Master Thesis

Software Engineering
Thesis no: MSE-2005:07
June 2005

Web vs. Standalone Application

- A maintenance application for Business Intelligence

Martin Löfberg, Patrik Molin

School of Engineering
Blekinge Institute of Technology
Box 520
SE – 372 25 Ronneby
Sweden
This thesis is submitted to the School of Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Software
Engineering. The thesis is equivalent to 40 (2*20) weeks of full time studies.

Contact Information:
Authors:
Martin Löfberg
E-mail: [email protected]

Patrik Molin
E-mail: [email protected]

External advisor:
Tony Jönsson
WM-data Sverige AB
Address: Boplatsgatan 4, Box 9116, 200 39 Malmö
Phone: 0733-983252

University advisor:
Lars Lundberg
Sektionen för teknik, Avd för programvarusystem.

School of Engineering Internet : www.bth.se/tek

Blekinge Institute of Technology Phone : +46 457 38 50 00
Box 520 Fax : + 46 457 271 25
SE – 372 25 Ronneby
Sweden ii
 ABSTRACT

Many companies want a lot of functionality over

the web. Is it possible to achieve the same functionality
on the web compared to an ordinary windows
application?
Our work aims towards evaluating which one of the
solutions that is the best. Many customers wants a
standalone application rich of functionality and
demands to have the same functionality on the web. Is it
always possible to achieve the costumer’s requirements
on a web based solution or do you have to settle with an
implementation of a standalone application? There are
some factors that the answer depends on: performance,
security, usability and implementation.
The application that will be tested is developed in
.Net and is a maintenance application for Business
Intelligence (BI). We will have a short introduction to
the Business Intelligence field to make you understand
the purpose of the application.

Keywords: Data Warehouse, web based, standalone,

.NET, Business Intelligence
 CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................I

CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................... II

1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1

2 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE .................................................................................................. 3
2.1.1 The different steps in a Business Intelligence solution ................................................... 4
2.2 DATA WAREHOUSE........................................................................................................... 4
2.3 STANDALONE VS. WEB BASED APPLICATION ....................................................................... 5
2.3.1 Standalone application................................................................................................. 5
2.3.2 Web based application ................................................................................................. 5
2.3.3 Web or not from a Business Intelligence perspective ..................................................... 7
3 METHOD ............................................................................................................................... 9
3.1 IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................................................. 9
3.2 PERFORMANCE ................................................................................................................. 9
3.3 SECURITY ......................................................................................................................... 9
3.4 USABILITY & LAYOUT .................................................................................................... 10
4 RESULTS ............................................................................................................................. 11
4.1 IMPLEMENTATION ........................................................................................................... 11
4.2 PERFORMANCE ............................................................................................................... 13
4.3 SECURITY ....................................................................................................................... 16
4.4 USABILITY & LAYOUT .................................................................................................... 16
5 ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................... 19
5.1 IMPLEMENTATION ........................................................................................................... 19
5.2 PERFORMANCE ............................................................................................................... 19
5.3 SECURITY ....................................................................................................................... 20
5.4 USABILITY & LAYOUT .................................................................................................... 21
5.5 VALIDITY ....................................................................................................................... 21
6 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................... 22

7 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................... 23

8 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................... 24
8.1 APPENDIX A – THE DIFFERENT STEPS IN BI ...................................................................... 24
8.2 APPENDIX B – STAR SCHEMA .......................................................................................... 26
8.3 APPENDIX C – THE DATA WAREHOUSE MODEL ................................................................ 27
8.4 APPENDIX D – USABILITY AND LAYOUT FORM ................................................................. 28
8.5 APPENDIX E – DATABASE DIAGRAM ................................................................................ 30
8.6 APPENDIX F – UML DIAGRAM......................................................................................... 31
8.7 APPENDIX G – EXAMPLE OF A XML-FILE ........................................................................ 32
8.8 APPENDIX H – INPUT HANDLER ....................................................................................... 34
8.9 APPENDIX I – GLOSSARY................................................................................................. 36

ii
1 INTRODUCTION
Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Warehouse (DW) are underestimated tools for
analyzing data in a company. BI and DW are designed to help the company making
business related decisions. Large volume of data is stored in databases which then are
assembled into a structure for analyzing.

In the late 1990s the term Business Intelligence got its share of attention and
became popular. At this time the organizations realized what information could do for
there businesses. Business Intelligence as a concept is older but for the first time due to
the cost of hardware and disc space it was possible for organizations to deploy BI
solutions and Data Warehouses [1].

As Jonathan Wu says in his article “Business Intelligence: Differences Between

Web and Non-Web Applications” (2000) BI applications have evolved over the last
years and more features and functionality have been implemented in these
applications. A lot of the new BI applications are Web based solutions. Are you
supposed to choose the web or standalone approach for your BI application? Most BI
tools today have two widely accepted versions; one full client (standalone), and one
thin client (web based) application.

When a customer contacts a software company regarding the development of an

application it often sounds like: “I want an application with this and that
functionality…and I want the same functionality on the web.”

Is this possible to achieve or do you have to compromise with some of the

functionality on the web?

The functionality is the customer’s only concern and the customer does not care
how it is implemented. Therefore it is up to the developers to explain to the customer
that it is not always possible to achieve the same functionality for both solutions. It is
often easier to implement a lot of functionally in a standalone application, a so called
thick client than in a web based application, a thin client solution. It is often harder or
impossible to achieve the same functionality in a web solution because it is a client
server architecture where the functionality is on the server side.
The main advantage of a web implementation today is the fact that it is centralized.
This makes it easy to distribute and maintain. This is a good thing but is it good
enough to make it a better solution than a standalone solution where you can have
more functionality?

The application that will be implemented and tested is a tool that structures
information in a relation database so it becomes useful in BI solutions. The standalone
application runs in a Windows environment and both solutions are to be developed in
C# using the .NET framework.
The application should be database independent and the information that the
application will process will be used as a ground for dimensions in different OLAP
databases.

Our objective in this thesis is to compare the differences between a standalone and
a web application. The comparison will be done according to these research questions:

• Implementation
• Performance
• Security

1
 • Usability & Layout

To evaluate the differences we will conduct some tests and analyze the results. To
see the difference in Usability and Layout we will interview people with different
backgrounds and different outlooks.

2
2 BACKGROUND
This chapter will discuss the meaning of Business Intelligence and Data
Warehouse. It will give you a short introduction of how it works and what it can be
used for. We will also talk about the differences between a standalone and a web
application. How they differ in implementation, security, usability and performance.

2.1 Business Intelligence

What is Business Intelligence? There are a lot of definitions on Business
Intelligence. For example the one from Informatica (www.informatica.com):

“Business Intelligence (BI) is a category of applications and technologies for

gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users
make better business decisions. BI applications include decision support systems,
query and reporting, online analytical processing, statistical analysis, forecasting, and
data mining.” [2]

Another definition from wikipedia:

“Business Intelligence (BI) is the process of gathering information in the field of

business. It can be described as the process of enhancing data into information and
then into knowledge. Business Intelligence is carried out to gain sustainable
competitive advantage, and is a valuable core competence in some instances.” [3]

It is hard to define Business Intelligence because it is a vague expression and is

used in many different contexts. To understand what Business Intelligence is and what
the benefits of BI are we will give you a more detailed description on the subject.

