Australian National University

Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology

COMP3410

Information Technology in Electronic Commerce

Assignment 1

This assignment will be updated on a regular basis. Clarifications and modifications will be added as and when required. Note that answers should be submitted both electronically and in printed form. You will be required to submit one or more files for each question, with specific file names. You can submit additional files, if required, and these can be image files, in the form in the form of jpg or gif images; or pdf files; or html or css files. Make sure that all of these files (including the specified ones) are located in the same directory and that you submit all of them. Use relative links to refer to such files, eg, <a href="myadditionalfile.html">. Remember to provide detailed references, if any have been made use of. Supply absolute URL's to any online references.

This is a group assignment and should be completed in groups of 2. Both people in the group must contribute equally to the assignment. It is strongly recommended that both people in the group work collaboratively on all the questions, rather than split the workload across the questions. You are only required to hand in one copy of the assignment with both names and student numbers clearly shown.

Note that all work submitted must be entirely your own work. Make certain you use quality information and that you carefully reference all the material that you use. It is unacceptable to cut and paste another author's work and pass it off as your own. Anyone found doing this, from whatever source, will get a zero for the assignment. Any material that you wish to quote should be put in quotation marks and the source should be clearly referenced. Read the department's policy on plagiarism, to be found in the Department of Computer Science Student Handbook.

It is strongly suggested that you start working on the questions right away and submit questions as and when you finish them. You can submit as many times as you want. Only the most recent submission will be retained. Check that your files work on the student system before submission. Please ensure that you copy your submitted files to an appropriate folder in your directory on the student system as well.

Note that the COMP3410 assignment is for the undergraduate students and the COMP6341 assignment for the postgrad students. The two are not interchangeable. If you find problems with this assignment (e.g., something is not clear, or there are broken links), please get in contact with the concerned lecturer immediately. The name of the lecturer and email contact details can be found at the top of each question.

Question 1
First posted: Tue Aug 11 11:03:06 EST 2009
Last modified: Wed Aug 12 15:55:06 EST 2009
Questions to: Ramesh Sankaranarayana
Marks: 40

DCS XML Inc is looking to develop an addressbook application that allows people to store details regarding their contacts on a server and view it using a client application running on fixed or mobile devices such as workstations, laptops, PDAs and mobile phones. All the required information is to be stored on a server using XML. Each addressbook entry must have provision to include the following contact related information:

• name (first name and last name)
• title
• nickname
• address(+) (home, work, etc)
• phone numbers (home(+), work(+), mobiles(+))
• fax number(+)
• email address(+)
• web page(+)
• professional memberships
• photo
• birthday
• anniversary
• spouse/partners details
• children's details
• hobbies
• nature of relationship (family, friend, colleague, etc)
• your comments regarding this person

1. Write an XML Schema that captures the required information. Make sure that the schema is valid and correct, and is well-commented. Save your schema in a file called cd.xsd. [12 marks]
2. Create an instance XML document that contains enough data to cover all the various properties that you have built into your Schema. Make sure that it is a valid document and has at least 5 contacts. You must refer to your Schema and your XSLT file from within this document. Save this in a file called cd.xml. [5 marks]
3. Write an XSLT styesheet that will transform this information and neatly lay it out as an HTML file, sorted in ascending order by the last name of the contact. Save this as cd.xsl. Use this to generate an HTML file and save this as cd.html. Create a CSS file called cd.css and refer to this file from the generated HTML file. [13 marks]
4. Write a report that gives a thorough explanation of your Schema and your XSLT, including any assumptions that you made and design decisions taken by you in creating the Schema. Save this in a file called cd-report.html. [10 marks]

Make sure that your schema and stylesheet files are well documented. Submit the files cd.xsd, cd.xsl, cd.xml, cd.html, cd.css and cd-report.html. Make sure that you test your files using xmllint and xsltproc on the student system before submission.

Question 2
First posted: Tue Aug 11 11:03:06 EST 2009
Last modified: Tue Aug 11 11:03:06 EST 2009
Questions to: Tom Worthington
Marks: 30

Digital library:

As discussed in the Tutorial, the Australian Computer Society and ANU have built the International Federation for Information Processing Digital Library (IFIPDL). This contains papers from conference proceedings. The full text of new conference papers is provided, but there is more to a conference than the formal written papers. Some conferences also now have online discussion of the topics, before, during and after the conferecne (or instead of it). Consider how you would extend the IFIPDL to include online discussion forums.

1. What metadata would it be useful to add? Where would you get it from? Cite standards and other sources in our answer. Include real or imagined examples and code samples.
2. Academics receive payment and promotion based on their contributions at conferences. Their contributions to conference forums would therefore be more than just a social activity. What issues addressed in this course, are there with adding a discussion forum to the library? Cite sources and give examples.

Your report must be around 500 words in length. Submit your report as dlreport.html.

Question 3
First posted: Tue Aug 11 11:03:06 EST 2009
Last modified: Tue Aug 11 11:03:06 EST 2009
Questions to: Tom Worthington
Marks: 30

E-Document Management

National Archives of Australia has developed XENA - XML Electronic Normalising of Archives. This converts digital documents from government agencies into open source formats for archival preservation, along with their metadata. XENA currently processes word processing document, spreadsheets, images and audio files. National Archives are having difficulty finding suitable standards for use with video.

1. What are some options for video metadata? What are the different ways to mark up the metadata? What are the advantgaes and disadvantages of these?
2. Government records are required to be kept for many years for legal and research purposes. What are some of the document management issues with keeping video in an archive and how might these be addressed?

Your report must:

1. introduce the topic;

2. give a background to the chosen XML formats and standards, introducing key terms;

3. give a brief description, including application areas and simple examples; and

4. have a conclusion including your opinions on the topic.

Your report will be marked on relevance, content, presentation and referencing.

Your report must be around 500 words in length. Submit your report as video.html.

Submission Guidelines

Make only one submission per group. You will need to submit your assignments both electronically and in printed form. The filenames to be used for electronic submission are given above, as part of each question. In addition, you need to attach a completed group cover sheet and submit it as ass1-cover.html. Read the information on the assignments page for electronic submission.

Make sure that you attach an assignment group cover sheet to your submission, with all the fields filled in. Failure to do so can cost you up to 5 marks.

For submitting the printed version, print off your complete assignment (all parts included), attach a completed cover sheet to the top and staple the lot. Place your assignment in the assignment box labeled COMP3410, which is located on the ground floor of the CS&IT building.

Note that you can only submit your assignment electronically if you belong to a tutorial group.

Late Assignments

If your submission is late, then a late penalty of 10% per day applies. Assignments will not be accepted one week after the deadline.

Extensions

Extensions will only be given under special circumstances. Students should write a letter to Dr. Ramesh Sankaranarayana stating the reason for the request and attach supporting documentation (e.g., medical certificate). This should be done before the deadline. Requests for extensions after the deadline will not be accepted.