SE401:33:Architectures

Architecture Ideas

Online tool - web application

Offline tool - stand alone program

• Plug-in Architecture
• Generic Framework
• ?

Exploration of Ideas

We look at the main points of each idea, advantages/disadvantages and potential problems.

Each idea is also given a difficulty estimate.

Online Tool - Web Application

Overview

• Thin Client
• User accesses tool within their Internet Browser.
• All the code generation/page analysis is done by the servers.
• The tool would need to be written using php/asp/js etc.
• Can get the client to do some of the work using javascript.
• Pages need to be (or seem to be) dynamic. AJAX?

Advantages

• User doesn't need high speed computer.
• User can access content from any computer.
• Users don't need to download the program.
• Users don't need to download additional content/updates.
• Don't need a 'proper' framework.

Disadvantages

• User needs a decent Internet Connection.
• Servers need to be a lot more powerful (calculations and bandwidth) than an average web server.
• If servers go down, no one can use the tool.
• Need the site to work in all the major browsers (rewrite same code a few times).
• PHP is a pain to test.

Potential Problems

• University hosting might be too slow (page scraping etc).
• Need to request additional services from University (AJAX?).
• We don't know AJAX or ASP.
• Online tools are harder to test properly.
• Dynamic editing might be hard to do.
• Dynamic editing might crash slower PC's anyway.

Difficulty Rating: 9/10

Offline Tool - Plugin Architecture

Overview

• Light weight program
• Stand alone program which runs on Windows platform (We assume the majority of Linux users can program - could be later converted which is beyond the scope of our project).
• Written in .net or Visual Basic?
• Consists of basic framework with plugin interface.
• Functions for mashup types can be encapsulated in plugins.

Advantages

• Plugins can be developed independently written after initial framework is established.
• Decrease memory usage as all plugins are not loaded on startup.
• Easy to extend the tool.
• Original download is small, so the server bandwidth does not need to be huge.
• Pass some of the work onto other developers.

Disadvantages

• Users need to download additional content.
• Users cant access their content from anywhere.
• Need to check updates for every plugin the user has aswell as the main application.
• Plugins may not work across versions (like some Firefox plugins - this is a problem for the plugin developer, not so much ours).

Potential Problems

• Plugin interface may be hard to implement (no experience)
• No experience with .Net and VB.
• Framework may take a lot of time to develop properly.
• Bad framework design might lead to poor UI.
• Might not have time to do real life UI testing.

Difficulty Rating: 8/10

Offline Tool - Generic Framework

Overview

• Heavy weight program.
• Stand alone program which is a complete tool.
• Written in .Net or Visual Basic for Windows platform.
• Program will a finished tool which users can download.

Advantages

• All the functions are automatically included (no need to download more).
• More secure than plugins (some users might write malicious plugins).

Disadvantages

• Complete program may be large which will use a lot of bandwidth to download.
• Can't add to the program once it's released (new content will have to come in updates)
• Could require a lot of memory to run.
• We have to write all the functionality.
• Users need to download updates.

Potential Problems

• Wont be able to develop all the functionality for all the possible mashups (in the scope of our project).
• No experience with .Net and VB.
• Framework may take a lot of time to develop properly.
• Bad framework design might lead to poor UI.
• Might not have time to do real life UI testing.
• Have to make the project open source for people to continue adding functionality.

Difficulty Rating: 8/10

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