Project aims:

• To design and implement a web application in C# ASP.NET to gain experience in a wide variety of techniques.

• Techniques exposed to include:

  • MVC
  • XML & XML schema definition (XSD)
  • Design patterns:
    • Strategy
    • Command
    • Mediator
    • Factory Method
    • Inversion of Control
  • Javascript
  • JQuery
  • Ninject Dependency Injection

• In addition to basic C# techniques, the following techniques were employed:

  • Lambda expressions
  • Generic Collections
  • Reflection
  • LINQ

Project Platform:

• Programming language: C# ASP.NET 4.5
• IDE: Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web
• Project framework: Model-View-Controller version 4
• Deployment platform: Appharbor.com (URL: http://testfootystatv2.apphb.com)

Project description:

• Business Domain: Sports Statistice (Premier League Football)

• Input data: Detailed player and team statistics from the Premier League on a "game-by-game" basis.

• User interface:

  • Initial drill-down on season, team-name and player leading to one player selected.
  • A list of statistics presented for the player (e.g., goals and assists)
  • A "constraints" interface allowing the user to recalculate statistics based on constraining the data (specific Gameweeks, home/away).

Approach:

• In order to provide a significant programming challenge, I opted not to use a database, but rather have the input as a flat xml file, and reproduce much of the functionality of a database in c# code.

• Thus, the project approach "reinvents the wheel" and is not how one would do this in the real business world. But this is deliberate to provide a programming challenge.

• The core data-structure is a simple table (List<String[]>) which can be iterated over very quickly.

• The approach to processing the table is to gather together as many operations as possible (e.g., building an index, calculating a stat) and do them all together.

• The core MVC approach is adopted, separating the View, Controller, and Model. The majority of the framework developed is in the Model, which reproduces certain core functions of a database.

Class-by-Class description:

Description: Class defining the core data-structure

Responsibilities:

• Define the core data-structure (List<String[]>)
• Define the basic algorithm for iterating over the data-structure
• Contains meta-data about the core data-structure.

Description:

• Class defining the relationship between the SnapView and other Colleagues.
• Is the "Director" in the Mediator pattern.
• Other Colleagues are Filters, Constraints, Stat-calculators, Indexes which have complex relationships with the SnapView and each other.
• The SVD defines and maintains these relationships (for example, it decides which other colleagues should be included in an iteration over the SnapView)

Responsibilities:

• To define and maintain the logical relationships between Colleagues.

Description:

• Filters allow the SnapView to be iterated, and a portion to be discarded.
• Actions include Indexing, Constraint, Stat-calculation:
  • None of these alter the underlying SnapView so are treated separately to Filters.
  • Indexing: build an index of a column of the SnapView
  • Constraint: in the iteration over the SnapView, ignore rows which are outside the "constraint"
  • Stat-calculation: re-calculate various pre-determined statistics.
• The Filters and Actions provide the basic functionality to manipulate the core data-structure.

Description:

• CommandInvoker is the Invoker in the Command pattern. SnapViewDirector is the Reciever.
• CommandInvoker interacts with Commands, which are bundled together with other commands in CommandStrategies (macros).
• Because of the nature of the project, a "deferred execution" mechanism is built into this implementation of the Command Pattern:
  • The invidual Commands define actions to be performed on the SnapView, but do not execute them.
  • A series of Commands can then be bundled together and "executed" upon the SnapView together by the Command Invoker (using the SVD mediator/reciever).

Responsibilities:

• To provide a framework for defining complex operations to be performed on the SnapView (core data-structure)

• Implement the entire project using a database.

• Implement a persistible constraint/filter definition (user can save searches).

• Code a JSON flat-file input instead of XML

• Code exceptions where indicated by "exception" comments.