Tech Terminology for non-technical people Tim Bornholtz 2006 Annual Conference

Annual Conference 2006 About This Session The goal is to translate techno-babble into plain English. This session may be a bit different than what you're used to hearing. Please interrupt me and ask lots of questions. Deviating from the presentation is the expected plan!

Annual Conference 2006 Database Database – a collection of related information structured so the computer can answer questions efficiently Relational Database – Data is stored in tables usually based on subject –Student or Award or Course Examples of relational databases –Oracle –Microsoft SQL Server –and many others –Microsoft Access –IBM DB2

Annual Conference 2006 Flat Files Plain text file containing records Usually one record per line Each field is a specific fixed width, no more, no GRANT A TH STREET APT 8SAN INSTITUTE

Annual Conference 2006 XML: eXtensible Markup Language Just like a flat file, XML is a text file with a specific format Uses tags to surround data elements – Tim Tags are heirarchical – Tim

Annual Conference 2006 XML Schema Allows us to know what an XML document must look like –Name and order of tags –Data types (words or numbers or dates) –Allowable values

Annual Conference 2006 XML Schema (cont) Why this matters: –If a document contains wrong data then it will usually be rejected by the recipient. –The whole document will be rejected, not just the records with problems. All or nothing.

Annual Conference 2006 XML Namespace A “person” who receives student aid A “person” on the FBI’s most wanted list –May share some common tags (name, address) –Many different tags (award amount vs. crime)

Annual Conference 2006 Web Services “Web Services” is a generic term for ways that computers use XML to talk with each other SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol –SOAP defines what the XML will look like WSDL – Web Services Description Language –Contains every piece of technical information necessary for a Web Service to work WS-* –Collection of Web Services standards for addressing, reliable messaging, and many others

Annual Conference 2006 Service Oriented Architecture Architectural style of building software out of reusable components A service is a reusable component that can be used as a building block to form larger more complex business application functionality A service may be as simple as “get me some person data” or as complex as “process a disbursement”

Annual Conference 2006 Blog or Web Log Online journal Anyone can create a blog on his/her own site or on large free sites like blogger.com Anyone can become an instant journalist Potentially replacing mainstream media as a source of information

Annual Conference 2006 Wiki Web site where anyone can edit the content of every page –Free encyclopedia that anyone in the world can edit and add entries

Annual Conference 2006

RSS – Really Simple Syndicate XML format for blogs and news sites to list recent content Read with an RSS reader –As a separate program or within a browser –Can get updates on a schedule Allow someone to quickly scan many sites for updated news or content

Annual Conference 2006

Security Authentication – Knowing who is making the request Authorization – What the user can do. Encryption – Converting data with a mathematical formula to something that cannot be read by anyone else Single Sign on

Annual Conference 2006 eAuthentication Also called –Federated Identity –Transitive Trust What is it? –Distributed authentication system that allows individuals to use the same credentials (user name and password) at multiple places Examples –Shibboleth –IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager

Annual Conference 2006 eAuthentication (cont) Why is it necessary? –Because we all have too many passwords to remember!

Annual Conference 2006 Programming Languages Java –J2EE Microsoft.Net –C# Lots of others –PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby

Annual Conference 2006 Architecture Application Architecture Create applications Object-oriented models Use cases Sequence diagrams Data Architecture Create databases Logical data models Physical data models Entity relationship diagram Architects are fancy titles for experienced personnel Usually requires more than 5 years of experience creating real systems

Annual Conference 2006 Application Architecture UML – Universal Modeling Language –Collection of processes and diagrams to design applications Use Case –Document written in business language that describes one specific use or flow in a system

Annual Conference 2006 Application Architecture (cont) Sequence Diagram –Picture that shows the same flow but with the technical pieces

Annual Conference 2006 Sequence Diagram

Annual Conference 2006 Data Architecture Logical Data Model –Creating databases that reflect the business need Physical Data Model –Transforming the logical data model so it is efficient for a computer to use

Annual Conference 2006 Data Architecture Entity Relationship Diagram –Specific convention to represent the models –Way to draw pictures that other data architects can understand

Annual Conference 2006 Entity Relationship Diagram

Other Questions? Tim Bornholtz (540)