A .NET Framework for University Administration
R.V.S.P.K. Ranatunga and R.G.N. Meegama
Centre for Computer Studies, Sabaragamuwa University
Belihuloya, Sri Lanka
{spkr},{rgn}@sab.ac.lk
Abstract: - Presently, all official work related to human resource management in a majority of
Universities in Sri Lanka is done manually. This results in plenty of paper work, unavailability of
information when required in a timely manner and conflictions spread over the staff and administration.
An Executive Information System (EIS) is developed for the University Administration to establish an
efficient, productive and a well-informed administration structure that will provide timely information
to the decision makers to carry out administrative functions promptly and efficiently. Initially, the
requirements are identified to investigate the existing administration procedures. Object oriented
methodologies are used to analyze the system while Unified Modeling Language (UML) is utilized to
modularize the system behavior. Then, the existing data in handwritten forms and letters in the files are
entered into a database for the purpose of analysis. Subsequently, these analyzed data sets are fed into a
computerized database using the software, based on VB.Net, ASP.Net and SQL Server technologies.
The proposed system is web-based that can be accessed via the campus-wide local area network with
access control permission. All administrative staff can interactively work and most of the paper
documents are handled electronically.
Key-Words: - .Net, EIS, TPS, University administration
1. Introduction
Although the universities have a good
information
infrastructure,
administration
processes are conducted using the traditional
paper-based manual system at the moment.
Because of this manual system, administration
often faces a lot of problems.
The overall goal of this paper is to
develop a functioning, well documented, web
based Executive Information System (EIS) that
meets almost all administration requirements,
following current standards in software design,
engineering and planning.
There are three main problems that can be
introduced by the University administration:
They are: (a) maintaining employee details of
both academic and non-academic staff (b)
controlling their activities and (c) maintaining
lecture schedules, non-academic work schedules,
leave, increments, conformation and promotions,
etc. The administration should provide necessary
information to the University Senate and to the
Council. In order to eliminate the existing
problems, this .Net EIS framework is proposed
for the administration of the University that will
facilitate: (a) providing online information of
establishment branch of the University (staff
appointments, automating salary increments,
automating promotion structure, generating
reports of staff who have taken study leave, etc.),
(b) providing online information on day-to-day
activities of employee (daily lecture schedules,
daily work schedules, daily overtime schedules,
leave information, etc.), (c) providing necessary
information and evidence for making decisions
at the Senate and Council and (d) providing
necessary information for making financial
decisions.
The administration staff will be the main
users of the system who will have access to the
information via the university intranet. Main
database is handled by an authorized person and
distributed through the intranet.
The development process of dynamic webbased systems poses very specific problems that
do not appear in other distributed software
applications, such as the need for mechanisms to
model sophisticated navigational structures,
interactive behaviors, interfaces with external
applications, security constraints, network and
client server architecture, session management
and state management. When implementing this
type of systems distributed discrete-event
simulation are becoming extremely important.
Basically Object Oriented Analysis and Design
(OOAD) provides much facilities to design such
systems. User interactivity and ease of
communication with the system is an essential
requirement. Rapid Application Development
(RAD) methodology provides incremental and
iterative process to carry out such functionality.
2. Requirements Analysis
2.1.
Domain Analysis
An analysis module will be used to generate
various kinds of required reports in tabular as
well as in graphical forms to the users. At the
first stage, a web-based Transaction Processing
System (TPS), is implemented to enter data into
the SQL database where access rights have been
granted to clerical staff. Subsequently, a
Dashboard Interface (DS) for the EIS is
programmed for all administrative and executive
staff in the university.
Top Executives get the information they
need from many sources, including letters,
memos, periodicals and reports produced
manually as well as by computer systems. Other
sources of EIS are meetings telephone calls, and
social activities. A majority of executive’s
information comes from non-computerized
sources.
The goal of a computer based EIS, as in
Fig. 1, is to provide management with immediate
and easy access to selective information about
factors that are critical to accomplishing top level
activities such as approving and monitoring.
Therefore, an EIS is easy to operate and
understand.
The domain for this software, in terms of
the software market, fits into the EIS which
includes the capabilities of tailored to executive
users, extract, filter, compress, and track critical
data, provide online status access, reports, and
drill down capabilities, access and integrated a
broad range of data, user friendliness and require
minimal training at all.
The system consists of application
software written in a visual programming
language which forms most of the user interface,
and a database which is used to store and analyse
the data.
The software is installed on the web
server and users are able to interactively use it on
the web browser. It follows the standard database
pattern of data entry, editing of data,
administration of users and data type tables, and
output in the forms of reports and graphs. Users
can dynamically carry out database activities
through the local area network.
Figure 1: Sample EIS
2.2 Requirement Specifications of the
Product
The software product performs the following
activities: employee registration, on time
increment approvals and calculations, on time
promotion
approvals,
calculating
carder
provision for the whole university, generating
various kinds of reports and letters pertaining to
the
university
administration,
retrieve
summarized information that is tailored to the
users, which directly helps administration
purposes. Except for these functions, includes
drilldown capabilities of the information, various
cross tabulations and graphic presentations of the
information, interchange that information among
the top level administration and interactive work
environment.
