Computing project Essay

The system will require a user name and a password to view or edit anything! Only one person is permitted to use the system, no-one else requires access   All files will also be password protected. Database   The instructor will be able to add or delete any records as needed   It will hold all necessary details Specific Objectives   The database will be able to create reports to show what stage the student is at   The database will calculate how many lessons a student has had and how much they have paid with plus if there are any outstanding balances remaining. My system is designed to help the instructor, the instructor has many problems with the current system, and many times it has cost him jobless hours. The current system is very old and has a lot of potential problems and I wish to make a system that eradicates these obvious problems. My system for a start will store the entire student details carefully and properly in line with all data protection acts. The main thing is that these details should not get lost and the instructor has access to this all the time so that he can contact the student at any time. The details should also be available so that it can be updated any time it needs to be. By having all these details stored onto the system it is kept safely and in one place rather than having paper forms lying about getting lost and muddled up, these forms will only be accessed only in one place so if the instructor needs these back in the office or at to work from at home then it is not possible to have multiple copies as it will not all be up to date. For example if a student changes the home phone number then the instructor will have to update every sheet of paper he has with the students phone number if he does not then it will be inconsistent and this can cause problems. The main reason for my proposal of this system is to ensure that the instructor does not continue double booking and not booking students at all. Currently at the end of a lesson the student asks for a booking and the instructor will look in his diary and book appropriately, many times what happens is the instructor looks at the wrong date, for example if the student asks for April 21st 2008 then the instructor may accidentally open may 21st 2008 and tell the student he is free. But in reality on that day an on that time he is busy. This is one of the things the instructor is complaining about and also another thing that has been drawn to my attention is that he misreads the time, so he tells the student that he is booked at 13:00 tomorrow but he is actually free he has a lesson at 3:00 not 13:00 so this is one way the instructor is loosing out on money. I wish to remove this issue and avoid these mistakes happening. GCE A2 Computing CPT 6 Ram Bhojani EXISTING SYSTEM Instructor Bookings | Ram Bhojani 13HAN PROPOSED SYSTEM DESIGN OVERALL SYSTEM Input Processes Student Name Calculate the number of lessons so far Student Number Calculate the total amount spent. Student Address Add a student Lesson Code Edit a student Price Per Lesson Delete a student Date and time of next lesson Search a Student Day Booked Search Availabilities Time Booked Edit a booking File Outputs Student Details Student details Availability Details Number of lessons each student has had Total spent Balances FORMS General Name Purpose Main Menu This allows the instructor to access the student details and availability details. Student Details This allows the instructor to view all details about a student. It also allows the instructor to print a report on the student progress Availability Details. This allows the instructor to see what dates and times are available in the next two weeks and make a booking. USER INTERFACE DESIGN MAIN MENU STUDENT DETAILS MENU AVAILABILITY DETAILS DATABASE DESIGN INCLUDING ER MODEL STUDENT (StudentName, StudentNumber, StudentAddress, LessonCode, PricePerLesson, DateAndTimeOfNextLesson) Availability (AvailableSlots, NextLessonBooked) RECORD STRUCTURE Instructor Field name Data type Size format Description AvailableSlots Date/time, Date time Shows what dates and times are available NextLessonBooked Date/time, Date time Name of student and the day, date and time of their next lesson. Student Field name Data type Size/format Description Student name Text, 20 The first name and last name of the student. Student number Number, 8 A Unique number given to each student for easy reference. Student address Text, 50 Full address of student, including postal address. Lesson code Number 5 A code that determines what sort of lesson they take, they can have an hour lesson, one and half-hour or pass plus. Price per lesson Number, Decimal 5,2 How much the student pays for each lesson Date and time of next lesson Date time Date time The next lesson student has booked. VALIDATION. I will use validation on some of the fields on the tables so there is less chance of wrong data being inputted. There are only some fields that can have validation but by ensuring they have a working validation it will mean that the system will not be wrong. Things that I can validate are numbers or specific number of characters. This is to make sure that the data entered conforms to a certain standard. The user cannot see the validation rules, so when they make a mistake they find out as an error message appears. VALIDATION Field Name Validation Type Validation Rule Error message Student Number Type Check. 8 digits The student number must be 8 digits Lesson Code Type check 5 Digits The lesson code must be 5 digits. STORAGE AND MEDIA FORMAT For my system I need to know how large each file will be so I have calculated the size of each field, and multiplied that but the amount of fields ii may get, to get an estimate of how large the file could get. Storage and media format Field name Number of records Size of record/ bytes Total size of records/bytes Student name 30 32 960 Student number 30 8 240 Student address. 