ONLINE JOB APPLICATION AND E-SELECTION SYSTEM

ONLINE JOB APPLICATION AND E-SELECTION SYSTEM NUR ANNA AMIRIAH BINTI A. This report is submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Bachelor of Computer Science (BITS) FACULTY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TEECHNOLOGY KOLEJ UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA 2007

ABSTRACT Most company had started to do their works and business via web-based applications. It is because Internet acts as a medium to promote their products and services to the customers out there. With the assistance of Internet and web-based applications, it may widen their customers and make their jobs much easier than before. Human Resource Department is one of the important department in any organization to organize and responsible to the personnel issues. Therefore, this Online Job Application and E-Selection System was developed for the Human Resource Department in KUTKM to make a recruitment process. This system can be used by the jobseekers and staffs in HR Department. The Online JAES serves two main purposes, to apply job in KUTKM via online and to provide a computerized system of employee selection. The jobseeker needs to be registered to the system before helshe can make the job application. On the other side, all staffs in HR Department are registered by the Chief of Registrar Assistant, who has all restrictions on the applications. Besides of the registration and online job application, this Online JAES serves 3 other modules which are Login, Matching Job and Filtering. The Login module is responsible to authenticate the user. The Matching Job is used to set the criteria for each job and Filtering is used by the sta.fe of HR Department to check and filter all the received applications. The basis for developing the whole system was driven by the RUP methodology while the UML technique is used for system's design modeling. This system is implemented by using PHP and MySQL as its database.

ABSTRAK Kebanyakan syarikat telah mula bekerja dan menjalankan pemiagannya berasaskan aplikasi berasaskan web. Ini kerana Internet bertindak sebagai medium untuk mempromosikan produk dan servis mereka kepada pelanggan. Dengan bantuan Internet dan aplikasi berasaskan web, ia akan menarik lebih rarnai pelanggan dan lebih memudahkan ke rja mereka daripada sebelumnya Jabatan Sumber Manusia merupakan salah satu jabatan yang terpenting dalam mana-mana organisasi untuk mengurus dan bertanggungjawab dalam hal-ha1 yang melibatkan peke rja. Oleh itu, Online Job Application and E-Selection System ini dibangunkan bagi kegunaan Jabatan Sumber Manusia KUTKM untuk melakukan proses pengambilan pekerja. Sistem ini boleh digunakan oleh pencari ke rja dan peke rja dalam Jabatan Surnber Manusia. Online JAES ini mempunyai dua tujuan utama iaitu untuk memohon ke rja di KUTKM secara online dan mengkomputerkan proses pemilihan ke rja. Pencari kerja perlu berdaftar terlebih dahulu sebelum memohon pekerjaan. Manakala para pekerja dalam Jabatan Sumber Manusia akan didaftarkan oleh Ketua Penolong Pendaftar yang mempunyai kebenaran capaian ke atas semua permohonan. Selain dari Registration dan Online Job Application, Online JAES juga mempunyai 3 modul lain iaitu Login, Matching Job dan Filtering. Modul Login bertanggungjawab dalam pengesahan pengguna. Matching Job digunakan untuk menetapka criteria-kriteria bagi setiap ke rja dan Filtering digunakan oleh staf di Jabatan Sumber Manusia untuk memeriksa dan menapis semua permohonan yang diterima. Asas pembangunan keseluruhan sistem ini menggunakan kaedah RUP dan teknik UML digunakan bagi merekabentuk model sistem. Sistern ini dibangunkankan dengan menggunakan PHP dan MySQL sebagai pangakalan data.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Project Background This is a project developed for a jobseeker who applies for the job in KUTKM and personnel of Human Resource Department in Registrar Ofice, KUTKM. This project will be developed by referring the manual process of job application in KUTKM and processes to select the candidate employee. This project will focus on two main activities, which are online job application and selection employees in KUTKM. It means that this project will provide a two way communications between jobseekers and HR Department. In the first activity, jobseekers will apply the job online. However, to apply for the job, jobseekers need to register first, and give their absolute email address so that any information or notification will directly send to their mail's inbox. To gain the second activity, this system will provide a table of administrator codes to speci6 each of the characteristics for each of the position. Then, the system will compare the inserted information from the jobseekers with the table, whether it is fulfilling the needed characteristics or not. The system will only make the process of selection after the final date and time of the job application.

