This scenario of the BackOffice® Developer's Guide (BDG) presents the Performance Tracking (PT) application, which tracks the performance of individuals in structured learning environments such as corporate training centers or schools. This application is a work-in-progress; Scenario 3 describes the creation of the PT Admin application, and Scenario 4 will feature a companion application, the PT User application. The following statements summarize these applications:
As with all sample applications, Scenario 3 is not intended to be an out-of-the-box solution; its goals are educational, to teach you how to incorporate techniques into your applications and to avoid the pitfalls the developers encountered as they created the sample.
Previous BackOffice Developer's Guide scenarios focused on how to design and code applications based on Microsoft® Windows® DNA principles. Scenario 3 is also built on the Windows DNA platform. The application it presents fulfills the following objective, which the team defined at the beginning of the project:
To build a Windows DNA application that uses XML to implement localized user interfaces in response to the locale settings of a user's Web browser.
Throughout this documentation, discussions focus on XML and localization, two areas of increasing interest to developers as expanding organizations share data among speakers of different languages. This scenario uses XML to create user interfaces that provide locale-formatted views on a single database.
As with previous BackOffice Developer's Guide scenarios, the approach follows the format of a developer's diary. The following links guide you through this documentation:
Introduction. The topics in this section explain why the BDG team chose XML and localization as the focus for Scenario 3.
Planning and Research. The topics in this section state the business problem the PT application addresses and analyze the requirements that guided its design and development.
Design Decisions. The topics in this section discuss the technological choices with which the application requirements might be implemented.
Implementation. The topics in this section discuss the development and performance testing of the application.
Deployment. The topics in this section show you how to properly install and configure the application on Microsoft BackOffice Server 4.5 running on both Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 and Microsoft Windows 2000.
Lessons Learned. The topics in this section describe some of the challenges the developers encountered as they designed and coded the application, and how they resolved the issues.
Code Listings and Object Reference. This section contains complete source files for the PT Admin application, including the Active Server Pages (ASP) and Microsoft Visual Basic® version 6.0 source files, SQL scripts, and XML, HTML, and JavaScript files.