Week14

12/Dec/2010

Finished my documents. Hope everything is fine. Once again, I checked the consistency of them and I also need to check other people's documents. It will be bit hard. I didn't think about this consistency when I started to make the first document so it may be bit confusing structure and format.



11/Dec/2010


Matching with requirement list, I added some UMLs which are still not yet created. I realized only reminder function is just as same as the beginning. We discussed a lot and lot but indeed, the system turned to be more simple than what we thought at the beginning. it might be because of the change requirements or might be we thought too much. Anyway finalizing (or updating) UMLs is almost done. A few days to go.



10/Dec/2010


After one day off, Back to the documentation. We struggled to create UMLs about 2 months ago because of misunderstanding of the concept, however, this time I feel it not such hard to create during updating them. One this is the application has already done. And also I understand the concept now. Hope I can finish it by tomorrow and spend some time to review and modify all document's consistency.


8/Dec/2010


Updating Proposal and Planning is almost done. What is left is updating Analysis. I have been trying to learn Rational Rose but not so easy and what is worst is the use case diagrams I created last Monday seem to be gone. It was OK yesterday but today it's got some problem and not showing. The reason may be because I didn't use the package so the same name of actor and use case repeated again and again. I have just got the idea of this package last night and I was trying to use. Anyway fortunately I already got copies of the diagrams on the document.



7/Dec/2010


In the morning, I couldn't focus on my work because of the visitors. For the afternoon final presentation, some of my classmates were preparing the server in our room. I don't know why the server is in our room but it is anyway. And as I anticipated, it was noisy and I needed to help them. I could have relax time in the afternoon meeting because we already had acceptance for our project last week but still it was good time to learn from others. What I have leant from this regular meeting was the time management. No one cares how much each team spend though we cared. So it often ended up with lack of time. Not only students, but also more likely tutors come late and even some of the team still need to present, when time's up, gone. This meeting is the chance to present what we have learn and share it within fellows and tutors. By managing time, all should have shared I believe. I have almost finish three of documents I need to create. I asked my supervisor to have a look on my documents what I have created so far and I was advised to modify some parts. I don't know the importance of the document in academic point of view but he teaches us the proper industrial way of documentation. It's quite good chance to know it.



6/Dec/2010

I am learning Rational Rose software because our supervisor advised us. It is the graphical modelling tool just like MS Visio but not easy to understand. For example, I still cannot fin boundary to use in use case. It should be there but not. Swimlane for activity diagram also. Someone knows? So at the moment I use rectangular shapes for them but it's definitely wrong.  And also I have been researching how to export ERD from MS SQL server to any other application. Because we have got more than 40 tables and if we view it with SQL server, they are too small to see. Or do I need to transfer it manually?

Week13

5/Dec/2010


To update document is not such easy. Some of the functions of the system has changed based on the client's requirements but been there without updating. I cannot remember why "Contact Person" was the one of the individual function. It's not more than one part of the client details. Why it was stand alone? This kind of weird things are everywhere. It is good chance to know how to write documents but these are all for academic purpose. I wonder what is the documentation in industry? As reference, I would like to see the real ones.



4/Dec/2010

Working on documents. My tasks are project proposal, analysis report and planning report. Honestly I don't like them. But I gotta do. Proposal is almost done already but I need to update it as of the project closing. Analysis document, I need to update some of the UML because they were changed at the end of the project but we didn't update them. Planning report, why we need it in addition to proposal? Anyway, I updated the Gantt chart.



3/Dec/2010


Final presentation day. In the morning, we got problem. One of the two network cards of the server worn out. It seemed everyone tried to make our project so thrilling which we don't want. 10:00am was starting time but fortunately some people were late and we got another 10 minutes and at the very last moment, all fixed. Our final presentation went pretty well and I am quite happy. Though after the presentation we got good reputation from all audience, I made a small and big mistake. It was 10:10am. I started the presentation with the word "Good afternoon!" Oh, god!! Actually I noticed I might say something wrong. Anyway, the system development is over now though there are still some academic documentation left. Thank you my awesome team mates.



2/Dec/2010


Important day before the big day. We planed for the tomorrow's presentation and practised a couple of times. There were small errors which we hadn't realized but solved. When displaying our system on a big screen, I thought "we did well" and am happy with the project. Our supervisor gave us great help, great tips. It' absolutely good experience. One more step to go.




1/Dec/2010


We still keep working on the project for error-free. Basically my part has done already so I help my team mate's page by reforming it. His part is pretty complexed but he understood his code so it may be hard to think unexpected way of use for him. And we all has been worked individually, separately so some parts haven't got consistency still yet. So reforming works pretty well I think. And to see other people's work is quite interesting. I normally use C# code behind but he uses ASP.Net controls. Different ways, different solutions.




30/Nov/2010


Subversion must be really handy software but we don't know how to deal with it. We found many files were not updated and broken. We needed to prepare for the final presentation but spent full morning to fix the problems. And besides that, there was server problem as well. We were asked to upload our system to server for the final presentation but what the college prepared for us was an empty box. Even OS wasn't there. Through the last three months we have learnt organization skill is important. We didn't have any enough information for this semester so we are in trouble. It seems the college is trying to confuse us.  Anyway because of these reason, the final presentation is postponed to this Friday. Three more days to go.




