The Trials of Multimedia Boy

Project Management Week 13

2006-05-25T14:46:00.000Z

Paperwork, It's never ending.

Somehow i've managed to get a fair bit of it done, screen dumps, algorithms and lists of variables with their respective functions detailed. I've been testing it as i go along, which led to a few areas which needed cleaned up.

I've made sure that the edit/delete user/vehicle sections check through database rows to make sure the input exists, as before i had left it alone - in order to quickly finish creating all the sections.

I also took time out to structure my PHP so that authorisation is required to view the content of the PHP page, using typical IF/ELSE statements.

I've got to knock together some extensive test data, i'll use a few volunteers and test logs for that. I've also got to go back and amend my storyboards and the navigation map, as i changed a great deal of my site after the planning stage.

I'm on track to finishing that work next week. I'll hand everything in on Wednesday, just before the turn of June - leaving me with a few weeks to work on some new projects.

Steven (lecturer) has found me some paying work with a fellow starting up his own business, he's meeting with him to discover what he's requiring. So in the next few weeks i'll be working for real money! Giving me much needed experience for my progression into full time employment.

Soon i'll be signing off, the blog will become a boneyard - but it's served it's purpose and allowed me to bounce my ideas back at myself without talking out loud to myself. If all goes well, the blog will resurface as an account of my day to day work in a web design firm.

Excellent!

Project Management Week 12 Part 2

2006-05-18T18:34:00.000Z

That's it, my website shall be touched no more. I've closed the work that i've been taking so much pleasure in, in order to begin the last of the documentation that is needed.

I'll update this as the documentation progresses, i'll need to use this entire diary as documentation also!

So nearly finished!

Project Management Week 12 Part 1

2006-05-15T16:58:00.000Z

Having some free time, i've essentially overhauled the look and feel of my website. Although most of this is within the login systems for both user and admin.

I've made all the pages .php rather than .htm - which will be handy for automated updates through the admin system. Part of which i have created at college, although i forgot to transfer it home. It concerns the news page, and allows it to be driven by content entered - through forms - into the database.

I have posted a few pictures to show you what i've done so far to the administration sections, as well as a few new additions - including the 10 latest vehicles added on the front page.

Back to college tomorrow, hopefully i'll add the last of the design then!

Project Management Week 11 Part 1

2006-05-08T17:52:00.000Z

Forever striving to out-do my work, i've went back to my coding and added some new bits and pieces to the search engine.

Users can now click on any one of the search results and theoretically purchase the vehicle, although there is no credit-card system in place. This added feature will allow for future expansion, as we are not required to code a secure shopping environment for the project.

Tomorrow the college week begins again, so i'll have much to ponder over - as well as alot of code to restructure. This week i'm tackling the format of the code, making sure the if/else statements are in place to create a secure atmosphere - free of error messages especially!

I also need to write useful comment lines to show what each section of code does in regards to the page.

I'll need to remember to show my site to Mike, to make sure that everything is valid enough for the project.

Project Management Week 10 Part 2

2006-05-04T14:42:00.000Z

Being keen on the methods of internet advertising, i have signed up to Adsense and Amazon Associates. So clicking those there links will help me out with college, doesn't that make you feel good?

Also, as part of the Amazon Associates program, if you click through and buy the "PHP & MYSQL" book advertised on this site - i'll make some pennies too!

I'd strongly recommend the book to both beginners and professionals, it comes with a CD filled with code and it is absolutely packed full of useful dynamic design tips.

Project Management Week 10

2006-05-04T08:23:00.000Z

With all the coding now in the past, i'm beginning to piece together all the things i will need to have for documentation. The course finishes in a little over 2 months, so i need to get started next week.

That's about it really, not much to report on - it's been an uneventful week thus far!

Project Management Week 9 part 2

2006-04-26T06:40:00.000Z

I found a rather useful website that i think i'll utilise today, in the hopes that i can create some nice CSS website designs. The website is called LayoutGala and it has 40 HTML/CSS page templates to edit and work with.

Needless to say, today will be spent creating some site templates in a bid to create a nice portfolio of design work!

My big MySQL tome arrived, moments after posting my last blog. It's a meaty piece of kit and i hope that it will be of use when i reach the milestone of full-time employement.

Yesterday i got side-tracked and created a Pixel-Ad site, although some problems with the script have hindered my process. Perhaps i'll solve it, either way it's not important.

Project Management Week 9 part 1

2006-04-25T09:06:00.000Z

Having finished the implementation and coding for my project, i've decided to take a step back and look into alternative methods of secure log-in. At present i have implemented a simple system without cookies or session variables.

It is Session Variables that i plan to experiment with now, writing cookies to the server and to the client machine whenever they log in or out.

It's not essential for the project but it would be useful to utilise in the future.

Hopefully i'll recieve a new book this week, i ordered a big MySQL tome. I want to learn more about the DB side of dynamic websites, perhaps i'll code a e-commerce site!

Project Management Week 8 part 3

2006-04-19T13:50:00.000Z

After several hours of staring at my code, re-ordering several of the events that would occur and eventually re-writing my code - only to scrap it all and return to my previous version.