This system also provides a notification via email automatically. Once the jobseekers complete the registration, the system will automatically acknowledge that the registration has been received and ready to be processed. Then, after the selection of employee has done, the system will notify each of the jobseeker of their status whether they are approved or rejected. This system will also provide a notification via email of the status of interview session. 1.2 Problem Statements An employee selection in KUTKM is done by Human Resource Department of Registrar Ofice. The process is still done by manual process which jobseekers have to come to Registrar Office or post an empty envelop with their postal address and stamp. However, this process may cause two problems. First, this process may cause a late delivery, lost or damage of the application. Second, it also may produce a problem to a jobseeker that lives far away to come to KUTKM to apply for the vacancies. Besides, the selection done by human may cause an unfair result. It will happen due to a nature of humanity, kindness, or biased. In case of that, the HR personnel may choose their friends, families, or anyone who has supports from influential people, who are not qualified for the vacancies. The existing online job application systems have no notification whether the jobseekers' applications have been delivered, undelivered, accepted, or unaccepted. The jobseeker will be wandering about the status of their applications. The manual process needs a lot of files and application forms. It may cause a bulky of files in the Registrar Ofice. This may drive into a problem of applications' lost, damage, tear or unseen.

13 Objectives a. To provide a computerized system of employee selection Change the manual employee selection to be a computerized system b. To reduce time of jobs application delivery by an online system Time of delivery of application via online is less compared to the delivery via post c. To reduce works of HR staff to select a potential employee Works of selecting the employee is done by the system. The HR staffk only can see the applications' information and check the status of each application d. Add a medium to display result Give a notification of status of the applications, whether they have been received, accepted or rejected. It also tells about the date and venue of interview session if the application has been approved, and notifies the status of the interview session. e. Acts as a decision support system to select a potential employee The system will make the decision to select the potential employee

1.4 Scope Scope is divided into 2 views which are the limitation of the project and the functions of the project. 1.4.1 Limitation View a. User Two types of user are registered jobseeker and registered personnel.. The jobseeker can be anyone who seeks for job. While the registered personnel comes from HR Department only. b. Software Can be used only on Windows platform c. Process applied An online application to seek job and select potential employee. 1.4.2 Function View 1.4.2.1 Online Registration Jobseeker needs to register to apply for the vacancies via online. The registration will require usemame or employee ID, an accurate and active email address and a password. The password can only contains an alphabet (A-Z) or numeric characters. 1.4.2.2 Online Job Application User can apply two types of vacancies, whether academic or nonacademic position. Apart from that, user needs to fulfill all the important fields required and upload any important documents. It can be done by any person; fresh graduate or employed person.

1.4.23 Login To authorize the user authentication 1.4.2.4 Matching Job Set the minimum qualifications in an adrninistmt~r table and then relates each of the table of advertised jobs with the administrator table to match the job. 1.43.5 Filtering There are 3 filtering process made by HR Department. There are Document Checking, First Selection to get the shortlists and Final Selection to call for an interview.

1.5 Project Significance 1.5.1 Reduce time to apply job in KUTKM Two ways to apply job in KUTKM are by coming to the Registrar Ofice to take the application form or post an empty envelope with applicant's postal address. It will take much time for the jobseeker to come to the ofice, especially for those who live outside of Melaka. Secondly, the returning process of the application forms will take much time. The delivery times of the forms are unpredictable. As what I've analyze, there is a case when one applicant send its empty envelop to apply for the job. Unfortunately, the forms were returned to her one day before the closing date. 15.2 To reduce time of jobs application delivery by an online system Time of delivery of application via online is less compared to the delivery via post. The delivery of the application forms can be made just in a few minutes to a few hours. The applicant just needs to fill in hisker important information, and upload an importance documents. Once completed, the applicant clicks a Send button, and the information is sent to the HR Department. However, it will depend on the speed of internet connectivity. In the other hand, the delivery via post will take times to a few days, even the applicant used a Pos Laju. It is because the Pos Laju will take at least a day to send the application, compared to an online system that takes just a few minutes to hours only. 1.53 Helps to reduce works for personnevstaffs in HR Department As what I have seen before, the applications forms are placed anywhere in the Registrar Ofice, till in front of the counter. It is because there are huge numbers of applications send by the jobseekers and it can reach of thousands applications to be processed. And, can we imagine how many works and energy they need to contribute to process all of the forms? In

case of that situation, this system will takeover the selection job and the HR staffjust need to monitor the system. 15.4 To expose the online job application and computerized selection process to other institutions or organizations. Other institutions or organizations can take an idea from this system, and apply it to their organizations. They will find it interesting and easy by using this system. Recently, anyone in the world will find that the Information Technology is interesting and can simplifl thejob. So, we can introduce this system to others, so that the usage of IT technology in Malaysia will achieve its optimum level. 15.5 Helps KUTKM to have an intelligent management system It will give a big advantage to KUTKM by having this system. It will increase the number of Management Information System in KUTKM. Eventually, KUTKM will be an apprentice that have a filly management information system to conduct all its management processes.