29/Nov/2010

Last week hopefully. There were three stuff we need to solve in the system. One was the feedback from the last presentation. Auto generate invoice number. Not hard. Done. Second one is the auto complete text box for the client search. I tried to do that but not easy. I spent whole night yesterday. It seemed nearly achieved but something wrong. And finally this morning, I achieved. Good. I couldn't get the reason but after many try with many resources, succeeded. Last one is not solved yet. PDF. Basically ASP.Net works at the web server and controls are the same. But PDF should work at the client side. So that it's not easy. I keep trying tonight. For the tomorrow's final presentation, we got many tips from our supervisor and I need to be the final presenter. So I spent a few hours to think about the structure and what we need to speak tomorrow. Important day. I have to do my best otherwise my team member's effort will be disturbed.

Week12

28/Nov/2010

Had been struggling about the file upload function. When I realized it, it didn't work. What was wrong with it? The cording is really simple. But,,,. After a couple of hours, it solved. Upload panel. When the file upload control is in the upload panel, it doesn't work. Upload panel is quite cool but on the other hand, not easy to manage. I need more research after this project. I finished my testing. Hopefully all work without any error now.


27/Nov/2010


I thought that javascript worked but not. That maximum length one. So I used another one.
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
    function textMaxLength(obj, maxLength, evt) {
        var charCode = (evt.which) ? evt.which : event.keyCode
        var max = maxLength - 0;
        var text = obj.value;
        if (text.length > max) {
            obj.value = text.substring(0, max);
            return false;
        }
        else {
            return true;
        }
    }
</script>
 <asp:TextBox ID="txtPostal_Note" runat="server" Width="200px" ValidationGroup="Address"
  onkeypress="return textMaxLength(this, '200', event);"
 onkeyup="return textMaxLength(this, '200', event);"></asp:TextBox> 
 Works OK. I set 15 maximum length for phone numbers but wait. How much needed for international call? +81(123)12 1234...better make it 20. Small things are everywhere.



26/Nov/2010


To decide the maximum length of each textbox is also not easy for novices. I don't know how much will the users expect for each textbox. What I think it's enough may not be enough for the others. Symbols. I don't think any cities or countries have special characters like #$%&@ and I thought the same for the company name but, my team mate said "What about $2 shop?". Oh, no. Better allow them to use it.



25/Nov/2010


Realized testing is much harder than cording. Headache. But at the same time, I also understand testing is pretty important. To avoid error I need to put constraint on every page, which means validators, on the other hands, to think about usability, constraint is not good. To distinguish both sides is hard for the novices like me. Cause never known about the real industrial way.  Not only the testing plan, I also need to update the other documents. Headache.



24/Nov/2010


Started testing. Need to work on a lot of pages. I know testing is important but even though it's not welcome. Basically we test the user inputs. I thought we coded many validators to avoid error but not enough maybe. Our system is not for the public so not such a big problem maybe but for improving the knowledge, SQL injection like stuff is needed to be considered also. In the event page, I used jQuery which means tags are HTML not ASP.Net. How to validate textboxes? I found javascript.
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
    <!--
        function imposeMaxLength(Object, MaxLen) {
            return (Object.value.length <= MaxLen);
        }
    -->
    </script>
<textarea id="Description" onkeypress="return imposeMaxLength(this, 300);">
I cannot validate the textarea by the property so this javascript works pretty well.



23/Nov/2010


First presentation in the last 3 weeks. My part is almost done. As far as I tested, no error would be there. We all knew that presentation was pretty important. We could get how much we could had achieved from the tutors feedback. Show time. I thought I should had written speech script but indeed no time to do that. During this semester, not only brushing up my IT skill but also presentation skill is needed to be improved. My goal. Even I couldn't spend much time for preparation I demonstrated how to make a presentation in my head. Ok. Not bad. It took more than 30min to explain all our system not including feedback time. I was ready to listen to the people's barb. I knew they normally ask many questions which is not easy to answer but it never happened. It was a touch anticlimactic. As it describes, CRM is not easy to understand, I understood. Anyway, we've cleared the first hurdle. I need to work on the documentation basically this week.



22/Nov/2010

Going well the unit testing and refining. I solved the problem of the event calendar. The point was casting. to insert the user ID, I used the data type integer as it was. Syntax point of view, I couldn't see any problem but when I changed it into string and the just before ADO.Net, converting it to integer, it worked. Good to know the point. Not only these, to deal with data types is kind of headache. And another headache I got. To merge the source code of three, I committed my source to SVN software but by some mistake, my latest source was gone to somewhere. So depressed. Didn't feel like doing anything. Good thing was I had backup of it this morning. So only 3 hours work has gone. I had kept backup before I committed before that, but not this time. It happens. However because of the instability of my laptop these days, I got backup. Anyway, I need to redo the three hours task. 

Week11

21/Nov/2010


Once I stop my part and help my team mate part. Payment. Because of his previous background, it should be hard for him to understand the need but he is doing quite well I think. Functionality is already there almost, only thing is the format. And also validations. Let's get started!,,,but I couldn't see anything on my laptop. I mean blackout! The machine is moving with small sound but with black screen. The reason is the out of the back light. It seems I need to replace whole the LCD and it will cost hundreds. Oh, god. It's not a time. I borrow the monitor from my team mate and work on this. A few weeks left to go.



