Designing online exam in ASP.NET

1. SYNOPSIS

The title of the project is”Online Examination”. This is an Online IQ Testing

website constructed using ASP.NET. The project is a free server. The goal of the project

is to make a person to evaluate his IQ skill by himself through internet. And there by the

user can increases his IQ ability. The person may be at any place and can access and

evaluate himself on his IQ and increases his general knowledge by browsing through

internet.

The project provides user an individual account. Whenever the user sign-in to

i-Skill and enters ‘New Test’ a set of twenty five objective type questions are displayed

to the user. The user has to select the answer by just clicking on it. And when he clicks on

End his answers are evaluated and the result is displayed to the user.

Signup is also given for new user and several navigation options are provided in

this project. The result of one user is hidden to the other users by providing a unique user

name on user choice and password to access his account. So the user can overcome up

with his shy and thus he can improve his knowledge.

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2. INTRODUCTION

ASP.NET is web service software, (i.e.) software used for website and web

application development. A Web service Software is as “a software system designed to

support interoperable Machine to Machine interaction over a network”. Web services are

frequently just Web APIs that can be accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and

executed on a remote system hosting the requested services.

The web service definition encompasses many different systems, but in common

usage the term refers to clients and servers that communicate using XML messages. In

such systems, there is often machine-readable description of the operations offered by the

service written in the Web Service written in the Web Services Description Language

(WSDL).

The web service is used in many development applications like communication

systems and xml database systems.

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3. SYSTEM DESIGN

3.1 Hardware Requirements

Processor : Intel Pentium4

Processor frequency : 1.8 GHz

Hard disk free space : 3 GB

Memory : 256 MB RAM

Monitor : 15” Standard Colour Monitor

Mouse : Windows Compatible Scrolling mouse

Keyboard : Windows Compatible 104 keys

3.2 Software Requirements

Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP SP2

Software Packages : .Net Framework 2.0

Front End : ASP .NET

Back End : Microsoft SQL Server 2000

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4. ABOUT THE SOFTWARE

4.1 ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a set of web application development technologies marketed by

Microsoft. Programmers can use it to build dynamic web sites, web applications and

XML web services. It is a part of Microsoft’s .NET platform and is the successor to

Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP) technology.

ASP.NET is built on the Common Language Runtime, meaning programmers can

write ASP.NET code using any Microsoft .NET language.

ASPX is a text file format used to create Webform pages; in programming jargon,

the ASPX file typically contains static HTML or XHTML markup, as well as markup

defining Web Controls and Web User Controls where the developer places all the

required static and dynamic content for the web page. Additionally, dynamic code which

runs on the server can be placed in a page within a block <% -- dynamic code -- %>

which is similar to the other web development technologies such as PHP, JSP, and ASP,

but this practice is generally discouraged except for Databinding.

The recommended method for dealing with dynamic program code is to use the

code-behind model, which places this code in a separate file or in a specially designated

script tag. Code-behind files are typically named something to the effect of

MyPage.aspx.cs or Mypage.aspx.vb based on the ASPX file name (this practice is

automatic in Microsoft Visual Studio and other IDEs). When using this style of

programming, the developer writes code to respond to different events, like the page

being loaded, or a control being clicked, rather than a procedural walk through the

document.

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ASP.NET supports a wide variety of files. The files associated with different

versions of ASP.NET are as follows.

asax - Global.asax, used for application-level and event handling.

ascx – Web User Controls: custom controls to be placed onto web pages.

ashx – custom HTTP handlers.

asmx – web service pages.

axd – When enabled in web.config requesting trace.axd outputs application-level

tracing.

browser– browser capabilities files stored in XML format; introduced in

version3.0. ASP.NET 2 includes many of these by default, to support common

web browsers. These specify which browsers have which capabilities, so that

ASP.NET 2 can automatically customize and optimize its output accordingly.

Special browser files are available for free download to handle, for instance, the

W3C validator, so that it properly shows standards-compliant pages as being

standards-compliant. Replaces the harder-to-use BrowserCaps section that was in

machine.config and could be overridden in web.config in ASP.NET 1.x.

Config – web.config is the only file in a specific Web application to use this

extension by default (machine.config similarly affects the entire Web Server and

all applications on it), however ASP.NET provides facilities to create and

consume other config files. These are stored in XML format, so as to allow

configuration changes to be made with simplicity.

cs – In asp.NET 2 any cs files placed inside the AppCode folder are dynamically

compiled and available to the whole application.

