suggestions invited

[Aditi]

hi all...i m a software engg. student completed my 2nd yr...i have been
asked to make a project during these summer vacations...and hereby i
would like to invite some ideas bout the design and implementation of
an APPLICATION MONITORING SYSTEM....i have to start from scrach so
please tell me how to go bout it rite from the beggining this is the
first time i m making a project of this complexity...
i have to make a system used by the IT department of a company which
contains 31 applications and their details which are being used in a
company ...the details are...
Application sub application catagory platform language version IT
owner functional owner remarks source code documentation last updated
dates
i want to design a system such that it lets the it employee enter the
name of the application and gives him all the details about it...please
suggest an appropriate design and the language which you think would be
best to use...as i have enouf time with me and i can learn a new
language as well...i currently know c and c++...your advise is welcomed
Aditi

[Konstantin Veretennicov]

On 22 Jun 2005 02:47:06 -0700, Aditi <dr********@gma il.com> wrote:

i have to make a system used by the IT department of a company which
contains 31 applications and their details which are being used in a
company ...the details are...
Application sub application catagory platform language version IT
owner functional owner remarks source code documentation last updated
dates
i want to design a system such that it lets the it employee enter the
name of the application and gives him all the details about it...please
suggest an appropriate design

Ahem...

Create a directory "appmon". In this directory create a text file for
each application. Put application details in file and name it after
application name. Users will be able to view details of a particular
application by using "cat appname" on unix or "type appname" on
windows, thus it is a portable solution. I believe this design fits
your requirements :)

- kv

[gry]

Aditi wrote:

hi all...i m a software engg. student completed my 2nd yr...i have been
asked to make a project during these summer vacations...and hereby i
would like to invite some ideas bout the design and implementation of
an APPLICATION MONITORING SYSTEM....i have to start from scrach so
please tell me how to go bout it rite from the beggining this is the
first time i m making a project of this complexity...
i have to make a system used by the IT department of a company which
contains 31 applications and their details which are being used in a
company ...the details are...
Application sub application catagory platform language version IT
owner functional owner remarks source code documentation last updated
dates
i want to design a system such that it lets the it employee enter the
name of the application and gives him all the details about it...please
suggest an appropriate design and the language which you think would be
best to use...as i have enouf time with me and i can learn a new
language as well...i currently know c and c++...your advise is welcomed
Aditi

I suggest you first learn a bit of python: go to www.python.org and
download/install the current release; go through the online tutorial:
http://docs.python.org/tut/tut.html .

Then you might look at xml as a means for storing the data. Xml is
structured, readable without special software(very helpful for
debugging), and easy to use for simple data. Try the xml module from
http://pyxml.sourceforge.net/topics/download.html
[look at the demos for simple usage] Don't be intimidated by complex
formal definitions of XML, what you need is not hard to use.

-- George

[Peter Herndon]

As Konstantin alludes, your request is not specified clearly enough.
In all-caps you write "APPLICATIO N MONITORING SYSTEM", yet your only
use-case is "it lets the it employee enter the name of the application
and gives him all the details about it", where "the details are ... " a
bunch of fields that don't look to be changing very often, if ever.

If you want to *monitor* the current status of these applications, then
you have a reasonable project. Otherwise, your specifications as
written lead to text files, or perhaps a small 3-ring binder with
descriptions of each application neatly typed (why waste electricity?).
So, please expand your question, and we'll try to help.

[Aditi]

Thanks for ur effort... And I apologise for being sloppy in writing.
Well I agree the whole project sounds fictitious because it has been
assigned to me in that spirit. The project was explained to me in
just 5 minutes and so these are the only details I have and the only
documentation I have is a list of the 31 applications used in the
company and that the platform used in the company is OS 400.

The reason why I posted this mail was to invite ideas as to how could I
make the best use of these details and suggestions because I myself
found these details way too less. I think I should have written about
this in the first mail to avoid frustration to the people who are
trying to help
me.
Anyways now that it is known that the project has been assigned to me
just for the heck of it would like to make my project such that they
want to use it...I would definately not let my work go wasted...So do
let me know what you think could be done in this direction.
Greetings...
Aditi

[Mike Meyer]

gr*@ll.mit.edu writes:

