Mobile Responsive Social Corporate Intranet Portal Application

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Case Study
DotNetNuke Intranet Portal for MNC’s

CLIENT currently has a Sharepoint portal which caters to their needs. But this system is costly and
not intuitive enough to attract CLIENT’s end-users to use on daily basis.
The client demanded a DNN portal which can be customized to meet CLIENT’s current portal
functionalities and also make it a single access point for all CLIENT users to have their applications
accessed through this portal. The DNN portal will have an intuitive design which would appeal to the
end-users and users will be able to use this system as part of their day-to-day job for their
important activities.
The scope of the project includes:
 To provide an excellent portal solution that would be attractive, user-friendly, cost-friendly
and carries all the existing functionalities with ease.
 The portal will have different modules catering to the users and these modules will be
controlled via access sites given to the user groups.
 Users can sign-in with their AD login credentials.
 Third party applications will be integrated in such a way that the user will not have to punch
in credentials again and their access will be carried into the modules via the portal itself.
 End-users do not need to be tech-savvy in order to use the system. User-friendly controls
like rich text editors and form fields are needed in order to manage the system as well as the
content.
 Further maintenance and update of the system needs to be an easier affair and can be made
by any asp.net developer.
Client Requirement
Project Challenges
The team faced the following challenges:
 Developing a portal offering all the features and functionalities with an exclusive focus on the
user’s day-to-day important activities.
 Providing a robust framework for supporting the smooth functioning of the portal accessed by
number of users simultaneously.
 Single-sign On Integration with SAP and Other Third Party Applications
 Harmonizing the simultaneous execution of various integrated features and options while
maintaining the consistent load balance.
 Synchronizing and incorporating web usability principles while developing numerous features
designed for enhancing the users' experience.
 Ensuring user privacy and safeguarding their content.

Technologies Used
Manpower
Planning
The following approach was decided in order to meet the client’s requirements:
 After taking all scenarios and requirements into consideration and looking at the cost factor,
the Brainvire team decided to implement DotNetNuke (DNN) for allowing client to manage
portal content.
 A new intuitive dashboard design and site overhaul was done in order to attract its end-
users and also give them clear visibility on important areas.
 A 3-tier architecture approach was decided as the same is used by DNN.
Operating System &
Server Management
Windows OS, Multi-Server Architecture with Staging & Production
Environment through Version Controlling releases, Server
Optimization, Security & SSL Implementation, Scheduler for Back-ups,
Alert Monitoring System Integration, Server Performance Tuning at
regular intervals, Software Firewall Configuration & Maintenance
Development Tools &
Environments
.Net Framework, DNN, Visual Studio, ASP.NET, C#, SSRS, AJAX,
HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.
Database MSSQL Database Server, DB Clustering, DB Optimization, Master
Slave Replication, Query Optimization, Scheduler for Backups
Project Leader 1
Developers 4
Designers 1
Quality Assurance Testers 1

Architecture
We used a 3-tier architecture which includes Presentation Layer (PL), Business Access Layer
(BAL) and Data Access Layer (DAL).
BAL: Business Access Layer contains the business logics, validations related to data.
DAL: Data Access Layer contains MSSQL Server Database, Tables, Stored Procedures and so on.
It also helps Business Layer to connect the data and perform required action by returning data or
manipulating data (insert, delete, update).
PL: Presentation Layer contains .asp or html where data is presented to the user and inputs are
taken from the user.
Note here that the presentation layer has no direct communication with the data access layer - it
can only talk to the business layer.
The cycle of requests and their associated responses can be shown in the form of a simple
diagram:
 The Presentation layer requires skills such as HTML, CSS and possibly JavaScript, plus UI
design.
 The Business layer requires skills in a programming language so that business rules can be
processed by a computer.
 The Data Access layer requires SQL skills in the form of Data Definition Language (DDL) and
Data Manipulation Language (DML), plus database design.

The main advantages of the 3-Tier Architecture are:
 Flexibility - By separating the business logic of an application from its presentation logic, 3-
Tier architecture makes the application much more flexible to changes.
 Maintainability - Changes to the components in one layer have no effect on any others
layers. Also, different layers require different skills (such as HTML/CSS is the presentation
layer, PHP/Java in the business layer, SQL in the data access layer) so these can be
managed by independent teams with skills in those specific areas.
 Reusability - Separating the application into multiple layers makes it easier to implement re-
usable components. A single component in the business layer, for example, may be
accessed by multiple components in the presentation layer or even by several different
presentation layers (such as desktop and the web) at the same time.
 Scalability - 3-Tier architecture allows distribution of application components across multiple
servers thus making the system much more scalable.
 Reliability - 3-Tier architecture, if deployed on multiple servers, makes it easier to increase
reliability of a system by implementing multiple levels of redundancy.
Development Highlights
 Using DNN the development was done very quickly and efficiently. DNN provided the base
modules and their functions which were easy to deploy with all basic functions running
flawlessly.
 The developed application provided the client with a system capable of handling all the data
and with ease of access for everyone.
 The detailed requirement gathering was done that helped setting up a well-designed system
with all the modules integrated into it along with the control over user access.
 The web usability guidelines were strictly followed during development and the interface
was made easily navigable through judicious use of AJAX, CSS and HTML controls. The site
was developed and fully functional within a span of 6 months.
 The client’s ASP.Net based legacy systems were integrated with the DNN portal which
allowed users to log into the second application without having to enter credentials again as
the application passed the session to other systems.
 Portal was made with a responsive layout which worked as well on tablets and smart phones
and other handheld devices.

Mobile Responsive Social Corporate Intranet Portal Application

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