DonNTU · DonNTU Masters Portal · CIS Faculty · Department MCS | RUS · UKR · ENG |
Ivan Storozhenko
Graduation thesis: Development of graphic interface and special program modules for Donetsk Euro-2012 portal
Scientific advisor: Prof., Gennady Averin, Doctor of Engineering Science |
Development of an informational portal allows the user not to surf the Internet to find the right information, but to get its significant part in one place, moving within the portal from one link to another. In addition, an Internet portal allows the users to structure the information they selected in accordance with their interests. Creating the portal makes sense if your company has a large amount of useful information for the client. Creating a Web portal makes it possible to precisely monitor the entire flow of information, managing it according to your preferences.
The need to create an Internet portal – we will not now speak of the large, called vertical portals, as Rambler, Yahoo, Google, Yandex and so forth, which collect a huge amount of diverse information – arise in several cases. You can be a seller of certain goods and services, and then creating the portal will help link you and a buyer. The creation of Internet portals can be linked with the means of access to certain data. You can be the head of a large corporation, and then it will be the establishment of a special type of portal - the establishment of corporate portals.
Creation of corporate portals suggests that within them the corporate documents, materials, necessary information will be combined in a single structure. With the growth of Uanet users the number of football fans, requiring a greater number of new models of information presentation, is also growing. Ukrainian fans and young players have access to the sites, as readers, but few interact with each other - only through the forums and comments.
Topicality of this theme is that in anticipation of Euro-2012 championship it is expected to increase interest in the Ukrainian Football, so for the most complete picture of Donetsk city in information flows, an additional commercial and information channel on the Internet is being organized.
The aim of the diploma work is the development of graphical user interface and special software modules, based on Adobe Flash technology for Donetsk portal Euro 2012.
The idea of work is to develop and further to use large information and multi-functional Donetsk soccer portal, designed for centralized data collection and information management within the framework of Euro-2012. The portal will combine all kinds of information about the upcoming championship, and fully and promptly submit it to users (visitors to the Internet resource).
The tasks to be solved in the master's degree work:
• study of literary sources for the design and creation of information portals;
• development and analysis of portal management system;
• development of special software modules (booking hotels, buying tickets for games, interactive multimedia applications based on Adobe Flash technology, etc.) and graphical user interface;
• developing a security portal.
The object of research is the site management system and security system of the portal.
The subject of the study is the graphical interface and special software modules.
In the process of creating the master's work a set of methods for analysis and synthesis of information in the field of information portals, the concept of different approaches to the creation of security systems and information management systems are used.
Scientific novelty of research is in:
• development of a unique information management system and information portal security system;
• development of special software modules (booking hotels, buying tickets for games, interactive multimedia applications on programmable technology Adobe Flash, etc.)
More recently, in Ukraine and throughout the world there has been adopted the opinion that the Internet is another medium for doing business with specific and very multifaceted, but general laws of business. On the Internet you can look for partners and customers, create solutions to support your own business, automate transactions with partners and distributors.
Introduction of the firm in the Internet has become essential for doing business. This is a matter of prestige, trust, expanding its customer base. This is company’s face, the first which clients and business partners come across.
The next stage of development, after thematic sites and search engines, new levels of information are the portals. Portal is a house and a user guide and map, regulating the Internet informational chaos. For many users a portal is the first source of information for their area. Portals can be specialized, focusing on a certain activity or just a good combination of services, search engine and news service. Business portal is a place of information associated with one or more areas of business. Typically, portals are created by one company or group of companies interested in exchanging information with partners or other participants in the business. These portals allow to spend minimal time on the search and placement of the required information [9].
Consider the public portal. It is not a corporate portal in accordance with the definition, it is the diametric opposite. It gives any visitor to the Internet any information and services. And although as a rule, a public portal, too, belongs to some company and is part of its business, it can not be attributed to the corporate site, on such a portal you can rarely see data about the company (it can be learnt only indirectly or the company just created to maintain this poratl). Corporate nature of a public portal is almost always hidden from the eyes.
The public portal can be associated with public libraries, museums, exhibitions, etc. And the possibility of public internet portals is mainly disproportionately higher than their actual prototypes:
• They are available at any time in any country in any city at any point on Earth where there is Internet access;
• They can store any kind of information, text, audio, video, in any quantities;
• The navigation system allows you to quickly obtain the necessary information.
• They are more interactive, allow various forms of visitors communication without any territorial framework.