20/Nov/2010


Testing my part one by one. Mostly what I need to check is validations and formatting like date and time. But I have too many text boxes to check. It's kind of headache even I know these stuff are necessary for error free programme. Basically I use ASP.Net validators and AJAX toolkit ones. I know this system so what is the difficulty is to imagine what the user may input unexpected data. Validation group is also important. For example, I have nearly 10 groups in the client details page because the page is for editing. Hope it's all OK.



19/Nov/2010


Sometimes, people makes silly mistake so do I. Clicking on the select link button of GridView but nothing happened. Why? I tried and tried again and again. Same. Getting tired and sicked of that. I don't know why but after an hour I found the GridView hadn't got selectedindexchenged action property. Maybe by mistake it had gone somewhere. I finished the client-side pages with basic function and committed my source to the Subversion server. This is the time for system testing. First, event page didn't show any event from the database. Oh, no. Why? I fixed and fixed again and again. It looks like the system feeling problem just like human.We need to fix all problem and make the system error free by next Monday.



18/Nov/2010


Going well on Client-side page. On the top page, there was a few things to display. So empty. So I got advice from my team mate and tried to implement RSS feed from IRD. ASP.Net has add-on RSS reader. So downloaded it. Looks good now. Next page is for sending email. Contact us. I have coded this function before but without attachment function. This time with it as an option. Also not so hard but need research and test again and again.


17/Nov/2010


Finally, once I finished my parts. Still there should be some small stuff left but hopefully all works well. Then needed to go on the client-side page. How much we could do without changing anything of the database? There will be the three points. Client information, Upcoming due date and Contact us. Started to create the pages. Only two pages but goo for refreshing from one month long work of client pages.


16/Nov/2010

My parts have been nearly finished but not. The pages themselves are quite general stuff but so complexed. And I want to make them 100% as my thought. We skipped the presentation this week again. Not ready to be there. Hopefully next week. I should say definitely. We use subversion software to keep track of our source code. It's quite handy. We don't need to merge three of our source code. We just need to commit the source code to the server.


15/Nov/2010

On the way to modify event calendar to make it personal for accountant, I noticed one thing. Description of event was not displayed. How comes? Though some setting was changed when I transferred it from the prototype, When? I checked all setting. Seemed OK. And I reviewed old versions. All fine. How comes? After a few hours, I got it. Because of the browser. Recently to check UI, I have been using Opera because of the fastest speed but some javascript is not compatible with it. Wast of time. And I tried to understand the classes of the calendar. I needed to retreive user id from cookie and store it in the database. Again I spent many hours to do it. It wasn't so simple because of the complexity of the structure. There are not only aspx and cs. I needed to pass value to the class file. Anyway, all solved by changing scope and creating class. It seemed to be the last client meeting. Because Mr.Client hasn't used any system, it might be hard for him to understand how much the system could do. Not enough time anyway.

Week10

14/Nov/2010

I thought ADO.Net can retrieve SELECT results and RETURN@parameter as the same time but it seems not possible. I may need to research more but the thing is no time. I changed the cording and now it's fine. My team mate has been working on invoice and payment sections and these are the functions of unclear to us. We tried to think the business logic behind and I suggested him what I thought it was the best. However, today I got it much more clear than ever. Sorry, my friend. I should have gotten it much earlier. This is because of the lack of experience. I always appreciate  your effort and I like your challenge but I always put you into not correct direction. Hope you understand me.


13/Nov/2010


New problem. DATETIME! To calculate working hours, I need to subtract EndTime from StartTime. User type these 2 times in textboxes and I thought I was going to code in C#. After researched a lot, I gave up. No error but no result.
        DateTime StartTime = DateTime.Parse(txtStartTime.Text);
        DateTime EndTime = DateTime.Parse(txtEndTime.Text);
        TimeSpan difference = EndTime.Subtract(StartTime);
        string TotalHours = new DateTime(difference.Ticks).ToString("hh:mm");
        lblTotalHours.Text = TotalHours;
This should work but not. So I changed to do this with SQL and succeeded!
        DATEDIFF(MINUTE,@StartTime,@EndTime)
Took to much time for this. I gotta go.



12/Nov/2010


I tried to solve the NULL value problem by creating the method but I couldn't. The difficulty is because of the data reader. So instead of that, I used like
                if (!rdr.IsDBNull(6)) { lblRemarks.Text = rdr.GetString(6); }
for each control. It works. I also couldn't solve the problem of something easy. Again SQL statement. Or I can say ADO.Net. I struggled with that through the last night. SQL itself is simple INSERT and UPDATE stuff. But I couldn't find the reason. This morning, with clear mind, I got it. Post back stuff. Post back ADO.Net wasn't in the if(!isPostBack) scope. OK.


11/Nov/2010

I have been feeling uncomfortable with Address table. In the current structure, whenever the user change any little thing, the data is deactivated and new one is inserted. The reason is to keep track of the address history. One address record consists of 3 addresses. There is no one correct answer there and it is too late to change but it is uncomfortable for me. I am still struggling with dealing with NULL value. I may be too lazy to code long but it may be the time to do it.


10/Nov/2010


I am struggling with sql statement. Suppose if there is a form to fill in and information will be stored in 3 different tables like Client, Address and Contact. And if all textbox are filled with something, it's fine but if some of them are left as blank, NULL values are trouble to deal with. I researched and what I found is several kinds of JOIN keywords.