Aditi wrote:

hi all...i m a software engg. student completed my 2nd yr...i have been
asked to make a project during these summer vacations...and hereby i
would like to invite some ideas bout the design and implementation of
an APPLICATION MONITORING SYSTEM....i have to start from scrach so
please tell me how to go bout it rite from the beggining this is the
first time i m making a project of this complexity...
i have to make a system used by the IT department of a company which
contains 31 applications and their details which are being used in a
company ...the details are...
Application sub application catagory platform language version IT
owner functional owner remarks source code documentation last updated
dates
i want to design a system such that it lets the it employee enter the
name of the application and gives him all the details about it...please
suggest an appropriate design and the language which you think would be
best to use...as i have enouf time with me and i can learn a new
language as well...i currently know c and c++...your advise is welcomed
Aditi

Then you might look at xml as a means for storing the data. Xml is
structured, readable without special software(very helpful for
debugging), and easy to use for simple data. Try the xml module from
http://pyxml.sourceforge.net/topics/download.html
[look at the demos for simple usage] Don't be intimidated by complex
formal definitions of XML, what you need is not hard to use.

I'd humbly disagree with the suggestion of using XML for storage. It
has a fairly large overhead, is usually unreadable unless special care
is taken when you generate it, and not as easy to use as some of the
alternatvives.

It definitely has it's place - for instance, if you are interchanging
data with other developers who have settled on an XML format for doing
so. If you can use a DTD and leverage existing XML tools - editors,
validators, etc. - to advantage, then it's a good choice.

But for simple data storage, I think it's overkill. Pickle is much
easier to use, and you can explore stored data with an interactive
Python interpreter.

The application as described doesn't really call for an
application. You have apparently static descriptions of 31 different
applications. What's wrong with 31 XHTML pages (so you get to use XML
after all :-) and a front page that lists the applications
alphabetically?

That also avoids the problem of what you do when the employee
misspells the name of the application.

<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mw*@mired.or g> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.

[Peter Herndon]

Reasonable enough. As per Mike's suggestion below, building a few web
pages to document the apps is a good start. To expand on that idea,
you could write daemons/cron jobs, perhaps in Python if Python runs on
OS/400, that monitor each app's status and log that information to the
web server. You could then write a web application that takes the
monitoring data and formats it appropriately for human consumption.
Perhaps an RSS or Atom feed for each application's status.

I don't know anything about OS/400, but if it has a tool similar to
syslog, you could configure the application hosts to report their
status to a remote syslogd, perhaps on your web server, and parse the
log file for the status data.

[Konstantin Veretennicov]

On 23 Jun 2005 12:30:27 -0700, Aditi <dr********@gma il.com> wrote:

Thanks for ur effort... And I apologise for being sloppy in writing.
Well I agree the whole project sounds fictitious because it has been
assigned to me in that spirit. The project was explained to me in
just 5 minutes and so these are the only details I have and the only
documentation I have is a list of the 31 applications used in the
company and that the platform used in the company is OS 400.
Pardon me, is it a real company or a fictious one?

The reason why I posted this mail was to invite ideas as to how could I
make the best use of these details and suggestions because I myself
found these details way too less. I think I should have written about
this in the first mail to avoid frustration to the people who are
trying to help
me.
Anyways now that it is known that the project has been assigned to me
just for the heck of it would like to make my project such that they
want to use it...I would definately not let my work go wasted...So do
let me know what you think could be done in this direction.

If you have real users, your first step is to talk to them to define
project goals. Everything else (xml, python, etc.) is irrelevant until
you know *what* you want to build.

Go talk to your potential users, know why (if at all) they need this
monitoring system, learn their current tools and processes, see how
your system could help them do their job more efficiently. Don't start
coding until you have clear understanding of requirements.

There are lots of nice intelligent people on this list, but they can't
substitute people you are building this system for :)

- kv

[Aditi]

Thank You All for your valuable suggestions. You people definitely
eased out my problem and now I can start my work with an eclectic of
all of your solutions.
Greetings
Aditi.

[Aditi]

Konstantin Veretennicov wrote:

Pardon me, is it a real company or a fictious one?
I think my previous mail was in plain understandable english which can
be easily interpreted and clearly says the project has been assigned in
a not so intelligent spirit and thus sounds fictitious. I think going
through a problem before trying to reply is also a good idea.
If you have real users, your first step is to talk to them to define
project goals. Everything else (xml, python, etc.) is irrelevant until
you know *what* you want to build.
Had this been possible I would not have posted the problem at all.

Go talk to your potential users, know why (if at all) they need this
monitoring system, learn their current tools and processes, see how
your system could help them do their job more efficiently. Don't start
coding until you have clear understanding of requirements. There are lots of nice intelligent people on this list, but they can't
substitute people you are building this system for :)

Nice and intelligent people on this list and many other lists have
helped my by giving some suggestions and sharing their knowledge
....others who have not understood the problem can continue thinking
that they are also nice and intelligent. (:-))
Regards.
Aditi.