BIC'2003 Issues of Developing WebBased Systems Using Open Source Software

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BIC'2003 Issues of Developing Web-Based Systems
Using Open Source Software

• Ying Wah Teh and Abu Bakar Zaitun
• tehyw_at_.um.edu.my, zab_at_um.edu.my
• University of Malaya
• Faculty of Computer Science and Information
  Technology

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Contents

• Introduction
• Center for Information Technology (CIT)
• Motivation
• Open Source Software
• Web-based Systems
• Problems Encountered
• Apache and Linux in Security Issues
• Guidelines for securing Apache web server
• PHP and MySql in Development Issues
• Lack of Expertise and Lack of In-house Skills
• Lack of Documentation
• Lack of Vendor Support
• Lack of Integrated Development Environment
• Lack of Component Based Approach
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• University of Malaya started off with a student
  population of 320 and the number of full-time
  students has now reached 18,000 with 2238
  lecturers and 4,699 supporting staff. UM offers
  courses ranging from pre-University to Ph.D.
• The Universitys administrative and educational
  activities are becoming more and more supported
  by computerised information systems. Starting
  with students registration system, to human
  resource management to inventory system and to
  Library management system, computerisation is
  very much in place.

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Center for Information Technology (CIT)

• It consists of three units Network Services
  Unit, Maintenance Unit and Systems Development
  and Planning Unit.
• With only 30 Systems analyst, 27 programmers and
  7 technicians, the CIT has to maintain the
  Student Information Systems, E-Procurement
  System, Human Resource Information System,
  Financial Information System, UMmail systems,
  Inventory System and the Multimedia Course-online
  System.

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Motivation

• Some of the systems (Student Information System
  and Financial System) in the University have been
  outsourced to software consultants.
• The amount spent on outsourcing these systems
  have reached more than RM2 million and the user
  satisfaction is not as desirable.
• Looking at the high cost of running the center
  and the ever changing and ever growing needs of
  computerisation, the CIT is now seriously
  considering Open Source Software (OSS)
  development.

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Open Source Software

• software with its source code available that may
  be used, copied, and distributed with or without
  modifications.
• Emacs, GNU toolset, Apache , Sendmail and Linux.

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Web-based Systems

• With the explosive growth of Internet users, the
  increase in confidence of e-commerce
  applications, the ease of information seeking and
  retrieval offered by the Internet, web-based
  information is getting to be more and more widely
  used.
• Not only are organisations developing new
  web-based systems, they are even converting
  existing and legacy system to be web-based.

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Problems Encountered

• starts with OSS in the universitys mail system,
  and now it is moving toward developing
  e-procurement.
• There are 8 members in the team to develop and
  maintain the system.
• Apache and Linux in Security Issues
• PHP and MySql in Development Issues

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Apache and Linux in Security Issues

• Security issues or threats are commonly faced by
  Apache web server and Linux operating system are
  virus infection and attacking of crackers .
• When there are virus outbreaks, the
  administrators from CIT based on the patches
  release from the Apache and Linux user group web
  site to update the version of Apache web server
  and Linux operating system.

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Guidelines for securing Apache web server

• Obtaining as secure version of Apache as possible
  
• Securing the underlying operating system
• Ensuring that vulnerabilities are patched
• Running only the features and services that you
  genuinely need
• Configuring your server correctly
• Writing common gateway interface (CGI) scripts
  properly
• Most of administrators are able to handle the
  guideline number 1, 2 and 3 There are lack of
  expertise in handling the guideline number 4, 5
  and 6.
• CIT shuts down mail server for one hour for
  maintaining purpose every Friday. To provide 24
  hours per day non-stop service is the vital issue
  to be dealt in E-Commerce environment.

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PHP and MySql in Development Issues

• The major problems facing by using PHP and MySql
  in development of Web-based systems are lack of
  expertise , lack of vendor support , lack of
  in-house skills, lack of documentation, lack of
  integrated development environment (IDE) and lack
  of component-based approach.

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Lack of Expertise and Lack of In-house Skills

• Open source software used different
  languages/software and interfaces. It requires
  various experts in the area of design, software,
  hardware, database and communications.
• Personnel resources will be an important issue in
  PHP programming and MySql database areas.
• The oversea consultants will train local IT
  personnel to acquire PHP and MySql knowledge.

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Lack of Documentation

• One of issues preventing development of secure
  open source software is the complexity of code in
  addition to a lack of documentation which has
  made it difficult for casual users to understand
  the code well enough to give a proper review.
• The problem of poor documentation can be solved
  with a disciplined software development process.

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Lack of Vendor Support

• When the users encounter a problem while using
  these OSS, the first and almost automatic
  reaction is to look for solutions and getting
  information from the web.
• The number of reference materials on the web are
  sometimes not in English. There active OSS users
  websites in Japanese, Russian and French.
• It is recommended to have tools to convert
  non-English materials into English.

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Lack of Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

• Most of PHP developers claimed that there is lack
  of IDE in PHP programming environment, which will
  cause the slowing down of the development process
  of applications.
• PHPEd Advantage has created IDE environment for
  PHP developers. If you are a Java developer, it
  is recommended to use either Eclipse
  (IBM-sponsored integrated development
  environment) or NetBeans IDE (Sun
  Microsystems-sponsored integrated development
  environment ).

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Lack of Component Based Approach

• PHP is a page-based web application rather than
  component-based application. The advantage of the
  page-based web application is that it is easier
  to develop and deploy dynamic sites with
  page-based scripting. The disadvantage of the
  page-based web application is the unmaintainable
  code.
• It is therefore recommended to use Enterprise
  JavaBeans 17 , CORBA 18, or .NET to develop
  component based web application

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Conclusion

• To address the problem of lack of vendor support
  or lack of assistance in developing systems using
  OSS, Malaysia should set up its own OSS incubator
  group.
• Developers using OSS in the country should get
  together and form their own support group.
• From this platform courses related to OSS
  utilisation can be organised, software tools and
  expertise can be shared and eventually makes
  development using OSS a much more rewarding
  experience.

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Thank You

• Question and Answer ?
• tehyw_at_um.edu.my