academicinfo – web based application for consulting academic information databases alina andreica,...

AcademicInfo – Web Based Application for Consulting

Academic Information Databases

Alina Andreica, Daniel Stuparu, Ana Bara, Oana Timiş, Florentina Tufiş, Flavia

Mureşan,Carmen Ciplea, George Hristodol, Monica Bojan

ICT Department, “Babeş-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

e-mail: [email protected]

AcademicInfo Aims &Principles offering web access facilities to academic

information for students, teachers and academic management

collecting on a central server specific information from dedicated databases located on faculties’ database servers

at present, students from our university can view their academic route in secured sessions, using an friendly web-based interface

We‘ll extend our application with curricula / course management facilities for teachers and information synthesis for academic management

TopicsThe Working Framework and the

Application ObjectivesArchitecture And Security PrinciplesDesign &Implementation of the Application

Database Comparison Module Data Transmission Module Server module

The Database Server Component The User Interface

Conclusions and Future Work

The Working Framework and the Application Objectives

Aim: extending IT facilities offered within BBU for managing academic information

existent software includes dedicated applications installed and used in each faculty for managing educational information The applications create, update and process

specific MS Access databases by means of Visual Basic applications, with user friendly interfaces

The Working Framework and the Application Objectives

AcademicInfo will periodically centralize a dedicated database

at the university level containing relevant information from faculties' databases

process this database in order to provide specific information facilities to BBU students, teachers and academic management

At this moment, there are implemented the facilities dedicated to students

Students may view their educational trajectory - disciplines with graduated exams and the corresponding grades

Architecture and Security Principles

hierarchical structure of the applications strong point in ensuring security - it explicitly

prevents updatable types of access into the currently used databases

Only the central database is accessible to user queries, through a dedicated and trustworthy application

For the server module we chose to work under linux operating system / PostGreSQL database engine / PHP web interface since this solution has a highly proficient quality / price rate

Architecture and Security Principles

This architecture is flexible and ensures an easily manageable implementation of appropriate security measures. Supplemental security facilities are ensured by a log mechanism

The applications locally installed on the database servers within faculties are implemented in Visual Basic + ADO, compatible with existing applications we study the possibility of obtaining increased

database efficiency by upgrading the database engine for the existing applications

The application architecture

Design And Implementation of the Application

structured on three main modules local database comparison data transmission server component

The “local” modules Retain the previous and actual version of the

database Compare the two databases and generate the

necessary update information Transmit this information to the server

Locally installed

Design And Implementation of the Application

Sending only the updates is more efficient than the entire database

Database Comparison Module ActualizareInf compares the current database

Actual with the previous one Manevra table by table and retains records with the necessary update information Operations ("append record" - encoded 'A', "delete

record" - 'S', "update record" - 'M' ) + corresponding argument information

Database Comparison Module

results are introduced into a dedicated database Modif, which is transmitted to the central server Modif 's structure is similar to the other databases but

contains only the tables with relevant information for our application

Modif 's tables have a supplemental field for retaining the operation to be performed (append, delete, update corresponding record)

Comparison algorithm principles Since database tables are indexed, and in order to

gain efficiency we designed the main comparing algorithm based on classical merging principles for ordered sequences - Comparare procedure


The module contains the following functions / procedures:

Initialization / closing subprograms Function getParam(inifile As String, prm As String) As String)

Returns the name of a connection, used in Initializare()

Sub Initializare(ByRef con As ADODB.Connection, prm As String)

Sets the database connection and opens a database; it is called for each database

Sub Finalizare(ByRef con As ADODB.Connection)

Closes a connection; it is called for each database


Processing subprograms Function Cheie(ByRef tabel As ADODB.Recordset, cheia As Variant) As Integer

Returns the position of the primary key from the table given as parameter; it is called in procedure Comparare(…)

Sub inserare(ByRef tabel As ADODB.Recordset)

Adds into a specific table from Modif database data from the parameter table using an "INSERT" SQL instruction. The instruction is saved into a string and executed by connModif connection


Processing subprograms Sub Comparare(TabActual As String, ByRef connA As ADODB.Connection, TabManevra As String, ByRef connM As ADODB.Connection, cheia1 As Variant, TabModif As String, Optional cheia2 As Variant)

Compares two tables with the same structure from Actual and Manevra databases. Computed update information is appended into the table with the same name from Modif database (operation set as"append record" - 'A', "delete record" - 'S', "update record" -'M')

the algorithm is based on merging ordered sequences principles, consequent to determining the primary key

Database Comparison Module Processing subprograms

Sub Comparare(…) If the key from Actual is smaller than the one from

Manevra, the record will be retained in order to be appended

If the key from Actual is greater than the one from Manevra, the record will be deleted

