Developing Web-Enabled Decision Support Systems

1. Developing Web-Enabled Decision Support Systems Ravindra K. Ahuja Industrial & Systems Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville ahuja@ufl.edu 

2. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 2 JULY 9, 2004 Overview Introduction to Decision Support Systems Building a Web-Enabled Decision Support System Integrating DSS in Business Curriculum

3. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 3 JULY 9, 2004 Decision Support Systems (DSS) A decision support system is an information system that assists the user in decision-making.

4. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 4 JULY 9, 2004 Developing Interactive Systems Practical decision making requires developing man-machine interactive systems.

5. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 5 JULY 9, 2004 Importance of DSS Development Skills Help us package models and algorithms. Combine modeling with human experience Highly desirable for consulting jobs for students Useful for academics to get industry grants New consulting opportunities for faculty members

6. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 6 JULY 9, 2004 DSS Development Process Data Storage Mechanism MS Excel, Lotus 123 MS Access, Oracle, MS SQL Server, Dbase Data Manipulation Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Visual Basic .NET (VB .NET) Java, C/C++ Data Presentation VBA, VB .NET, MS Access, ASP .NET Java Applets

7. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 7 JULY 9, 2004 Two Common Ways to Develop DSS Spreadsheet-Based Decision Support Systems Spreadsheets Excel features VBA for Excel Web-Enabled Decision Support Systems Databases Microsoft Access VB .NET ASP .NET

8. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 8 JULY 9, 2004 Overview Introduction to Decision Support Systems Building a Web-Enabled DSS Integrating DSS in the Business Curriculum

9. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 9 JULY 9, 2004 Components of a Web-Enabled DSS Databases Database Management System (Access DBMS) Developing GUI Web-Enabling the Application

10. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 10 JULY 9, 2004 Data Modeling Systematically converts E-R Diagram into Relations

11. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 11 JULY 9, 2004 Access DBMS: Developing Environment

12. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 12 JULY 9, 2004 Tables and Relationships

13. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 13 JULY 9, 2004 Queries

14. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 14 JULY 9, 2004 Data Manipulation using SQL Structured Query Language (SQL) is the most powerful and commonly used query language.

15. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 15 JULY 9, 2004 Components of a Web-Enabled DSS Databases Database Management System (DBMS) Developing GUI (VB .NET) Web-Enabling the Application (ASP .NET)

16. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 16 JULY 9, 2004 What is .NET ? .NET is a set of Microsoft software technologies for connecting information, people, systems, and devices.

17. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 17 JULY 9, 2004 VB .NET Developing Environment Visual Studio .NET is the Interactive Development Environment (IDE) for .NET applications. Projectile Simple forms with basic Excel manipulation Birthday Simulation Simple simulation with statistical analysis The Simplex Method Advanced forms and navigation Portfolio Management and Optimization Using the Solver Queuing Simulation Animation and advanced analysis University Student Information System Dynamic queries and forms Projectile Simple forms with basic Excel manipulation Birthday Simulation Simple simulation with statistical analysis The Simplex Method Advanced forms and navigation Portfolio Management and Optimization Using the Solver Queuing Simulation Animation and advanced analysis University Student Information System Dynamic queries and forms

18. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 18 JULY 9, 2004 Exploring VS .NET IDE Features �

19. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 19 JULY 9, 2004 Design Window is the actual work place; displays form design and VB .NET code. (Double click anywhere on this form to open its code window.) Exploring VS .NET ID Features (Contd�)

20. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 20 JULY 9, 2004 Exploring VS .NET ID Features (Contd�) Properties Window sets properties for controls and in a way their appearance and behavior. (Set Name, Text, Font, Back Color properties on these controls.)

21. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 21 JULY 9, 2004 VB .NET Programming Language Like other programming languages VB .NET supports: Interaction with user (user input / output) Arithmetic, logical, and string operations Control structures Modules, Classes, Procedures, Methods Data structures like arrays

22. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 22 JULY 9, 2004 Programming�Interactive Process

23. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 23 JULY 9, 2004 Programming...Interactive Process (Contd) Programming is even more fun now. Get all the help online as you code.

24. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 24 JULY 9, 2004 ADO .NET: Database Connectivity ADO .NET structure makes is easy to: Connect to a database Run SQL queries against it Store and further process query results Add/Update/Delete records from database

25. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 25 JULY 9, 2004 ADO .NET: Database Connectivity (Contd..) Steps for querying a database and showing results on VB .NET form: Connect to a database (once for a project) Create a data adaptor with desired SQL statement Create a dataset to store query results Bind the control to the dataset Run the query by writing VB .NET code

26. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 26 JULY 9, 2004 Connection, Adaptor, and Dataset Server Explorer makes it easy to connect to a database. (Connect to the Portfolio database.)

27. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 27 JULY 9, 2004 Binding Controls to Dataset We then bind controls to datasets to show query results on forms using property window for a control. (Bind the dataset created to the list box on Portal form.)

28. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 28 JULY 9, 2004 Writing Code to Execute a Query? Next we run the query and display the data. It is done by writing 2 lines of VB .NET code. (Write this code for list box control on page load event.)

29. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 29 JULY 9, 2004 VB .NET Events and Data Retrieval Data retrieval (using adaptor and datasets) and VB .NET events can be combined together for interesting functionalities. (On selection of portfolio from list display its details in the data grid control.)

30. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 30 JULY 9, 2004 Steps: Create adaptors and datasets and bind them to respective controls. (Bind to list box and data grid.) Execute a parameter query for second control on some event of first control. (Here we execute parameter query for data grid on selection change event of list box.)

31. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 31 JULY 9, 2004 Data adaptor, dataset and their methods makes altering database very easy. (Add these one liners to OnClick event of respective buttons.) Add/Update/Delete Records from DB

32. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 32 JULY 9, 2004 Using VB .NET�s Advance Controls We can use advance controls like Check List Box, Trees controls for nice functionalities. (Use check list box to display list of stocks allowing multiple selections, then display data for all selected stocks in the data grid.)

33. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 33 JULY 9, 2004 Using VB .NET�s Advance Controls (Contd..) We can use advance controls line Date Time Picker for professional looks. (Use this control to allow user choose year for performance graph.)

34. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 34 JULY 9, 2004 VB .NET and OOPS VB .NET is a complete Object Oriented Programming Language (OOPL). VB .NET with its Class structure now supports all three basic OOP principles: Encapsulation Inheritance Polymorphism What it is good for? Data hiding and data encapsulation Code reusability Split the development task into independent modules

35. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 35 JULY 9, 2004 Other Supported Features Code Debugging: Towards perfection! (Press F5 and click for optimization, debugging window pops up, press F8 to step through.)

36. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 36 JULY 9, 2004 Plug-in Optimization/Simulation Packages Some of the available options are: Optimization code using VB .NET language. (Illustrated next.) Use VB .NET to connect to C/C++ code. (Using DLL files or through flat text files.) Use MS Excel functionalities. For example, we can use Excel Solver functionality to solve small to medium size optimization problems through VB .NET.

37. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 37 JULY 9, 2004 Portfolio Optimization Problem

38. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 38 JULY 9, 2004 Working with Crystal Reports Crystal reports are used to produce professional quality reports/graphs to summarize information. (Plot the pie chart for the output of the portfolio optimization result.)

39. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 39 JULY 9, 2004 Working with Crystal Reports (Contd..) Steps for displaying crystal report on VB .NET form: Have the data to plot in a dataset. (This might be from database or result of some operation like optimization.) Create the crystal report layout using �Report Expert Wizard� (Select type, fields, format etc. for graph.) Associate the crystal report and the dataset in VB .NET code. (This requires only 3 lines of code.)

40. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 40 JULY 9, 2004 Working with Crystal Reports (Contd..)

41. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 41 JULY 9, 2004 ASP .NET � Web Connectivity ASP .NET = Internet + HTML + VB .NET Knowledge of Web Terms and Internet Hypertext Manipulation Language (HTML) - for data presentation Visual Basic .NET (VB .NET) - code behind web pages, for data manipulation

42. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 42 JULY 9, 2004 How This Works?

43. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 43 JULY 9, 2004 Developing ASP .NET Application Developing ASP .NET Application is very similar to VB .NET Application development. (Make Portal form of VB .NET application web-enabled using ASP .NET.) We use Web Controls and HTML controls for Windows controls used in VB .NET application. VB .NET code with minor additions can be used as �code behind� for ASP .NET pages. HTML code is automatically generated by the Visual Studio .NET IDE.

44. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 44 JULY 9, 2004 Overview Introduction to Decision Support Systems Building a Web-Enabled DSS Integrating DSS in Business Curriculums

45. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 45 JULY 9, 2004 Teaching DSS Development Courses The University of Florida is currently offering two separate courses on DSS Development: Developing Spreadsheet-Based DSS Developing Web-Enabled DSS 3-credit courses Project-oriented courses

46. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 46 JULY 9, 2004 Course Delivery Hands-on course Students bring laptops Instructor uses LCD Projector After basic topics from PowerPoint presentations are taught, we do in-class assignments. Weekly homework assignments. Students do semester-long team projects in which they develop full DSS applications.

47. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 47 JULY 9, 2004 Outline of Web-Enabled DSS Course Part 1: (3 weeks) Database design principles Microsoft Access, Tables, Queries, SQL Part 2: (6 weeks) .Net Platform, VB .Net programming Language Windows forms and controls, Database connectivity Crystal reports Part 3: (3 weeks) HTML, ASP .Net, Database connectivity in Web forms Part 4: (2 weeks) Project work Developing and presenting DSS applications

48. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 48 JULY 9, 2004 Abhijit Pol Ravindra K. Ahuja Web-Enabled DSS Textbook

49. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 49 JULY 9, 2004 The Book Outline Part I: Principles of Database Design Part II: MS Access: A DBMS Part III: DB Programming using VB .NET Part IV: Web-Connectivity using ASP .NET Part V: Case Studies

50. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 50 JULY 9, 2004 Case Studies NASA�s Rocket Science University Student Information System TV Channel Project Airline Scheduling Portfolio Management Online Shopping

51. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 51 JULY 9, 2004 Additional Course Material PowerPoint Presentations Review Questions and Hands-On Exercises Solution Manual for Instructors Student Team Projects Web Resources

52. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 52 JULY 9, 2004 Another DSS Textbook Michelle M. Hanna Ravindra K. Ahuja Wayne L. Winston

53. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 53 JULY 9, 2004 DSS Development Workshop

54. INFORMS TEACHING MS WORKSHOP 2004 54 JULY 9, 2004 Additional Information Course material website: