Design and Implementation of an Online/Intranet Office Chat Application System
Chapter One
Objective Of Study
The objective of this project is to implement a web-based chat application that will allow users within an intranet/internet connection to engage in private and public conversations. This will be achieved by following the set standard below:
- Conceptual design for a secure, accessible, and user-friendly web-based chat application university, using the University of Calabar, UNICAL, as a case study;
- Development of such a system to demonstrate its functionality, using the WAMP (cross-browser Apache/MySQL/PHP) web server framework;
- Perform tests on the said system to ensure functionality, accessibility, and usability of the system.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND STATE-OF-THE ART
Introduction
In other to gain a proper sense of perspective regarding the subject matter of this study, it becomes necessary to understudy past works related to the subject matter, relating them to the fundamental concepts that inform the necessity and objectives of the study.
In this chapter, the internet will be discussed as it is a basis of online result system and also internet applications. The historical evolution of mobile technology as a means of delivering effective information services will be considered first; then, the state of technologies and applications in current use, before looking at certain academic work undertaken with a bias towards the subject matter under consideration.
The Internet
The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard internet protocol suit (mostly TCP/IP) to serve billons of users worldwide. It can also be said to be a network that consist of millions of public and private of local to global scope that are linked by either wireless or wired networking technologies. It carries an extensive range of information resources and services such as the world wide web(www) and an infrastructure that support electronic mail(email).
The internet has enabled new forms of human interactions through:
- Online result system
- Instant messaging
- Social networking
- Online shopping
Newspaper, book and other print publishing are adapting to website technologies or they reshaped into blogging and web feeds (Wikipedia,).
Rich Internet applications
Rich internet applications are so called for two main reasons:
- Rich owing to the use of diverse media and contents types
- Internet, due to the operations being predominantly based on the world wide web.
RIAs, as they are also called , are in their mor proper sense defined as being distinct from regular web application in that while they in _fact web-based, tthey actually retain some of the characteristics of desktop-based applications. These include the following:
- An RIA generally requires some form of installation on the user’s local file system, thus granting it direct access to local storage and operating system functionality
- RIAs inherently retain the ability to consume and work with data between a user’s local file system and any necessary web servers. This is borne out of necessity – the Internet serves as a central repository for live data obtained by the application, which it can then modify and save on the local file system, uploading back to the web server when necessary. In effect, this scenario leverages a great deal of flexibility.
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM ANALYSIS & DESIGN
Introduction
Systems analysis is essentially the study of a business problem domain to recommend improvements and specify business requirements and priorities for the solution. On the other hand, system design is the specification or construction of a technical, computer-based solution for the business requirements identified in a system analysis. The databases, programs, user interfaces, and networks required by the information system implement the technical blueprints and specifications developed during the system design phase.
The Unified Modelling Language, or UML, is the world standard for the specification of software engineering processes: it therefore follows that there will be a number of UML process models illustrating various functional aspects of the system under consideration.
System Requirement Specification
System requirements, in a nutshell, encapsulate the needs of the eventual end users of a given information management system. With regards to the chat system, these requirements are as following corresponding to the core operational phases of the system:
- User authentication;
- Result generation;
- Group creation;
- Friend request;
- User authentication;
- Error resolution.
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
Introduction
System implementation deals with the physical realization of the system design. It entails the coding of the application programs that make up the system, as well as the testing and deployment of the new system.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Summary
This project has simply been about designing and implementation of an online / intranet chat system using the University of Calabar as a case study. The advantages of communications among staffs and student of the college have been clearly stated which support the need for the an online / intranet chat system. In summary, the objective of the study was to demonstrate the viability of leveraging the strengths of online applications, such as portability, availability, affordability and mobility in the provision of real-time information, in this case students’ can disseminate information with ease as well as staffs and lecturers. This simply means that students can create a group chat room for his entire class online and whatever information is drop there its seen by the entire class irrespective of where they are and same goes for the lecturers, department, faculty and other non-academic staff of the school, as they can all access it with their computer systems or phones.
Application Of The Software To The Problem Domain
The utilization of the chat application can be shown in its usage and deployment.
Usage: the system is solely managed by the administrator; users are added by the administrator of the system. Users has the prerogative to invite friend to the chat list, also users can create group and add friends on their chat list to the group.
Deployment: this can be in terms of hosting and how a user can have access to the application or by creating a WAN (wide area network) in the school the will serves as an intranet system for communication purposes.
Hosting it requires registration of domain name and uploading of the application to the web server.
For the user to gain access to the system either with a computer system, an HTML-compliance browser is required.
Recommendations
A number of possibilities exist for the future exploration and development of the results portal system. These include:
- Development of a Web Service API (application programming interface) for the portal: This would provide ubiquity via the conversion of system data into formats such as JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) and XML (eXtensible Markup Language), which are easily adapted by third-party client interfaces (such as SMS-driven interfaces, widgets, as well as mobile and desktop applications) without affecting the security of the main application.
- Hosting the system on a virtual private network: The inherent advantage here is that the University can now isolate the system on a dedicated server which handles requests to the system separately from those going to the normal University website, optimizing its overall performance. In addition, the VPN ensures that the system is secure and accessible for its users on a 24-hour basis.
- Integration of SMS- and/or email-driven notification capability into the system, to enhance its overall interactivity with its user demographic.
Conclusion
As a result of this study, students and lecturers are presented with a system which would, if implemented, grant them ease in communications concerning results, with adequate capability for handling student complaints. Students can also take advantage of sitting in front of a desktop computer or laptop to disseminate information to their course mates and school at large.
REFERENCES
- Adagunodo, E. R., Awodele, O., & Idowu, S. (2009). “SMS User Interface Result Checking System”. Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, vol. 6: p. 105.
- binti Solaiman, Z. (2006). The Development of Java-Based SMS Exam Result System In Mobile Computing Environment. Undergraduate Project Report, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam. Available: http://eprints.ptar.uitm.edu.my/707/1/ZAINORA_SOLAMAN_06_24.pdf
- Schach, S. R. (2008). Object-Oriented Software Engineering. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
- Wikipedia (2001, October 19). Mobile Application Development. Retrieved August 10, 2011, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_application_development
- Wikipedia (2001, October 19). Mobile Phone. Retrieved August 10, 2011, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone
- Wikipedia (2012, April 1). Software maintenance. Retrieved from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_maintenance
- Beizer, B. (1990, September 20). Software Testing Techniques (2nd ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
- Binder, R. V. (1999).Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Objects, Patterns, and Tools. Addison-Wesley Professional.
- Hetzel, W. C. (1988). The Complete Guide to Software Testing, 2nd ed. Wellesley, Mass. : QED Information Sciences
- Myers, G. J. (1979). The art of software testing, New York : Wiley