Friday, 25 February 2011

ITS032 - Edge Database - Update 4

Edge was tested at the start of the week by Martin Jones, there are 7 bugs in the application, these are as follows:

  • HTMLEditFormat() formatting needed on text inputs (prevents special characters being passed to the application and database)
  • url parameters in Edit pages should be checked
  • Skills/Work Experience/Schools/Colleges/Status should be unique
  • id's should not be preallocated in add new records
  • Add Opportunity further information text area is limited to 250 characters not words
  • template path to holding page should be changed to relative path
  • login check to get userlevel needs amended to return just that data and nothing else
I have been working through these issues this week, updating JIRA where they are recorded and they are all now resolved, this passes it through the peer test stage.

The next stage is the user acceptance test, this has been arranged by David for next week.

Saturday, 19 February 2011

ITS032 - Edge Database - Update 3

This week I have been working through the task list for the edge project as follows:

Project: ITS032 Employability Opportunities Database
Task: Build tasks - remaining development work
Date: 31/01/2011 TO 11/02/2011
Duration: 10.0d
Effort: 6.0d

Project: ITS032 Employability Opportunities Database
Task: Website integration
Date: 14/02/2011 TO 18/02/2011
Duration: 5.0d
Effort: 1.5d

Project: ITS032 Employability Opportunities Database
Task: System documentation
Date: 14/02/2011 TO 18/02/2011
Duration: 5.0d
Effort: 1.0d

These have been broken up into further tasks using the JIRA application (see Edge update 2 for the task list).

Styling

The application was to be styled by the multi media team (web styling is one of their specialisms), this isn't going ahead any more and I've been asked to do the work. I dont have a problem with this, in fact its another area where I need the experience. The issue here is it was scheduled to be done by a professional in that area and I'm not confident I do the job to that standard.

Alex carter from the media team has provided styling templates to use and apply to the application I have built. I do have styling experience but only from university, however I have done the work and some modification was needed to some of the user facing pages however it has come together quite well.

Testing

The application will be peer tested next week, I will update at this point.

Friday, 11 February 2011

ITS032 - Edge Database - Update 2

This is week two of the Edge project.

So far I have done basic familiarisation with the existing software which I have touched on in my previous entry. I still feel that I am not fully confident in my ability to carry out the required remedial work on the system AND the project tasks. I also believe that this is normal and what I am about to learn will fill that confidence gap.

Meeting 03/02/11

Myself and my project manager attended a meeting at the careers office with two representatives Darcey Gillie and Gavin McCabe. The purpose of this meeting was to ascertain what state the project was in, what work still needed to be done and revise the original requirements and make any required adjustments.

We came away with a number of action points from the client which were discussed and agreed on at the meeting. We have noted at this point the client is asking for features that were not in the initial requirements, as we have a limited budget I feel that agreeing to these will take us well beyond the time/funding allocated.

The outstanding points are as follows:

1. The website is no longer planned to be embedded in Polopoly, but will be available through the Employability website, linked from here: http://www.employability.ed.ac.uk/studentdevelopmentgateway.html This obviously means that we will not have the Polopoly work but will probably have to work with Darcey and co on integrating the application into the above site.

2. Gavin asked about getting two extra fields added to the database, and the related forms/code. These were email address and senders name on Submissions. You told him that would amount to a couple of hours work and this was acceptable. If it is any more, let me know so we can discuss with them.

3. The Notes box on Opportunities needs to be removed from the 'public' Opportunity display. We also discussed making the 'Further Info' box larger.

4. Saving Search results was discussed - all fields should be included and you said you would look at the formatting options for saved searches (e.g PDF)

5. Reporting is waiting on more info from Gavin before starting any work on this. One option I thought of afterwards was using an ODBC connection that would allow them to access the data using MS programs, but with read only access. I will pursue this.

Looking at the tasks in our documentation, the following are outstanding

1. Set up CF email schedule - this is estimated at 1 day's effort, and you said that this was straightforward enough to do.

2. Save search results to file (3 days) - the solution for this will involve some investigation but can be based on work done by Alyson.

3. Managing submitted Opportunities - this has been done.

4. Scheduled task to change status to 'archived' (0.5 day) - again, you thought this would be easy to do.

On a personal note I feel the meeting went well, I felt confident and gave a good demonstration of the software as it currently stands.

Friday, 4 February 2011

ITS032 - Edge Database - Update 5 deployment

The application was to be deployed to the live server this week, the User Acceptance Test is to happen on Monday as there has been delays due to infrastructure problems.

Martin retested the application this week and the build was signed off with the issues being resolved.

The user acceptance test is looking unlikely now, I am not getting the right permissions to be able to deploy the application to the server. I have got a call in to get them but my request is being blocked by the head of applications management, he is of the opinion that developers should not get access to the live system.

As a result of this I am not able to deploy the website myself at this time but we have agreed to put the application into a zip file and pass this to the media team for deployment. Even then I will need access to that server to carry out any system configuration required.

The UAT has been put back and will be rescheduled once everyone has time to carry out the testing.

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

ITS032 - Edge Database - Update

Work is now starting to move on the Edge project, I have had a few issues with getting the right information regarding databases and the permissions to access the databases. Obtaining the code was a further problem.

Bill has explained to me that the project is near completion and should only need some pages to be finished, as I've looked at the code I have spoken with other developers, gabby has referred to it as an excersise in how not to write applications.

He told me that none of the variables are scoped and it runs very inefficiently. The application had no organisational structure and data being passed around within the application was open to outside manipulation and instability. I've taken this to bill and advised him that more time would be required to bring it up to a standard that could be considered professional.

Bill expressed concerns regarding budget however accepted that the remedial work was necessary to produce a quality application. again this is an opportunity to deepen my knowledge of coldfusion further.

I've been given the go ahead to do the work.