The interplay between learning and technology is a growing field that is often referred to as Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). Within this context, learning applications are software components that are useful for learning purposes, such as textbook replacements, information gathering tools, communication and collaboration tools, knowledge modeling tools, rich lab environments that allows experiments etc. When developing learning applications, the choice of technology depends on many factors. For instance, who and how many the intended end-users are, if there are requirements to support in-application collaboration, platform restrictions, the expertise of the developers, requirements to inter-operate with other systems or applications etc. This thesis provides guidance on a how to develop learning applications based on Semantic Web technology. The focus on Semantic Web technology is due to its basic design that allows expression of knowledge at the web scale. It also allows keeping track of who said what, providing subjective expressions in parallel with more authoritative knowledge sources. The intended readers of this thesis include practitioners such as software architects and developers as well as researchers in TEL and other related fields. The empirical part of the this thesis is the experience from the design and development of two learning applications and two supporting frameworks. The first learning application is the web application Confolio/EntryScape which allows users to collect files and online material into personal and shared portfolios. The second learning application is the desktop application Conzilla, which provides a way to create and navigate a landscape of interconnected concepts. Based upon the experience of design and development as well as on more theoretical considerations outlined in this thesis, three major obstacles have been identified: The first obstacle is: lack of non-expert and user friendly solutions for presenting and editing Semantic Web data that is not hard-coded to use a specific vocabulary. The thesis presents five categories of tools that support editing and presentation of RDF. The thesis also discusses a concrete software solution together with a list of the most important features that have crystallized during six major iterations of development. The second obstacle is: lack of solutions that can handle both private and collaborative management of resources together with related Semantic Web data. The thesis presents five requirements for a reusable read/write RDF framework and a concrete software solution that fulfills these requirements. A list of features that have appeared during four major iterations of development is also presented. The third obstacle is: lack of recommendations for how to build learning applications based on Semantic Web technology. The thesis presents seven recommendations in terms of architectures, technologies, frameworks, and type of application to focus on. In addition, as part of the preparatory work to overcome the three obstacles, the thesis also presents a categorization of applications and a derivation of the relations between standards, technologies and application types. / <p>QC 20121105</p>

The main aim of the thesis is to compare two web development technologies. For this purpose, a real estate application is developed using Active Server Pages (ASP.NET) with C-Sharp (C#) and Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) as languages. The platforms used are Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for ASP.NET and Eclipse Helios 2010 for PHP developers.  Two different servers implemented in these platforms comprising the Sql server 2008 for ASP.NET and MySQL for PHP. A real estate web application is developed with three main panels which are the user panel, advertiser panel and admin panel. The same functional requirements are used in two web technologies. When comparing two technologies, ASP. NET is found to be more efficient and reliable than PHP. During the development process it was found that, PHP is a simple scripting language in comparison to the .NET language C#. However, ASP.NET provides built in tools, function and controls which helps in faster development of code as compared to PHP.

Σκοπός της εργασίας αυτής ήταν η θεωρητική ανάλυση των διαδικτυακών υπηρεσιών και η υλοποίηση μιας διαδικτυακής εφαρμογής καταγραφής και διαχείρησης του νοσηλευτικού προσωπικού μιας κλινικής. Για να γίνει κατορθωτή η υλοποίηση του συστήματος χρησιμοποιήθηκε το περιβάλλον ανάπτυξης Microsoft Visual Studio, το οποίο μας δίνει την δυνατότητα μέσα από χρήσιμα εργαλεία να οικοδομήσουμε μια ολοκληρωμένη εφαρμογή για το διαδίκτυο, η γλώσσα προγραμματισμού ASP.NET, το σύστημα διαχείρισης βάσεων δεδομένων (DBMS) Microsoft SQL Server και ως εξυπηρετητής ιστού ο IIS (Internet Information Services). Η παρουσα διπλωματική εργασία ασχολείται με την υλοποίηση γραφικού περιβάλλοντος για τη παρουσίαση των δεδομένων του προβλήματος χρονοπρογραμματισμου όπως αναπτύχθηκε για τον διαγωνισμό Nurse Rostering Competition INRC2010. Μέσω της διαδικτυακής εφαρμογής, o χρήστης μπορεί να έχει πρόσβαση στην διαχείρηση του νοσηλευτικού προσωπικού και να χρονοδρομολογήσει τις βάρδιες κάθε νοσηλευτή/τριας με την χρήση έτοιμου επιλυτή χρονοπρογραμματισμού. / The purpose of this study is the theoretical analysis of the web services and the development of a web enabled application for the Nursing personnel of a hospital. The software tools that were utilized during the implementation of the software application are the following: • Microsoft Visual Studio • ASP .NET • Microsoft SQL Server • Microsoft IIS The purpose of the current thesis is to demonstrate the graphical representation of the data as described in the Nurse Rostering Competition INRC 2010. The user of this Software Application is able to manage the personal data of the nursing personnel and automatically can create their working shifts by utilizing a ready made algorithm.