• (INNER)JOIN: Return rows when there is at least one match in both tables
• LEFT (OUTER) JOIN: Return all rows from the left table, even if there are no matches in the right table
• RIGHT (OUTER) JOIN: Return all rows from the right table, even if there are no matches in the left table
• FULL (OUTER) JOIN: Return rows when there is a match in one of the tables

It's done but another problem is about IF statement in sql. I want to make it like
IF(@parameter !=NULL)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO....
END
This doesn't work well. I need to solve it ASAP!!



9/Nov/2010


Today was the first time we didn't present anything in a meeting. Nothing to show honestly. Some teams will finish their project in time so will not. My team will or will not? I prioritized functions. What we must finish? Mostly, we need to do anyway it seems. I keep working on my part. My part is all related to client table. Which means the core. And the core table structure has changed from the prototype. No stored procedure works as it was. it will take time.


8/Nov/2010

Implementation phase started. Still many things to be solved we have but anyway it's started. And we got one request (or order?) from our supervisor. "Finish the project by the next week presentation". One week to go? Gee. Never thought like that. Anyway we will try.  Also we discussed what we should do with the different types of the user's authorization. And the answer was to use ASP.Net membership function. Gotta research quick and well.

Week9

7/Nov/2010

How to differentiate normal accountant and super accountant? Normal accountant can view only page group A but super accountant can view page group A and B. There are user roles there. One option is in master pages, checking sessions of user name and user type. Another option is using ASP.Net membership function. We never used it before so we need to research more. It means that we need time. Though we don't have enough time, it's still worth trying. See how it works. I am working on reporting function. Researched a lot but still cannot get good solution.


6/Nov/2010

Working on the final database structure.  More think, more confused. There is not one correct answer. But I want to know it! Anyway there are 34 tables in the database at the moment. And moved back to the client page. I need to design the create new client form. What will be the good solution? How should I display it? And I got another question. There are two different type of users in our client's page. One is normal accountant. Another one is super user or we could say system administrator user. The super user will assign the normal accountant to the particular client as to Mr. Client idea. So who will create clients? Only super users? It's not handy. We need to ask Mr.Client again.


5/Nov/2010


Reviewed yesterday's client meeting. By updating ERD, tried to make all thing clear.Some parts get more simple like Case page but some parts get more complexed like Event page. Also we need to think what will be the most appropriate database structure around client. Normalize? or De-normalize? Unfortunately it's my area to work on. Anyway we need to complete the database during this weekend.



4/Nov/2010


Ajax control toolkit is great and easy. Some of them are similar with jQuery but cording is not required for most of the controls. I try to keep study them. One big issue has solved. Logout function. What we needed was only three line of C# cording.
           Response.Cache.SetExpires(DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(-1));
           Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
           Response.Cache.SetNoStore();
Now our login function is really secured. We had forth and second client meeting. Forth with our client and second with Mr.Client. Actually it was very nice meeting ever. By demonstrating our prototype system, he could understand and imagine what exactly the system would be. He looked happy with our work and finally we could get his real requirement. However some functionalities are bit different from what he wants so we need to re-design the system and the database structure. And it seems he often use Microsoft Outlook so I better study it.


3/Nov/2010


I know it is not a good idea as a project manager not to update the Gantt chart for long time but I haven' t done that. Today finally I decided to update. Using weekly journal, I updated it day by day. I use MS Project but it has got too many functions so it's quite hard to manage it. This application is not for ease, for stress it seems. Anyway, now it's updated.


2/Nov/2010


I tried to solve something. My friend asked me something. I helped him/her. Looked on my monitor back and found "What am I doing?". There is always dilemma there. I am always happy to help friends. I can learn a lot of thing by teaching. On the other hand, I loose myself. Or I can say I have problem of my concentration. Anyway, I need to improve my part. By improving my page, I try to think how can I use Ajex technology on my page. What will be the industrial way? My team mate has been struggling how to code for perfect logout function. Browser's back button is problem. There are two ways. Allow back or not at all even during logging in. I asked my brother who works as a programmer in Japan. He replied me quickly. First we should disable cache on  the browser. And in every member page, needed to check session. So that during logging in, even browser hasn't cache, as long as having session available, it will regenerate page again as if it is back to the previous page. Logical. How to do that?



1/Nov/2010

I have been thinking how to solve the problem of the database. One client may have many contact channels and address. So we created individual table for both of them. Normalization. But, to think about inserting and retrieving the data, in cording point of view, it's not efficient enough at all. Suppose the client has three phone numbers and one fax number and two email addresses. To insert these data, I need to write same things again and again. After we discussed with our supervisor, we decided to de-normalize them. In database point of view, it may not good but we also need to care about the performance of the system.It was good to discuss. I again updated the data dictionary and the ERD. Time to code full function of the client pages.

Week8

31/Oct/2010

Since the day we started this project, today was the first day we didn't gather for the project. All member had private schedule. My one was the Auckland marathon. It was my first try even it was the quarter marathon.  After the event, I finished updating the data dictionary and ERD. And back to work on the client page again but my right knee aches and I cannot concentrate on it. 



30/Oct/2010

Updating the data dictionary ERD. It takes more time than what I thought. And on the way, getting complicated. Gee. Client and Case pages updating is another complex. I could realize many thing I need to fix and update but how? Validation is one of them. Haven't got enough time!



29/Oct/2010

I installed Ajax control toolkit in the Visual Studio for implementing Ajax calendar control. It was really easy. Now in the system user do not need to input any date manually. He/she only needs to select the date from the calendar if needed to insert the date. During the team meeting, we had one issue. At the moment, we have ClientContact table to store all the contact channels one by one but when we think about retrieving the data, this way is not so handy.  What we should do? We need to solve it.