1.6 Expected Output The project is hoped can be a fully functioning process to apply jobs online and selecting the employee. It is hope that this will-be developed system will have no major errors, can adapt with multitasking jobs at a same time, can handle and validate user errors, and achieve the objectives in reducing times of delivery application. This project will be developed by using PHP as a tool for development and MySQL as a database. It means that, this system will provide a higher storage space to store an applications' information. By using PHP, this system will provide a web-based application for job application and employee selection process. Beside that, this project will provide a capability to differentiate the process between an academic position and non-academic position. The selection process of academic position will be carried out monthly, and process of non-academic position will be camed out only after the closing date of the job vacancies. The project also will be developed to notify the status of the application via email. This email will automatically send to the applicant once the application is received by the HR staff, or if the application is approved or after the interview session, whether the applicant is accepted to be employed in KUTKM or not. The selection process will be carried out by the scores of the applicant. The highest application scores will be placed into the job to be interviewed.

1.7 Conclusion Job Application and E-Selection System (JAES) is a web-based application that will use by jobseekers, HR Department and Faculty of Information and Communication Technology (FTMK) in KUTKM. It is used by the jobseekers to apply for the posts and used by KUTKM staffk to record data and application, and make selections through an intelligence process according to the minimum requirements for each job. JAES makes the process to apply and select a potential staff to be more easy and saving times. Applicants do not have to come to the Registrar Office to take the application form. Instead, they just need to apply the job online by logon into the JAES website. And for staffs, they do not have to hce and process a bulk of application forms anymore. This system also provides a capability to noti@ the applicants of their status and alert of the latest jobs offered by KUTKM via mail alerts. It also provides an intelligent process to process the application forms so that the amount of works of staffs can be reduced to the minimum level. Finally, this system will provide application through sms, sms alerts and sms notification for a future enhancement. It is easy for jobseeker that does not have an access to the Internet to apply for the advertised jobs. It is because, most of people nowadays own a mobile phone. It's also easy for jobseekers who are traveling and away from computer.

CHAPTER 11 LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROJECI' METHODOLOGY 2.1 Introduction This document will describes about literature review of the current process of employee selection and current system of online job application. Beside of that, it will describe about the methodology used to develop the project, materials and tools used to achieve it and schedule and timeline for the project. This literature review is done after the problem statements, scopes and objectives have been identified. This chapter will focus on a research of a manual process and existing online job application systems. This chapter is important to reduce or eliminate the identified problems and optimized the system functionalities. It will focus on techniques, methods, software and hardware used and other technologies used to develop the system.

2.2 Fact and Finding Currently, process of selecting a potential employee in KUTKM still done in a traditional way. To apply for the posts, the jobseekers need to come to a Registrar Office of KUTKM, or post their empty envelop size of 25.5 cm x 17.5 cm with jobseeker postal address and 30 cents stamp. In the application form, jobseekers need to fill 8 main details required. The details are names of posts to apply. It offers maximum of 4 posts to apply. Second, jobseekers need to fill in their personal details. The third requirements are qualifications from primary schools until qualifications in university. The fourth details required the experience of jobseekers. The fifth details are any records of training, course or workshop that has been attended by the jobseekers. The sixth details required any outdoor activities contributed by the jobseekers. The seventh and eight details required an agreement from the jobseekers. In selection process, the selection first make by the Assistant Registrar of Human Resource Department of Registrar Office. After the Assistant Registrar chose potential employees, the jobseekers application forms will be sent to faculties or departments. After the selection has done by faculties and departments, the forms will be sent back to the HR Department. Then, the forms will be forwarded to a Rector for final evaluation. After that, the forms will be sent again to the HR Department to set for an interview. (see Figure 2.1)

L Set aohg Date

However, this traditional process causes a lot of problems. The problems are: = No records of applications o No records of applications to make a comparison or statistic Much works to do o Jobseekers and staffs have a lot of things to do. No notification about the status of application o No notification whether the application forms has been received. Applicants just can hope and confidence of the delivery of their forms. No guarantee of security and secrecy of the data and information in forms o The forms can be looked by other staffs or outside people who do not have an authority to look at the forms. To overcome these problems, many online job applications had been developed, such as JobStreet, JobsDB, Kareer.com, besttobs.com.my, Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX), JobShark.com and many more. I will focus on JobStreet and JobsDB as my examples.

