Imran’s Kifli.net Living the Life

Problem with image path

I sent an email to my group today. The email depicts the current problem that I have with the CMS. The email is posted below:

Sent on 4:09PM

This is the problem that I’ve been having for the path.

You see, now I dont want to store the path of the file in the Images table. I just want to store image name. But to make the file searchable from the website, I added a new column called IM_Type. In the website, we would have an algorithm that would tell the program where the file is based on the IM_Type . Let me give you an example here.

If IM_Type == “Product”
Then the path is “\Images\Products\” + fileName

or

If IM_Type == “Category”
Then the path is “\Images\Categories\” + fileName

mySQL database connection

I am currently looking for a C# database gateway that would connect our ASP .NET application to the mySQL database. I’ve started to write a few methods to easily distinguish the separate functions needed in the database gateway class (e.g. connection, retrieve dataset, update data), but I’d like to see how it is being done professionally.

I’ve seen how it is being done, when I was writing a gateway for my ITPM project that was using MS Access 2003. But of course, mySQL has different requirements when it comes to connectivity when compared to MS Access. Furthermore, a web application has different security prerequisites that must be satisfied and it has to be clearly planned before I execute the connection. Well, I’ll keep looking, if I couldn’t find it within a few more hours I’ll continue to finish my code.

Third Client Meeting

We went for our third client meeting today. We had a brief meeting in Caulfield before going to the client’s office.
We arrived in Braeside at 2:30pm. The group members that participated in this week’s meeting was me, Elbert and Steven. We discussed about the new functionality that we proposed over email, and Carl (our client) said he’s totally okay with. However, he confirmed with us some of the following specifications:

• A user cannot register on the site, instead, Cellarbrate would register on behalf of them (this is to ensure that they are valid retailers).
• They would provide us with list of retailers for the search function.
• Registered users would be able to submit an order, and it would be managed via the CMS.

Well, those were among the functions that we discussed. Apart from that, we talked a lot about the design of the front page, which is their main concern.

I even manage to snap a photo in front of their office.

Late night at K lab

Today, again, I was at the K lab doing my work from 11PM to 4AM. It would be nice to have pantry or common room within this building so that I can make hot coffee. I was creating the GUI for the CMS, which took more effort than I realised as I’m not a design person, hence it’s difficult to find the right colours for the site.

Late night at K lab

Today I was at the K lab doing some work from 12AM to 3AM. I was with Keng and Kit. I like the labs at night. It’s empty and peaceful. The internet is way faster than the one I have at Campuswalk, but one drawback is despite the 19-inch screens they have here, it’s still a single monitor screen. I have a 2 monitors at home and it’s surely a lot more convenient especially when it comes to programming.

Team member redeployment

We had our meeting with David and Jake today. Apparently, after we presented the escalated specs for the system, it was refused by David and Jake. They said they still need to remove 2 members from our team and allocate them to another group. According to them, they are disapointed in us because we didn’t approach them for not mentioning ealier that our project has little scope. Well, he didn’t say anything to us when I told him in Week 4 what we were doing. I told him that we’re doing an e-catalogue and it will be backed by a CMS.

Furthermore, I am really upset with the attitude that they showed us. They keep saying that they can do the website in 1 week, and it would take them 2 weeks to complete the project. How can they compare themselves who has abundance of working experience to final year students like us?

Project scope problems

Our team was under fire during today’s tute as Dave (our tute manager) was under the impression that our team has too little scope for a 7 people team. Apparently, they gave us 2 options:

• it’s either we increase our project scope significantly
• or 2 (or 3) people from our group would be allocated elsewhere (probably to another project)

Well, he accused us of slacking off due to our small scope. I can’t really understand why he has to be so upset about it given that I already told him the week before (in Week 4) that our project is an e-catalogue project (with no e-commerce functions). He didn’t say anything at that time.

Anyway, with the 2 choices given above, we went to the cafeteria at building S to discuss the additional functions that we’ll be giving to our scope.

We managed to come up with 7 new functions for Cellarbrate’s website, and we also proposed that we’ll be writing the CMS from scratch. That I hope would increase the work load significantly and hence we would be able to keep the team.

K labs after hour access

I am extremely disappointed and frustrated with Monash’s ITS department. I have emailed them on Tuesday regarding after hours access, and on Wednesday I applied for access via their website, as I was warned by the guard that I would have to leave the lab on Thursday onwards if I still don’t have access then. The guard said this “Alright, no dramas for today. You can stay, but for tomorrow onwards, if you don’t have access, you’ll have to leave”. Still, on Friday, I haven’t receive my access. Are these people sleeping on their jobs or something? Don’t tell me it takes more than 3 days to actually verify me as a FIT3015 student?

Hence I emailed ITS asking them to expedite the process. Imagine the horror that struck me as I read their email, just a few minutes after waking up. I even had to wipe my glasses real hard to ensure that it’s not playing any tricks on me.

“K labs belong to faculty of Education. You will need to contact the Faculty for further assistance with this request.

There are other 24 hour access lab over Caufiled. You may try register with FIT for B labs access.”

Can you imagine the kind of bullshit they throw at you in the morning? K labs belong to the faculty of Education? Somebody better make sure the network admins are not drinking during office hours. Furthermore, why is it that these people cannot understand that the 24-hour labs at B building has none of the development software that me and my team need to do our IE project?

I notice that my friends that are doing the 1 year IE has been given access, but not us who are doing the single-sem IE (FIT3015). Now tell me, who has higher priority here? The people who has 1 year to complete their projects, or people like me who only have around 7 weeks left?

If my access is still not granted by Monday, I’ll be forwarding the mail that I sent (along with the ridiculous reply that I got) to the dean himself.

Second client meeting

Today we went to see the client for the second time. This time around, we asked a lot more technical questions and detailed questions about the design. They showed us some samples from other sites and we even sketched an outline of the site on paper for us. The meeting lasted for around 2 hours.

Later that night, me, Steven, Kit and Bee went to K1.09 to do some work. We stayed there for around 4 hours before going back.

First client meeting

We went to meet our client for the first time today. Their office was situated in the industrial side of Braeside. Carl explained to us about Cellarbrate with more detail, including how they do it and where they are in the market. Apparently they are the leaders in the wine packaging industry and they are really proud of it.

Our task, as for now, is to design a website that would act as an e-catalogue for their products. They are still undecided on whether to have the shopping cart functionality built into the website as they do not want end-customers to be able to purchase from them. They informed us that they only do business with retailers and businesses, and if an end-customer is interested with their product, they would recommend them the nearest outlet.

But if you ask me, I would prefer if they want us to incorporate the shopping cart function, as it is more challenging and it would require the development team to do additional research and learn new technology at a faster rate. This is my final semester in university, and I need to maximise my learning experience. It would be even better if they require us to create an ERP to manage their inventory, keep track of their orders, and have a web portal to market their products and manage their system from anywhere in the world.

Yes, all that sounds difficult and overwhelming, but our team is blessed with 7 members and 3 of them are very competent programmers. It would be a waste if all that talent is not being put to good use.