CS298 Proposal

Title: A Model-Controller Interface for Struts-Based Web Applications

Deepti Bhardwaj (er.deeptibhardwaj@gmail.com)

Advisor: Dr. Chris Pollett

Committee Member:

Committee Member:

Abstract:

There are a number of Integrated Development Environments (IDE) available which provide environments to develop Struts applications for example JDeveloper and Eclipse. However, these IDEs are desktop-based applications. Moreover, programmers have to ensure that their favorite IDEs are installed and properly configured on their computers before they are able to start working, which takes a substantial amount of time. Even running a properly configured IDE takes a long time to load.

In the proposed project, I will develop a web-based application which will act as an IDE for interfacing and integrating the model and controller of MVC architecture based applications. The proposed IDE will maximize the programmer productivity and will be available across the network. A web-based IDE will eliminate the inconvenience of installing or configuring the desktop-based IDEs. The most exciting advantage of a web-based IDE is that, with the new generation of smart phones and PDAs that support AJAX and Java, programming jobs can be done from any remote location and at any time. Developers will be able to map the user requests to an appropriate action which implements the model in the controller by few clicks and drag-drop functionality in web-based IDE.

CS297 Results:

  • File Creation Application.
  • Study report on design architecture of the web-based IDE “Aurorasdk”.
  • Application to create Model.
  • Application to interface Model and Controller components.

Proposed Schedule:

Week 1:

(08/25/10 - 09/01/10)

 Prepare CS 298 Proposal. Implement the basic design and create the database for the IDE.

Week 2-3:

(09/02/10 - 09/15/10)

 Implement the functionality to create new projects, save on server and open existing projects.

Week 4-5:

(09/16/10 - 09/29/10)

 Implement the functionality to display the Controller files in tree structure and the feature to create a Model object.

Week 6-7:

(09/30/10 - 10/13/10)

 Implement the functionality to export and create the database tables for Model object.

Week 8-9:

(10/14/10 - 10/27/10)

 Implement the functionality for interface Model object and Controller method. Also store this information in file system on server.

Week 10-11:

(10/28/10 - 11/10/10)

 Test the application on different browsers and platform.

Week 12-13:

(11/11/10 - 11/24/10)

 Prepare the initial draft for CS 298 report.

Week 14-15:

(11/25/10 - 12/09/10)

 Finalize report and presentation.

Key Deliverables:

  • Software
    • Implementation of basic design of the IDE with the functionality to create new project, save and open existing projects.
    • Implementation of functionality to create new model object and display controller files.
    • Implementation of feature to create new tables and export to create tables on database server.
    • Implementation of feature to interface model and controller.
  • Report
    • Detail description of application deliverables.
    • Final report and presentation.

Innovations and Challenges:

  • Implementing the feature to export model components and create database tables.
  • Develop the functionality to interface a model object and controller method.
  • Storing the project structure and files onto the server for every user.

References:

[Dionysios G. Synodinos] Web-based IDEs to become mainstream. Retrieved from - http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/02/web-based-ide

[Heroku] Heroku Documentation. Retrieved from - http://docs.heroku.com/

[Jingwen Ou] Aurorasdk. Retrieved from - http://code.google.com/p/aurorasdk/

[Jacob T. Biehl] FASTDash: A Visual Dashboard for Fostering Awareness in Software Teams. Retrieved from - http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/64290/chi2007-fastdash.pdf

Struts. Retrieved from - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-struts/

JQuery. Retrieved from - http://jquery.com/

Struts Tags.  Retrieved from - http://struts.apache.org/2.0.14/docs/tag-reference.html

Walterzorn. Retrieved from - http://www.walterzorn/jsgraphics/jsgraphics_e.htm