A web application to help JMU IT student-assistants and computing specialists get/organize computer data.
By using AIDA64 Network Audit, we were able to inventory a wide range of computer data (hardware & software)
and dump it into one access database. The audit software abides to a specific database layout, as it drops the data into a table called item which contains
8 columns - IPage , IDevice , IGroup , IField , IValue , IIcon , IID , ReportID . This unconventional layout, initially, posed a considerable challenge
in our attempts at querying the correct information.
By running AIDA64 in a batch file distributed by group policy, we could easily update the database with computer information of all JMU computers connected to the network.
Since the audit software dumps the data into an access database, we used the JavaScript library - node-adodb - to query the access database using SQL syntax.
Pc-Track was the second table in our database which we populated with computer data that AIDA64 could not obtain, such as, computer location by department, room number, or building.
We obtain this data through using a form that lies within the web app. Overtime student-assistants can make their way through filling out the pc-track form for each JMU computer. Although this process is inconvenient, it is good that once we get the data, it stays in the database forever.
This JMU web app is hosted within the JMU CSM IIS server. This app is only designated to be used by JMU IT student-assistants and computing specialists, so it lies confortably within a firewall, so it can only be accessed by computers on the JMU network.
The UI is honestly pretty bland, but it gives a good layout of the features for obtaining computer information as well as accessing the Pc-Track form.
I made this web application as part of my completion as a JMU IT student assistant during the summer of 2021. I worked under Mr. Shiflet in the Biophys building for about 40 hours each week. Aside from making the web app, I learned about disc imaging, computer trouble-shooting techniques, and what it's like to maintain numerous computers within the university setting. Despite the many hours alone in the window-less server room, this experience has been majorly eye-opening, and I had some of the most fun in my life.