28/10/2010

I didn't like ASP.Net web controls because I couldn't get what is exactly going on in the controls so basically I tried to use c# coding. But I realized anyway they are handy and I changed my way to try to use ASP.Net controls as much as possible. What I have learnt in ASP.Net class last semester was like c# coding but when I started to use web controls this time, I thought that these are the ones I needed to learn.There are many properties I need to know and many ASP.Net tags should use. Today I learnt a lot by helping my friend. How to pass the parameter from one drop down list to another? Once it's done by using auto post back function, another problem came up. How to avoid  reloading the page when using auto post back? Ajax controls are the ones. Good stuff!



27/Oct/2010

I started to work on the document. During three months I need to complete at least 4 documents. Three are for the team and one is for myself. Basically these kind of document must be for the client but in this programme, all the document is for academic purpose. So when I read through the templates, I could easily feel weird. Yes, it's so weird! There is too many duplication section there. College says this is the real project for the real industry. Is it? Anyway I tried to finish a planning document but some sections are not understandable for me. If there is standards and procedures part there, what should I write?To whom shall I write these documents? Tough.



26/Oct/2010

Even I spent all night what I could achieve was a small stuff. I am getting used to ASP.Net controls and coding but not enough at all. I am interested more in JavaScript and jQuery now. We quickly made presentation script and performed it in the regular meeting. I thought we would get tough feedback again but indeed we had very silent feedback. Pity. Week 5 already and we really haven't got time. Still need to implement real product and to test it,,,headache again.



25/Oct/2010

Long weekend. Long struggling. To code with ASP.Net is so tough for me. Web controls may be handy but I cannot see how they work in a box from outside. Also there is a code behind there so I need to consider the connection between aspx and C#. Last week I divided tasks within my team but I realized it wasn't a good idea. For example, there is person in charge of stored procedures and another one works on interface. Former person cannot recognize what sort of parameters needed in a stored procedure and what would be a result needed. My mistake. Sorry friends. I provided new tasks for my team mates.  I still work on client and case functions. Struggling, really. Anyway I gotta do it.

Week7

24/Oct/2010


Closed campus library. Closed campus cafeteria. The only place we could gathered was the public library. I researched how to use the lightbox jQuery. It wasn't so hard. Simple. But only confusing stuff was ASP.Net. There are master pages and sometimes even master in master is there. I  am still not getting used to this structure. One more problem is data controls. There are many similar kind of controls there. I need to know their characteristics. Anyway database is almost done. Even stored procedures are there. I need to make it workable.



23/Oct/2010

Started to work on prototype GUIs. To understand and layout master page took time but still not too much because there was already prototype's prototype. Anyway by referencing page image which we created before, my task is going on and as it goes, I could feel our progress. Not bad. I need to learn how to use javascript more.


22/Oct/2010

I thought I fixed the problem but still not. Sometimes FullCalendar doesn't show events of October. The other months are Ok. Why? It's really depends on the timing. Before long weekend comes, we divided tasks of prototype. There are three roles. One needs to create a database populated with some fake data. One works for creating stored procedures. the last one needs to create UI maybe with C# coding. I took the last task. Challenging. See how far I could go.


21/Oct/2010

I have worked for a cycle shop as a volunteer since last May. It's a clerical work and basically I do accounting stuff like data entering but I can experience real Kiwi Job. What is more, recently I realized I got some idea of accounting for the project. Of course it's not completely the same but it's helpful at least. I solved the problem of the FullCalendar by recreating it. One of the major reason was jQuery version compatibility. Now I could display the same view of standalone FullCalendar in the template.


20/Oct/2010

Dealing with jQuery is also not easy. FullCalendar, I don't know why but events in October and November don't show up. How comes? I better refresh my mind once. I researched how to implement Print function. And solved with ease. Javascript has a solution but I want to try ASP.Net's RepoprtViewer control. After lunch I depressed not because of the project but of the disgusting meeting and staff's attitude. Couldn't concentrate so again needed to refresh my mind. I started to work on Data Dictionary with reviewing ERD. Hope in one week we could create prototype system.


19/Oct/2010

Before the presentation, we check our ERD carefully and discussed. Now it all looked fine to us for this stage. However we got many suggestion from tutors in the presentation.Some of them were partially true and needed to be considered but some of them were not suited to our project. After the presentation, we had a short meeting and checked each points which had thrown from the lectures. I am still struggling with FullCalendar. I doesn't work in the system template. But it is good chance to study the cording. I am getting used to the programme though I still cannot solve the problem.


18/Oct/2010

3rd Client meeting. Still Mr.Client is away so we talked to Mrs.Client. More meeting, more  understanding. But still three times are not enough to cover all function. Probably there is a gap between us, in understanding the system. Preparing for tomorrow's presentation and we already divided into three sections. But this time we realized that what our supervisor expected us was bit different from last presentations. There won't be any script. We need to handle the hall. Ok. Let us try. I am still struggling with jQuery stuff. If it's standalone tool, it works but if I try to integrate on the system template, any events in the database are not be displayed. Need to solve this.

