Replacing Legacy System with JBoss AS7 Web Application & Developing on OpenShift Cloud PaaS!
Table Of Contents
- Introduction
- Gathering Requirements
- Replacing Legacy System with JBoss AS 7
- Project Design
- Open Source Cloud Workflow
- Our Team
Setting up development environment:
My team members are solid developers however they are new to J2EE Development and I made this video to help them quickly setup their environment. We don't graduate if we don't deliver a system to the client. You can read the rest of the blog if your interested in learning how we are using open source technology to replace a legacy system for Seneca College located in Toronto, Ontario Canada.
Introduction:
Seneca College CPA programming students don't just learn computer programming we can build enterprise ready end to end systems. Part of the requirement for us to graduate is to finish a two part course (PRJ566- Software Design /PRJ666- Develop a system for a client to use). In the beginning of the course we created teams of 3 students and we had 2 choices.
- Go out and find a client and build a system end to end. √
- Choose a fictional project or something the professor asks for.
We choose option number 1 while others say it too risky.
Note: Although we are building a system for the client we will be owning our own intellectual property. The client can use WhoTeachsWhat web application to solve their business problem. Personally I don't really care much about intellectual property, in fact I'd prefer to commit code to open source.
Gathering Requirements:
Our client is the chair of Seneca College and has a legacy system that uses an old Microsoft Access database. The Chair would like to plan faculty scheduling and would like a system to be able to find out more details about faculty before deciding on what course to assign the faculty member. This system will also be used by Seneca Coordinators to automate some work they need done. Our client would also like to administer this application and assign privileges to users. Report generation will be a feature of this system.
Replacing Legacy System with JBOSS AS 7 :
We will be replacing the legacy system with a JBoss AS 7 Web Application. I believe in building systems using open source technology that follows open standards.
“Empowerment of individuals is a key part of what makes open source work, since in the end, innovations tend to come from small groups, not from large, structured efforts.”
– Tim O’Reilly
We are hosting our application using the latest open cloud technology Red Hat's OpenShift Public PaaS.
It is located at this URL however it is still being developed so you won't have access yet to preview. Maybe next sprint we will showcase more of the UI.
http://whoteachswhat-bzcareersearch.rhcloud.com/
Project Design Considerations
We wanted to create a web application that would automate report generation and make managing faculty and courses simple. We also wanted to solve our clients business needs and provide a rich compelling UI. Here are some questions that are going to be addressed by this system:
1) What courses has a professor taught?
2) Are they eligible to teach this course?
3) Is the faculty members status (available, vacation, part-time, full-time) ?
4) More.....
This project is still in development and we will update you on the progress.
Open Source Cloud Workflow?
When we develop we prefer to work in a Linux environment and I setup the project on OpenShift Cloud PaaS. Here is a link with more details about OpenShift.
Our Team
- Zakeria Hassan - In charge of J2EE Development
- SH Lee - In charge of Quality Assurance
- Anil Santokhi - In charge of Front End Development
Zak Hassan
Software Developer | Research Assistant , CDOT – Seneca College
Twitter: @Prospect1010
Github: https://github.com/zmhassan
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/zakeriahassan/http://ca.linkedin.com/in/zakeriahassan/ca.linkedin.com/in/zakeriahassan/
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