Gannt chart updated

This is the last part of our software design which describes how we do the maintenance work to ensure our social network can run in long term purpose.

Software Maintenance

The maintenance step keeps our software up to date with environment changes or user requirement. During the earlier phase, we’ve make sure we do everything in a systematic way so that the maintenance work can run smoothly. We keep records of changes made throughout the process so that every member of our group can keep track of what have been done by each other. By doing this, we can prevent the difficulties to trace the process through which software is created.

Besides, we have added comment in the codes so that every member can understand the code better, and every time when some new code has added, we make sure we make comment on it and state down who have made the changes so that there will be no confusion when different codes are combined together.

Structured Maintenance

We have design codes to be changed easily. To do this, we’ve separated codes with different functionalities into different parts, and record down their functions so that they will be easier when we need to refer to specific function. When changes need to made on that specific part, it can then be easily edited by evaluating of design documentation, modify it, review and at last recode it. This will minimize the length of code to change during maintenance and reduce effort needed and some more increase the overall quality of our software.

Above is our structured maintenance request flow chart. By proper records and documentation of codes, we can do the maintenance part efficiently.

Maintenance Activities

Corrective maintenance

This part includes diagnosis and correction of errors. When there’s error found during the testing phase or error report from user, we will analyze the error and make specific changes on it to make sure the social network runs better.

Adaptive Maintenance

This part includes modification to properly interface with changing environments. When we found that there’s some display problem of our social network software when running under different browser, we tried to find out the problem and then modify the codes so that it will display correctly even though different web browser is used.

Perfective Maintenance

This part includes implementing of new system requirements after system is successful. Since our social network software is still new, we did not any new system requirements, but the structure of codes we writes is in a way such that implementing of new function is easy to be done. This ensures the usability of codes for longer period.

Relation of Pages

The website that we build has a main page. It is the page that appears first when users click the website’s link. The main page is also known as the home page. At this page, users will be able to see the name of the website, main sections of the website and the ‘Members Area’. The name of the site, ‘WOOF’, is located at the top of the page, the main sections are right below the page title and the ‘Members Area’ is placed on the right side of the page.

The ‘Members Area’ is where users can register or sign in. This section also contains recent activities on photos, blog entries and forum posts by users. Non-members can only view all the main sections and subsections. After logging in, the ‘Members Area’ displays the available actions that can be done.

The main sections of the website are ‘News’, ‘Members’, ‘Forums’, ‘Photo Gallery’ and ‘About Us’. The content of each section can be viewed by users regardless of whether or not he or she has registered as a member. However, each main section has its own settings of who can post blog entries and who can post topics in forum. Each main section has one or more subsections.

One of the important main sections is ‘About Us’ because here is where people will find out what the website is about and the history behind the creation of the website.

By clicking ‘News’, a user will be taken to a page containing updates or development of the website will appear. Under this section, there is a search field where users can search for desired entries. Users also have a choice to view the news in full mode or summary mode. The entries can only be posted and edited by administrators. Normal members and non-members can only view the entries.

Next main section is ‘Members’, where it contains all the related information of the users on the website. Registered members will be able to view all members and its particulars, search members, add other members, send invitation to non-members, view members’ profile, friends & photos. They can also choose the desired sortation of members and the type of view; grid or list. The available sortation types that can be chosen by the users are by display name, last login, creation date, member permissions or random. Member permissions is the flexibility of actions that are available to users. When a member’s profile is clicked, users will be taken to a subsubsection which is the member’s profile. At this page, the member’s particulars are displayed. Users can view friends, leave comments and view photos of the member. Besides all these, users can also send private messages and add or remove as a friend. All of the mentioned functions are not available to non-members. Viewing is the only available action to non-registered members.

The ‘Forum’ subsection is made available to users to enable them to discuss various topics that may be related or not related to the website. For example, new users can use this function as a platform to introduce themselves and also to talk about their lecturers. Members can add new discussions & topic and reply to them but cannot edit entries. Posts can be searched at the search bar. Users can see the number of views and replies of a post.

‘Photo Gallery’ is the most important main section as that is the main focus of the website. Similar to the earlier categories, members can search, add and comment on photos. Users are given the option to change the arrangement of photos by most commented or recently added. Categories can only be edited by the administrator. When an album is clicked, users will be taken to a page where all the photos are viewed as thumbnails. Here, users have the option to view as slideshow or enlarge a photo by clicking on it. Users will see the enlarged photo with the comment box below the picture. The photo can be shared through various platforms such as social websites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc), blogs (e.g. Blogger), e-mails (e.g. Gmail) and others.

Based on the use case diagram and the website created, it can be concluded that non-members have very limited actions where they can only view the main sections and/ or sign up. As for registered members, they can do a lot more compared to non-members where they are allowed add photos, friends, topics, etc. Members can also edit or delete any post that has been uploaded. However, they are not allowed to edit entries, categories and membership. The most important action that distinguishes administrators from the others is the fact they have the power to manage function settings and availability of the website. In a nutshell, the administrator is capable of doing everything that the users (members and non-members) can do.

woof photo gallery

woof index page

WOOF SOCIAL NETWORK PROPOSAL UPDATED

INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

We live in a world where as a result of a number of commitments and constant changes in contact details including address, email and phone number, regular interaction with others is limited. This leads to a number of other issues, namely:

·         Limited time to exchange ideas with others.

·         Limited time to meet with likeminded people.

·         Little or no room or time to reconnect with old friends.

·         Slow trend progression

More issues come up when we deal with smaller groups of people. Our focus now is on the FACULTY OF ENGINEERING in MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY. In this community, a group of people with entirely different backgrounds and cultures come together to pursue their dreams of becoming engineers. Due to the vast differences in the background and lack of common ground, interaction between students is limited and as a result there is a lot of unfulfilled potential.

HOW WE PLAN TO SOLVE THIS

According to Nikolaj Jan Piskorski, an associate professor at Harvard business school, “Online social networks are most useful when they address real failures in the operation of offline networks.”  . With our social network we plan to use humor which is good common ground for most people and one of the best icebreakers to help foster better relationships amongst the students in the faculty. Common interests is another uniting factor we plan to explore with our network. Standing by this, we plan to build a social networking system as a platform where people can :

·         Share funny  or interesting pictures of events in school

·         Share funny or  interesting videos of events in school

·         Chat with other users of the network

·         Meet new people

·         Share ideas with like minded people

OUR COURSE OF ACTION

We have been given 13 weeks to complete this project. The first 3 weeks will be used for planning and design, development along with planning and design diagrams will be implemented in the next 7 weeks. We then plan to go on with testing for the next week. After testing, a report will be compiled and a presentation given in week 13. Our blog,http://creatingwoof.blogspot.com/  will be uploaded with details of our progress and extra information and diagrams for the duration of this project

EVALUATION

Our endeavors will be judged a success if we:

·         Complete within the given time constraints (12 weeks)

·         Get users comfortable enough to upload pictures, start interactions with others and join groups.