NAPIER UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF COMPUTING UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT REVIEW REPORT. Dissertation title : Template-based, Dynamic WWW integration

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1 NAPIER UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF COMPUTING UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT REVIEW REPORT 1. Student details Name: FAUQ Thomas Matriculation no: Programme: BEng Multimedia Systems 4 Preferred e -mail address: thomasfauq@hotmail.com Dissertation title : Template-based, Dynamic WWW integration Date: Wednesday 20 February 2002, 10am 2. Project details Title: Template-based, Dynamic WWW integration Scope and aims of the study (Max. 150 words) The aim of the project is to create a web-based interface allowing people to create their own web site quickly and without any knowledge in web development. Compared to actual expensive software packages, it will allow users to create simple web sites for free and without installing any software, a system of user recognition allowing registered users to do their project in several times, and in different places. The project involves two kinds of research: one lined up on the information needed before implementing the website and the second one underline an analysis of techniques to be used. It will involve research into different methods of creating reusable media components, such as images, clip arts, Macromedia Flash components and so on. Peaces of codes will also be reused in the implementation of the user s final product, such as PHP, MySQL or JavaScript. Research is also involved into methods of creating interactive and friendly environment for the user, using both server-side scripting language and databases systems. It also investigates web-design package and languages comparison and study.

2 3. Progress to date (Max. 5 sides of A4) a) Research undertaken Creating web pages dynamically using templates is not new and a lot of software packages providing that kind of services already exist. In our case, the website is meant to deliver the same kind of service but online, and still on another level of complexity, intending to help people who are really far for the use of software packages. So, before everything, I needed to structure my work and know exactly, thanks to a project plan (see 6.Gantt Chart) when and in how much time I will perform the different parts of entire project management. Of course, right away, I needed to do some research on the real purpose of the project, and how I will conduct it inward. Then, as part of my research, I found in a book called Multimedia-Based Instructional Design [2000 Lee] a very interesting way of structuring my project: Picture on page 3 of Multimedia-Based Instructional Design [2000 Lee] Actually, what we are interested in just now are the grey boxes, which symbolise how the analysis phase can be broken in two phases: Needs assessment and Front-end analysis that I ll explain more in detail later on. I found it a very good way of structuring my work, during the analysis phase and even after for the other parts of the project, symbolised by the other categories on the scheme above (Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation). But here we are particularly focused on the research undertaken. 1. Needs Assessment Needs assessment is a systematic way of exploring and establishing the type of solution needed [2000 Lee]. Therefore it is the analysis of the future project by studying what functions and services it must provide and in which way they must be provided. The project places itself between web development packages (software) and online lucrative web-creation sites. In all case, these services are often reserved to firms or people used to computing facilities and programming. So I needed to have better knowledge in terms of requirements, target audience, and also of what kind of services were already available on the market place.

3 1.1 Identification of requirements Identify the requirements of a project, especially a web-based project, is absolutely necessary to make a good start. Literature and publications were really useful for that purpose because it s now a habit to warn readers about most common mistakes in our ideas about conception and design. There are a lot of literature out there about how to identify standard web site requirements and I found Secrets of Successful Web Sites [1997 Siegel] and Creating Killer Web Sites [1997 Siegel2] more than useful to do so. Case studies and examples help to understand how the project must be conducted to be close to the user needs and wishes. These books contain also a big bunch of web design advices in which we are not really interested in this part, but as scattered as the information can be, it s almost very interesting and useful and let for example bear in mind that we must conceive web site by design and not by technological ability [1997 Siegel2] and also let s foresee how usual issue can be overcame. In another hand, it s quite important that the research and the future design stays usercentred and easy to use, as defined by HCI (Human Computer Interaction) researches. Previous HCI courses helped me as well in the understanding of how design and the web site must be to fit with users needs. On this field, I found in User-Centered Web Development [2000 Lazar], some really interesting information about the process of designing user-centered resources and defining the exact mission of a web site. But in this case, it s totally based on the user and his feedback, and I couldn t use this technique exactly in the same way. But at least it gave me some ideas to retain. 1.2 Target audience Actually, by providing a way to create websites online, the project will probably attract people who are mainly adults for several reasons. The book Ratings Analysis: The Theory and Practice of Audience Research [2000 Webster] is the one on which I based my potential audience study. First of all, an internet connexion is needed and moreover, the user must point on the website by himself, which means, one way or another, that people using the dynamic web page creation service have decided to and so want to master a need. You won t find this kind of attempt with a child or a too young person. In the same time, someone really too far from the computer use and then furthermore from the internet use won t even think of this kind of service. From the other point of view, a person really used to web development tools or authoring and web packages will find the service probably not versatile enough. That doesn t mean that it won t be used by this category of person because it will provide them a quick way of creating a website for free, which is always good to take. But let s be realistic, most of them won t use the service and it s totally fair. Then, the category of people still potentially interested by the service will be those who don t use the full potential of internet yet because of many possible reasons. In the same time, they are probably people that would like to have a web site but don t have the skills to create one quickly. Here easywebcreation will enter the game and play its role of free service helping people to create simple websites as easily as possible, and with no particular skills needed. Including the most potential and even the other possible users of the website, we can conclude that the category of people who will potentially use the site can be aged from 15 to 65, male or female and simply familiar with internet navigation and its most common vocabulary. It s a large range of people, and then, even against strong competitors, there is a real potential of getting users on the website

