[Year 12 SofDev] SD U4O1 - ideas?

Tue Jun 12 22:25:57 EST 2007

Hi colleagues in SofDev,

   Having stressed with these types of issues in past years I do feel for 
all those who are trying to get on top of this now. Please do not stress and 
demand help.
Let's work through this together to support all those in need. Here are some 
of my thoughts for those unsure which way to jump.

   If I didn't do PHP/MySQL I would probably consider the following in 
trying to meet " a networked information system objective"  ( the core 
problem with the SAC wording with SAC41 )

1. Write a normal approved language program, covering the data structures 
and difficulty level required and run it from a shared drive with the 
proviso that to run it the user must be log on with his/her normal 
username/password credentials for normal school network access on another 
server. We do this with Moodle. Rather than set up new users, Moodle users 
can be accepted if they have an account on another school server . LDAP is 
the protocol used and this allows the moodle server to authenticate a user 
against a Novell Netware or Win 2003 or Linux server running LDAP where the 
user has an account and password. We do this whenever possible to try to run 
an "integrated information system" rather than create yet another user 
database.

2. Write a VB program that retrieves all users/account holders in a 
particular group on a server that runs LDAP ( eg. Win 2003 ) .  Maybe even 
test further for all "dodgy" accounts - those who have the same password as 
their username !! See http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/LDAP_Using_VBnet.asp

3. An online faults/jobs registration site/page or a VB form running from a 
shared drive , that requires users to log on. A simple form that when 
submitted saves to a text file ( or spreadsheet or database file ), requires 
network authentication eg. the page loads if the user is a member of the 
student group of users on the server. Again can use LDAP or even a hidden 
file on the shared drive.

4. An online student bulletin again submitted via a form on the web or 
through a form in VB. Same concept as in the previous example.

5. An online anonymous bullying reporting form. As above

6. I have set up a half a dozen exercises in VB.NET I submitted 2 years ago 
on the edulists site that shows a fairly quick way to put together a form in 
VB , save to a database behind it and to browse the records. See 
www.edulists.com.au on the sofdev link and in the retired IT Systems web 
accessible from there.

A quick search on Google for VB.NET and ldap has thrown up a large number of 
useful hits.

Best wishes

Kevork Krozian
Edulists Creator and Administrator
www.edulists.com.au
kevork at edulists.com.au

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frank Van Den Boom" <vandenboomfj at aquinas.vic.edu.au>
To: "Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List" 
<sofdev at edulists.com.au>
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 3:45 PM
Subject: RE: [Year 12 SofDev] SD U4O1 - ideas?

> Mark
> Some of this would be beyond my group given the time constraints. While
> I know the focus is on "network", I understand this could just involve
> an application accessed on a shared drive.
> To create an application that creates, updates and processes a single
> random access file is a big enough challenge in my camp, so I will
> probably do something similar to the attached (my 2006 task), but change
> the scenario.
> I like one of your ideas below on encrypting a file using a basic
> algorithm, but would want to incorporate random files somehow, as I
> believe that an ability to work with these positions them better for the
> style of algorithm questions on the exam.
> Frank
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au
> [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark Kelly
> Sent: Tuesday, 12 June 2007 3:07 PM
> To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List
> Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] SD U4O1 - ideas?
>
> Looking ahead to U4O1 - a program to be used on a network.  I am
> wondering what sort of tasks you guys and gals are considering for your
> tasks.
>
> My kids are going to freak if they're expected to create something like
> the task in the 'Advice for teachers' in the study design (p.82) -
> programming databases in VB is not for the feint of heart (and frankly,
> the sample task is a bit redundant when real RDBMS can run over networks
> anyway...)
>
> Tossing a few semi-useful ideas around, I considered:
>
> - a program to send a file to a bunch of network directories (e.g. "send
> test.doc to FRE001, GEM002, TAS005")
>
> - a centralised memo facility that people can go to and leave notes for
> each other
>
> - a simple networked resource booking sheet
>
> - a simple tool to log technical problems that need fixing
>
> - a utility to recursively search multiple directories for certain types
> of banned files (a bit tricky, perhaps)
>
> - a utility for dumb users which can automatically clean up network home
> directories by tossing files of given types into subfolders (e.g. all
> .jpg files in the root of the drive get tossed to the 'pictures'
> subdirectory)
>
> - a simple encryption program to protect sensitive text data stored in a
> network drive.  (Maybe using a simple substitution or transposition
> algorithm) - or maybe a VB emulation of a 16-rotor Enigma machine?)
>
> - a 'random joke of the day' dispenser
>
> - a reverse-engineered version of Windows 2003 Server, crafted in VB.
>
> Others?
>
> --
> Mark Kelly
> Manager - Information Systems
> McKinnon Secondary College
> McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia Direct line / Voicemail:
> 8520 9085 School Phone +613 8520 9000 School Fax +613 95789253 kel AT
> mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
>
> Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au IT Lecture notes:
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> Moderator: IT Applications Mailing List
>
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>
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