Overview of Professional Quest Technologies

Transcription

1 Overview of Professional Quest Technologies Professional Quest Web Architecture Professional Quest's utilizes a number of industry standard components in its web architecture. Server Web Pages For the web pages Professional Quest generates are Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) and must be run on Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). The scripting language these pages are written in is VB Script but they will include standard Html and also some JavaScript elements. The VB Scripts make use of Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) for interaction with the database. The ADO objects we use are ADODB.Connection and ADODB.RecordSet. 1 DIP E 012

2 Using ADO ADO is generally installed on Microsoft Web Servers when they are set up. If it is not available it is very important to ensure that it is installed or the surveys will not run. This is done by installing the 'Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), which is available from the Microsoft web site at It is also important that along with the MDAC that the 'Microsoft Jet Provider' is also installed if you are running Microsoft Access Database based surveys. If you are using Microsoft Windows 2000 or higher then this software should already be available. However, if you are using Microsoft Windows NT 4 then it is very possible that these components have not been installed or that they are out of date. Database Backends Professional Quest utilizes either a Microsoft Access Database (MDB) or (optionally) a Microsoft Sql Server Database (SQL Server) as it's backend for the collection of data. Professional Quest utilizes either a Microsoft Access Database (MDB) or (optionally) a Microsoft Sql Server Database (SQL Server) as it's backend for the collection of data. Using Microsoft Access Databases The Microsoft Access Database file may be placed anywhere on the server and this folder may then be referenced by the ASP pages. This ensures that the MDB file could not be downloaded by people by entering a link in a web browser. Customers with only simple access control over their web sites; such as those customers with shared web servers; are able to place the MDB at any location. This location is generally in a different folder to the ASP pages for security reasons. The folder with the MDB file would need to be granted permissions. 2 DIP E 012

3 The permissions required include read and write and must be assigned to the "IIS Anonymous Guest Account" which is the account used for unauthenticated web traffic. Using Microsoft SQL Server Databases To use Professional Quest with Microsoft Sql Server it is generally recommended that a new Database is created specifically for all Quest Projects. Quest Projects will create all necessary tables. All that is required to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server is for a login account to be established which provides access to the newly established database and that this account has permissions to create and delete tables and to insert, update and select from the tables created. Professional Quest does not create nor use any stored procedures. Professional Quest takes a simple approach to the Microsoft SQL Server database and the only access we make with the Microsoft SQL Server is via standard SELECT, INSERT and UPDATE statements from the ASP pages. You can therefore create and use a login account that is provided with access just to the database to be used for Professional Quest. This account would then be used for all access to the Sql Server. This account does not have to be the DBO account. 3 DIP E 012

4 4 DIP E 012 When creating web surveys for the Professional Quest surveys that use Sql Server it is possible to choose a DSN (Data Source) or alternate connection parameters; such as a different login name and password to those used when creating the Project. This may be required depending on the configuration of the web server and SQL Server.

5 Survey Login Authentication Survey logins may be created in Professional Quest to provide non anonymous access to surveys. This is mandatory for all 360 degree feedback surveys. The naming convention and password convention used is totally user dependent. Some clients prefer to use login user names that reflect the staff members staff ID or similar information however the type and format of the login is up to your discretion and any type of username can be used. The level of password strength again is totally optional and dependent upon your situation. 5 DIP E 012