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

But there’s a problem with that you see. In the internet, the files are stored using forward-slash (i.e. “/”), but on localhost (which is our machines), files are stored using back-slash (i.e. “\”). Maybe I can change it using hard code before we upload to the internet, but in the mean time while we’re developing on our machines, this is going to be a problem.

Before that I was using Server.MapPath for the path. But since now the If statement above is string, the Server.MapPath wouldn’t resolve it properly. (This is a bit confusing here. hehe).

Anyway, just want to let Steven and rest know what’s happening in the Images section. It’s the most difficult part of the system. Oh yah, remind me that I want to talk to you guys about the Orders page tomorrow too.

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.

• 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.

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?

They accused us as being lazy and slacking off. They didn’t even read our Progress Report and what we wrote in the Business Case. Another thing, we haven’t even finalise our functional specs as we need to cross-check it with our client. I can only start working properly when they have finalised what they want (probably by the next client meeting on 29/3/07).

I consider myself to be one of the craziest workaholics in the IT faculty. It all started when I was doing Java 2 in Sem 2 2005. Well, it might take a while for me to plan my development strategy (which was what I was doing for the past 2 weeks as I need to gather requirements from the client — and the client is still thinking on what they want and don’t want on the site), but once I start working, it will be an array of late nights at the lab till I get the system up and running.

In the escalated specs, we told them that we’ll be creating the CMS from scratch. They said that it would increase the work load significantly, but it wouldn’t justify the need of having 7 people in the project. They took away Kit (programmer) and Paul (public relations) from us. I’ve lost one of my best programmers, and now I’ll be the one writing the CMS from ground up. I know it’s a lot of work. But I’ll put in as many late nights as possible and make sure the system is up and functioning by Week 8. Yeah, you heard me right, Week 8.

I will make sure my Progress Report displays all my effort in the most obvious way possible.

• 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.

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.

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.

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.