The difference between intelligence and data/raw information can be explained by

these short sentences:

• What has happened is history (data)

• What is happening is news (data)
• What will happen in the future (intelligence)

The function of Business Intelligence is the organizations ability to identify and

solve future problems by gathering and analyzing business information. Intelligence is
the refined information that makes it possible to see into the future. Therefore BI is a
very important factor in order for a company to win the competition against its rivals.
Without a good BI function it is impossible to do good businesses in the long run.

The entire organization benefits from Business Intelligence. The head management
can for example see the organizations profitability of the products/customers,
“executive” reports and balanced score card. The sales persons in the organization can
benefit from BI with sales reports and the analysts can see deviations and plan
campaigns. Last but not least the employees can for example make better budgets and
product investments.

3
2.1.1 The different steps in a Business Intelligence solution
There are many models that describe BI and its different steps. We have chosen
the one in figure 1 which has six steps. It describes how data is gathered and processed
from the company’s source systems to suite the users needs. To see a description of all
the steps in the figure, go to appendix A.

Source System Extraction and Quality ETL Store Access Function Publish Distribution

Production Marketing Mail Server

BI Cube

Finance Fulfillment Web Server

Data Warehouse
Std Rpt
Human Resources Inventory File Server

1 2 3 4 5 6

Figure 1. The different steps in BI

The application that will be implemented and tested will be a tool for the Storage
area (step 3). This is where the correct and quality assured data is stored, the so called
Data Warehouse. The stored data is the foundation for the rest of the BI solution. Some
times it must be possible to look at this data and change it in order to achieve the
requirements.

2.2 Data Warehouse

In the field of Data Warehousing there are two gurus, Bill Inmon and Ralph
Kimball. They have different philosophies of DW and neither of them is wrong.

Bill Inmon's paradigm: Data Warehouse is one part of the overall Business
Intelligence system. An enterprise has one Data Warehouse, and data marts source
their information from the Data Warehouse. In the Data Warehouse, information is
stored in 3rd normal form.
Ralph Kimball's paradigm: Data Warehouse is the conglomerate of all data
marts within the enterprise. Information is always stored in the dimensional model.

Bill Inmon defines the concept as follows: “A Data Warehouse needs to serve the
needs of all of its users, not just one class of users.”
With this he means that in an enterprise environment there are many classes of
users such as accounting, finance, marketing, production etc. These different users
have different looks on the data in the Data Warehouse. This requires that the Data
Warehouse have relationally designed tables for the data [4].
As said in the paradigm of Bill Inmon the data should be in 3rd normal form and
should be at a low level of granularity. Low level of granularity means that the Data
Warehouse is more detailed. The granularity is important in the design because it
affects the volume of data in the DW. The volume of data in a warehouse is traded of
against the level of detail of a query [5].

Kimball’s way of seeing DW is closer to the real world. This is because most Data
Warehouses originated as data mart. Only when more data marts are built later do they
evolve into a Data Warehouse. This is the big difference when comparing to Inmon.
He says that even if you combine many data marts you do not get a Data Warehouse.

4
 According to Kimball the Data Warehouse consists of two different types of data
marts, the atomic data marts which hold multidimensional data at the lowest level and
the aggregated data marts that can store data according to a core business process. In
both atomic and aggregated data marts the data is stored in a star schema like the one
in appendix B.

A Data Warehouse is a way of storing data for later retrieval. This retrieval is
almost always used to support decision-making in the organization. That is why many
Data Warehouses are considered to be DSS (Decision Support Systems). Some people
argue that not all Data Warehouses are DSS, and that’s true. Some Data Warehouses
are only store copies of data. The primary objective of Data Warehouses is to gather
information from different sources and put it together into a format that helps in the
decision making.

2.3 Standalone vs. web based application

To conduct our tests whether to use a standalone or web based solution for a
Business Intelligence application two different applications will be developed. To
understand the different architectures they will be described in this chapter.
2.3.1 Standalone application
A standalone or thick client refers to an application running on a desktop
environment such as windows or Mac platforms. When the Graphical User Interface
(GUI) was developed by Apple in the 1980s, it made it possible to do things in an
easier way on a desktop computer. The users could now perform 95% of there work
without having to remember cryptic commands [7].
The thick client architecture, where the code runs on the client as well as the
processing of data, was once the norm. With the spreading of internet the thin client
model became more popular [8]. The thin client also became more popular because the
standalone applications grew more complex and depended on third party controls.

Everything has some drawbacks, and that also includes thick clients. One of the
top arguments against thick clients is when it comes to deployment. Imagine a
thousand clients that must be updated. This is not an easy task and it takes a lot of time
to update all clients. In the future this argument will no longer be true because
Microsoft has come up with something called ClickOnce deployment. ClickOnce is a
part of the .Net 2.0 Framework and will be further enhanced in the next version of
Windows, code-named "Longhorn" [9] [10].

Another problem with a standalone application is the platform dependency. A

thick client requires a local runtime environment. For example a Windows Form
application will only run on a windows platform with the .Net framework installed.

These drawbacks are compensated with the ability to work offline. It is possible
for the application to run offline but it can only work with local data due to the non
existing internet connection. Because all computation is done on the computer that the
application is running on, the amount of data transmitted over the internet is reduced.
The client retrieves data from a data source, makes some computation on it and then
sends it back to the server. In the case of web based application the data is passed back
and forth between the client and the server each time a new calculation is to be done. If
many clients are connected to the server at the same time this leads to allot of
processing on the server and the power of the clients is not used [9].
2.3.2 Web based application
The World Wide Web came to life in the early 1990s when CERN laboratory in
Switzerland needed to distribute documents and graphics via the Internet [11].

5
 The WWW brought to the basic computing two very important concepts:

1. Hyperlinks
2. One common user interface for all applications [7]

To run resources in the form of executable programs the CGI (Common Gateway
Interface) was invented. The CGI allowed a web browser to execute resources on a
web server. This took web sites to another level, what we could call web applications
and made it possible to use far more logic than HTML could accomplish. The
developers were able to accomplish standard data processing functionality such as
database access and they could distribute it across the world [11].
As the World Wide Web grew users became more comfortable with using various
applications on the web. The users did not have to run different programs for each
function that they wanted to perform [7].

Before the web became dynamic the only thing that could be requested from a web
server was static pages. Every line of the HTML page was written by the designer
before it was placed on the web server. When a client requests a static page the server
reads the request and finds the right page. The server then sends the requested page
back to the client.
The development of building dynamic web pages led to a software program called
application server. When the web server receives a request for a dynamic page, it
passes this page to the application server. The application server reads the code on the
page and finishes the page according to the instructions in the code. The page that is
returned from the application server to the web server is static. The web server then
sends this page back to the requesting browser.
An application server lets you work with resources on the server, such as
databases. It does not communicate directly with the database. It uses a database driver
that acts as an interpreter to receive data from the database [12].