Master – Master Pages; introduced in version 2.0. Using this one can design a

consistent layout for the pages of his/her website. Once master page is defined

with how it looks and feel then all other page is applied with that layout.

Theme and skins – With the themes and skins one can easily manipulate the looks

of his/her website. The user needs to define the style at a specific location and this

style is applied globally to all the pages in that website.

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PERFORMANCE

ASP.NET aims for performance benefits over other script-based technologies

(including ASP Classic) by compiling the server-side code to one or a few DLL files on

the web server. This happens transparently in the background where the first time a page

is requested (i.e., the developer need not perform a separate compilation step for pages).

This provides the ease of development offered by scripting languages with the

performance benefits of a compiled binary.

The ASPX and other resource files are placed in a virtual host on an Internet

Information Services (or other compatible ASP.NET servers; see other implementations

below). The first time a client requests a page, the .NET framework parses and compiles

the files into a .NET assembly and sends the response; subsequent are served from the dll

files.

Developers can also choose to pre-compile their code before deployment,

eliminating the need for just-in-time compilation in a production environment.

ASP.NET compared to ASP Classic

ASP.NET attempts to simplify developers’ transition from windows application

development to web development by offering the ability to build pages composed of

controls similar to a Windows user interface. A web control, such as a button or a label,

functions in a very much the same way as its Windows counterpart: code can assign it

properties and respond to its events. Controls know how to render themselves: whereas

Windows controls draw themselves to the screen, web controls produce segments of

HTML and Javascript which form part of the resulting page sent to the end-user’s

browser.

ASP.NET encourages he programmer to develop applications using an event-

driven GUI paradigm (event-driven GUI model), rather than in conventional web-

scripting environments like ASP and PHP. The framework attempts to combine existing

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technologies such as Javascript with internal components like “ViewState” to bring

persistent (inter-request) state to the inherently stateless web environment.

Other differences compared to ASP classic are:

Compiled code means applications run faster with more design-time errors

trapped at the development stage.

Significantly improved run-time error handling making use of exception handling

using try-catch blocks.

Similar metaphors to Windows applications such as controls and events, Which

make development of rich user interfaces, previously only found on the desktop,

possible.

An extensive set of controls and class libraries allows the rapid building of

applications, plus user –defined controls allow commonly used templates, such as

menus. Layout of these controls on a page is easier because most of it can be done

visually in most editors.

ASP.NET leverages the multi-language capabilities of the .NET CLR, allowing

web pages to be coded in VB.NET, C#, J#, etc. .

Ability to cache the whole page or just parts of it to improve performance.

Ability to use the code-behind development model to separate business logic from

presentation.

If an ASP.NET application leaks memory, the ASP.NET runtime unloads the

AppDomain hosting the erring application and reloads the application in a new

AppDomain.

Session state in ASP.NET can be saved in a SQL Server database or in a separate

process running on the same machine as the web server or on a different machine.

That way session values are not lost when the web server is reset or ASP.NET

worker process is recycled.

Previous versions of ASP.NET (1.0 and 1.1) were criticized for their lack of

standards compliance. The generated HTML and Javascript sent to the client

browser would not always validate against W3C/ECMA standards. In addition,

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the framework’s browser detection feature sometimes incorrectly identified web

browsers other than Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer as “downlevel” and

returned HTML/Javascript to these clients that were crippled or broken. However,

in version 2.0, all controls generate valid HTML 4.0, XHTML 1.0 (the default) or

XHTML 1.1 output, depending on the site configuration. Detection of Standards-

compliant web browsers is more robust and support for cascading Style Sheets is

more extensive.

Criticisms of ASP.NET

ASP Classic and ASP.NET can be run side-by-side in the same web application.

This approach allows developers to migrate applications slowly instead of all at once. On

IIS 6.0 and lower, pages written using different versions of the ASP framework can’t

share Session State without the use of third-party libraries. This criticism does not apply

to ASP.NET and ASP applications running side by side on IIS 7, module may run in an

integrated pipeline that allows modules written in any language to be executed for any

request.

In some circumstances, unhandled exceptions can force the ASP.NET worker

processes to shut down. In this instance fresh worker process is loaded, the application is

loaded, the application is restarted and application and session state can be lost depending

on the configuration. Also, if the application relies on session state to store authentication

information and the application is configured to use in-process sessions, the user may be

logged out.

ASP.NET 2.0 produces markup that passes W3C validation, but it is debatable as

to whether this increases accessibility; one of the benefits of a semantic XHTML page +

CSS representation. Several controls, such as the login controls and the Wizard control,

use HTML tables for layout by default. However, some controls still rely on Javascript.