Week6

17/Oct/2010

Sunday today. Library is closed. So we took seats in the cafeteria as usual. Finally I got solution for FullCalendar. I gathered all the information from the internet so still most of cording is not clear to me but anyway, I could succeed to connect it to database. I better study line by line. I started to create presentation script. There is a flow in our presentation so I discussed with my team mate and decided to present the activity diagram of "Create Cases" in my section.Hope we could do it well.


16/Oct/2010

Saturday today. Library is still open though not tomorrow. Started to plan next presentation. Main topic is UML. There will be ERD part, Activity diagrams part and Sequence & Class diagrams part. I am assigned to the second part. How can I describe it? I mean what will be the best way to present? Still no idea. Gotta think. Updated the function list and this time I added tick boxes to check which function is already on UML. Quite good idea to trace achievement. We discussed the function of Issuing invoice with paper prototype. We had different ideas from the client request, again. We need to talk to the client more.


15/Oct/2010


Discussed sequence diagrams. It is good to review the idea of class concept before coding. We have learned many stuff last half a year but I think for IT beginners like me, many things are still fuzzy and shaky. Hope I can make them clear before I graduate. And I am still trying to configure jQuery tool. Last few days, I don't know why but I haven't had good concentration. Hope I can get over it and find solution.



14/Oct/2010


Still working on FullCalendar. 3 steps forward, 2 back. or maybe 3. Anyway need to understand everything. At 4 O'clock, we were kicked off from college because of a kind of party. College is for party? or study? Cannot get the idea. Moved to library but couldn't find any free discussion room so we spent a couple of hours in the cafeteria. Discussed a plan for the next presentation. No surprise this time. We will explain UML diagrams. 



13/Oct/2010

Studied FullCalendar. I never used jQuery before so I need to know each function and how to configure them. Reading official document each line and tried them one by one. Getting better. Next step will be JSON. Another language. Wonder how many languages in the world? Reviewed Use Cases. Not very far from right answers but still not. It seemed we could spend whole time only for developing UML not software.


12/Oct/2010

Started to research how to implement an event calendar in the system. ASP.Net has got a calendar control but it seems not handy so I found jQuery plug-in tool called FullCalendar. The UI is just like the Google calendar. I want use this tool and also another plug-in Datepicker at the same time. I need to find solution how to connect them to database. Hope it works well. Instead of the regular meeting, we had a special class of UML today. We should have had this kind of class at the beginning of the analysis phase. But never too late. Let's get rebuilt UML diagrams.


11/Oct/2010

Had a meeting with our supervisor and asked him feedback on our ERD. There are still heaps of other possibilities need to be considered though we are not sure if needed or not. Yes, we need to discuss more. However I even could not start conducting discussion for this. Was it my fault? I do not know. As someone suggested, we decided to divide research tasks and I took working on Event calendar function and pdf generating function. Let's see how it works.

Week5

10/Oct/2010

Suppose if I could build up experience in software development luckily, I would not forget what I feel now and at least not insult learners. Otherwise the gold experience would end up to be ruined. Spent a few hours in discussing reminder function. I need to be ready for coding and wonder if I still remember ASP.Net and C#. Need to refresh my mind.


9/Oct/2010

Trying to update Gantt chart with MS Project. I couldn't make plan well at the beginning of the project so now the face of the Gantt looks weird. But it's OK. Still cannot get clear image of the difference between association and aggregation /composition of the class diagram.Which means still cannot get clear image of the coding I think. But I will get it with this project. Created Manage Case activity diagram and started to think about Manage Reminder activity diagram. Going well little by little.


8/Oct/2010


Friday is a sport day. We play badminton and basket ball with other friends to refresh our mind. Good time. Discussed more create functions.Just as search functions, it changes details depending on what to create. Think procedures and many possibilities and then put them into activity diagrams and Visio templates. The system is getting clear to us I believe even though there are so much things we need to discuss.



7/Oct/2010


Analysis phase is the one of the most important phase in the software development, I understand. Even only one function takes us long time to discuss and decide. With drawing activity diagrams, we discussed functions of managing events and client details. Even a few function took half a day. It seems never end! Anyway, we get better.



6/Oct/2010


2nd client meeting. Unfortunately Mr.Client is away for the business trip but we could see Mrs.Client. She took a time during her busy schedule. We realized even we tried to understand their accounting business, it's so hard in only 3 months. We could be good developers but not accountants. Anyway, after the good discussion, we worked on the search function. To say search function is easy but indeed there are heaps of stuff we need to think. What they can search? How to display the result? ERD is almost done so move to class diagram soon. But got one important question. User ID belongs to company? or person?

5/Oct/2010

Tuesday morning starts with practices for the presentation. It seems that we are getting used to the presentations. This is good and bad. Good point is we could get skills anyway and bad thing is we forget carefulness. What was happened is that we did not check the visibility of our presentation slides in advance so when we displayed them on screen, we found some of them were invisible. Damn! It's OK. At least we could learned. We must check the visibility every time.


4/Oct/2010
 
Same thing again. We spent lots of hours to create Activity diagrams and sequence diagrams and ended up with mistakes. I am still a  student so it may be OK but on the other hands, it means I am not ready for the business world. Based on my decision, we also spent many hours to prepare for the presentation for tomorrow but now need to reorganize it. Not sure if we have enough time or not. Anyway it is a good chance to know the real procedure of the software development. Again I realized we really don't have enough time. Too many stuff. Even I cannot create a Gantt chart properly. We discussed the GUI and found many options are there. E.g. Search function.How much we will create? By any words? With category? What will be the most important function for the user? Need another long meeting, maybe.