2.1 Jobstreet.com Malaysia Plnd lobs Castor,.".<.: -3- <. -r,.j.- :,.>. c-..,: ;-:,<-,,5-.>2.,l> * JobWel l.unnp. m,c.~c, s.~,~. ' Job-. 10b*h,.bhd Cnpllves Corndam. lndn. kbsm* R.hnJ awn vrwrmmt - P,dk sm Job.Cm,,C. mw * Too >OCh0".. ' g;& r ' Jeb-*U*-A - Walk-In Interview Figure 2.2: Front Page of Jobstreet.com Malaysia Website Since 1995, JobStreet.com has grown to become one of the leading Internet Recruitment websites in the Asia-Pacific, revolutionizing the way recruitment is done today. JobStreet.com offers a comprehensive suite of interactive recruitment services. International and local Asian corporations recruit from JobStreet.com's ever-increasing pool of top talent and manage their recruitment process through uniquely developed software applications via the Internet. The company owns and operates one of Asia's most popular career sites at www.~obstreet.com, with over 1,600,000 members and facilitating more than one million online applications a month. JobStreet.com's currently has 10 ofices and a customer base of over 10,000 corporations based in Malaysia, Singapore, India and the Philippines. Among JobStreet.comls customers in Malaysia are leading multinational and Malaysian corporations such as Dell, Shell, Intel, DHL, Maxis, the Sunway Group of Companies, Colgate Palmolive, MIMOS and Citibank. In March 2001 it won the 2000 Asia-Pacific Multimedia Super Comdor Information Technology & Telecommunications Award for the Best S ohe Applications category for its ASP-based SiVA recruitment management application. At the @my2000 and @MY2001 Malaysia Internet Awards, Jobstreet was twice named the Internet.

Company of the Year while Mark Chang, JobStreet.comls CEO & Founder was named the most admired entrepreneur by leading Malaysian business weekly The Edge. JobStreet is also one of a few companies in the region to be awarded the prestigious TRUSTe certificate, the official seal for Internet website privacy and confidentiality as approved by the US Department of Commerce and Federal Trade Commission. The main function of JobStreet is to allowjobseekers to apply for the posts that advertised by the employers. Jobstreet is a very useful system to find right candidates for the vacancies. It offers outstanding features which narrows down those candidates that meet certain common criteria in accordance with our requirements, such as: Searching for specific candidates based on our criteria, Checking the applicant's history, sending or replying by email to a group of candidates all at once, forwarding selected resumes to other recipients, scheduling interviews for potential candidates, and useful drawers - New Application, KIV, Shortlist, Reject, etc. [ Chung Chau Hwee (Ms), Human Resource Manager Escatec Mechatronics Sdn Bhd, 20051. Time and again, Human Resource Minister, Datuk Dr. Fong Chan Onn has raised the issue of Malaysians being choosy about accepting jobs resulting in 40,000 jobless graduates in Malaysia. But according to Suresh Thiru, vice president of operations, Jobstreet com, the job market is booming. It's an employee's market. The advantage of JobStreet is it has been established in this business for a few years. It is supported by a statement from Suresh Thiru, vice president of operations, Jobstreet.com. We've had an advantage simply because we started five years ago in the business. Our tools have been under development for the last few years and many sites either don't have the tools or aren't as good.[suresh Thiru, 20001 Jobstreet boasts over 2,500 local companies actively using its services and over 200,000 worldwide users in its database. However, JobStreet has one big disadvantage. It only applies for the private companies. It does not offer an employer from government organizations. From that

matter, the government organizations cannot advertise their jobs in the Jobstreet. So, they need to have their own system or else, still do the advertising and processing job by manual rules. c 2. ', \.,>-,re.. Plru'e re. run;. +,. :r*rt.~.~ ZS? ' r m v d. -. olmr -hmm~nn-n ' i m.mivnmwc..rw PW,WO klfi LEAP.- m,ran.wr~~.agm-~-~m$;g~~.~e-o i' -. - - - ',, -... Figure 2.3: Front Page of p~~~v.~obsd~~.ccon~.m4j Website L~::,:T.!r'.. -_I -- ' " JobsDB.com is today the leading online recruitment network in Asia Pacific. By harnessing the speed and global reach of the Internet, JobsDB.com has designed and developed a powerful recruitment medium, which brings employers and job seekers together and allows them to interact directly for fast, efficient and cost effective recruitment. Founded in 1998, JobsDB launched its services in Hong Kong in September in the same year. With headquarters in Hong Kong, it quickly expanded its operations and is today the leading provider of online recruitment services in Asia Pacific with the