The CSS Control Adapters do help override output, even if it is to improve HTML, not

CSS.

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Development tools

Several available software packages exist for ASP.NET applications:

Microsoft Expression Web Designer part of the forthcoming Microsoft

Expression Studio application suite.

Visual Studio.Net or Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Web Developer 2005 Express

Edition.

ASP.NET Web Matrix (ASP.NET 1.x only, was free, now no longer supported:

replaced by the free Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition).

Macromedia Dream Weaver MX, Macromedia Dream Weaver MX 2004, or

Macromedia Dream Weaver 8.

Macromedia Home Site 5.5.

Microsoft Share Point Designer 12.

Any text Editor such as Notepad, Notepad ++, Ultra Edit, Text Pad and others.

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4.2 Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is a relational database system that is scaleable from

small departmental networks to enterprise-wide networks. SQL server maintains the core

database files for use by custom database applications using development languages, such

as Visual Basic, Visual C++, .NET applications or by desktop applications, such as

Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access.

SQL server’s core database server runs on a Windows-based server, which is

typically connected to multiple client systems via an Ethernet local area network (LAN).

The client systems are typically PCs running SQL Server client software. SQL Server

supports the following client systems:

Windows NT/2000

Windows 9x

Remote Access Server (RAS)

Windows for Workgroups

Macintosh

DOS

OS/2

UNIX/ Linux

Thus SQL Server 2000 can be used as a powerful backend for .NET applications

and that is the perfect reason for selecting SQL Server 2000 as the backend for this

project.

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SQL SERVER’s BASIC COMPONENTS

SQL Server has four basic server components. They are as follows

Open Data Services

MSSQL Server

SQL Server Agent

MSDTC

Open Data Services- component that provides an interface between the Server’s

Net-libraries and the SQL Server Engine (MSSQL Server).

MSSQL Server- This service manages all the files that comprise the SQL Server

database. It is also responsible for providing SQL statements and allocating system

resources.

SQL Server Agent- This service is responsible for scheduling SQL Server’s jobs

and alerts. In SQL Server terminology, a job is a predefined object consisting of one or

more steps, where each steps consists of a predefined data function like a Transact-SQL

statement or batch of statements, while an alert is an action taken in response to a specific

event. An alert can be set up to perform a variety of tasks, such as running jobs or

sending e-mail.

Microsoft Distributed Transaction Co-coordinator (MSDTC)- This is a transaction

manager responsible for coordinating database transactions across multiple servers.

MSDTC can be invoked either by the SQL Server database engine or directly from a

Client application.

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Benefits of SQL

SQL Server provides a wide range of benefits through SQL and some of the

benefits are listed below:

SQL provides statements that can be used to create base tables to hold your

application data.

SQL can also used to create views.

SQL provides statements to retrieve, insert, update and delete individual rows

within a table or a view.

SQL also lets us to manipulate sets of rows.

The ‘where’ clause can be included in insert, update, select, delete statements for

condition specifications which can be used to filter data.

Another significant capability that SQL offers is the capability to define very

complex views. Views don’t store data, but they provide an alternative way to

access data in more than one underlying base tables. Thus one can use views to

simplify data access and to limit the data that specific user access.

For Windows and web application, SQL provides important database capabilities

not available with conventional file systems and HLL file I/O operations. Because

SQL can also be used with many other relational databases, include Oracle and

IBM’s DB2 family.

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5. MODULE DESCRIPTION

This project “Online Examination” consist of four modules. The modules are as

follows:

Signin

Signup

Evaluation

Form load module

Signin

The signin module prompts the user to enter his user name and password, which

are already provided to him when e signup with the project for the first time. When he

clicks the Login button after entering the Username and Password, a new database

connection is made to the SQL Server database which refers the table that checks whether

the following username exist. If that username persist in table then it checks for password

field with that row. If the password matches with the password given in the table then it

allow user to login, else display Password mismatch error. If it doesn’t find the username

then it display user name doesn’t exist error.

