IT APPLICATIONS

: IT Applications The modern e-technology changed our lives and facilitated to all the area of applications like Banking, Education, Entertainment and Government etc. Now days, Information & Communication Technology (ICT) enabled services are essential requirement of every walk of life. Some application area of modern IT practices are described belowE-GOVERNANCE: E-Governance refers to the application of e-Technologies in governance to provide effective, efficient, faster and transparent services to citizens. Example of such applications are Birth/Death Registration, issuing Passport, making of Voter ID Card, Filing Income Tax returns, Railway Enquiry & Ticket booking, On-line delivery of Land records etc Objective of E-Governance Applications  To provide information and knowledge about political system and services to the citizens.  To fulfill the requirement of citizens by providing services at minimal cost and at doorsteps.  To facilitate faster, transparent, accountable, efficient and reliable system for various administrative and social activities of the Government Social impacts of E-Governance:  Improvedtheefficiencyofadministrationandservicedelivery  Reducedwaitingtime  ReducedCost  Increasedpublicparticipation  Increasedtransparency Limitations of e-Governance:  People in rural and remote area could not get benefit from these E-Governance projects due to poor ICT infrastructure and lack of Awareness.  Unavailability of computers, Internet and lack of knowledge of computer operation has also prevented people to get benefit from E-Governance Applications.  Not all the services can be computerized and offered by the E-Governance Some E-Governance websites are: NameofWebsite Purpose www.incometaxindia.gov.in It Provides all the services of Income Tax department www.indiancourts.nic.in It provides information related to Supreme Court and High Courts of India. www.rti.gov.in Right to information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information www.india.gov.in This portal givesthe information about Government of India and allows the users to apply online for various Government services. www.drdo.nic.in Defense Research and Development organization. E-Commerce: E-Commerce or E-Business refers to any form of business or trade that uses e-Technologies to facilitate the selling or buying of products and services, transactions of money and goods etc. Social impacts of E- Commerce:  Reductions in transactions and production costs.  Increase in the internet users.  Improved customer service (24x7 services).  Increased productivity/efficiency.  Access to international (Global) markets. :: 91 :: Limitations of e-Commerce:  Lack of knowledge and poor Telecommunication Infrastructure and unavailability of Internet connectivity in Rural areas are major issues for limited use of e-Business.  People are still unaware about legal remedies. There are high chances for fraud, theft of private information due to lack of effective legal framework. Some E-Business websites are: NameofWebsite Purpose www.irctc.co.in It provides online railway ticket reservation in India. www.ebay.in On line shopping mall providing sales and online auctions. www.amazon.com On line store for Books, CD’s, DVD’s, MP3’setc. www.yatra.com Online flight ticket booking service. E-LEARNING: E-Learning describe as a means of teaching and learning through e-technology like Internet and Multimedia enriched contents on CDROM or DVD. Social impacts of E- Learning:  Cost effective, Interactive and Multimedia enriched Material for effective and long-lasting learning.  No physical Interaction among Teacher and Learner is required i.e. most suited for working people.  Easily available and facilitates Any-time and Any-Where Learning. Limitations of e-Learning:  High dropout rate due to lack of interaction among Trainer and Trainee.  Sometimes less effective due to inappropriate learning contents.  It requires prior knowledge of Computer and other Technologies. Some E-learning websites are: NameofWebsite Purpose www.moodle.org It is Open source Course Management System(CMS) www.w3schools.com Online web tutorial. www.exelearning.org Open source application useful in publishing of web content. www.ncert.nic.in Interactive module for students to learn various topics. Development of IT Applications. The development of an IT application involves various activities. The following steps may be followed while development of IT Applications.  Study of Problem:The problem should be studied in terms of its best technical and economical feasible solution before development.  Design of Back-end:Decision to be made regarding database tables and their structure (data type and size etc.) to meet the requirement.  Design of Front-end:Decision to be made regarding Input to be taken from the user through Forms containing various controls like TextBox, RadioButtons etc. as per requirement and ease of use.  Establishment of Connection: Connection between front-end and Back-end is established.  Testing and Implementation:Finally, testing of Front-end and Back-end and their connectivity with sample data is carried out and Application is implemented, if testing is successful. Design of front-End:  The front-end is a face of any application which collects input or responses from the user and provides information to users using various Graphical components like Window, Text Boxes and Buttons etc.  Goodness of Front-end depends on its design, placement and appearance of contents, and connectivity to Back-end. :: 92 ::  Desirable Properties of a Good Front-End:  Consistency and Standard :Front-End should be consistent in look and operation. It should follow a standard design and convention for Window (frame), Menus, Dialog Boxes and Labels etc.  User Familiar and Good looking Design:Front-end should be user-familiar and always keeps user informed about what is going on. It should contain relevant information in visible font, size and color etc.  Error Prevention and Recovery:Front-end should be to identify and prevent data-entry errors and supports recovery in case of failure.  Flexibility and efficiency of use: Front-end should facilitate to Expert users as well as New users and supports customization as per user need.  Help Support and Documentation : A good front-end provide Help documentation for its operation and explains itself.  Commonly Used GUI Controls: The following controls or Window Gadget (Widget) are commonly used during design of front-end.  Frame : Used as a Basic Window or form.  Label: Allows Non-editable text or icon to displayed.  TextField: Allows user to input single-line editable text.  PasswordField: It is used to get some secret/encrypted text.  Button: An action is generated when pushed.  TextArea: Allows user to input multi-line editable text.  CheckBox: Allow user to select multiple choices.  RadioButton: They are option button which can be turned on or off. These are suitable for single selection.  List: Gives a list of items or choices from which user can select one or more items.  ComboBox: gives dropdown list of items or new item cab be added. It is combination of List and TextBox.  Guidelines regarding Selection and use of GUI Controls:  Make sure that the user provides appropriate information with minimum efforts. Maximize use of radio button, checkbox, combo box, and list.  Radio Button should be used wherever one of the option out of limited number of known set of options are required to be taken from the user. For example, for accepting gender (Male or Female), marital status (Single or Married), for accepting membership type (Monthly, Annual or Lifetime) etc.  Checkbox should be used wherever multiple options are required to be selected from a limited number of known set of options. For example, for accepting multiple hobbies (Swimming, Singing, Dancing, Debating), for accepting food order in a restaurant (Pizza, Burger, Channa Kulcha, Pao Bhaji, Chowmein) etc.  Combo box should be used wherever only one of the options from a large number of known set of options is required to be taken from the user. For example, selecting state, selecting marital status, selecting schools and selecting city etc.  List should be used wherever multiple options are required to be selected from a large number of known set of options. For example, selecting multiple food items from a menu containing five or more number of items.  Text Area should be used for multi-line text entries like Comment and hobbies etc. whereas Text Fields are suitable for single text.  Button should be placed at proper place with proper label. Button should be used for performing some action only.  Items which are used for similar purpose or objective should be visibly grouped used panels. :: 93 :: Design of Back-End:  Any IT Application usually stores a lot of data in the form of Database also called Back-end, that responds to the request of the front-end or user.  A database can be defined as a collection of interrelated data stored together to serve the applications. Basically it works as a computer based record keeping system.  A Database is managed by Database Management System (DBMS) which is responsible to maintain the database and facilitate users to insert, modify, delete and search (query) information stored in the database in the form of records.  A database may contain several tables to store records and avoids data redundancy.  A table may hold some constraints to ensure validity of data and Keys like Primary key and Foreign Keys etc.  Each table should contain proper names columns, data types and suitable size, so that data can be properly stored in the table. Relation between front-End and Back-end: