Quick find |
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Main menu |
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Site statistics |
- Number of entries in the database: 11159
- Last entry added on: 2016-04-15 22:06:43
- Number of connected users: 6
- Application's version: 3.1
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Last update |
This page was last updated on 2004-01-08 |
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Application's description |
This application allows users to consult a database
of computer-related acronyms through a simple web interface.
It runs with little supervisor intervention (installation,
maintenance, adding acronyms and verifying user-posted acronyms).
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Architecture |
Starting from version 3, we took a completely different approach
in maintaining this application: we completely rebuilt it from
scratch.
Many factors called for this change; the most important are:
- we wanted to drop the old programming environment (Active Server
Pages) and use a modern and solid one (Java) instead;
- we wanted to embrace open standards and open software as far as we
can;
- the user interface needed to be redesigned and simplified (too
many images that yielded long download times);
- we wanted to strictly adhere to standards (XHTML 1.1 and CSS 2).
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A client/server approach |
The Ultimate Computer Acronyms Archive is now a true
client/server application written in Java. On
the server side we have the application server that implements
the actual "business" logic, and the database server. On the
client side we have a graphical administrative application and
the servlet container (that also acts as a web server). The
following image illustrates the architecture.
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Architecture's schema |
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Features |
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Java servlets.
To achieve the highest flexibility, we
decided to use this technology to expand the base HTML functionality;
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Tree view menu.
At a first glance you see the acronyms' categories and
operations, with a familiar and user-friendly
graphical user interface. If you want either to
view the acronyms or to execute an operation (for
example, to define a new acronym), it's easy to
know what you have to do;
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Free search function. It's possible to search
for an acronym, or part of it.
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Insert function.
You can contribute to the growth
of this archive by defining acronyms that aren't included yet
(note that they are checked against other sources before being displayed).
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Easy navigation.
The acronyms are grouped alphabetically and separated
into ranges. Also, a maximum amount of definitions is shown per page,
giving the user the capability to scroll forth and back among pages.
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The database server |
At the database server we have:
- Operating
System: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
with the latest service packs applied;
- Database Management System: Microsoft SQL Server
2000.
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The web server |
The web server uses:
- Operating
System: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with the latest
service packs applied;
- Web Server/servlet container: Apache's Tomcat 5.0;
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The client |
The client runs on every machine that has a Java virtual machine >= 1.3 installed.
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The browser |
Finally, the web browser must support:
- session cookies,
- ECMAScript (also known as JavaScript),
- XHTML 1.1,
- CSS level 2, and
- Portable Network Graphics (PNG -- file format for images).
(to know more
about this issue, see the browser
compatibility page).
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