Figure 2. This is how it works today

6
 Because the web browser requests data from a server that then returns the result,
the traffic over the net can become large. This can lead to congestion which then leads
to long transfer time. And the fact that you get the result from the server means that
you always have to be connected to the internet. Another performance problem lies on
the server. When requesting a page, the server needs to make some calculation. If you
have a lot of users making requests at the same time the server can get heavily loaded.
A thick client provides a lot of functionality which is not possible on a web
application. If you decide to implement a web application you will have to consider
that you will lose some functionality because of the limitations of the web.

The main advantage of a web based solution is that it is centralized. This has its
advantages in easy update and deployment. The only requirements on the clients are
that a web browser is installed and that the clients have an internet connection. The
hardware on the server is often more powerful than the average client.
Another advantage is that a web application is platform independent. The same
software can be accessed through a web browser regardless of the client’s operative
system.
2.3.3 Web or not from a Business Intelligence perspective
2.3.3.1 Standalone BI application
A standalone or thick BI application uses the client/server model. The client works
as a standalone computer and works with the obtained result sets of data.
A thick client system contains the client with the application and a database. The
client obtains the data from the database and can then work with it locally. The client
calculates and forms the data and sends it back to the database. Because the data is
manipulated locally the traffic over the network is reduced. The model is illustrated in
figure 3 [13].

Client Database
Figure 3. Thick client model

An example of how an interaction between the server and a client works in a

standalone BI application:

1. The user logs into the application on the client.

2. The user executes a request. The application submits the SQL statement to the
database.
3. The database receives the user request and passes it to the RDBMS.
4. The RDBMS analyses the SQL statement and performs the task.
5. The result set is sent back to the client.
6. The application receives the data and can format and analyze it.

2.3.3.2 Web based BI application

If you choose to implement your BI application on the web, it also uses the
client/server model. But in this case the server does the computation and then presents
the data to the client. The server must be more robust and have more computational
power than in the case of a standalone application. The client on the other hand does

7
not have to be as robust as the client in a thick client solution. To illustrate how the
web implementation works, see figure 4 [13].

Application server
HTML

CODE

Client Database

Webserver
Figure 4. Web based BI application

There are more steps in this model than in the previous to get the data. To get the
data to the client, these steps are performed:

1. The user logs onto the system and starts a web browser.
2. The user navigates to a BI web site.
3. The web server displays the user interface for the BI application.
4. When a request is send from the web browser to the web server, the web
server submit this request to the application server.
5. The application server submits the SQL statement to the database.
6. The database receives the request and passes it to the RDBMS application.
7. The RDBMS application analyses the SQL statement and performs the
task.
8. The result set is sent back to the application server.
9. The application server formats the result and generates a HTML page.
10. The web server displays the HTML page to the user via the web browser.

8
3 METHOD
To see if a web application is better, or worse than a standalone application two
different solutions had to be created. The application will be used for restructuring of
data in a Data Warehouse in appendix C. The two different solutions were then
compared to each other according to:

• Implementation (implementation analysis)

• Performance (performance testing)
• Security (literature study)
• Usability & Layout (interviews)

3.1 Implementation
To compare a web based and a standalone application according to size and the
time it took to implement we will study code from the two different implementations
and compare the amount of time it took to implement them. We will look at a number
of classes the two solutions and compare these to each other according to size.

3.2 Performance
If you want the application to have good performance should you use the web
based or the standalone implementation? In order to see this we will look at the
different solutions according to response time. To test the performance Visual Studio
2005 Team Systems performance test will be used. This test tool works on both
solutions which make it easy to compare the test results. To test an application you
have to make a test project for that application. The application that is to be tested is
started via the test project and the function calls in the test scenario are recorded. The
test scenario is as follows:

• Start the application.

• Log on to the application.
• The application starts in the treewindow.
• Choose a dimension.
• Move a node within the tree structure (cut and paste).
• Move a node from the tree structure to the list (cut and paste).
• Move a node from the list to the tree structure (cut and paste).
• Create a new dimension…
• …with a new root.
• …with an existing root.
• …from an existing dimension (copy).
• Delete a dimension.
• Create a new member.
• Update a member.
• Delete a member.

The result will only show the calculation time. This means that the transfer time
over the network isn’t included in the result. This can make the web application seem
faster than it is in reality.

3.3 Security
If the costumer wants to have a secure application should you choose a standalone
or a web based solution? Is it harder to secure either of the solutions or is it

9
 approximately the same steps you have to take in order to secure them. The security is
hard to test therefore some security vulnerabilities will be discussed and solutions will
be given to help securing the applications.

3.4 Usability & Layout

When it comes to comparing the layout and usability of a program it becomes a
little bit tricky. It is very individual if you like a layout or if you think that a program is
user friendly. Therefore we will let some people work with both solutions and then
answer some question regarding design and usability. The first layout that will be
developed is the standalone applications layout. The development of the web based
layout is supposed to be similar to the standalone layout.

The question form consisted of six questions with five options on each question,
Useless, very bad, bad, good and very good where useless is 1 and very good is 5.
Each question was to be answered for both the standalone and web application. The
form had these questions:

1. Look – What do you think about the appearance of the application?

2. Feel – How is the feeling when working with the application?
3. Learnability – Is it easy to learn how to use the application?
4. Stability – How does the application handles errors?
5. Performance – How was the performance of the application?
6. Satisfaction – Your overall opinion.

The form can be found in appendix D.

10
4 RESULTS
4.1 Implementation
The solutions are a part in a Business Intelligence solution and are used for
restructuring of dimensional data in the storage area. The data is stored according to
the database diagram in appendix E which is a part of the whole Data Warehouse
database structure (Appendix C). The two different solutions are a web based and a
standalone application which where supposed to have the same functionality. But due
to the lack of functionality in the web based solution there are some differences.

The applications are built upon the same logic. For a detailed description of how
the logic works see appendix F. The database handler is designed to work on SQL-
server, Oracle and DB2. This makes the applications very flexible and easy to expand.
Another property of the solutions is that all SQL statements are not hard coded, but
saved in an XML file (Appendix G). This makes it easy to change the SQL statements
as long as you do not change the database structure.

When we started designing the application we agreed on making it a layered

solution. The code that handled the logic, such as database and file handling, was made
as an assembly file (.dll) to make it accessible from both solutions. It was only the GUI
(Graphical User Interface) and its functionality that differed between the two solutions.
From the beginning we thought we could implement the same functionality in both the
web and standalone solution.