Week4

3/Oct/2010

Many diagrams running around in my brain one after another. Get tired but anyway I need to do something. Finished use case descriptions.  Checked schedule. Today is the last day of week 4. Week 4! one third of the semester has past? I am not good at drawing sequence diagram so I need to practice more. Through this project I could review whole the stuff what I learned and could reconfirm them. That is good but the thing is time is not enough. Gantt chart is another headache. I need to learn more.


2/Oct/2010

Discussion day again. Reconfirming idea of detailed use cases. realized lots of small things are unclear. Main topic was paper prototype.  By using paper, discussed GUI of the system. Even focused on Home page and Client page, it took long time. But these are the most important parts so it's OK. As time goes by, we noticed there were too many complicated words there. Different people use different names for the same thing. No good. So confusing. Time to update word definition. Even simple word is hard like Schedule or To Do or Event? Anyway it's getting harder and busier day by day.


1/Oct/2010

Discussion day. Though we discussed again and again still not enough. We are different people. So we spend more time. Creating agenda for next client meeting. Confirming activity diagrams one by one. So that we could have same ideas for same items. Also started to think about the structure of next presentation. We rotate each role every time so next time I will be a presenter. Hope everything works well.


30/Sep/2010

Discussed function which is still not clear to us. One is about tax. There are quite few types of tax type. Understood. So what are the differences between them in point of procedure? We cannot be accountants but still need to know their work flow. Second is about payment. We are IT students so we need to think everything in IT way. How can we automate the function of payment? How to calculate? Payment method? Third one is about client side function. In our idea, their client should be able to see their information through the web. This is efficiency. This may be what clients want.


29/Sep/2010

We found misunderstanding about use cases and finally go the point. Still diagrams we created are only basic ideas so we need to expand them. we we could clearly describe use cases and then each of them will be an item in the system. We refreshed an idea of the activity diagram individually and started to draw it to make it clear what should be done to complete each use case. So that we could get clear image of each overview use case. Some functions are still fuzzy so need to talk to the client again.


28/Sep/2010


Show time. We prepared scripts and dynamic slides and then practice the presentation a lot. It is a good idea to make a script but thing is by doing that, I cannot remember my speech. That's fine. Our slides were good and structure of the presentation was good but use cases we created were not correct. Need to modify them till next week. And also I need to study about importing email. I can imagine what theUI suppose to be but no idea about how to implement this function. Especially I need to know more about security stuff. After the presentation, I watched the video of that and could not find any progress on my speech. I still used "Umm" or "Ahh" or that kind of the gap filler even I tried not to do. However my other team mates did well. At least they improved. I Really need to fix it. We discussed those wrong use cases and tried to refresh them. They will be changed totally different.


27/Sep/2010

To share files within the team, we use a share folder in a server which we borrowed from school. It's so convenient but during weekend this campus is closed so cannot use. I forgot to copy some files then could not update the task tracker and some more documents. Monday morning started with updating stuff. It made me down. We need to work on anyway. For tomorrow's presentation, we spent all day for the preparation. 1st client meeting gave us more idea about the system so we decided to  focus on the client's requirement and functions of the system. This time we use a different presentation tool so that the slides are so dynamic. A problem is speech. With creating scripts, we could manage it hopefully.

Week3

26/Sep/2010 (11:00am-17:00pm)


Completed Use Case and reorganized the client meeting agenda. In the 1st version, the first client meeting would had been just like an intro but as to the client availability, we needed to know about their business as much as possible even on the first meeting. Our client is family owned accounting company and they have worked without an integrated system. Our initial template was on the right track and they seemed to be quite happy with that. One thing is that they do not want to force their client any change so that the client side page is not needed. We only need to focus on their side. New idea from them was a time sheet like function. With this function they can calculate how much they spend for the client. They said it was not must but it is challenging for us. They explained us details of their requirements nice and politely and spent more than one hour for us regardless of Sunday. We really appreciated that.


25/Sep/2010 (11:00am-18:00pm)


To avoid misunderstanding and to understand each other well, we started to have a morning meeting everyday. So that we could know the progress of each task also. We also had team meetings as needed basis but that was not enough we realized. That was just like a chatting and this time is a real meeting. What we need to do today? Report progress of each task? What we need to consider for another week? And I think it worked really well today. To describe use cases, we found that there are so much things we need to consider but we haven't like usability of a system. Before meeting our client, we are getting much more clear ideas and it is so good. Use case itself has almost done and time to work on use case description.　To get more idea, I refereed Salesforce.com again and re-thought it is the great system.


24/Sep/2010

There are three. Two from Japan and one from Sri Lanka. There are three. One from IT and two from not. This is my team. Some times it's not easy to understand each other. Each of us need to try to understand each other. Each of us need to learn something from others with respect. I believe we can do. Today we discussed functionality of the system more. Without having any actual request from the client, there is only assumption of us there. Even though it is always good to have a discussion. And then focus on a login function. If it is absolutely must or not. What is the advantage and disadvantage. What about OpenID? Never end. But I am learning a lot. Thanks my friends. You are the best.


