XPointer: In general, the XLink specification targets a document or
document-segment using its ID. The XPointer specification defines
mechanisms for "addressing into the internal structures of XML
documents", without requiring the author of the document to have defined
an ID for that segment. To quote the spec, it provides for "reference to
elements, character strings, and other parts of XML documents, whether or
not they bear an explicit ID attribute".
Data structure transformation:

The major task of our XML processor module is to generate adequate XML
format for data to be transmitted. A typical example for conversion of a
hierarchical data structure to XML can be depicted as:
<partorders xmlns="...">
<order date="..."
ref="...">
<desc> ..text..
</desc>
<part />
<quantity />
65
<delivery-date />
</order>
<order ref=".." .../>
</partorders>
ref=
date=
des
c
text
order
par
t
partorder
s
quantit
y
text
xmlns=
deliverydate
order
ref=
date=
The same approach is utilized to convert the data from the database into
adequate XML formatted text. An example for the sample conversion of
the data listing from our system is:
66
The table is:
MemberID ScreenName Surname FirstName Origin email
DateJoined Password
agupta
gupta
amber
india
[email protected]
2001-01password
01T00:00:00
apsingh
singh
abhay
USA
[email protected]
2001-01jabkjb
01T00:00:00
20
prats
kumar
pratyush
india
[email protected]
2001-04xfilesfan
22T10:48:19
29
pravi
tripathi
pravi
bombay [email protected]
2003-05ddf
06T17:25:16
This is the table generated with formatting option turned on. Data used is
sample data, just for testing purposes. Real data cannot be displayed due to
contractual terms.
67
Corresponding XML generated:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
- <xml xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882"
xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882"
xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset"
xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema">
- <s:Schema id="RowsetSchema">
- <s:ElementType name="row" content="eltOnly" rs:updatable="true">
- <s:AttributeType name="MemberID" rs:number="1" rs:basetable="member"
rs:basecolumn="MemberID" rs:autoincrement="true">
<s:datatype dt:type="int" dt:maxLength="4" rs:precision="10"
rs:fixedlength="true" rs:maybenull="false" />
</s:AttributeType>
- <s:AttributeType name="ScreenName" rs:number="2" rs:nullable="true"
rs:write="true" rs:basetable="member" rs:basecolumn="ScreenName">
<s:datatype dt:type="string" dt:maxLength="32" />
</s:AttributeType>
- <s:AttributeType name="Surname" rs:number="3" rs:nullable="true"
rs:write="true" rs:basetable="member" rs:basecolumn="Surname">
</s:AttributeType>
- <s:AttributeType name="FirstName" rs:number="4" rs:nullable="true"
rs:write="true" rs:basetable="member" rs:basecolumn="FirstName">
</s:AttributeType>
- <s:AttributeType name="Origin" rs:number="5" rs:nullable="true"
rs:write="true" rs:basetable="member" rs:basecolumn="Origin">
</s:AttributeType>
- <s:AttributeType name="email" rs:number="6" rs:nullable="true"
rs:write="true" rs:basetable="member" rs:basecolumn="email">
</s:AttributeType>
- <s:AttributeType name="DateJoined" rs:number="7" rs:nullable="true"
rs:write="true" rs:basetable="member" rs:basecolumn="DateJoined">
<s:datatype dt:type="dateTime" rs:dbtype="timestamp" dt:maxLength="16"
rs:scale="0" rs:precision="19" rs:fixedlength="true" />
</s:AttributeType>
- <s:AttributeType name="Password" rs:number="8" rs:nullable="true"
rs:write="true" rs:basetable="member" rs:basecolumn="Password">
68

</s:AttributeType>
<s:extends type="rs:rowbase" />
</s:ElementType>
</s:Schema>
- <rs:data>
<z:row MemberID="1" ScreenName="agupta" Surname="gupta"
FirstName="amber" Origin="india" email="[email protected]"
DateJoined="2001-01-01T00:00:00" Password="password" />
<z:row MemberID="2" ScreenName="apsingh" Surname="singh"
FirstName="abhay" Origin="USA" email="[email protected]"
DateJoined="2001-01-01T00:00:00" Password="jabkjb" />
<z:row MemberID="20" ScreenName="prats" Surname="kumar"
FirstName="pratyush" Origin="india" email="[email protected]"
DateJoined="2001-04-22T10:48:19" Password="xfilesfan" />
<z:row MemberID="29" ScreenName="pravi" Surname="tripathi"
FirstName="pravi" Origin="bombay" email="[email protected]"
DateJoined="2003-05-06T17:25:16" Password="ddf" />
</rs:data>
</xml>
69
Sequence Diagram:
Client App
Server App
Database
Open Connection
Open ODBC Conn