The structure of the public portal is like a showroom, in which the various racks and shelves in an organized form present detailed, but generalized information (vertical portal), or general information, but in all spheres of activity (horizontal portal). For a vertical portal that can be the same catalog of products / services, but not one company, but a number of companies, systematic (in the catalog) information on the plants or animals, and generally systematized information on any subject [8].
Using a portal allows to quickly locate information resources on the Internet and involve many organizations in the creation of the content, to speed up access to information on the portal - at any time, anywhere in the user's location, on any area of interest and visitors, to increase the usefulness of decision makers, to get interested potential users of information on the topic, to attract additional financial resources through more intensive use of information resources of a wide range of users.
Advantages of a portal over conventional website:
• Savings and optimization of advertising budget in the Internet;
• Speeding of incorporation of new information resources (news is included and available to everyone within a few minutes);
• Joint work of many staff members to supplement the portal content (for example, news-gathering);
• Provision of convenient and quick access to comprehensive information;
• Improving information services users;
• Unified security management and resource allocation [10].
For the portal Euro 2012 a unique control system, which will present an opportunity to edit Flash-application, will be created.
Content Management System is a comprehensive program allowing any person, not familiar with programming, to create and maintain web projects of any complexity. Content Management System provides the user the necessary visual means to create interactive site pages, content, which can be changed in a matter of seconds using the built-in text editor. In addition, CMS provide a user a huge range of additional services, such as site-users management, publication of news or articles, forums, blogs, online shops, galleries, bulletin boards and many more [6].
Full functionality of a site is formed in a single system and allows you to renounce the use of other funds, programs or services from third parties:
• A single interface and operation principles;
• Ability to manage multiple projects in a single interface;
• Optimization of site management by users.
The control system is provided not only by the functionality of editing the information on the site, but also by all the necessary service functions in a single interface [3].
The creation of interactive applications using Adobe Flash will be a very original and interesting service distinguishing this football portal from other similar ones.
"Adobe Flash (formerly Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of multimedia technologies developed and distributed by Adobe Systems (originally created by Macromedia). Since its introduction into the world in 1996, Flash technology has become a popular method of creating animation and interactive elements to websites. Flash is used to develop animations, ads and various components of pages, for the integration of video, and more recently - rich internet applications".
Due to developments of company Adobe Systems, many software modules for portals have a graphical user interface, created on the basis of Adobe Flash. At the present portal to develop special software modules a graphical user interface, created on the basis of Adobe Flash, will be used. Developers of embedded systems that are used in industry, medicine, automobiles, too, are beginning to pay attention to the Flash-technology because it can reduce the time to develop GUIs almost by 50%. Previously, the development team had to convert their existing prototype GUIs in C, C + + or Java – efforts-consuming process that takes many weeks and months. Now you can use high level tools Flash technology to design, build and run the components of GUIs directly embedded in Flash-player, without having to write graphics code.
Adobe Flash technology has been gaining popularity among developers of embedded systems for several reasons:
• More than one million developers of graphical applications for worldwide use authoring tools of Flash technology, which are now a vast fund of experience, which can draw other developers. Moreover, thousands of existing Flash-market components for desktop systems and mobile phones can be easily integrated into their development;
• In comparison with Flash-player for desktop systems, embedded Flash-players from Adobe (for example, Flash Lite 3) require less memory and provide a fast graphics with lower CPU load;
• CPU and graphics chips for embedded systems is supported by frequency shifts of personnel required for playing Flash-D displays on the VGA and the display size. For example, in order to get smooth playback of the animation images at a frequency of 10 frames per second, the system must have a CPU that runs at a speed of 100 million commands per second (MIPS) – this is significantly lower than the proposed now value of 300 MIPS, or slightly more than for most CPA embedded systems.
To transfer to the Flash-technology developers of industrial control systems can make choices for themselves among a large set of tools, many of which are already used to. For example, to generate Flash-content CAD tools can be used, and word processor for desktop systems, with special tools, you can convert a variety of presentation formats to the format of Flash. Developers can also use the Flash-components which integrate Flash-content controls and ActiveX. A variety of support tools for creating Flash-content and control over the screen makes it easy to transit to the user interface based on Flash-technology.
Traditionally, Flash-player is run in a web browser or window system. However, the development of GUIs can be greatly simplified if the model is turned upside down and make the Flash-medium the main one, which will run all graphics applications, regardless of whether they are made in Flash-technology or not. Then the Flash-Technology takes over the role of administrator of the screen, allowing the developer to carry out detailed schedules control movements on the menu and the sound effects. In this environment more easily performed adapting to the needs of the user through a more free position, changes in size and configuration of image components.
Fig. 1 is an example of Flash-technology usage, as the administrator of the screen. Program on the left is Flash-player, through which directly into space applications two components have been downloaded: a graphical 2D-library and graphics driver, which controls the graphics hardware. After downloading the driver that way, it is possible to implement direct graphics hardware directly from the program, and thus increase system performance. On the right the native OS program draws three-dimensional image of OpenGL ES, a standard interface API for three-dimensional applications in embedded systems. Like Flash-program interface API also directly manages the graphics hardware, providing high performance output.
Figure 1 — Integration of Flash-applications with other graphics applications. In this example program, based on Flash-technology, manages a three-dimensional image-based 3D API functions package OpenGL ES.
Many chips for embedded systems are currently supporting the work of multiple layers that enables Flash-program co-exist effectively with other graphics applications on the same display. In Fig. 1 Flash-player draws the front layer and controls the display of three-dimensional pictures on the background layer. To make visible the three-dimensional canvas, the developer used for the front-layer chromatic key technique (chroma key). Since the visualization of three-dimensional image and Flash-picture comes in different layers, the graphics controller can update the three-dimensional image without moving Flash-content. This reduces the flickering of images and reduces the load on the CPU.
The developer can also use the methods of alpha-conjugated (alpha blending) and chromatic keys to make Flash-translucent parts, and then place them directly on top of other content. In Fig. 2 you can see the translucent window with a warning over the animated Management Console that shows the approach to a dense deployment of information on a small screen [2].
An important drawback is that it is not always possible to run Flash-application, or it is connected with some difficulty (for example, you must install a plugin or update it to latest version). Some users (or system administrators in the entire network) turn off in your browser the opportunity to download content processing plug-ins or downloaded in a frame for information security (in relation to a possible threat from the content, such as the interception of the clipboard), saving system resources, or to get rid of annoying advertising [7].
One of the important stages of creating portal Euro-2012 is its promotion of the Internet (can be read as promoting the products and name of company) – this is the art of using algorithms of the search engines for profit. A well-promoted life today has become an integral element of a successful image.
Optimizing a site for search engines is one of the most low-cost and effective ways to promote a resource on the Internet. However, most companies do not deal with it practically, losing the visitors, who could be potential clients or buyers. At the moment, all owners of Internet resources, especially of commercial nature, need to take site optimization as a mandatory step towards the success of [3].
The purpose of promotion of the portal or site is not just to learn how to use search engines, but also raise the rating of your site or portal, which is especially important for new and less-known sites. To achieve the ultimate goal (raising the rate) you just need to know how a particular search engine works. However, in pursuit of a rating should not forget that the portal is developed for visitors, rather than to different directories and search engines. It is important to find a compromise between content sites, its readability and ranking in different search engines [4].
Until now, the contents of a text file format. swf was not available in all aspects to search engine spiders. The same applies to the text contained in images. Only the text in HTML format can be read and indexed by search engines because they could not perform optical character recognition in an operational mode.
Search spiders read the HTML in the same way as people can read with their fingers written by a ballpoint pen on the text character. At the same time, reading data from Flash-file or an image is similar to touching a flat road sign. You can not feel the contours of the letters, but the search engine bot is not able to index Flash-based in the document text. Since 30 June 2008 by Google and Adobe finally announced that from now on info from the Flash-files. swf will be indexed the search engine Google. In an exhaustive report Adobe Developer Center also pointed out that in the near future we should expect the emergence of such technology from Yahoo. While reading the news and related articles in the community of web marketers it became clear that this update was a big step forward, but to talk about the full potential of the web developer is too early [6].
Typically, servers of Web-portals are located on the territory of the Internet providers who are able to provide the necessary bandwidth channels, where the portal servers are connected to the Internet. Managing Web-portal in this case is carried out remotely via the Internet to computer workstations (AWS) administrators. Generalized architecture of Web-portal is depicted in Fig. 2.
Given the fact that the resources of a public Web-portal by the definition are open to any user of the Internet, they become potential targets for attack violators. Over the past few years we have seen considerable growth of information attacks, the bulk of which are aimed at public information resources. Typically, attacks are directed at the violation of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information resources stored on servers, Web-portal.