4 1.3 Similar existing packages survey A study of other packages and equivalent existing services was very important in terms of finding how to offer betters services and to know how to differentiate those on the site form existing ones. The competitor s product can be of 3 kinds:?? Web page authoring tools?? Open Source reusable components?? Web based services (similar to easywebcreation) Web Page authoring tools This category contains probably the tools that are the most famous around. From beginners to expert, a question about a web creation tool will probably lead to one of the famous web page authoring tools, the most know being Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe Golive. They are also know as visual editors and are very famous especially because they are very powerful. These are professional tools, especially those from Macromedia and Adobe, and purpose a lot of functionalities. Of course, it comes with a great price, totally justified, but probably not affordable by most of us if we just need to create a simple web site. There is an advantage for the Microsoft product which is provided with Microsoft Office and then will be available for a lot more people. But anyway, as referred in the BusinessWeek online [2002 BWO], In addition to the cost in dollars, you can expect to spend some time learning to use the program effectively. Here are stated two major issues with this kind of software in the point of view of a single user of computers: They are expensive (e.g. Dreamweaver 4 standard package cost approximately 200) and user need a minimum experience and learning to get used with the software. Of course it leaves a lot of users resigning to create their web page Open Source reusable components (Advanced content management systems) Another way of creating a web site is what is known as open-source reusable components. It s especially used in the Linux community as open-source is often (if not always) associated with Linux. This kind of systems, the most famous being PHP-Nuke ( are much more complicated to implement and require some basic skills in web programming. However, they are often bundle in a way that you can, with minimum skills, create a web site in a very short period of time (what they call a powerful assembly of tools to maintain an active and 100% interactive web site using databases ), with server-side scripting capabilities and dynamic content. Here we can see that it doesn t exactly correspond to our target users as this kind of service is more adapted to people how knows a minimum about web programming and file configuration Web based services They are services really similar to the project involved here. There are not really numerous and those who purpose great functionalities as easywebcreation will are nearly

5 often costly. For instance, provides great services and web templates form $197 (~ 138) to $397 (~ 277). This is probably affordable by firms but probably not as well by most of single customers. Another one, claims 5.50 per month for its service. Of course some of them are free, but they are very rare and even when they seem great, they provide really a minimalist service, as does. And there are a lot of other sites like that, but nearly all of them seems to have missed the point, probably because of a bad project management or because it s hard to maintain a free service. That s how Easywebcreation take an enormous advantage, by trying to provide a similar light version of the services provided by payable websites and by trying to aim the services on features that have not yet been developed. 2. Front-end design Web design is an exciting and noble undertaking, but one that is fraught with pitfalls. So it s very important to study the several techniques and tools available before beginning any kind of implementation. Within the multitude of standard web-design authoring tools and programming language, I defined, after lots of researches and comparisons, the most fitted to the project, and then I investigated design techniques trying not to fall in the snare of implementing the project without thinking. 2.1 Investigation on web-design packages and languages Deciding to implement a dynamic web service, aimed to be quite complicated, induce to be very well aware of the technologies available and their characteristics. Then, before beginning any kind of practical design, I had to compare and study the different technologies offered to me to achieve my work. It was quite obvious that I would use server-side scripting language associated to databases. But there were a lot of possible choices so I did a lot of researches on the internet principally to try and find most possible objective comparison of server-side scripting language (ASP, PHP, JSP, Perl) and their association with database systems (Access, MySQL), keeping in mind as well that after finding which one was the best for my type or project, I had to find a free host and they are inevitably don t accept each kind of languages. That was not an easy peace of work and I had to compare each system features and capabilities by myself to be sure and have the most objective results. In the end, I chose PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) for the scripting language because of its multiple advantages in terms of hosting and functions compared to ASP, the other cutting-edge scripting language. But I won t go too much deeper here because this is a too much vast subject. Associated to PHP, I will use MySQL, which is nearly the most used database type with PHP and the one supported by numerous free hosts. As books are always late in terms of talking about last technologies, I preferred to base my research on serious websites. I found particularly interesting information on big internet or computer magazines sites like or which I think, provide objective information. Anyway, more or less, it is always redirecting on other sites with the adequate information. was probably the most useful, providing really accurate and technical information.