We began implementing the logic, such as database connection and file handling
and made it applicable on any GUI. As we proceeded with our implementation we
noticed that the user interface on the web had its limitations, this is because it is a so
called thin client where it’s hard to implement a lot of functionality. In our case we
could not create a solution with drag and drop. We found a solution to that problem by
making the standalone application available on a web page. This led to full
functionality but it is not a great solution for the web. When accessed the whole
program was downloaded to the client and then executed as a thick application inside
the web browser. The idea behind a web based solution was lost. The fast and easy
accessibility disappeared and the functionality was moved from the server to the client.
If you choose to use this type of implementation you will have to look at the code
access security in the .NET framework and get an SSL certificate [16].

The only real measurement that was made on the two applications regarding
implementation was to count lines of code and the time it took to implement. The
result is presented in table 1 on the next page.

11
 Standalone Web
Class LOC LOC
Logic
DatabaseHandler 92 92
Dimension 131 131
DimensionHandler 155 155
FileHandler 132 132
InputHandler 46 46
ListHandler 497 497
Node 214 214
TreeHandler 218 218
Typ 69 69
User 49 49
UserHandler 44 44
GUI
LoginWindow 151 87
Mainform 528
NewDimensionWindow 460 322
NewMemberWindow 220 112
ObjectWindow 487 307
TreeWindow 838 699
error 31
Total 4331 3205
Table 1. Lines of code

The time it took to implement the two solutions is presented in table 2. We will
only compare the implementation of the two GUI’s. This is the only thing that was
implemented separately because they use the same logic. Lead time is longer in the
standalone implementation. This is because the logic was developed in parallel with
the standalone GUI.

Implementetion of GUI Manhours Lead time

Standalone 131 h 10 weeks
Web 196 h 7 weeks
Table 2. Implementation time

12
4.2 Performance
The discussion in chapter 2 says that the performance is better in a standalone
application. Is this true or not? To prove this the two applications was tested in relation
to performance. Because the two solutions do not have the exact same functionality the
test could not be exact. But it still gives a hint to which solution that is best regarding
performance. The applications were tested according to the scenario in the method and
the summary of the test is shown in figure 5 and 6.

Figure 5. Standalone performance report summery

Figure 6. Web performance report summery

These summaries show which functions that are most used in the applications and
how many times they are called. It also shows which of the functions that made most
individual work and which functions that takes the longest time to execute.
As seen in figure 5 and 6 the number of calls on the methods that is called the most
is approximately three times greater on the web application than on the standalone.
From the report summary we also see that it is the same functions in both
implementations that are called the most.

13
 The test result from the test scenario is presented in the following table. It shows
the different times of the steps in the scenario. The result is also plotted as a graph in
figure 7. Figure 8 shows the time for all calls made by each function and as seen in the
figure the web application has more calls for almost every function which leads to
longer execution time.

Standalone Web
Event Function name Time (ms) Time (ms) Comment
Log on loginButton_Click 1571,666 292,854 The standalone
application takes
longer time to login
the user because it
loads the whole
application. On the
web, its just the page
that it's redirected
to that is loaded.
Change dimension SelectedIndexed_Changed 562,404 482,277 This occures 7 times
on the web but only 2
times in the
standalone
application.
Move inside tree structure cut + paste 41,385 482,786 The total time for
both cuting and
pasting a node.
Move from tree structure to list cut + paste 43,825 256,914 The total time for
both cuting and
pasting a node.
Move from list to tree structure cut + paste 44,109 327,764 The total time for
both cuting and
pasting a node.
New dimension
New root saveButton_Click 162,205 275,561
Existing root saveButton_Click 39,009 43,585
Copy entire tree saveButton_Click 1425,826 1123,951
Delete a dimension removeDimension 486,276 49,790 When deleteing a
dimension the
standalone version
shows a messagebox
which takes little
more than 200 ms to
load and it takes
another 200 ms to
clear the treeview.
Create a new member addNode 24,825 136,157
Update a member updateNode 57,179 164,186
Delete a member removeNode 507,651 185,66 When deleteing a
member the
standalone version
shows a messagebox
which takes little
more than 200 ms to
load
Total time 4966,360 3821,484

Table 3. The test scenario report

14
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D e nt D en
el i el tir
et re e te e
e tre tre
C a e C a e
re di re di
m
m a
at
e e te en
a ns
io a si
ne on
ne
w n w

Figure 8. Chart of the time for all calls

U m U m
pd e m pd em
at be Figure 7. Chart of the test result for single calls a be
e r
te r
Web

a a

Web
D m D m
el e m el em
e
Standalone

et be be
e r te r
a a

Standalone
m m
em em
be be
r r

15
4.3 Security
An easy accessible application such as a web based application leads to more
security problems. As a result hackers can use the web based application to penetrate
corporate systems and access restricted data.
Many of the most dangerous security problems today are not worms and viruses,
and not vulnerabilities on the server side but vulnerabilities in the web based
applications themselves.
There are some fundamental differences between a standalone and a web based
application. In a thick client there is no way to alter the messages it sends to its
database. But a web browser is very easy to manipulate.
On a standalone application a lot of the validation is done on the client side to
reduce network traffic and improve server performance. Web applications try to do the
same with help of JavaScript and HTML, but HTML can be changed and JavaScript
can be disabled. This places all the input validation on the server side and it is hard to
check every input for malicious values.
In client-server (standalone) environments, a continuous session between the
clients and the server is maintained. Once the user logs into the application an
unbroken connection feeds the user with information. In web applications there is no
session; a user request a page and then loses the connection to the server until a new
page is requested. The way a web server keeps track of its user is by session cookies.
The cookie resides on the client side and can be changed to hack the application [14].

4.4 Usability & Layout

The design of the standalone and web application is made to look similar. This
helps the user to recognize and use both solutions. If a user has worked with one of the
solutions it is easy for this person to start using the other. We started with the
implementation of the standalone GUI and then proceeded with the web GUI and
made it look similar to the standalone application.
The main difference between the two solutions is the drag-and-drop functionality.
The solution for the web was to make a “cut and paste” functionality, which is
available in both solutions. The application has two main windows, objectwindow and
treewindow. The objectwindow works almost similar in both applications (figure 9).

(a)

16
 (b)
Figure 9. Objectwindow in standalone (a) and on the web (b)

The treewindow is where the two solutions differ. The standalone application is a
thick client. This makes it possible to heavy functionality, such as drag and drop. With
this feature the usability is increased for the standalone application. It is possible to
make a tree structure dragable on a webpage but it would not work on our solution
because the items should be dragged between two objects (tree and list). Even if the
standalone version has more functionality the two solutions are almost similar in
layout (figure 10).

(a)

17
 (b)
Figure 10. Treewindow in standalone (a) and on the web (b)

The result of the survey about usability and layout is presented in table 4 and has
been answered by eight persons. The test people consisted of the customers,
developers and people without technical background.