widest network coverage, spanning Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and USA. Today, the JobsDB Group employs over 600 staffs across the region. Over the years, JobsDB has built one of the largest and most comprehensive databases in Asia Pacific with over 5.6 million job seeker members and over 110,000 corporate clients. Job seekers can utilize JobsDB's services either as a registered member or as a visitor and explore constantly updated employment opportunities at home or across the region. For employers, JobsDB offers an extremely convenient, efficient and cost effective platform for business recruitment through a Recruitment Management System and access to a continuously expanding job seeker database. JobsDB is at the forefront of technology. Recognizing the growing trend of companies recruiting through its own corporate web sites, JobsDB has developed a solution that is highly flexible and customizable which enables companies to build its own system based on individual requirements to automate and streamline the entire hiring process online. For database implementation, the JobsDB.com Hong Kong data center has installed some 16 servers running Microsoft SQL 2000, ranging in size from 2 CPUs to 8 CPUs. Obviously, with jobs and resumes being constantly added and removed, the actual size of the JobsDB.com database is always changing. There are three types of database at JobsDB.com in Hong Kong: The main database, where all the updates are centrally housed and managed, is hosted on three clusters of two servers each. These clusters ensure the very high availability that JobsDB.com requires. During a planned upgrade or in the event

of a hardware hilure, JobsDB.com will enjoy uninterrupted service since the effected server will hi1 over to the other server in its cluster. Five SQL Server 2000 make up what JobsDB.com refers to as the cache database, where job searching takes place. Data is replicated to the cache database to reduce loading on the main database and ensure fast processing speed. This cache database serves as a hot backup for the main database, which is also replicated to overseas data centers. While this provides a high level of protection for the data, it is also backed up to tape as an additional safeguard. The working database handles day-to-day operations, such as compiling and distributing Job Alert and Candidate Alert messages to members. This is housed on four servers running SQL Server 2000. JobsDB.com uses a lot of Microsoft technology in its operations to support its busy Web site and for program development in addition to the database. Explains Yuen: "Around 90 percent of our site is based on Microsoft technology so we have a great deal of in-house expertise and developer knowledge. What's more, the technology is easy to understand, deploy and maintain. And, the resources that Microsoft makes available via its Web site are exceptional; we can always find the information that we need. With this experience and background, we had no hesitation in upgrading to SQL Server 2000." (Source: http:!/www.~obsdb.corn.m~. Retrieved, June 1"',2006) As what I have analyzed, JobsDb open the application for jobseekers until the year of birth of 1996. It means that, until this year, 2006, the jobseeker is only 10 years old. What a little kid of 10 years old can do to compete with other graduates students and experienced workers? Beside of that, the 10 year old kid does not have an enough qualification to apply for the posts advertised. Even if the child is genius, but hisher strengths and abilities does not same with adults and does not enough to do the jobs.

Table 2.1 : Comparison between JAES, JobStreet and JobsDB Specification Online JAES JobsDB JobStreet Mail alerts Yes Yes Yes SMS application No No Yes DBMS MYSQL Microsoft SQL 2000 Oracle Worldwide KUTKM only Yes Yes Step-by-step Yes Yes Yes resume builder PHP ASP ASP Programming language 23 Project Methodology To develop this project, I will use a Rational Unified Process (RUP). The advantage of RUP is it's suitable for a large project. It means, it is suitable for this Online Job Application & E-Selection System that required a huge amount of data to be processed. Beside of that, RUP also provides an iterative software development. Requirements will often change throughout a project' development, as well as scopes, boundaries and countries. Iteration allows the project to be refined to the latest changes. RUP also allows the developer to do the task concurrently. It means that we don't have to wait for one task to be completed to start another task.