Web applications have a common code base across multiple platforms, but have previously lacked some core features compared to native applications. However, recent web technology advancements have, in terms of functionality and user experience, reduced the gap between the two development approaches. Applications that leverages these technology advancements are dubbed progressive web applications, or PWA. This thesis explores the concepts of PWA and how it, in terms of code complexity, affects an Angular web application. The results show that implementing considered PWA features does not excessively increase the size of the application and that the overall added complexity is low. The complexity of PWA lies in all the new technology concepts, which are probably unfamiliar to most developers. To reduce this complexity, automated PWA tooling shows great promise, and using Angular PWA tooling when building Angular applications seems to minimize this complexity.

Web applications provide the basis for the use of the "World-Wide-Web", as people know itnowadays. These software solutions get programmed by a numerous amount of developersall over the world. For all this software, it is not possible to guarantee a 100 percent security.Therefore, it is desirable that every application should get evaluated using penetration tests.Anewformof security testing platforms is getting provided by bug bounty programs, whichencourage the community to help searching for security breaches. This work introduces thecurrently leading portal for bug bounties, called Bugcrowd Inc. In addition, web applications,which were part of the program, got tested in order to evaluate their security level.A comparison is made with given statistics by leading penetration testing companies, showingthe average web application security level. The submission process, to send informationabout vulnerabilities, is getting evaluated. The average time it takes, to receive an answer regardinga submission is getting reviewed. In the end, the findings get retested, to evaluate, ifthe bug bounty program is a useful opportunity to increase security and if website operatorstake submissions serious by patching the software flaws.

The increasing competition between telecommunication service providers (TSPs) and the large amounts of human resource costs incurred to provision telecommunication services to small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), highlight the need for effective self-service provisioning methods to reduce costs. Existing service provisioning methods do not effectively support SMMEs in the service provisioning process. The current methods used are manual and Web-based. The manual service provisioning method is labour and time-intensive. TSPs are being forced to cut human resource costs as the profit margins for provisioning services are narrow due to competition. The current web-based systems do not allow SMMEs to effectively purchase services as they provide long textual lists to consult and limited information about services. The objective of this research was to develop an intelligent web-based self-service system to support SMMEs in telecommunication service provisioning, using a Design Science Research methodology. A constraint-based, knowledge-based recommender system was selected as the most appropriate intelligent system to support telecommunication service provisioning. A prototype called SelPro was developed as a solution to address the shortcomings of the current ineffective service provisioning methods available for SMMEs. SelPro incorporates an interactive wizard-style user interface with dynamic recommendations to support novice users as well as an expert interface which provides less user support. An expert review and a user study were conducted to determine if SelPro was usable, useful and effective. SelPro was perceived as being usable for SMMEs wishing to purchase telecommunication services. Expert participants were satisfied with the usability of SelPro and perceived it as being useful, easy to use and easy to learn. SelPro was considered effective because of the high task success ratings provided by the participants using the two interfaces. The research determined that intelligent web-based self-service provisioning can be used to effectively support SMMEs in telecommunication service provisioning. General design recommendations for similar systems were proposed and future work will involve using intelligent systems to support large enterprises in telecommunication service provisioning.

This diploma thesis brings a look at the relatively new technology Microsoft Silverlight, which is a new platform for developing Rich Internet Applications (RIA). It contains features and principles of Silverlight technology in a context of several other technologies. As a part of this work, there is a practical project developed in Microsoft Silverlight 2.0, which is used as a demonstration of described principals and techniques in a theoretical part. The goal of this work is to provide the best possible and complete description of Silverlight's features, advantages, but also limitations. In the thesis there can be also found comparisons with related technology Microsoft Windows Presentation Framework (WPF) and also with other competitors on a RIA market.