Now i've figured out exactly what the problem was, it was one line of code and i can show you this line of code that i had ommited:

$Photo = $_FILES['Photo']['name'];

i had to remove information about the $Photo variable when utilising "$_POST" to retrieve it's value from the prior page.

Well thankfully, that's everything coded for my website and i can sleep in until i need to do all the documentation!

Project Management Week 8 part 2

2006-04-17T14:32:00.000Z

It just hit me, i've still got something rather significant to code. It's proving to be a pain so far, but i'm sure i'll get it with a little time and patience. It's an administration feature, pretty important if the user wants to see a picture of the latest added vehicles.

Yip, it's the upload form for new vehicle pictures.

So far i've got it uploading the image to the right folder, but it clashes and ---------- i just had an "astounding revelation", be back in a sec ---------

Nope, didn't work.

Looks like this is going to be one for the lecturer...

Project Management Week 8

2006-04-17T07:32:00.000Z

Having taken the weekend to reflect over various aspects of my project, i have come to discover that i have completed all required tasks. This has led me to add some enhancements and think about some more.

Although my log-in script doesn't utilise cookies and you can only stay logged in within the members section of the site, i'm thinking of expanding this and looking into the cookies side of things. While this is not required, i'm sure with a little script hunting - i'll find what i'm looking for.

The search page is coming along nicely, with a few more options being added to adhere to extra features that will gain me further marks. However simple, i have added a page that shows the last 10 vehicles added and i may incorporate more features like that into the search page.

As for the members section, i had planned to display a list of bookmarked vehicles - akin to E-Bay's "Watched Items" - but this would appear to be slightly difficult, so i may need to consult my lecturer tomorrow. Although no content for the members area was discussed, there was to be areas for future expansion.

Having had a detailed look through the specifications for this project, i can now say that every feature is present in X-celerate Scotland.

Next comes the documentation....

Project Management Week 7 part 4

2006-04-14T01:28:00.000Z

It's half 2 in the morning, i've finished the admin section - got so involved i didnt notice the time at all.

admin can now:

add a user
amend user
delete user

add car
amend car
delete car

wooooo!

*falls over into bed*

Project Management Week 7 part 3

2006-04-13T14:42:00.000Z

Once again, i've outdone myself. Having created a layout for the website, i decided it was time to piece everything together.

So now i have 70% of the site fully functional.

Users can sign up, Log-In, use the search feature (and admin can log-in too) all around my HCI, so theres no more random pages, they are all linked together and functional!

now i just need to allow the users to edit their info and delete their accounts, and allow the same for admin (but for any account they choose)

it's all coming together!

Project Management Week 7 part 2

2006-04-12T22:19:00.000Z

After a day of playing with CSS, i finally have a site layout i am pleased with. Enough so that i'll be sticking with this design for good!

Here it is, in all it's blue and scottish themed glory

Sure is easier to design a website when you give it a theme!

Project Management Week 7

2006-04-10T18:47:00.000Z

As of this minute, i have finished the barebones coding of my college project. Lets hear it for me.....!!

Having implemented 100% out of 110% of the features required for an A+ (there is an additional 10% for extra features which i am working on), all i need to do now is get designing a nice interface (and write the documentation).

As i thought, coming back from Florida with a clear mind was all i needed to solve the final pieces of the MySQL puzzle. Each user has their own page after login, which allows them to edit personal information (i'm also planning to store chosen bookmarked vehicles). Admin have their own section for deleting unruly users and general site maintainence.

The car search facility allows the maximum number of search criteria, although none are required (so the public can browse through all new/used cars).

The login page checks for duplicate usernames, prompts for valid entries in each field and processes the information securely to the database.

I've written a css template for a dummy version of the website, so in coming days i'll work on that - hoping to have a fully functional website before the easter break is over. Leaving the remaining month and a half to write up my project, no more rushing like last year!

Project Reflection

2006-04-07T12:25:00.000Z

That's me home from Florida now and although i'm still utterly exhausted, i'm ready to get back on track with my project management. Starting on Monday, i'll be looking over all the documentation i need to produce for the project, taking another look at the password protection issues and attempting to create a secure environment for members.

Hopefully it shouldn't take too long to implement, as i plan to have the meat of this website completed before i return to college in the middle of the month.

Project Haitus

2006-03-15T14:42:00.000Z

Well tomorrow i fly out for Manchester and Florida on the friday, so this will be my last post for a few weeks or so. I've dealt with the planning documentation and began to map out what else needs to be done. Hopefully i'll begin it during the easter break, with the website almost finished by the time i return to college.

I have to create a section for site admin to add a car to the database, so i need to post all the information through text fields/drop down menus and add a picture - so i need to think about coding an upload section.

Thats a good deal to ponder over for now, I'll be back (hopefully not too) soon.

Project Management Week 6 (Part 2)

2006-03-13T16:18:00.000Z

Astounding revelations!