Since the University does not maintain a
computerized information system, according to
the literature survey, this product includes not
only the EIS but also a part of the system
containing the Transaction Processing System.
2.3 User Characteristics and Objectives
2.3.1 High Level Users
High Level Users have their own rights to access
the system and are limited to access, edit, update,
and delete the data of the system. They are
Council Members, Vice Chancellor, Registrar,
Senior Asst. Registrar and Asst. Registrars,
Bursar, Senior Asst. Bursar Asst. Bursars, Deans,
Directors, and Heads.
2.3.2 Low Level Users
Low Level Users too have their own rights to
access the system and are limited to access, edit,
update, and delete the data of the system. They
are clerk (data entry operator) and authorized
employees of the establishment branch.
2.3.3 Methods of Requirement Capturing
Used
<<communicate>>
In order to capture the requirements, the
following methods have been used to sample
existing documents: observations of the work
environment, research and site visits, interviews,
questionnaires, joint requirements planning, and
prototyping [2, 12].
Autorization
Low Level Users
<<include>>
<<include>>
<<communicate>>
Login to System
Profile Selecting
<<include>>
3. Modelling and Logical System
Design
The Unified Process is a software development
technique that transforms a user’s requirements
into a software system [7]. The Unified Process
uses the Unified Modeling Language (UML)
[3,4] when preparing all blueprints of the
software system [13].
According
to
the
requirements
specifications of the system, three Use Case
diagrams specify the software requirements
logically.
3.1.
Login Use Case Model
Security is an increasingly prominent and critical
concern for all software systems. Compared to
traditional software, new Internet applications
face new security issues which are too complex
to deal with without effective models and
decision support tools. When relevant actors for
a given software system belong to a closed
community, security is comparatively easy to
enforce and control. For flexible sharing among
members of dynamic and open groups such as
those on the Internet, different parts of networks
and systems may be operated by parties with
conflicting interests or even malicious intent.
Threats of varying technical difficulty targeting
different levels of a network infrastructure exist
everywhere [10].
This model specifies the authorization
profile, as in Fig. 2, selecting and log recording
requirements of the system that protects the
security and correctly updates the information in
the database.
3.1.1 Use Cases with Descriptions
Each Use Case should be documented with a
flow of events. The flow of events for a Use
Case is a description of the events needed to
accomplish the required behaviour of the Use
Case. It is written in terms of what the system
should do, not how the system does it [8,13].
High Level User
Update Login
Figure 2. Authorization Use Case Model
3.1.2 Low Level User Use Case model
This should include when and how the Use Case
starts and ends, what interaction the Use Case
has with the actors, what data is needed by the
Use Case, the normal sequence of events for the
Use Case, the description of any alternative or
exceptional flows.
4. IMPLEMENTAION
Since this research was to initiate on an iterative,
incremental framework, the best RAD tool in the
industry "Visual Studio.Net” was selected in the
application development process. The .NET
framework is the plumbing of .NET. It provides
the services necessary to develop and deploy
applications
for
the
loosely
coupled,
disconnected Internet environment [1,9].
It was identified from the available
versions in the market that Windows XP to be
the most appropriate operating system for the
implementation process. Embedded web-server
with Windows XP, IIS 5 is used as the web
server to implement the system.
Microsoft SQL Server was chosen as the
Database Management System for the system.
The key reasons for this selection were the
reliability, security and its compatibility with the
development tool and the operating system
selected. MS SQL server provides sophisticated
interfaces for implementing databases and gives
more facilities to manipulate data. Stored
procedures, user defined data structures, query
analysers are the very essential features for
developing this type of systems.
4.1 Implementation Framework
A framework was developed initially to
implement the basic functionality of a user
interface. The framework was tested thoroughly
before implementation within all user interfaces
[5].
4.1.2 Security Frame Work
A well-structured security system is an essential
for this application. The system uses its inbuilt
security system other than the operating system
or server provided security, because of the
following reasons:
1. the web and the database servers are running
on the same machine, it is technically easy to
maintain Integrated Security with Windows
Authentication to access the SQL Server
[14].
2. University local area network is the
implementation environment of the system
and it should use the facilities given by the
network. Thus, the system uses Windows
Authentication facility other than the
Anonymous Users to provide the web
services.
4.1.3 User Access to the system
Any user who needs access to the system gets the
user name and the password provided by the
system administrator. The user name and the
password is generated by the system using
encryption method with the provided information
by the system administrator. Once a user
receives the password from the system
administrator, he is able to change the password
by using change password option in the user
profile.
The server identifies the appropriate
profile and displays it, if the username and the
password is correct.
4.1.4 Access to Web Pages
Any unauthorized person is not allowed to use
other web page addresses in the system, directly
typing on the browser other than the login.aspx
web page. When implementing this security
details, session variables are used to transfer the
variables to the pages from the login.aspx.
Without the required session state variable
values, pages do not open up with established
functionality on the browser.
