WebCMS .

NET Project Full Report

Dr. Bassil Alkhatib

Student Group:
basel_20924 Bassel Alkhateeb
anas_21962 Anas Rasheed
manal_20788 Manal Esmael
rana_20054 Rana Samra
Table of Contents:
1. WebCMS .NET
2. Database Structure
3. Application Structure
4. Navigation System
5. User Interface (Using the system)
6. A Further look
7. References used in research and development
8. Technologies and tools
1.WebCMS .NET:
Our project is built using ASP.NET & SQL Server and is influenced by the
known successful open source CMS “Drupal” (see drupal.org)

we studied the Drupal application Core (PHP) and database structure

(MySQL) and tried to make a basic CMS in .NET based on that.

The challenge was to handle the differences between the two platforms
(PHP & ASP.NET). We were trying to use ASP.NET built-in features instead
of reinventing the wheel.

For example users and roles authentication (membership) are already built-
in ASP.NET the same applies for session management.

We built a very basic content management system that still needs lots of
work to be a fully fledged modern CMS, but we succeeded in creating the
basic functionality in .NET.

Our CMS lets the user:

1. Create new content using only a web browser.

2. Manage users and authentication.

3. Manage site-wide navigation and menus.

4. Change the website settings (site name, logo…).

5. Control the publishing process of articles.

This diagram shows the basic components of any content management
system (the ones with green check are what we built in our CMS already).
2.Database Structure:
We’ll explore the database structure in a group of tables with a description
about each group:

Membership:

Stores all the data about users, roles and profiles.

•
Content:

Stores data related to content and articles that users has added.
Settings:

Stores data of the site settings and the Navigation system ( SiteMap
table).
3.Application Structure:
“Three-tier'[2] is a client-server architecture in which the user
interface, functional process logic("business rules"), computer data
storage and data access are developed and maintained as
independent modules” according to Wikipedia.org

We designed our application in a three-tier manner that is:

1. Data Access Layer:

data access and SQL statements, the following figure shows the
classes of DAL, you can have a detailed look at the source code, find
the project source folder.
2. Business Logic Layer:

Contains all the code that applies business rules such as approving
articles and getting unpublished ones.

3. Presentation Layer:

That is the user interface, contains all the

aspx pages and ascx controls plus the
master page that controls the main layout
of the website.

We also used some third party libraries

such as the FCKEditor see (CKEditor.com)
to allow users to enter rich text (html) in
articles content.
4.The Navigation System:
Navigation is the heart of any content management system. It's the direct
interface to users.
We replaced the ordinary xml based sitemap in ASP.NET with another
Database equivalent called SqlSiteMapProvider to provide a more dynamic
navigation system that can be easily edited by the user through the
browser.
The site administrator can design the site navigation (menu) dynamically
without touching any xml file only by visiting Menu.aspx web page 

The components of the navigation system are

1. The class SqlSiteMapProvider.cs.

2. The database table SiteMap.

3. The stored procedure proc_GetSiteMap().

4. The menu editor page Menu.aspx.

5. The menu creator page AddMenu.aspx.

5.User Interface (using the system):
We recorded a screen cast that shows how the system can be used please
refer to the recording.

6.A further look:

The system is still in its pre-alpha stage and still needs lots of work to be
considered a fully functional CMS, We’re looking forward to develop the
system under the name DrupalFx.net and we already acquired the domain
name.

7.References:
• Drupal main website:

http://www.drupal.org

• The book, Packt Publishing ASP.NET 3.5 CMS Development:

http://www.packtpub.com/asp-net-3-5-cms-development/book

• SqlSiteMapProvider on msdn magazine:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163657.aspx
8.Technologies and tools:

• Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5.

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express.

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

• Microsoft IIS6.

• C# & VB.NET.

• Visual Studio 2008.

• Drupal CMS.

• MySQL & MySQL GUI & MySQL workbench.

• XAMPP Server on linux.

• Ubuntu Linux (MySQL & PHP Hosting).

• Adobe Acrobat (to create pdf).

• Camtasia Studio (recording screencast).

• Microsoft Office (Reports and slides).

• Google Chrome as the main browser 