23/Sep/2010

Still working on the proposal document. Many things I cannot understand clearly are there. Code of ethics? Have we learned what this is? Well, started to create UML diagrams. First one is use cases. It supposed to have been my favorite but,,,cannot remember well. Got idea from my teammate. Getting clear now. We divided it into three parts like login, creating users and creating cases. As to the function of their client, we better suggest our ideas to our client. If possible, 2-3 options should be provided. Anyway hope we can finish it till this Saturday. I created new account for free hosting then we can upload our website for testing purpose. However, still internet connectivity is disgusting. After 6pm is the worst. Never connected. AIS doesn't allow us to use FTP and has got only poor network service.  Any other options?


22/Sep/2010

AIS changed their Wi-Fi network system. We don't need to register our device anymore to use wireless network. It's OK. BUT, the connectivity is terribly bad. The login page comes up every 10min and disconnected quite often. We are working on the important project all day long which is recommended by college and we waste time there to try to re-connect. Network at my place is extremely better than college one. Not only connectivity but also speed. I wonder what the network administrator there doing? What is the solution for this problem? IT programme has got IT environment problem. Awful. Anyway, we are trying to create a first prototype in such a bad environment and found there is a new technique of ASP.Net there. ASP.Net MVC. It's different from traditional ASP.Net framework and it is more like manual coding way of programming. We can separate controls from design file so that it makes unit test easy. Unfortunately developing time is limited though it is worth knowing. So we will create prototype with using traditional ASP.Net and at the same time, try to understand this new technique for later final application developing if it's possible. Again, I lost my concentration because of the,,,,disappointed so much.


21/Sep/2010

1st presentation, project proposal. We really want to improve our presentation skills so we rehearse 3 times in the morning before the time. I don't think 3 times are enough but we all improved a lot from yesterday. Show time. For reviewing purpose, we decided to shoot video of our presentation. Be confident and relax, talked to myself. Without having a client meeting, we did it too well I thought. However, when I reviewed the video I realized it wasn't such a good. I used too much "Ah,,," and "Um,,,," and I don't like the way I behaved and the worst thing is we couldn't get synchronized with the audience. It clearly showed our presentation was not attractive enough. The good thing is that I could not satisfied that. It means still we could improve more. We have already got some idea to make our show dynamic so next will be much better.


20/Sep/2010

Checked the visibility of PPT in the presentation room and discussed what we need to present on a first presentation tomorrow. Project description is my part. It's not easy. Think I need to place on audience side. How much they can understand without knowing anything in advance. Need to explain about what is a CRM, of course, and what is an accountant perhaps. A CRM is obviously a key word so I created a diagram to explain it. It seemed to be all right. What about an accountant. In a first team rehearsal, I explained it without any visual material and got suggestion. Better to draw another diagram. I agreed though I am not good in drawing. Then we performed in front of our supervisor. We got many valuable advice from him. First in spite of our best efforts,there were still many reputations in our slides like introduction of team members. We cut it. Second, time is money as usual. So if we want to show something besides slides, we better prepare in advance like links to referential websites or other documents. And finally, to grab audience, we we need to gather their attentions using effective words and phrases. I remember when I did the first presentation in semester1, I researched a bit about what are the points of presentation and slides and found article about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' presentation. Presentation is not a small part of a project. It is important without doubt. I believe we could improve our presentation skills as well.

Week2

Sun, 19/Sep/2010

Working on a proposal document. Studied the template from the beginning to the end. Bit different from what we have done in semester1. Lots of stuff needed to fill in. What is a goal of the CRM project? What is objectives? And actually think that Proposal and that Definition what I created in semester1 and 2 was terrible though I did quite well after the Analysis Report. But this time, I will make them beautiful from the beginning.


Sat, 18/Sep/2010

So what functionality the CRM application need to have? We discussed within the team. Login, client details, case descriptions, upload documents,,, and who can do what? Insert, update, delete, and search? There should be at least three different sort of users, a client, an accountant and a system admin. OK. We are getting more clear ideas. Then what about our schedule? No. Not enough time we have, we re-realized.



Fri, 17/Sep/2010

As usual, there would be many things we need to consider when we develop a CRM system.  What will be happened if we miss even only one of them? A reference says 70% of developing CRM project end up with fail. 70%. Not a good rate at all. We got a reading material of CRM today. Yes. First, we need to understand CRM more. My understanding is like this. CRM is a tool to communicate with customers. CRM makes is possible to provide customers what they want or what they expect. We even could say CRM optimize business chance. In Japan, it is often said that the customer is God though I do not like this phrase. Anyway, a customer oriented cultural mindset is MUST in developing CRM.



Thu, 16/Sep/2010


Salesforce's CRM wins the admiration. The best in the world, maybe. But it seems that too many functions are there. Perhaps it is perfectly OK for big companies. On the other hands, I do not think small companies need the same functions. The simplified Salesforce's CRM is the one what we need to create, I suppose.

Wed, 15/Sep/2010

About a month ago, I read a book named "Cloud Computing" by chance.  It explained a little about Salesforce.com but I could not get clearly what it is. And a CRM project came to me. Salesforce.com is the company of CRM! Now I got it a bit better. Think this web-based CRM is an amazing system. A point is that in any place of the world, business is there. Business is a business. There are customers, products/services and sellers. No difference even in another side of the globe. This is why Salesforce.com has established. Great idea. The CEO used to be a vice-president of the Oracle. So he knows database very well.



Tue, 14/Sep/2010

I have worked in two different small companies in Japan. One was an international academic book seller and another one was a household products importer. I worked there as sales and marketing staff. None of them did not have a customer relationship management system.  And this is what we are going to develop in three months.