6 2.2 Investigation on design techniques Design techniques are really important and often forsaken by the developer who thinks he knows enough about it. The result is often far from a good implementation. And, moreover, an alternative way of differentiating good projects from bad projects is rightly to look at bad design examples, which sometimes speak quite more than tawdriness examples. I skimmed trough a lot of literature and it s now a very common way of teaching how to design correctly. Actually, Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design [1998 Flanders] is the most eloquent on his content. In this book, you learn what good design is by pointing out ugly, misguided, and confusing sites. On another hand, I found very interesting books, among the ones I talked about before or others. The two books from David Siegel [1997 Siegel], [1997 Siegel2] that I quoted before are the ones I used the most. They are well documented and the approach seemed objective and realistic. The one called Effective Web Design: Master All the Essentials [1998 Navarro] purpose also very good strategies. Another advantage is that it really adopt a creative point of view more than a technological one, which can in the end really makes the difference between two sites providing the same kind of services. b) Practical work undertaken (e.g., requirements capture, design, implementation) All this studies and researches took me a lot of time before I began the design and implementation because I didn t want to make mistakes. What I did also before really beginning is deal with free hosting account creation on several French servers and I also had to find a domain name. It was amazingly hard to find a name that wasn t already bought and I finally chose among approximately 50 possibilities of available names and paid an American registrar $12 a year for it. Each of them being not representative enough of the service provided or too difficult to remember, I finally chose easywebcreation which is a little long but very easy to remember. After this, I began working on the interface, creating first a simple interface to be able to implement and test some PHP code. After that, I passed a long time becoming used to PHP and MySQL which I didn t knew before and created an authentication system using encrypted session and a lot of other functionalities that will be very useful with the rest of the system. Then, I totally remodelled the website design in a more sophisticated one and re-coded the existing HTML files so that each parts of the website are now transparent reusable PHP components that I can recall on every page. This was not easy, especially because I was beginning handling PHP code and interaction with database but I m now much more used to it as I ve already coded a huge number of line of codes and the rest of the functionalities, even if some of them are quite complicated, should take me less time to implement. And as separate modules, I tested also an interface to upload files on an FTP server directly from a web page which works pretty well with providers allowing it, but it is unfortunately not often the case Of course, I ve also proceeded in the use and interaction of different pages thanks to test pages, especially to use the encrypted session system. A screenshot of the actual draft is available in Appendix A, or of course on the web at

7 4. References (Must be cited in 3a) [2000 Lee] Multimedia-Based Instructional Design: Computer-Based Training, Web-Based Training, and Distance Learning by William W. Lee, Diana L. Owens [1997 Siegel] Secrets of Successful Web Sites: Project Management on the World Wide Web by David Siegel [1997 Siegel2] Creating killer web sites: The art of third generation website design by David Siegel [2000 Lazar] User-Centered Web Development by Jonathan Lazar [2000 Webster] Ratings Analysis : The Theory and Practice of Audience Research (Lea's Communication Series) by James G. Webster, Patricia Phalen, Lawrence W. Lichty [1998 Flanders] Web Pages That Suck : Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design by Vincent Flanders, Michael Willis [1998 Navarro] Effective Web Design: Master All the Essentials by Ann Navarro, Tabinda Kahn [2002 BWO] Business Week Online February 8, 2002 DreamWeaver: Beyond Basic Web Pages by Stephen H. Wildstrom 5. Self-assessment of progress (Max 150 words) Conducting a so big project isn t an easy thing and hopefully we have been a little trained with group project last year. I see progressively the necessity of all researches conducted and it help me now being more productive. So I was a little wrong on my prediction but not too much and I think that it s probably normal, and I ll try to recover the time lost on the implementation. Anyway, even if it s not yet very visible, I ve achieved a great and complicated work with the authentication system that will allow me to be quicker after all. And I know also how to upload file on distant servers, as well as sending mails with PHP as I tested this function as well. My only problem is that free hosts don t cope with all the functions I need so I really hope the Napier PHP/MySQL will work before the end of the semester or I ll be maybe obliged to cancel some of the expected functions of the project. 6. Gantt chart Please attach a Gantt chart showing actual against estimated progress to date, and planned activities to hand in.

8 Previous Gantt chart

9 New Gantt chart

10 APPENDIX A Appendix A: Current draft of the website