Virtual Classroom

Integrated Learning environment over internet

Anshu Veda Prajakta Kalekar Shruti Mahambre

The Client

This project has been sponsored by Intel IIT B point of contact Prof. Umesh Bellur

Problem Definition
This project aims at putting together an integrated e-Learning environment for a university student. This will also be used by distance education programs offered by institutes, in order to enable students to avail of the academic facilities from any computer connected to the internet.

Basic terminology

RMI (Remote Method Invocation)

Server application creates remote objects, makes references to them available and allows clients to invoke methods on these remote objects.

Combines the benefits of HTTP tunneling and RMI over internet

RMI tunneling over HTTP EJB

Session Beans (verb) Model business processes. They represent actions Entity Beans (noun) Model Business data They are data object, java objects that cache database information

EJB Container

House enterprise beans and make them available for clients to invoke remotely Provide an environment in which enterprise beans can run Invisible middlemen

EJB Architecture

Basic Terminology

CMP Container Managed Persistence

EJB container takes care of making sure the entity bean object stays around.

BMP Bean Managed Persistence

You as the bean programmer can take over the responsibility of managing the "persistence" of the data -- of where the data stays when the server is not running or when the bean is not in memory.

Requirement Specs

The system will be having 3 roles:

Admin

Instructor Student Admin

Instructor

Managing user accounts, course registration approval Login,Create / Modify course details, set Quizzes, assign grades Login, Register / Unregister for courses, take quizzes, view lectures in offline mode Open-Source and Freeware Support over Internet and Intranet

Student

Non-Functional Requirements

Technology Decisions
Client
Client Integrated Environment

Communication Protocol

Internet

Cross firewall Intranet and Internet support Server

Server

Transaction Persistence Security Caching

Thin v/s Thick Client

Feature Thin Client Thick Client
Gives integrated look and feel. The client executable, installable from web, can bundle all prerequisites. Java Swing client gives same look and feel across all the platforms (as compared to web browser).
Different Browsers Web Browser may require different plug-ins to support Vs features such as Video Java Client streaming.

Look and feel varies from browser to browser.

Speed

Slow. Everything must Fast. Can instantly scroll wait for the server to since the client can cache process and transmit the and process data locally. next screen of information.

Initial Architecture Diagram

Swing Client

Specs

Client- Swing Servlet ContainerTomcat3.2 DB ServerPostgres8.0

Servlet

Request Processor

DB Manager

Database

Pros and Cons

Pros Simple

Simple and Intuitive. Uses HTTP over the internet and simple JDBC to communicate with the database server. As compared with J2EE server

Light

Cons Plain Http protocol No type safety

No caching Support No Transaction Management Support. Absence of Distributed Objects.

WebServices ???

RMI offers an order of magnitude better performance than other alternatives, being at least 8.5 times faster than Web Services HTTP-to-servlet is more than 4 times slower than web services.

Reference: Java RMI, RMI Tunneling and Web Services

Comparison and Performance Analysis - Matjaz B. Juric, Bostjan Kezmah, Marjan Hericko, Ivan Rozman, Ivan Vezocnik

Why EJBs?

Container inherently provides features such as

Security Transaction Persistence Distributed

Management

Object Support that goes well with RMI.

CMP vs BMP
BMP CMP Avoid unnecessary Done using dirty CMP engine handles stores flags, but it requires this more coding and is error-prone Coding JDBC sql queries have to be code. Lesser Coding

Architecture Diagram (The chosen approach)

Session bean SessionBean

EntityBean

SessionBean SessionBean client SessionBean

EntityBean

Database

EntityBean EntityBean

Session Facade

Performance An Entity bean is equivalent to a row in the database. If the Entity beans were to be accessed directly, a network call would result for each row access.

On the other hand, a Session bean is equivalent to a stored procedure. Accessing a session bean that is colocated with an entity bean emulates accessing a row through a stored procedure.

Session Facade

Reusability The session bean layer is powerful because it externalizes all business logic from the entity beans. This means the entity beans contain data and datarelated logic only. This promotes high re-use of entity beans. Data abstraction layer The session bean layer is a facade. The particular way the session bean persists (via JDBC directly or via entity beans) is an implementation detail of the session bean. The decision about whether to use JDBC or entity beans can be deferred until a later date.

E-R Diagram

Object Model

Collaboration Diagram - Login

Collaboration Diagram - Registration

Sequence Diagram - Registration

Collaboration Diagram Set Quiz

Class Diagram

Class Diagram (old & new)

Lessons learnt / Challenges faced

1. Familiarity with J2EE

Studying

EJB Architecture (session bean, entity bean concepts) BMP vs CMP Concept of CMR Configuring JBoss 4.0 Configuring Postgres 8.0 on JBoss Serial Primary Key Writing Deployment Descriptors

Challenge
Trying

to synchronize the Intel deadlines with the syslab deadlines throughout this course

Deployment Descriptor
<entity> <ejb-name>course</ejb-name> <local-home>vclassroom.course.ejb.CourseLocalHome</localhome> <local>vclassroom.course.ejb.CourseLocal</local> <ejb-class>vclassroom.course.ejb.CourseBean</ejb-class> <persistence-type>Container</persistence-type> <reentrant>False</reentrant> <cmp-version>2.x</cmp-version> <abstract-schema-name>course</abstract-schema-name> <prim-key-class>java.lang.Integer</prim-key-class> <primkey-field>courseId</primkey-field> <cmp-field> <field-name>courseId</field-name> </cmp-field>

Deployment Descriptor
<query> <query-method> <method-name>ejbSelectprerequisites</method-name> <method-params> <method-param>java.lang.Integer</methodparam> </method-params> </query-method> <ejb-ql><![CDATA[SELECT OBJECT(p) FROM course as c, IN(c.prereqCourses) p WHERE c.courseId = ?1]]> </ejb-ql> </query> </entity>

Technologies / Tools / Methodologies Learnt

J2EE Architecture
Enterprise

Java Beans

JBoss 4.0 Postgres 8.0 EJB-QL Swing (work in progress) Patterns Session Faade, Recursive Meta pattern, Chain of responsibility

The Timeline

Before MidSem

After Midsem

Overview of the system requirements from Intel Requirement Specification Document prepared and presented to Intel Architecture + Design Documentation Prototype : Demo with the old architecture Login, Registration, Quiz Deliverable Client + Server implementation of modules Change in architecture Protocol + Server Side Learning Curve for new technology EJBs, J2EE architecture Technology survey - Exploring options like JDO, Web Services Configurations JBoss 4.0, Postgres 8.0 Design of new architecture Presentation to Intel Detailed Design specification documentation Deliverable Server Side coding + documentation Login, Registration, Quiz

Thank you !!!!