Standalone Web
Look 4,9 3,6
Feel 4,8 3,8
Learnability 5,0 3,8
Stability 4,7 2,8
Performance 4,5 3,8
Satisfaction 4,8 3,8
Overall 4,8 3,6
Table 4. Usability & Layout results

18
5 ANALYSIS
5.1 Implementation
It is not an easy task to compare the two solutions. The architecture differs and the
functionality as well. But if we start to look at the lines of code in each solution we can
see that the web application has about 1000 lines of code less than the standalone. The
logic is the same in both solutions so the lines of code don’t differ in these classes.
The treewindow class is one of the classes that differ most. The thing with the
treewindow is that it has more functionality in the standalone application. Most of the
extra lines of code comes from the drag and drop functionality which makes it possible
for the user to drag nodes between the tree structure and list instead of using cut and
paste.
The standalone application also has a MainForm which is a container for
everything in the application. All panels and windows are opened from here and all
menus and toolbars are created here. In the web application it is the web browser that
is the container. This is the main reason to why the lines of code differ so much.

If we look at the time it took to implement the two GUI’s we can see that the
standalone version took less time than the one on the web. This might look strange
because it has more lines of code. But from our experience, both from this and other
projects, it’s easier to get a functional look on a windows application than on a web
page. You can also see that the lead time of the standalone GUI was longer. This is
because we implemented some logic at the same time. If we had started with the web
interface we would probably have longer lead time on that part than on the standalone.

From this we can say that it takes approximately the same time to implement both
solutions. But you can implement more functionality in a standalone application
during the same amount of time.

5.2 Performance
The performance test shows the time spent in different functions. It doesn’t show
the time it takes for a web page to be sent over the internet and presented to the user.
Therefore the test result lets us know how fast the computation is done on the server,
in the case of the web application and how fast it is on the client when it comes to the
standalone application.
If we compare the result in table 3 we can see that the events that works more with
the database than with the GUI tends to be faster on the standalone than on the web
application. For example, the event that creates a new member only passes the
information about the new member to the database and it is faster on the standalone
version.
In the event of removing a dimension the standalone application is much slower. It
took almost 490 ms for the standalone application to do this but 200 ms of these went
by when it created the message box that confirms your delete command. If you
subtract these 200 ms you still se that it is 200 ms slower. This is because of the time it
takes to add and remove the graphical representation of the nodes in the standalone
application. To speed up the graphical work you can use a method called beginupdate
in c#. This disables the object to draw graphic while it’s being updated. This method
was implemented when the test was conducted but it wasn’t enough.

In some cases the web is faster but in reality it isn’t. If you add the time it takes for
the web page to become visible to the user the total time will always be longer when
comparing with a standalone application. On the web everything is reloaded more

19
 often which leads to even more execution time as you can see in the performance
summary reports in figure 5 and 6. In these figures you also see that it is the same
functions that are used most but they are called roughly three times more in the web
application. As seen in figure 8 the total time for the operations in the web application
is longer for almost every function.

Most of the time the user will move nodes between the tree structure and the list,
this makes the cut and paste functions more commonly used than the other functions.
The cut and paste functions are faster in the standalone application as seen in figure 7
and 8.

5.3 Security
The first and most common security risk is the user input. This is the users’ way to
interact with the application and therefore the most common way for a hacker to
infiltrate a server/company. The securing of input strings also ensures that SQL
injection is not possible. It is not enough to validate the user input on the client side of
the application. The most important thing is to secure the inputs on the server side.
This is because a web client can never be trusted; the user can turn of scripts or change
them. The only thing with the client side validation that is good is the fact that it can
handle simple input mistakes to reduce the number of times the server has to validate
input. There are a lot of solutions on how to solve this problem, but the best way is to
only allow a list of valid characters. It is also easier to check input against a list of
valid characters then to strip unwanted characters. This is because it is difficult to
determine all possible malicious characters. In appendix H you can see how we solved
this.
Another big dilemma is the authentication. People who want access to an
application can steal passwords and gain access to the application by sniffing up the
user information. Using the sniffing technique an attacker can get the username and
password of other users. To solve this problem the application should send the login id
and the hashed password to the database server. At the server stored procedure should
be used to authenticate the user. To make it more secure the traffic between client and
server should be encrypted.
Both web and standalone applications share some security vulnerabilities. The
main difference is that a web application can be reached from the internet which
allows almost anyone to access and attack it.
A big security risk within a web application is Cross Site Scripting (XSS). It is
perhaps the most common web application vulnerability. XSS refers to an attack
where the user submits malicious HTML, which can include script code, to a dynamic
web application. With this type of attack a hacker can “steal” another user’s session
and use it before the session cookie expires. The attacker can create a malicious script
that other user unknowingly executes when viewing dynamically generated pages
which generates content provided by the attacker. To limit this security risk you can
encode HTML meta characters explicitly. For example: replace < with &lt; and # with
&#35;. You must see to that the application performs validation on all headers,
cookies, query strings, form fields and hidden fields [17] [18].

The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that a web application suffers from
more security vulnerabilities than a standalone application. However, securing the web
application is worthless if the web server has not been secured. To secure a web
application the environment that it woks in has to be secure. The security begins with
having secure servers and networks. It is important to have the latest security patches
for the operating system and software on the web server. The web server has to be
behind a well maintained firewall and monitored for hacking intrusion.

20
5.4 Usability & Layout
As seen in the results it is the standalone version that has the best usability and
layout. The standalone application is easier to learn and the layout is more appealing to
the user. It also feels more stable and has better performance than the web application.
The standalone implementation is better in usability mainly because it has more
functionality which makes it easier to learn and the user can recognize the
functionality and features from other applications.

5.5 Validity
To prove that our result is correct in our research questions the result will be
discussed regarding validity. To begin with, we used the same development procedure
for both implementations (we used the waterfall model). This ensures that the two
different applications were developed in the same way. They were also developed on
the same framework, the .NET framework, and the same development environment
was used (Visual Studio .NET). If you compare with other types of frameworks like
J2EE, you will get the same result as long as you use the same development model and
environment.
To strengthen our performance test results we used the same test
procedure/scenario and the same test tool (Visual studio 2005 Performance test) for
both applications. To compare two applications the same test tool must be used to
ensure validity. But even if the same test tool is used it’s hard to ensure that the
validity of the results because it’s difficult to compare two different types of
application architectures.
When it comes to the comparison of security it’s not easy to see if the result is
valid or not. There are always new security threats emerging. Even if you secure your
application today, it may not be secure in the future. The discussion about application
security is held as general as possible to ensure the external validity.
Because the people who tested usability and layout had different backgrounds the
test wasn’t directed towards this type of applications and it is possible to perform the
test on any application.
The tests have been performed to be as general as possible to ensure that the result
is applicable when it comes to comparing web and standalone applications. The result
is applicable not just on BI solutions like the one used here, but on all kinds of
applications that has similar functionality.

21
6 CONCLUSION
If you are looking for a fast and secure application with a lot of functionality you
should choose the standalone implementation. This implementation lets the program
execute with the full power of the client machine. It’s faster than a web application but
the thing that really makes it better than a web solution is the fact that it has more
functionality which increases the usability.
If your main purpose is to reach many users, and have an easy maintained and easy
deployed application that can be accessed from remote computers with different
operating systems you should choose the web based solution. It takes longer to
load/execute a web page but in return the application is easy to access and maintain.
This makes the web based solution suitable if you have many users working from
different locations.
It’s often harder to secure a web application because it’s not just the application
that has to be secure but the server as well. It’s also easier for hackers to access a web
page than a program on a computer. This makes it more important to consider security
issues when creating a web application.