The Internet today has a phenomenal reach---right into the homes of a vast audience worldwide. Some organisations (and individuals) see this medium as a good opportunity for extending the reach of their computer systems. One popular approach used for such endeavours is to run an application on a server, using web technology for displaying its user interface (UI) remotely. Developing such a web-based UI can be quite tedious---it is a concurrent, distributed program which has to run in a hostile environment. Furthermore, the platform on which it is implemented (the web) was not originally intended for such usage. A web framework is a collection of software components which provides its users with support for developing and executing web-based UIs. In part, web frameworks can be seen as being analogous to interpreters: given a specification of a UI using a specification technique dictated by the framework, server components of the framework can present the UI using web technology. Topics related to web frameworks are scarce in the academic literature, but abound in industry and open discussion forums. Similarly, the designers of web frameworks seldom found their work on existing theory in the literature. This study is an attempt to bridge this gap. It is focused on two aspects of web frameworks: the specification technique a framework mandates, and how such a specification can subsequently be used to present a UI via web technology. As part of this study, a survey was conducted of 80 open source web frameworks. Based on the survey, a partial overview of the domain of web frameworks is given, covering what is seen as being typically required of a web framework and covering specification techniques that are used by existing frameworks. Two taxonomies are proposed of the strategies web frameworks use for specifying two aspects of web UIs. Using the web as platform implies adherence to certain (intended) architectural constraints. Web framework designers often strain against these constraints. However, another point of view is to recognise that the success of the web platform is made possible precisely because of its intended architecture. (And the success of the web is surely the principal motivation for using it for remote UIs in the first place.) With the bias of this viewpoint, a specification technique is proposed for web-based UIs. This technique is based on the well-known formalism of statecharts, with semantics explicitly defined in terms of the intended architectural components and constraints of the web. The design of a web framework for presenting a UI so specified is also proposed (based on the theoretical background given, as well as two prototype implementations which have been developed). / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Computer Science / unrestricted

Includes bibliographical references / Although learning management systems (LMSs) have been widely adopted by universities in developing countries, their potential to support students' learning has not been fully exploited due to several factors. Some of the factors limiting the more successful implementation of LMSs in developing country universities have been identified and reported in this study. Most importantly, LMS implementation in developing country universities is constrained by limited institutional ICT infrastructures, Internet bandwidth and electricity outages that affect the accessibility of LMS services by the students. The main research question addressed in this study is: How can we better use the available ICTs and ICT infrastructure in developing country universities to enhance the accessibility of the LMS services by students to better support the implementation of LMSs? The research question was addressed through surveys and experimentation. Two surveys were carried out, and the findings of these surveys were useful in: understanding the current state of practice in LMS implementation in developing country universities; defining the problem; understanding the students' LMS expectations and needs; and deciding the nature of the intervention to be implemented. Through the surveys, it was established that the majority of students in the surveyed universities possessed mobile phones, most of which being internet enabled phones. The study therefore explored the possibility of enabling and enhancing mobile access for LMS services so as to enhance students' LMS accessibility through their mobile phones. The design, development, implementation and evaluation of the intervention (the mobile LMS) were achieved through a user-centred development approach that included participatory design, prototyping and user experience evaluation. An impact evaluation of the mobile LMS intervention indicated that: mobile LMS interfaces can lead to students' increased access and use of the LMS through mobile phones; students prefer streamlined mobile LMS interfaces with fewer and block-based services; with streamlined mobile LMS interfaces, students are able to get the LMS services they need on their mobile phones without the need for desktop and laptop computers and without the need for the full desktop LMS interfaces. While the streamlined mobile LMS allows the students an opportunity to more satisfactorily access the LMS services through their mobile phones, it also takes away the pressure from the constrained institutional ICT infrastructure and facilities such as computer laboratories. The design and development process of the mobile LMS intervention highlighted that students' involvement leads to creation of more usable and useful mobile LMS interfaces and that most of the students' mobile LMS needs can be achieved through a cross-platform mobile Web application.

HydroShare is a collaborative online system being developed by the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science Inc. (CUAHSI) with the goal of facilitating the dissemination, visualization, and publishing of hydrologic data and models. External web applications serve a key role in extending HydroShare's capabilities, so robust application programming interfaces (APIs) are a vital component of HydroShare's architecture. Hydrologic data stored on HydroShare are defined by a data type, and much of these data are either geospatial or time series data. Although HydroShare's API provides ways to upload and download files, as well as access certain metadata, it does not currently provide GIS services defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium, or Hydrologic Information System (HIS) services developed by CUAHSI. The absence of these services severely limits the capabilities of HydroShare apps while also increasing the development time and complexity of apps that are developed.To help alleviate this disconnect between HydroShare and HydroShare apps, I have developed a system which helps extend HydroShare's data service capabilities using GeoServer and a Water Data Server to expose GIS and HIS data services for HydroShare content. With this system in place, HydroShare apps have much better access to HydroShare content, allowing them to be developed in less time, and provide much more powerful visualization, access, and analysis services to HydroShare users.