According to a study, students in computer-science courses learn much more by building large-scale exercises instead of many small-scale test programs, which give fragmented knowledge contrary to solid understanding of the language.

• Have to use Microsoft ASP.NET [Visual Studio (Community)] and Microsoft Access DBMS to complete this exercise. Be sure to create the exercise by selecting the following Visual Studio options:
  
  
  • Get started: Create a new project,
  • Project template: ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework),
  • Language: C#,
  • Platform: Windows, and
  • Project type: Web.


• The exercise should be located at C:\260\WebApplication4\ .


• The folder C:\260\WebApplication4\Access\ should host the database such as C:\260\WebApplication4\Access\Bookstore.mdb, instead of .accdb, if you want to use the CEC205 podium machine to demo your exercises.

• Turn in printouts of all ASP.NET source code and no documentation is needed. (Online students may send the code to the instructor via emails.)


• Send an email to the instructor at wenchen@cs.und.edu to set up an appointment to demonstrate your exercise to the instructor individually, so misunderstanding would be minimized. The mail lists the times you will be available. The instructor will prepare a set of test data to be used by all students. (Online students may use Skype to demonstrate their exercises and the instructor’s Skype ID is whu678 .)


• Students may save the whole website at C:\260\WebApplication4\ in a flash drive or in the cloud and demo it at a classroom or conference-room machine at the location C:\260\WebApplication4\ . The instructor will also save the code in his computer.

• The data of a book includes
  • a unique ISBN (10 characters),
  • a title,
  • a list of subjects (at least one subject), and
  • a price.


• The data of a customer includes
  • a unique ID (assigned by the system automatically after signing up),
  • a name,
  • a shopping cart including:
    • a list of selected books (no duplicate books),
    • the corresponding quantities of the selected books (one quantity for one book), and
    • the total amount of the selected books, and
  • an account including:
    • a list of purchased books (no duplicate books),
    • the corresponding quantities of the purchased books (one quantity for one book), and
    • the total amount spent on the purchased books (one amount per customer).


• Database design is supplied by the instructor as follows. The following six tables show sample values of a relational Bookstore database, of which ISBN, SID, (ISBN, SID), CID, (ISBN, CID), and (ISBN, CID) are the primary keys of the tables Books, Subjects, BookSubject, Customers, Carts, and Orders, respectively. The ISBN, SID, and CID are the foreign keys of the tables BookSubject, Carts, and Orders.
  
  

  Bookstore Books ISBN Title Price 111884677X Build your ASP.NET skills 27.56 1484224779 Web applications using Microsoft VS 34.48 1942270844 Microsoft Access programming by example 36.21 1285860268 Programming with Microsoft VB 82.06 1937161730 Visual Basic and databases 74.95 0596002734 Access database design and programming 7.45 0596005431 Web database applications with VB 8.45 1285183479 Using Access and Visual Basic 15.99 ... ... ... Subjects SID Name 1 Computer Science 2 Electrical Engineering 5 Social Studies 6 English Literature 10 English Composition 11 World History 20 U.S. History ... ... BookSubject ISBN SID 1484224779 2 1484224779 20 1484224779 6 1937161730 5 1285183479 2 1285183479 6 0328030201 29 0328030201 1 0328030201 6 111884677X 1 0596005431 10 0596005431 23 ... ... Customers CID Name 1 Sponge Bob 2 Pikachu Ash 5 Mario Luigi 6 Poke Mon 10 Digi Mon 11 Super Man 20 Bat Man ... ... Carts ISBN CID Quantity 1285860268 6 2 111884677X 20 2 0596002734 6 3 1937161730 5 1 1285860268 12 1 1285183479 6 2 0328030201 1 1 111884677X 12 2 0328030201 6 3 0596002734 1 1 ... ... ... Orders ISBN CID Quantity 1484224779 2 1 1484224779 20 2 1484224779 6 3 1937161730 5 1 1285183479 2 13 1285183479 6 2 0328030201 29 1 0328030201 1 8 0328030201 6 3 111884677X 1 1 0596005431 10 10 0596005431 23 2 ... ... ...



• (System administrator: 14% total)
  For the one and only one system administrator:
  
  
  • (Entering books: 07%) Enter books one by one. User-friendliness will be heavily considered here; for example, the number of subjects should be unlimited and the subjects’ names should not be fixed and entered again and again.
  
  
  • (Listing all: 07%) List all hyperlinked book titles, subject names, and customer names.


• (Customers: 50% total)
  For each customer:
  
  
  • (Signing up, in, and out: 10%) Customer can sign up, in, and out. The instructor will use multiple browsers, tabs, or computers to test your exercise at the same time.
  
  
  • (Searching books and ranking the results: 10%) Search the books with multiple case-insensitive keywords; i.e., display a book if its subjects include any one of the keywords entered. The query is a list of keywords separated by spaces. Extra spaces before, after, and among the keywords should be ignored. Display all books if the query is empty. Rank the search results based on the number of subjects matched. Each search result includes (i) a checkbox, (ii) a hyperlinked title, and (iii) the number of subjects matched.
  
  
  • (Putting books in the shopping cart: 10%) After searching, put the selected books in the shopping cart at the same time. If the book is already in the cart, do nothing.
  