Figure 2 — A typical web-portal architecture
(animation: volume = 129Kb; size - 750x650px; infinite number of repetition cycles)
For the protection of the web-portal the most appropriate is to apply an integrated approach combining organizational and technical means of protection. Institutional safety measures associated with the development and implementation of legal documents, such as politics and the concept of information security of a Web-portal, job descriptions for staff with an automated system, etc. Technical protection means are realized by means of suitable software, hardware or software and hardware tools that implement the goals and objectives identified in the relevant legal documents. Using an integrated approach involves pooling the technical means to protect Web-portal for the integrated complex, which includes sub-anti-virus protection, integrity control, access control, intrusion detection, security analysis, cryptographic protection of information, as well as a subsystem of government.
Management Subsystem of the protection is placed in the same segment of Web-portal. The subsystem includes the ARM administrator security, in which control is exercised, as well as system servers necessary for the functioning of appropriate remedies. The subsystem also may further include a module of the correlation of events recorded by various subsystems protection portal. Such module allows you to automate the processing of a large amount of information recorded in the Web-portal, and in accordance with a given set of rules to highlight the most critical events that require immediate response.
As security complex of a Web-portal itself can serve as targets of possible attacks, all of its subsystems must be equipped with their own security arrangements that would enable to perform the following functions:
• Ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of control information transmitted between the components of the subsystems through the channels of communication;
• Provision of mutual authentication of subsystems components to exchange information;
• Control of the integrity of its own software subsystems on the basis of control amounts;
• Authentication of the security administrators during the access of the management console subsystem on the basis of a password. In doing so the information on all successful and unsuccessful attempts to authenticate the administrator must be registered.
During creation of web-portal Euro 2012, this issue is planned to be solved through a comprehensive approach to protect the resource from a portal of information of possible attacks [1].
Protection of a Web portal is a very difficult task. Indeed, there are too many dangers lying in the depths of public Internet. Especially today, this environment is not only informational, as it was ten years ago, but also commercial. But data protection is required when it comes to money. That is why today, one should pay great attention to information security [5].
To date, the following steps have been accomplished:
• portal Euro 2012 has been designed;
• a graphical interface to the software modules has been developed;
• the bulk of the security portal Euro 2012 has been implemented;
• a module of hotel reservations has been implemented.
Next - the implementation of the following:
• Development and analysis of portal management system;
• Development of a program of interactive multimedia applications on the basis of Adobe Flash;
• Development of orders modules (tickets, trips, etc.).
So, the result of the master's work should be a major media and multi-functional Donetsk football portal, designed for centralized data collection and information management within the framework of Euro-2012. This site data and its software capabilities can be useful for many people involved in the preparation of the Euro-2012 and be used for further improvements in this area.
A portal will be developed specific software applications and web-services, dynamic and colorful graphical interface, a unique system administration and secure the contents of the portal, including flash-based applications.
1. Cоздание информационного портала [Электронный ресурс]: http://ostmedia.ru/p/services/portal.html
2. Публичный информационный портал [Электронный ресурс]: http://corpsite.ru/Articles/Public/CorpSite6.aspx
3. Отличие информационного портала от сайта: особенности и преимущества [Электронный ресурс]: http://galleo.ru/articles/otlportala
4. Горнаков С. Г. Осваиваем популярные системы управления сайтом. / С. Г. Горнаков. — М.: ДМК Пресс, 2009.– 336с.
5. Зуенок Т. Оптимизация сайта под поисковые системы как фактор успешности бизнеса / Т. Зуенок — [Электронный ресурс]: http://seoma.com.ua/seo-1.html
6. Грэхем Б. Создание динамических человекомашинных интерфейсов для систем промышленного управления с помощью Adobe Flash / Б. Грэхем, П. Леру — [Электронный ресурс]: http://www.rts.ua/rus/articles/360/0/44/
7. Бурлаков М. В. Adobe Flash CS3. Самоучитель. / М. В. Бурлаков — М.: «Диалектика», 2007. — 624c.
8. Колисниченко Д. Н. Поисковые системы и продвижение сайтов в Интернете. / Д. Н. Колисниченко — М.: «Диалектика», 2007.– 272с.
9. Стороженко И.В. Защита web-портала Евро-2012 от информационных атак / И.В. Стороженко // Материалы IV международной научной конференции студентов, аспирантов и молодых ученых. – Донецк, ДонНТУ – 2008.
10. Давлетханов М. Система защиты веб-портала / М.Давлетханов — [Электронный ресурс]: http://www.rznhost.com/content_art-60.html
When writing the abstract of the Master's work is not yet complete. Ultimate willingness to work - in December 2009. Full text and materials on the topic can be obtained from the author or his head after that date.