This page allows the user to navigate to the Entry page when he clicked on the

Home button. The session is used to keep the user active till he logout of the project. The

VB script for the Signin module is as follows:

Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click

Label3.Text = ""

If ((TextBox1.Text = "") Or (TextBox2.Text = "")) Then

GoTo bb

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End If

Dim con As New SqlConnection("database=(local);initial

catalog=suresh;integrated security=true")

con.Open()

Dim cmd As New SqlCommand("select * from userlist", con)

Dim dr As SqlDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader()

While (dr.Read())

If (TextBox1.Text = dr.Item(0)) Then


Session("username") = TextBox1.Text

Response.Redirect("userscreen.aspx")

GoTo aa

Else

Label3.Text = "Incorrect Password"

End If

End If

End While

Label3.Text = "Incorrect user name"

bb:

Label3.Text = "Name/Password must not be empty"

aa:

End Sub

Signup

The Signup page is for the first time user of this project. It prompts them to enter

User name which must be unique, password, and Email id for the security purposes.

While the page gets loaded it displays the number of existing user on this web site. The

username, Password and gets stored in the database. The Signup module codes are as

follows:

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If ((TextBox1.Text = "") And (TextBox2.Text = "")) Then

Label4.Visible = True

GoTo end1

End If

Dim i As Integer

i = 0

Dim con As New SqlConnection("database=(local);initial

catalog=suresh;integrated security=true")

con.Open()

Dim cmd As New SqlCommand("select * from userlist", con)

Dim dr As SqlDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader()

Label6.Text = ""

While (dr.Read())


Label6.Text = "User name already Exist"

GoTo terminate

Else

i = i + 1

End If

End While

con.Close()

con.Open()

If (i <> 0) Then

Dim cmd1 As New SqlCommand("insert into userlist

(nam,pass,emailid,test,highmark,lowmark,averg) values('" & TextBox1.Text & "','" &

TextBox2.Text & "','" & TextBox4.Text & "','0','0','0','0')", con)

cmd1.ExecuteNonQuery()

End If

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TextBox1.Text = ""

TextBox4.Text = ""

Session("username") = TextBox1.Text

Response.Redirect("userscreen.aspx")

end1:

terminate:

End Sub

Evalution

This module is called on when the user clicks Next, Stop and End button in the

questionary page. Here a session called ‘mark’ is created and assigned as zero. This

provides the user to buttons two navigate, Next and Stop. Next is for advancing to the

next set of questions and Stop is for stop the test at the current point. Stop button leds the

user to the Result page, when it is clicked.

Both the above mentioned buttons namely, Next, Stop and End evaluates the

user’s answer to the raised questions and update the session mark when any one of them

is clicked. The session ‘mark’ last upto the end of the test. The code for evaluatio of the

questions are as follows:



Try

If (RadioButtonList1.SelectedItem.Text = HiddenField1.Value) Then

Session("mark") = Session("mark") + 1

Else

Session("mark") = Session("mark") - 1

End If



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Else


End If



Else


End If



Else


End If



Else


End If

Response.Redirect("Test3.aspx")

Catch

label1.text = "Please answer All Questions"

End Try

End Sub

Form Load

This Module retrives user records such as User’s average score, Max Score,

Minimum score and number of test attended by the user. This loads immediately when

the user had signed in. The above mentioned details are retrived from database using

“form-load” event. From here one can start a new test, get back to Home page and also

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Signout from the website. Thus the project is an dynamic one. The Code for Form load

module are as follows:

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Handles Me.Load

Label10.Text = Session("username")

Label2.Text = Session("mark")

End Sub

Protected Sub LinkButton1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As

System.EventArgs) Handles LinkButton1.Click

Response.Redirect("entry.aspx")

End Sub

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6. SAMPLE SCREEN

Entry page

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Signin

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Signup

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Test

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Result

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7. CONCLUSION

This Project,”Online Examination” is best and efficient method to develop the IQ

skill of any person who has clear idea of how to use this website. This can be suitable for

any person those who wants to involve in mind dazzling question game to improve

knowledge. In future, implementing more dynamical question format and interactive

manner of user and website administrator with user own question post to website can

extend this project.

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8. BIBILIOGRAPHY

1) Rudraksh Batra, Charul Shukla and Anil Kumar Barnwal, ASP.NET 2.0 BLACK

BOOK, Dream Tech Press, First edition.

2) Jeremy Shapiro, SQL SERVER 2000: THE COMPLETE REFERENCE, BPB

Publicaton, Second edition.

3) Marco Bellinaso, ASP.NET 2.0 WEBSITE PROGRAMMING: PROBLEM –

DESIGN – SOLUTION, Tata Mcgraw Hills, First edition.

WEBSITES:

www.sitepoint.com/article/asp-net-getting-started/

www.asp.net/LEARN/videos/

www.aspnet101.com

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Documents

Designing online exam in ASP.NET