CoursePTR Web Site

Description

I was responsible for architecting the site’s file structure, display layer, and the data access layer. Coldfusion did not allow me to use objects, but it does provide a custom tag structure for abstracting and grouping functionality. The data pieces were all migrated to a middle tier and separated out into logical groups. The main goal was reuse; ultimately, it would be nice to publish a web service or open a “public” page where book data was freely given based on a set of parameters. With this design goal in mind I implemented the custom tags to retrieve data for the display tier. No formatting information would be passed between the two: just pure data. This tier talked to a database via stored procedures, with the occasional query thrown in for good measure. We used a SQLServer instance with database connectivity managed by Coldfusion.

The foundation of the display tier was built with include files and custom tags for the re-used parts. Each page has its own address and its own set of parameters to determine and render the shared navigation assets. A data structure drove the breadcrumbs. The rest is straight HTML. Extensibility was the design goal here, because I knew that content editors would be periodically adding content to old pages while building new pages on the site. In architecting the display layer I always kept this notion of someone else editing and adding to the site in mind.

Course PTR was fast tracked and built in about three weeks. The launch was immediately successful and was advertised days later at a trade conference.

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