There is no answer to the question: web or standalone application? It’s up to the

developers to look at the requirements and then decide which of the solutions that suits
the customer best. To be able to decide which solution to use it is important for the
developers to discuss with the customers what they want to be able to do with their
application.

22
7 REFERENCES
[1] Manjarekar C, To BI or not to BI, White paper, DMReview
[2] Informatica, www.informatica.com/solutions/resource_center/glossary/default.htm,
downloaded 2005-04-11 14:45
[3] Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence, downloaded 2005-04-11
15:02
[4] Drewek K, Inmon vs. Kimball, http://www.b-eye-
network.com/blogs/drewek/archives/2005/04/data_warehousin.php, downloaded 2005-04-14
[5] Inmon W.H, Building the data warehouse 2nd edition, 1996, Wiley
[7] S2 logic Inc, Web based vs. Thick Clients in General Aviation, White paper, S2 logic,
www.s2logic.com/WebGA2.pdf, downloaded 2005-03-31 09:35
[8] DeMichillie G, .NET Framework Makes Thick Clients More Attractive,
http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/update/2002/08aug/0802nfmtcm.htm
, downloaded 2005-03-31 10:52
[9] Egger M, The Revenge of the Thick Client, Article, Component Developer Magazine
[10] Noyes B, Deploy and Update Your Smart Client Projects Using a Central Server,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/05/ClickOnce/default.aspx, downloaded
2005-03-31 11:27
[11] Cox K, Active Server Pages: An Introduction to Web-based Application Development,
http://www.abiglime.com/webmaster/articles/asp/122297.htm, downloaded 2005-04-04
09:47
[12] Macromedia, How a web application works,
http://livedocs.macromedia.com/dreamweaver/mx2004/getting_started_en/wwhelp/wwhimpl
/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=Getting_Started&file=gs_07_u6.htm, downloaded
2005-04-04 11:30
[13] Mu J, Business Intelligence: Differences Between Web and Non-Web Applications,
Article, DMReview
[14] Stern A, Web Application Vulnerabilities,
http://www.f5.com/f5/news/articles/article030905.html, downloaded 2005-04-06 11:45
[15] The OLAP Council, http://altaplana.com/olap/glossary.html, downloaded 2005-04-15
11:34
[16] Robinson S, Professional C# Third Edition, 2004, Wrox
[17] Huang Y, Yu F, Hang C, Tsai C, Lee D, Kuo S, Securing Web Application Code by
Static Analysis and Runtime Protection, White paper, The ACM Digital Library
[18] Scott D, Sharp R, Developing Secure Web Applications, White paper, IEEE

23
8 APPENDIX
8.1 Appendix A – The different steps in BI
Source System Extraction and Quality ETL Store Access Function Publish Distribution

Production Marketing Mail Server

BI Cube

Finance Fulfillment Web Server

Data Warehouse
Std Rpt
Human Resources Inventory File Server

1 2 3 4 5 6

Step 1
The first step is the company’s source systems. A company can have one or more
source systems. As described in the figure above the source system can be of different
kind. It is possible to make a BI solution for any kind of source system.
The source system only contains raw data. When the costumer makes its
requirements on the BI solution the source systems data must be validated to see if the
requirements can be fulfilled.

Step 2
Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL) is preformed to get correct data to
the Data Warehouse. For the data to fit the Data Warehouse it may have to be
reformatted. As a simple example, the source system has stored date as YY/MM/DD
and the DW stores it as DD/MM/YY. The data that does not have any meaning for the
DW is removed and faulty data is cleansed. At the end of this step the correct and
quality assured data is loaded into the Data Warehouse [5].

Step 3
This is where the correct and quality assured data is stored, the so called Data
Warehouse. The stored data is the foundation for the rest of the BI solution and it is in
this step our application will be used.

Step 4
The access area is sometimes called Data Marts. Data Marts are usually smaller
then the Data Warehouse and focus on a particular subject or department. The database
design of the data mart is typically built around the star structure that is optimal for the
needs found in the department. To be able to shape the star structure, the requirements
of the department must be gathered and analyzed. The conclusion of this is that the
data mart holds the data from the Data Warehouse that is interesting for a department.

Step 5
Online analytical processing (OLAP) is what comes into mind when talking about
the functionality in Business Intelligence. OLAP is a piece of software technology that
enables the users to get insight into data thought fast and consistent access to a variety

24
of possible views of the data in the data marts/Data Warehouse. OLAP is characterized
by these different functionalities:

• Calculation and modeling applied across dimensions.

• Trend analysis over sequential time periods.
• Slicing subsets for on-screen viewing.
• Drill-down to deeper levels of consolidation.
• Reach-through to underlying detail data.
• Rotation to new dimensional comparisons in the viewing area.

OLAP helps the user analyze historical data in various “what if” scenarios. OLAP
also helps the user to combine the company’s information through personalized
viewing. This is achieved through use of an OLAP Server [15].

Step 6
The data that is analyzed in the previous step can be presented to the user in
different ways. The result can for example be viewed as a graph or a table. It can be
published over the internet via a web site or sent to you by mail.

25
8.2 Appendix B – Star schema
Time
Product
PK time_key
PK product_key
date
description day_of_week
full_description day_number
brand month
subcategory Sales_Fact quarter
category year
weight holiday_flag
FK1 time_key
FK2 product_key
FK3 promotion_key
FK4 store_key
dollar_sales
unit_sales
dollar_cost
customer_count
Store Promotion

PK store_key PK promotion_key

name promotion_name
store_number price_reduction_type
store_street_address ad_type
city promo_cost
store_zip promo_begin_date
store_phone promo_end_date
store_fax

26
8.3 Appendix C – The Data Warehouse model

27
8.4 Appendix D – Usability and Layout form
Usability and Layout form
X – Useless
1 – Very bad
2 – Bad
3 – Good
4 – Very good

Please answer these questions according to your own thoughts. If you have any comment
please write them down in the comment box. A description of each question is found on the
last page.
Standalone Web
Look
X 1 2 3 4 X 1 2 3 4
Comment

Feel
X 1 2 3 4 X 1 2 3 4
Comment

Learnability
X 1 2 3 4 X 1 2 3 4
Comment

Stability
X 1 2 3 4 X 1 2 3 4
Comment

Performance
X 1 2 3 4 X 1 2 3 4
Comment

Satisfaction

28
 X 1 2 3 4 X 1 2 3 4
Comment

Question descriptions

Look – What do you think about the appearance of the application?

Feel – How is the feeling when working with the application?

Learnability – Is it easy to learn how to use the program?

Stability – How does the application handle errors (application and input errors)?