I've just finished coding a grand portion of the project, it's quite epic now. As far as i'm aware we have to do the following:

Code a car search engine
Code a registration section
Code an admin section where staff can amend member info
Code password protection for users and staff

Well if thats the case, i've only got to code the password protection now and combine all the pages into a nice presentable website that will dazzle the rest of the class =)

Here is the great script i wrote which helped me along the way:

Check username against those in database to stop duplicates:

$query1 = "SELECT * FROM tblmembers WHERE
username='$username'"; $query1_results = mysql_query($query1) or
die("Query Failed"); if (mysql_num_rows($query1_results) > 0)
{ echo "This Username already
exists."; echo "Please Go Back and enter another
Username"; }

It is of course coupled with an else statement at the end, to process the information and write it to the database if the username is unique.

Project Management Week 6

2006-03-12T20:09:00.000Z

I've been working ahead of myself so i don't fall behind over the next two weeks. I'll be away to Florida so i've started to piece together a nice CSS based web front end for the site. I've still got to create a decent logo and pick a colour scheme though.

I've been looking at websites for idea's to fix the mysql duplicate user issue, it would appear i've found something that should work with a little tweaking.

and i've done it, rock and roll chaps!

now to auction it off to my classmates...

Project Management Week 5

2006-03-09T09:45:00.000Z

Apart from a few delays due to family problems, theres been alot of progress this week. The search feature is finished, i spent some time trying to create a sorting script for the results but i've put this aside for now. I spent a few hours writing the register section of the website, now any user can enter their details and become part of the database.

However, i have yet to apply form validation so anyone could spam it with no fields filled in. Also, if two users pick the same username, the second is not added to the database - i just need to write a conditional loop that will pick up on this duplication and alert the user to re-enter a unique username.

Soon it'll be complete!

Project Management - Week 4 (Part 2)

2006-03-02T13:56:00.000Z

After i made yesterday's post i continued to work on the search engine feature of the website. I decided to go back to the drop down menu idea for the price and now i have it all operational. Rather than using two text boxes, two drop down menu's seems to be much better.

It means, the user has to state a value in each field - i have set it to £1000(min) - £15000(max) by default. This means that there is no issue with null values being passed and causing error messages. Also, if the user places a lower value in maximum than they have in minimum, it doesn't give errors - it displays no results, which is pleasing.

Happy with my progress, i proceeded to add the other options to the search form. I had "make", "model", "colour" and "price" - now i have also included; "engine size", "branch", "type" and for extra marks a "fitted extra's" menu.

I'm now contemplating my second extra feature to secure the rest of the extra marks. I can sort my results in multiples of a given number, give the option to rearrange results by one of the fields - by default it does this with "make".

Next i need to write a registration script, it shouldn't be too difficult as i have some drafts of previous scripts which can be modified. Once i have the script writing user details to the database, i'll create a log-in script which takes the username and password stored from registration and allows the user to access a secure area.

It's coming along nicely, once i have all the components created i'll integrate them into a nice looking website!

Project Management - Week 4

2006-03-01T09:39:00.000Z

It's the first official day of spring and it's absolutely freezing outside, so i wandered round Asda before catching my bus from the town to college. I waited for around half an hour, to be told the entire computing department have a meeting to discuss their future. So i'm stuck in the library for a few hours, without the appropriate software to continue my coding.

It's a setback to say the least, i don't quite know what to do this morning that'll be productive. So i'm updating my Project Management diary.

This past week i've been coding more of the search engine, i created new fields for "Engine Size", radio buttons for selecting "New" or "Used" and i'm still currently trying to work out how to pass a null value in the price fields as a "no preference" option which disregards price completely.

It works with the "Make", "Model" and "Colour" options, so it could possibly be a query related issue.

So in anticipation of this, i have opened notepad (in this computing software free zone) and altered the query so it is more like those for the above options. Hopefully i'll crack this one!

Project Management - Week 3

2006-02-21T15:21:00.000Z

It's been a busy few days, i completely recoded the search feature and now it contains two fields for entering a minimum and maximum value. It displays within the two values, now i just need to enter some code to allow a null value to be passed without errors.

Not only that, but i must write some validation script for each box in the form (especially the prices). I plan to begin the javascript for this throughout the week, so hopefully i'll have it functional next week or so.

Project Management - Week 2

2006-02-14T18:10:00.000Z

A week has passed and work on the project is well underway. I have begun the initial documentation and started some basic coding. I have decided to tackle the search feature first, opting for a drop down menu to select price ranges.

So far i have the "Model" , "Make" and "Colour" fields operational and connecting to the database. The prices are trickier - i'm not sure how to reference the id's of each drop down menu and pass them to the php page which will query the database accordingly.

I'll get there though...

Project Management - Week 1

2006-02-07T15:13:00.000Z

Today we were given our project specification at college. We have been asked to develop an interactive website, making use of dynamic languages like PHP and software like MySQL database.

The website is for a car dealership, we have been told that it must allow a database search on car types and their details. It must allow user registration and administration features for car information and member information.

Looks like this could be a tricky one!