If the keys are equal, we test if updates were made and retain them

The procedure is not executed if Actual database is empty or if Modif database is not empty

If errors are encountered while executing the procedure, they are retained into a dedicated table along with the necessary information

Data Transmission Module

The transmission module Transmitere checks the existence of a network connection to the central server and sends the Modif database given as result by the previous module to the server

Modif database is sequentially parsed and appropriate information is sent

Correct transmission is ensured by an appropriate database connection string, which also checks the existence of a valid network link to the server

Data Transmission Module Initialization / closing subprograms Public Function getParam (inifile As String, prm As String) As String

Reads the connections from the initialization file (the batch file which launches the local applications)

Private Sub scrie_fisier() Checks the connection to the server Private Sub Initializare(ByRef con As ADODB.Connection, prm As String)

Initialization procedure Private Sub golire(Tabcit As String, ByRef concit As ADODB.Connection, TabScrie As String, ByRef conscrie As ADODB.Connection, cheia As Variant, Optional cheia2 As Variant)

Empties the tables in Modif database; is called at the end of the transmission

Data Transmission Module-Processing subprograms

Private Sub adauga(Tabcit As String, ByRef concit As ADODB.Connection, TabScrie As String,ByRef conscrie As ADODB.Connection, cheia As Variant, Optional cheia2 As Variant)

Adds a record Private Sub modifica(Tabcit As String, ByRef concit As ADODB.Connection, TabScrie As String, ByRef conscrie As ADODB.Connection, cheia As Variant, Optional cheia2 As Variant)

Updates a record Private Sub Sterge(Tabcit As String, ByRef concit As ADODB.Connection, TabScrie As String,ByRef conscrie As ADODB.Connection, cheia As Variant, Optional cheia2 As Variant)

Deletes a record

Server module

The server module contains the database component, which includes the database engine - PostGreSQL and the databases, and the web interface which enables the user to interact with the application

The Database Server Component For each faculty, a dedicated database which

contains relevant information, is created on the server In order to efficiently manage the database server, we

created two user accounts with specific rights for each database

One has update rights and accesses the appropriate database only from the server machine of each faculty

The other is dedicated to the WWW user who can access the corresponding database only with select rights

Server module The databases and their users with the corresponding

rights are created by means of specific scripts. Tables are created according to existing database relationships

A dedicated database is also created as the application access / error log

Examples Example 1. Database creation script#must verify if the user introduce the name of the

databaseif [ $# -ne 1 ] then echo "Trebuie introdus numele noii baze de date" echo "Folositi ./createBDFacultate nume_bazadate" exit 1fi# create database with the name $1createdb $1# use the folowing scripts to create tables in $1

databasepsql -f createTable__Univ.sql $1

Server module - ExamplesExample 2. Table creation scriptCREATE TABLE Univ( Judet varchar(2), Cod integer primary key, Denumire varchar(100), Localitate varchar(30), Adresa varchar(50), Telefon varchar(40), Cod_postal varchar(6), Tip integer);Example 3. User creation script#creez utilizatorii cu acces de selectie pe baza de #date Catalog, si de insertie, seletie, stergere,# modificare pe baza de date corespunzatoare psql Catalog -c "create user user$i password '$i'"#acordarea de drepturi select pe baza de date Catalog echo grant select on $j to user$i';' >>

scriptCatalog.sql#execut fisierul format psql -f scriptCatalog.sql Catalog 1

Server module - The User Interface As web support, we used Apache web server and

HTTPS protocol The main web page of the application contains a brief

description of the application and login dialog boxes

Server module - The User Interface At this time, login is granted for students, who choose

a faculty and authenticate themselves by CNP The PHP code associated to the entering button

validates the CNP and logs the access For a valid CNP, we test if it exists in the database

corresponding to the chosen faculty and if so, we select the information to be displayed for the student

The user screen contains of 3 frames Display options: sorting criteria in respect with semester,

year, grade, exam date, discipline and selection criteria on semesters

General information: Faculty name, student name Selected information as a table with the following header:

Semester, Year, Discipline Code, Discipline Title, Exam Date, Grade, ECTS. If the student is enrolled in more than one specializations, all of them are displayed

AcademicInfo –student information form page


AcademicInfo application is dedicated to BBU's students, teachers and academic staff and provides IT facilities regarding on-line viewing, by means of a friendly and accessible web interface, educational information

Currently, we implemented course and grade display facilities for students

AcademicInfo centralizes relevant information from dedicated databases located on faculties' servers


AcademicInfo is modularly designed, flexible, secure and open to new extensions

Future developments improving our efficiency studies regarding the

locally installed applications upgrading the local database enginesanalyze the efficiency of security mechanisms

implemented within the server component Facilities for teachers and academic staff are

currently under development

academicinfo – web based application for consulting academic information databases alina andreica,...

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