Performance – How was the performance of the application?

Satisfaction – Your overall opinion.

29
8.5 Appendix E – Database diagram

30
 ListHandler
+dbh : DatabaseHandler = new DatabaseHandler()
8.6
-con : SqlConnection
-oracleConnection : OracleConnection
-allNodes : ArrayList = new ArrayList()
+ListHandler()
+getList(in lkStrukturtypId : int, in view : string) : ArrayList
+getLkTyp() : ArrayList
+addNode(in regId : string, in lkKey : string, in beskrivning : string, in externBeskrivning : string, in lktypId : int, in mapId : int)
+updateNode(in regId : string, in lkId : int, in lkKey : string, in beskrivning : string, in externBeskrivning : string, in lkTypId : int) InputHandler
+updateExtbesk(in regId : string, in lkId : int, in externBeskrivning : string) Typ
+isRoot(in lkId : int) : bool -regId : string
+removeNode(in lkId : int) : bool -regTid : DateTime +InputHandler()
+removeChilds(in lkId : int) -lktypId : int +secureString(in unsafeString : string) : string
-removeAllChildNodes(in anfaderLkid : int) -beskrivning : string
-removeOneChild(in anfaderLkid : int)
+Typ()
+getLast() : Node
+Typ(in regId : string, in regTid : DateTime, in lktypId : int, in beskrivning : string)
UserHandler
+typRegId() : string
+typRegTid() : DateTime -dbh : DatabaseHandler = new DatabaseHandler()
+typLkTypId() : int -con : SqlConnection
TreeHandler +typBeskrivning() : string +user : User = new User()
+UserHandler()
+dbh : DatabaseHandler = new DatabaseHandler()
+authenticateUser(in userName : string, in userPwd : string) : bool
-dh : DimensionHandler = new DimensionHandler()
-con : SqlConnection
-oracleConnection : OracleConnection
-treeList : ArrayList = new ArrayList()
-tempList : ArrayList = new ArrayList()
DatabaseHandler
+TreeHandler() FileHandler
+getTree(in lkStrukturTypId : int) : ArrayList +fh : FileHandler = new FileHandler() User
+removeFromTree(in tempList : ArrayList, in treeList : ArrayList) : ArrayList +database : string = "SQLserver" -fileName : string
-userName : string = null
+copyFromTree(in tempNode : Node, in treeList : ArrayList) : ArrayList +DatabaseHandler() +FileHandler() -userPwd : string = null
-copyFromTree(in tempNode : Node) +databaseChooser() +setFile(in f : string) -userType : int = -1
+saveTree(in treeList : ArrayList) +getSqlConnection() : SqlConnection +readIni() : string
+User()
+saveCopiedDimension(in user : string, in treeList : ArrayList, in dimensionsBeskrivning : string) +closeSqlConnection(in con : SqlConnection) +getDatabase() : string
+userUserName() : string
+insertNode(in regId : string, in lkId : int, in lkAnfaderId : int, in lkStrukturtypId : int) +getOracleConnection() : OracleConnection +getConnectionString() : string
+userUserPwd() : string
+closeOracleConnection(in con : OracleConnection) +getQuery(in id : string) : string
+userUserType() : int
+getQuery(in id : string) : string

DimensionHandler
Node
+dbh : DatabaseHandler = new DatabaseHandler()
-regId : string
Appendix F – UML diagram

-con : SqlConnection
-oracleConnection : OracleConnection -regTid : DateTime
-lkId : int
+DimensionHandler()
-lkKey : string
+getDimensions() : ArrayList
-beskrivning : string
+addDimension(in regId : string, in beskrivning : string)
-fromDatum : DateTime
+getLastDimension() : int
-tomDatum : DateTime
+removeDimension(in lkStrukurTypId : int)
-lktypId : int
-mapId : int
-lkAnfaderId : int = -99
-lkStrukturtypId : int = -99
-externBeskrivning : string
+Node()
Dimension
+Node(in lkId : int, in beskrivning : string)
-regId : string +Node(in lkId : int, in lkAnfaderId : int)
-regTid : DateTime +Node(in lkId : int, in lkAnfaderId : int, in beskrivning : string, in lkStrukturtypId : int, in regTid : DateTime, in regId : string)
-lkStrukturtypId : int +Node(in regId : string, in regTid : DateTime, in lkId : int, in lkKey : string, in beskrivning : string, in fromDatum : DateTime, in tomDatum : DateTime, in lktypId : int, in mapId : int, in lkAnfaderId : int, in lkStrukturtypId : int)
-beskrivning : string +Node(in regId : string, in regTid : DateTime, in lkId : int, in lkKey : string, in beskrivning : string, in externBeskrivning : string, in fromDatum : DateTime, in tomDatum : DateTime, in lktypId : int, in mapId : int)
-fromDatum : DateTime +nodeRegId() : string
-tomDatum : DateTime +nodeRegTid() : DateTime
-mapId : int +nodeLkId() : int
+Dimension() +nodeLkKey() : string
+Dimension(in lkStrukturtypId : int, in beskrivning : string) +nodeBeskrivning() : string
+Dimension(in lkStrukturtypId : int, in beskrivning : string, in mapId : int) +nodeExternBeskrivning() : string
+Dimension(in regId : string, in regTid : DateTime, in lkStrukturtypId : int, in beskrivning : string, in fromDatum : DateTime, in tomDatum : DateTime, in mapId : int) +nodeFromDatum() : DateTime
+dimensionRegId() : string +nodeTomDatum() : DateTime
+dimensionRegTid() : DateTime +nodeLktypId() : int
+dimensionLkStrukturtypId() : int +nodeMapId() : int
+dimensionBeskrivning() : string +nodeLkAnfaderId() : int
+dimensionFromDatum() : DateTime +nodeLkStrukturtypId() : int
+dimensionTomDatum() : DateTime
+dimensionMapId() : int