Web controls defined in the pages are
used to edit or change when the user has no
rights to change it. The annual increment form,
as an example, the head or dean is not allowed to
change values that the user had already filled and
submitted without the approval of the Vice
Chancellor. The officer at the Establishment
branch is not authorized to update the increment
of the employee without the approval of the Vice
Chancellor. An Asp label web control is used to
achieve this where an unauthorized user is
restricted from modifying the control values
when displayed it in the browser.
4.1.5 Profile Framework
As mentioned in the design phase, users can be
divided as high level users and low level users.
Profiles too are categorized as low level profiles
and high level profiles. All employees and clerks
fall into low level profiles and all administrative
staff (academic and non academic) belong to
high level profiles. The system first checks the
user authentication with login page and then
automatically selects the profile according to the
given user name and password. Higher degree of
user friendliness and interaction with other users
are applied with the user profiles.
4.1.6 Forms Framework
University employees use standard form sets to
request their increments, promotions, and
confirmations manually. Since these formats are
created in accordance with rules and regulations
mentioned in government circulars, the
administration is not empowered to change its
formats. These standard forms are implemented
in the system in the same format with a higher
degree of user friendliness. The user needs to fill
only very few data items and the system
automatically fills most of the fields in the
standard forms.
In order to display the submitted form on
a high level user profile (administration staff),
the system will provide necessary proofing tools
such as tables, charts to verify the entered data
by the submitted person.
4.1.7 Message/Letter Framework
The system has an inbuilt message and a mail
system. All users are able to send or receive
messages or letters. A maximum 8 Kb texts can
send to the registered users within the system.
The user-friendliness in this scenario is attributed
to the fact that a user need only to type his
message or letter. Other fields, such as sender
name, recipient name and date will be
automatically filled by the system or the user can
select them. The other important facility given
by this framework is automation of retrieving
standard letter formats in to the message or letter
body without typing it in the body [6].
4.1.8 Report Framework
Although Visual Stdio.NET provides embedded
report generating facilities for its applications,
the Crystal Report software system does not
support this functionality since it uses Integrated
security to login to the SQL Server and does not
use any user name password. One of the
technical problem that arises with this technique
is that VB.NET Crystal Report Viewer requires
the user id and password to read data from the
SQL Server [11].
To avoid this technical problem, the system
uses Crystal Report 9.0 version. When a user
requests a report from the web server, it first
selects the appropriate data into the dataset and
writes in the temporary XML file. The built in
crystal report function retrieves data from USER
DSN pertaining to the written XML file.
5. Conclusion
Most of the universities use manual information
systems for administration purposes in Sri
Lanka. Manual information systems do not
support the proper decision making structure and
as a result, these systems often come across
severe administration problems with the
increased number of students and staff members.
This paper provides the solution for this
problem with a web based executive information
system that works in a campus-wide local area
network. This framework mainly divides into
two: TPS and EIS. All data generated by the
university administration is stored in the data
base using TPS and other administration
activities are saved in the EIS. Most of the
documents are delivered electronically and it is
more useful to minimize wastage of time. The
system has the capabilities of a modern EIS such
as drill down facilities, user friendliness, dash
board concepts, and interactively work.
[1] B. Evjen and J. Beres, Visual Basic .net
Programming Bible, Wiley-Dreamtech India
Pvt. Ltd, 2003.
[2] Bentley and Dittman, Systems Analysis and
Design Methods, 5th edition, Prentice-Hall,
2004.
[3] G. Booch and J. Rumbaugh, The Unified
Modeling Language User Guide, 1st edition,
Person Education Ltd, Delhi, 1999.
[4] G. Booch, J. Rumbaugh, I. Jacobson, Unified
Modeling Language – Users Guide,
Addison Wesley, 1999.
[5] H. Igor, Introduction to Systems Analysis and
Design, 4th edition, Prentice Hall, 1998.
[6] Q. Jarry, Visual Modeling with Rational
Rose 2000 and UML, Reason Education Pvt.
Ltd, 2001.
[7] I. Jacobson, G. Booch and J. Rumbaugh, The
Unified Software Development Process,
Addision Wesley, 1999.
[8] I. Jacobson, M. Christerson, P. Jonson and
G.Overgaard, Object Oriented Software
Engineering: A Use Case Dirven Approch,
Addison Wesley, 1993.
[9] B. Jim, Web Database Development Step-byStep, Prentice-Hall, 2000.
[10] L. Liu, E.Yu and J. Mylopoulos, Analyzing
Security Requirements as Relationships
Among Strategic Actors, 2nd Symposium
on
Requirements
Engineering
for
Information Security (SREIS’02), Raleigh
North Carolina, 2002
[11] T. Quatrani, Visual Modelling with Rational
Rose 2000 and UML, Addision Wesley,
2000.
[12] L. Whitten, L. D. Bentley, Dittman and C.
Kevin,
Systems analysis and design
methods, 6th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2004.
[13] (www1) http://www.rational.com
[14] (www2)
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enUS/library/ht43wsex(VS.80).aspx