Collection as the

Cornerstone of

Presented by Sara Bishop, Administrative Systems Development

West Virginia University Office of Information Technology

at the 8th International Symposium on Electronic Theses & Dissertations

September 28, 2005

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Topics of Discussion Brief History Why the Struts Framework? Parallel Initiatives Birth of Viability & Lessons Learned

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Brief History 2nd institution to implement required ETDs Migrated to Oracle platform 2003 Most critical enhancements:

Improved data quality & consistency Enabled secure submissions & access

worldwide User friendly & automated collection

maintenance functions

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Why the Struts Framework?

MVC-based Apache open source framework

Combines use of JSPs & Java Servlets

Separates the user interface from content generation & is platform independent

Data transfer via Data Transfer Objects (DTO)

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Data Transfer Objects

Extend JSPs with custom tag libraries Move functionality from JSP pages to

tag implementation classes Pass entire ActionForm to DTO

Username & password validation Browsing of collections

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Decision Highlights Platform independence

Enhanced performance

Separation of logic from display

Ease of code maintenance

Extensibility & ease of use

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Parallel Initiatives Organization-wide Budget reductions

Content Accessibility

Application Security Risk Assessment Initiative

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Content Accessibility

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessibility Guidelines

Design without nested tables Design with summary fields Access keys with each HTML button Specialized style sheets

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Application Security

“…information resources are vital assets requiring protection commensurate with their value…must be actively managed to ensure the continued confidentiality, integrity and availability of these resources”.

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App Security Safeguards

Include input validation everywhere

Test for incorrect and correct user behavior

Know who is accessing the application data

Team with your security people

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Birth of

Electronic Institutional Document Repository“…to collect, archive, & provide access to

University’s scholarly research output.”

Success of the eTD Collection lead to additions:

eHT (electronic Honors Theses) eSRA (electronic Scholarly Resources

Archive)

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Viability & Lessons Learned

WVU in-house system is market competitive

Java development tools are versatile Incorporate security checklist as part of

the development cycle Consider accessibility due to global

audience Stay abreast of current trend &

technologies

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The goal of any development projectshould always be to deliver the most

secure and best quality product possible and to assume pride in the responsibility of maintaining that product while keeping pace with

technology.

September 28, 2005

Thank you! Questions?

Future questions please contact at e-mail:

Sara.bishop@mail.wvu.edu