OK
Get Table_List
Table List XML
Table_List OK
Select Table
Select Table
XML Data
RecordSet
Data
Manipulation
Update
Update Table
OK
OK
Close Connection
Close Connection
70
The Client:
The design of the client was mainly to suit the immediate requirement of
the customer. The requirement was to have a sufficiently functional
prototype that could be used to view and alter data present in the remote
database. Due to the use of generic XML in the data interaction, the design
of the client application becomes easy and at the same time tough. The ease
is in the interpretation of the data received from the server, while the
difficulty is encountered when one wants to preserve the generality of the
interface. The interface constitutes an important aspect of the system.
Nothing can be hard coded. The interface has thus to be generated at
runtime, depending on the record-set present in the table. Depending upon
the rows and columns present, the client side must adapt itself to suit the
same.
The client application takes input from the user and passes it to the server
side for further processing. Initially the client requests the database through
asp for the list of tables available in it. Then the user may select any
particular primary id for further manipulation. He requests that particular id
through asp and database sends all the related table information of that
particular primaryID. The user may then perform various operations such
as add, delete, modify, update etc on the tables and send back the updated
record to the database.
The client designed at present works in two modes, manipulation mode and
display mode. While manipulation mode could be used for updating data
through a remote terminal, often dumb. Whereas, display mode is used to
passively display the data, formatted or unformatted, as the case may be.
Such system finds large applications in places where a central database is
used to generate formatted output on the web and which needs to be
updated remotely.
A scenario of client usage can be demonstrated as under:
DSN
UID
Passwd
Web Server (ASP)
ODBC
Database
Client Application
71
Testing and Deployment:

During the testing phase of this application we experimented it with various
configurations and platforms. The type of users, such as system
administrators, database operators and their respective rights were also
tested. The access granted to the users was found to be in accordance with
the privilege classes. We explored a plethora of Operating Systems
platforms e.g. Windows, Linux, Solaris. We also explored the
interoperability issues between various web browsers such as Internet
explorer, Netscape navigator.
72
Future Enhancements: The Road Ahead
While the solution developed here conformed to the needs of the client, there are
indeed some enhancements that could be made in the solution to make it better
equipped to handle larger variety of scenarios.
At present, the system uses plain-text to exchange database username and
password between the client and server. This is indeed a security limitation, but
has been deliberately demanded by the client so as to facilitate easy integration
of the solution across differing applications, already developed. Any custom
encryption makes a need for code revamping to suit the needs. Future solutions
could implement additional modules to take care of encryption needs if so
desired.
73
Bibliography
www.microsoft.com
www.rpbourret.com/xml/XMLDatabaseProds.htm
www.netwind.com
www.mcmcse.com
www.certportal.com
www.microsnap.com
www.xmldb.org
www.softwareag.com/tamino/
www.xmldatabases.org
www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp
www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/xmldir.html
www.asp-database.de/aspdatabase/
www.tutorial-web.com/asp/database/
www.activeserverpages.com/database/
www.aspin.com/home/tutorial
www.activeserverpages.com/tutorials/
www.101-asp-tutorials.com
www.google.com
www.ucertify.com
ACM Special Interest Group on Mobile Computing and Communications (SIGMOBILE)
74

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Tech Project Report

Development of Online Computer based

Company Profile: www.uCertify.com

Their flagship project uC PrepEngine and uC PrepKit has already registered

Implementation Debugging and Integration

Project Report and Presentation

Problem Definition and Analysis: Requirements

7. Choose and Reorder the List

Single Correct in Multiple Choice

Multiple Correct in Multiple Choice

Example of the Choices:

Drag & Drop

Choose and Reorder the List

Design and Implementation

Database to XML Conversion:

This type of application cannot be written using the current technology.

3. UCID: unique ID of a question. It corresponds with the primary key on

their UCID and whether which one of them is correct.

9. SMUSERANS: stores the snapshot of user's interaction with a

The hierarchy of the database can be depicted diagrammatically as:

Total Correct Answers

general use case scenario occurs when a particular type of question is to be

Single answer type questions:

Multiple answer type questions:

Drag and Drop type questions:

This can be illustrated by the following diagram.

Parent image with drag-gable objects and place holders superimposed.

Parent Image with Object being dragged

HotSpot type Questions:

rectangle. A mouse click inside the rectangle registers as a correct answer;

otherwise it is treated as wrong.

Choose and Reorder type questions:

<!ELEMENT SELECT - - (OPTGROUP|OPTION)+ -- option selector -->

Select Box within Text Placeholder

A partial code snippet for the same is:

Treeview type Questions:

HTML provides the concept of an Unordered List, that is a list, displayed

The corresponding HTML code is:

For setting behavior of this UL as a tree component, it must collapse and

The Tree View with expanded trees

Collapsed tree view

Testing and Deployment

The Road Ahead: Future Enhancements

Problem Definition and Analysis

Design and Implementation

The Server Side:

In addition, the following products are tightly integrated with IIS:

Microsoft Management Console

Programmability architecture of IIS

Developing Web applications can be as complex as developing multi-user

What ASP Is?

Request - to get information from the user

How ASP Works

The Active Server Pages object model

Gather data that a user entered into a form

Output an HTML response to a browser's request

Maintain session- and application-level state

Benefits of Active Server Pages