The steps of RUP are: 1. Inception a. In this phase the business case which includes business context, success factors (expected revenue, market recognition, etc), and financial forecast is established. b. The activities that required in this stage are:- i. Identifl objectives of Online JAES system ii. Define scopes and constraints of the Online JAES system... 111. Collecting relevant data and information to develop iv. Online JAES system by analyzing the manual process to select employees and existing online job application systems Identify the problems of current process and resolutions towards the problems v. Identifl software and hardware required to develop the vi. vii. Online JAES system Develop a framework of use case model of the Online JAES system Develop and submit a report of Chapter I and Chapter II Elaboration a. The elaboration phase is where the project starts to take shape. In this phase the problem domain analysis is made and the architecture of the project gets its basic form. b. The activities involved in this stage are:- i. Redefine objectives and scopes of Online JAES system.. 11. Understand the requirements, objectives and scopes of iii. the Online JAES system very well Modeling the Online JAES system by using the UML

iv. Analyze the current system and manual process v. Identifl the risks that may occur in the development process of Online JAES system vi. Find the solution and draw a contingency plan/ backup if the risk occurs vii. Develop a simple codes of the Online JAES system viii. Start to design user interfaces of Online JAES system 3. Construction a. In this phase the main focus goes to the development of components and other features of the system being designed. This is the phase when the bulk of the coding takes place. b. The activities involve in this stage are:- i. Design the overall user intehces of the Online JAES system ii. Develop the overall codes for the Online JAES system iii. Make data validation to an important fields iv. Develop a security characteristics to the Online JAES system v. Conduct a testing against Online JAES system with friends and supervisor 4. Transition i. Develop test cases of the Online JAES system.. 11. Conduct another testing with supervisor iii. iv. Develop a Software Test Documents and Software Test Results of Online JAES system Submit STD, STR and final report of Online JAES system v. Present the Online JAES system The diagrams and phases of RUP are shown in Figure 2.4 and Figure 2.5

Business Modeling /-+ Inception Elaboration I Requirements / I Analysis 8 Design Implementation Test Deployment Configuration Mgmt Management - Environment.. : I I i-k- Co Preliminary Itera Iter. Iter. I*wtm:sjl $1 I it2 I #n dructian Transition Figure 2.4: RUP (URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rational-unified. Retrieved on: June 2nd, 2006) '...--,...,.;- -...-..;,...... ~..-.<,;'..-.-.< r-in >.,.;. >....., r..a...r,r-;r.?...&...-.:..,...<.:.:.;..-.; *....,...: :-...,,...?...,'. :-,..,.,.,,,... ~...-.,... ~~.+ -.w.,.,.,~,.:..s...s.. :.,.,?. Figure 2.5: RUP

2.4 Project Requirements The requirements specifications involve many layers of specification, but starts with a document of user requirements. This is a high-level document that that describes the top level needs that the system must meet. The statements are high level and may be met by a combination of automated and manual processes. User requirements are important to determine how the current system functions and what the users want from the new system. It is also important that future users are involved in the process early on so that their views of the system are taken into consideration. A functional specification describes the hardware and software requirements needed to perform defined functions. It is based upon the user requirements and defines those business needs into technical requirements. The functional requirements express more specifically how business needs might be met. 2.4.1 Software Requirements Software requirements that involve in this project development are PHP, MySQL, Apache, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Ofice Word and Microsoft Project. The most advantage of PHP is it is an open source application. Besides, PHP is naturally compatible with all operating systems. It works fine on personal computers that were regarded as cutting edge about four years ago but that now show their age running some modem application. And it is ideal for web programming novices, as all the main concepts (such as client-server communication, GET and POST requests and Hypertext Preprocessors) are learned the moment you start reading the PHP help documentation. This project is integrated with an Apache server that acts as a web server. Like PHP, Apache is also open source and cross platform.

Like PHP, MySQL is free, provides high performance, and is available with any hosting package. Beside of that, MySQL has user-friendly command intehce. And it is very popular among web developers and, therefore, thoroughly tested. 2.4.2 Hardware Requirements Hardware requirements that involve in this project are 128MB of available RAM, minimum of 40 GB of hard drives, web server, internet connection, LaserJet printer, 2.4 GigaHertz Pentium 4 processor and monitor of 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and Windows operating system. 2.4.2.1 Memory (R4M) RAM stands for Random-Access-Memory and is used with basically every program out there. RAM allows computer to run smoother and loads programs fitster. The higher the RAM, the fitster the loading process. 2.4.2.2 Hard drives Hard Drives are what store all of your computers information once your system is turned off. Most programs these days are at least one gigabyte, plus music and pictures take up a great deal of hard drive space. Because the hard drive has to store so much information, it is key that your hard drive be large. 2.4.23 Web server A computer that manages and shares web based applications accessible anytime from any computer connected to the Internet