  
  • (Checking the shopping cart: 10%) Show all data (including the total amount) in the customer’s shopping cart. Each book in the cart includes (i) a hyperlinked title and (ii) a textbox for a quantity to purchase the book. Update the cart by removing the book from the cart if its quantity is zero and showing the updated total amount.
  
  
  • (Purchasing books: 10%) Purchase all books in the shopping cart at the same time and update the customer’s account accordingly. If the book has been purchased before, add the quantities.
  
  
• (Generic functions: 21% total)
  For both administrator and customers:
  
  
  • (Showing book data: 07%) List all data of a specific book (including hyperlinked subject names) by clicking its hyperlinked title.
  
  
  • (Showing subject data: 07%) List all data of a specific subject (including hyperlinked titles of all books each including the subject) by clicking its hyperlinked name.
  
  
  • (Showing customer data: 07%) List all data of a specific customer (including hyperlinked purchased book titles) by clicking his or her hyperlinked name. The data does not need to include the shopping-cart data, which will be checked separately by each customer. The system administrator can check all customers’ data (but not including the shopping-cart data) and a customer can only check his or her own data.


• (Instructor’s requirements: 15% total)
  Other than the above system requirements, the instructor has the following requirements:
  
  
  • (User friendliness: 10%) User-friendliness will be heavily considered when grading. In the past, some exercises were awkward, which made the grading or browsing difficult. For example, it is considered not user-friendly if the system repeatedly asks users to enter their names/IDs/passwords.
  
  
  • (Resetting the system: 05%) The system can be reset, which is to clear all data stored in the database, so the instructor can test the system by using only his own test data. That is the system has to include a button such as “Clear system” at the system entry page.

• Specifications:
  • The instructor (or your assumed client) has given the exercise specifications as detailedly as possible. If you are confused about the specifications, you should ask in advance. Study the specifications very carefully. No excuses for misunderstanding or missing parts of the specifications after grading.
  • The specifications are not possible to cover every detail. You are free to implement the issues not mentioned in the specifications, but the implementations should make sense. Implemented functions lacking of common sense may cause the instructor to grade your exercise mistakenly, and thus lower your grade.
  • The exercise must meet the specifications. However, exercises with functions exceeding the specifications will not receive extra credits.


• Grading:
  • This exercise will not be graded if the development requirements and submission methods are not met. Students take full responsibility if the web site is not working.
  • A set of test data will be used for all students. The grades are primarily based on the results of testing. Other factors such as programming styles, algorithms, performance, and data structures will be only considered minimally.
  • Before submitting the exercise, test it comprehensively. Absolutely no extra points will be given after grading.
  • To make sure the data is saved to and retrieved from permanent storage like a database, the website may be shut down a couple of times during demonstrations.
  • Multiple browser tabs, browsers, or computers will be used to test the systems at the same time to make sure the multi-processing is working well.
  • The weights of this exercise are 16% and 20% of the final grades for the campus and online students, respectively.
  • Though Exercise IV covers parts of Exercise III, you still have to submit both exercises separately. One exercise will not be counted twice.
  • Microsoft ASP.NET [Visual Studio (Community)] and Access DBMS have to be used. Using other IDEs might cause the instructor to fail executing your exercise correctly.
  • If not specified, no error checking is required; i.e., you may assume the input is always correct for that case. For example, the price entered will always be a rational number.
  • Feel free to design your own interfaces; user-friendliness will be heavily considered; each function/button will be tested extensively; and from the source code submitted, the programs will be examined.
  • The newest Firefox browser will be used to grade exercises. Note that Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox are not compatible. That is your exercises may work on the IE or Chrome but not Firefox.
  • The exercise printouts will be kept until the end of this semester. They will be re-checked for plagiarism from time to time. The instructor will inform you the exercise evaluations by emails after grading.


• Databases:
  • Have to use Microsoft Access database to save data. Otherwise, the data will not be kept after the system is signed off. Failing to do this will substantially reduce your grade.
  • Access database has to be used and try to perform the tasks by using SQL (Structured Query Language) as much as possible because SQL, a non-procedural language, can save you a great deal of programming effort.
  • There are many advantages of using databases. If database is not used, the problems caused by not-using-transaction must be considered. For example, if two customers are enrolled at the same time, an ID may be assigned to different customers if databases are not used.
  • Database design is supplied by the instructor, but you still need to implement the database by using SQL commands or Access IDE.
  • The database schema (tables) from database design is usually not unique. You may design your own database as long as it is correct.


• Comments:
  • Make the exercise work first. Do not include extra features, such as passwords, in the beginning. By the way, you will not receive credits for the extra features.
  • One way to build a complex web system from scratch is to design the user interfaces first and then implement the system button by button. By doing this way, it could simplify the construction. The recommended construction steps are
    
    
    1. Studying the specifications very carefully,
    2. Designing the databases (E-R modeling or normalization),
    3. Implementing the databases (SQL),
    4. Building the interfaces (HTML and CSS),
    5. Implementing the system button by button (C#), and
    6. Testing the exercise thoroughly.
    
    
  • Many times, simplicity is the same as user-friendliness.
  • Security concerns are mainly ignored here. For example, a customer may be able to check others’ account information if protection is not enforced. Small or medium -size businesses do not usually implement their own secure payment scheme. Instead they use a third-party payment system such as PayPal or purchase software from company like Cayan and integrate it with their websites.
  • The function of automatically sending emails is important for e-commerce systems, but will not be used here since companies complained our students sending out numerous mails because of faulty programs.