31
8.7 Appendix G – Example of a XML-file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<MSSQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="0">SQLserver</statement>
<comment>Database</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="1">SERVER=(local); database=prod_dw_boverket; Trusted_Connection=True;</statement>
<comment>Connection string</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="2">select s.lkid, s.lkanfaderid, a.beskrivning , s.lkstruktypid, s.regtid, s.regId from ba_lk a,ba_lkstruktur s
where a.lkid = s.lkid and s.lkstruktypid = STRUKTURTYPIDVALUE ORDER BY a.beskrivning</statement>
<comment>Treedstructure</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="3">DELETE from ba_lkstruktur where lkstruktypid = STRUKTURTYPIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>delete from the tree structure</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="4">select a.regid, a.regtid, a.lkid, a.lkkey, a.beskrivning, a.from_datum, a.tom_datum, a.lktypid, a.map_id,
d.ext_beskrivning from ba_lk a, ba_lk_attribut d where d.lkid = a.lkid ORDER BY a.beskrivning</statement>
<comment>the list in the objectwindow</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="5">select a.lkid, a.beskrivning from ba_lk a, ba_lk_attribut d where a.lkid = d.lkid and not exists (select *
from ba_lkstrukturtyp b, ba_lkstruktur c where a.lkid = c.lkid and b.lkstruktypid = STRUKTURTYPIDVALUE and
b.lkstruktypid = c.lkstruktypid) ORDER BY a.beskrivning</statement>
<comment>the list in the treeview</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="6">select * from userTable where userName='USERNAMEVALUE'</statement>
<comment>Authenticate user</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="7">select * from ba_lktyp</statement>
<comment>load the types</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="8">select * from ba_lkstrukturtyp</statement>
<comment>Loads the dimensions</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="9">insert into ba_lkstruktur values('REGIDVALUE', REGTIDVALUE, UIDVALUE,
ANFADERIDVALUE, STRUKTURTYPIDVALUE)</statement>
<comment>Save the tree</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="10">INSERT INTO BA_lkSTRUKTURTYP (regid, regtid, beskrivning, from_datum, tom_datum, map_id)
VALUES ('REGIDVALUE', REGTIDVALUE, 'BESKRIVNINGVALUE', REGTIDVALUE, TOMDATUMVALUE,
MAPIDVALUE)</statement>
<comment>Add dimension</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="11">select max(lkstruktypid) from BA_lkSTRUKTURTYP</statement>
<comment>Get last dimension</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="12">INSERT INTO BA_lkSTRUKTUR VALUES ('REGIDVALUE', REGTIDVALUE, UIDVALUE,
ANFADERIDVALUE, STRUKTYPIDVALUE)</statement>
<comment>Add node to the tree</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="13">DELETE FROM BA_lkSTRUKTURTYP WHERE lkSTRUKTYPID =
STRUKTYPIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>delete dimension</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="14">DELETE FROM BA_lkSTRUKTUR WHERE lkSTRUKTYPID =
STRUKTYPIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>delete all nodes in one dimesion</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>

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 <statement id="15">INSERT INTO BA_lk (regid, regtid, lkkey, beskrivning, from_datum, tom_datum, lktypid, map_id)
VALUES ('REGIDVALUE', REGTIDVALUE, 'KEYVALUE', 'BESKRIVNING', REGTIDVALUE, TOMDATUMVALUE,
TYPIDVALUE, MAPIDVALUE)</statement>
<comment>Adds a new member</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="16">INSERT INTO BA_lk_ATTRIBUT (regid, regtid, lkid, ext_beskrivning) VALUES ('REGIDVALUE',
REGTIDVALUE, UIDVALUE, 'EXTERNBESKRIVNING')</statement>
<comment>Adds a member attribute</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="17">UPDATE BA_lk SET regid = 'REGIDVALUE', regtid = REGTIDVALUE, beskrivning =
'BESKRIVNINGVALUE', lkkey = 'KEYVALUE', lktypid = TYPIDVALUE WHERE lkid = UIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>update a member</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="18">UPDATE BA_lk_ATTRIBUT SET regid = 'REGIDVALUE', regtid = REGTIDVALUE,
ext_beskrivning = 'EXTERNBESKRIVNINGVALUE' WHERE lkid = UIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>uppdate the members attribute</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="19">SELECT * FROM BA_lkSTRUKTUR WHERE lkid = UIDVALUE and lkanfaderid =
UIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>Check if a node is a root</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="20">DELETE FROM BA_lk_ATTRIBUT WHERE lkID = UIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>delete a members attribute</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="21">DELETE FROM BA_lkSTRUKTUR WHERE lkID = UIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>remove a node</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="22">DELETE FROM BA_lk WHERE lkID = UIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>remove a node</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="23">select a.regid, a.regtid, a.lkid, a.lkkey, a.beskrivning, a.from_datum, a.tom_datum, a.lktypid, a.map_id,
d.ext_beskrivning from BA_lk a, BA_lk_ATTRIBUT d where a.lkID = (select max(lkId) from BA_lk)</statement>
<comment>get the last member</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="24">select * from BA_lkSTRUKTUR</statement>
<comment>gets the structure</comment>
</SQL>
<SQL>
<statement id="25">DELETE FROM BA_lkSTRUKTUR WHERE lkanfaderid = ANFADERIDVALUE</statement>
<comment>delete children of a node</comment>
</SQL>
</MSSQL>

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8.8 Appendix H – InputHandler
using System;

namespace dimBI
{
/// <summary>
/// InputHandler secures a string, in order to secure the user
/// inputs.
/// </summary>
public class InputHandler
{
public InputHandler()
{
}

/// <summary>
/// trimString removes white spaces in the begining and
/// the end of a string.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="inputString">the string that should be
/// trimed</param>
/// <returns>the trimed string</returns>
public string trimString(string inputString)
{
string trimString = inputString;
trimString = trimString.Trim();
return trimString;
}

/// <summary>
/// checkChar checks if the string contains unwanted characters
/// </summary>
/// <param name="inputString">the string that should be
/// checked</param>
/// <returns>a string with the unwanted characters</returns>
public string checkChar(string inputString)
{
string notAllowed = "";
foreach(Char c in inputString)
{
if((c >= 40 && c <= 41) || (c >= 43 && c <=59) || (c >= 63
&& c <= 90) || (c >= 97 && c <= 122) || c == 'å'
|| c == 'ä' || c == 'ö' || c == 'Å' || c == 'Ä' ||
c == 'Ö' || (c >= 32 && c <= 33) || c == 38 || c == 95)
{
//Allow: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, & ( ) _ - + / SPACE . , ! : ; ? @
//å ä ö Å Ä Ö
}
else
{
if(!containsChar(notAllowed, c))
{
notAllowed += c;
}
}
}
return notAllowed;
}

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 /// <summary>
/// containsChar checks if the char is alread in the notAllowed
/// string, in order to only get one copy of each unwanted
/// character.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="notAllowed">the string that should be
/// checked</param>
/// <param name="c">the char that should be checked</param>
/// <returns>true if notAllowed contains the character</returns>
private bool containsChar(string notAllowed, Char c)
{
bool result = false;
foreach(Char d in notAllowed)
{
if(c.Equals(d))
{
result = true;
}
}
return result;
}
}
}

35
8.9 Appendix I – Glossary
Business Intelligence (BI)–a collection of technologies that allows for gathering, storing,
accessing and analyzing data to help business users make better decisions.
Data Warehouse (DW)–a collection of databases, data tables and mechanisms to access
the data on a single subject.
Standalone application–an application that operates on its own in a desktop
environment.
Web application–a software program that uses HTTP for its core communication
protocol and delivers web-based information to the user in the HTML-language.
Thick client–see standalone application.
Thin client–see web application.
RDBMS–Rational Database Management System is a structured computer information
storage and retrieval system where the basic unit is a Table with Rows and Columns.
Data Mart–A subset of a Data Warehouse, for use by a single department or function.
OLAP–On-line Analytical Processing
Star Schema–One of several models for a Data Warehouse. A star schema has a central
fact table, connected to a set of dimension tables.

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