30 65 1950 Lesson code 30 5 150 Price per lesson 30 8 240 Date and time of next lesson 30 16 480. Available lessons 31 20 620 Next lessons booked 6 134 804 Total 5444b 5. 4kb I have calculated that the approximate maximum size that I will need for the data to be stored will be around 6kb, which is small enough to fit on almost any data storage type. The most suitable storage device for this will be the hard disk drive on the laptop to be used. This means that the system will not be lost easily as it is not a portable storage device but on a actual laptop, which would be looked after carefully. There is a large amount of space on the hard disk meaning that there will be available space for expansion if necessary. Also the laptop can be connected to a computer in the office via a USB cable meaning that the data could be backed up and if needed archived. IDENTIFICATION OF SUITABLE ALGORITHMS FOR DATA TRANSFER Process to calculate Total number of lessons so far = ([Student Lessons])*([Total]) Process to calculate Total spent so far =([Total lessons])*([Price Per lesson]) Produce report of students ready for test Search through student details with criteria field Ready students to find matching records. If there are no matching records output an error message to the user. PLANNED VALID OUTPU.T. For my system outputs I have decided to create a report for students to see their progress. This will need to be created in Access. DESCRIPTION OF MEASURES PLANNED FOR SECURITY AND INTEGRITY OF DATA. The data must be kept secure and correct as this information’s is very confidential, if details of the student were to get lost or misplaced then this would be in breach of the data protection act. To keep the data secure I am going to make sure that the user backs up the data at the end of every working week and keeps this disc either safely at home or in the office. There will also be a back up of the main system so if it happens to crash or is damaged then it can be replaced. If the system does crash then the files will have to be manually transferred back into the system from the backup. DESCRIPTION OF MEASURES PLANNED FOR SYSTEM SECURITY The system will not be secured with passwords however the computer will have a password this will be set to expire every 28 days to ensure that the data is safe even if someone gains the password, the user will generally have to be careful and keep the laptop besides him at all times or lock it in a glove compartment. When the instructor goes home he can either take it with him and store it at home carefully or leave it at the office in a safe place. As my system is only designed for one person the password on the system should be a sufficient security measure. TEST STRATEGY The system must be thoroughly tested to make sure that no errors occur the system is up and running. This is logical because if errors occur when the user starts to use the system, it can cost time to get it fixed. Hopefully if my testing strategy is good enough, it will not have any errors when it goes live. I am going to use bottom up testing, to test the system. This involves testing each individual module using prepared test data, which includes normal data, extreme data, upper and lower limits and individual data after this is done I will test the program to see if every route through the program is tested, every statement is executed, accuracy of the processing and that the program fits the original specification. This will make sure that the system is running correctly as this is basically using the whole system. I am also going to test the system in a beta testing method, although this will be a small scale. I am going to give the system to the user for a week just to make sure that everything works correctly. IMPLEMENTATION Login Screen Main Menu This is the main menu of my programme from here there are three options availability details and student details. Finally you can exit. Testing Test ID Test Data Test/Type Reason for test Expected Results Actual Results Data Entry 1. My system does conisit of tables and menus, both the student details and availability detail screens are very simple, it just displays details about these two entities. The booking screen is more complex because it needs to be live, so when the instructor makes a booking it needs to update on the next lesson booked screen and the availability screen. PROCEDURE AND VARIABLE LIST/ DESCRIPTIONS FOR PROGRAMS OR LIST OF PACKAGE ITEMS DEVELOPED Type of item Item Name Descriptions Table Student Details Holds all the details of the students that the instructor teaches, this includes first name, last name, address, phone number and the details of their next lesson that has been booked. Holds the details of all the available time slots in the coming fortnight, this allows the instructor only to see what is available, he can liaise with the student and once a slot is agreed a booking can be made. Form Make A Booking This form allows the user to make a booking for a lesson, he will need to enter the student number, and then first of all select a time and then the date. Once all these are selected the appointment is made. Form Next lesson Booked Has a list of students and the date and time of their next lesson, so the instructor can check on this if he receives a query from the student. CREATION AND CUSTOMISATION OF THE DATABASE TABLES I created all my tables in Microsoft access; I then linked it up to visual basics, The table below is the Student Details table. It consists of mostly text and one field of number, the reason that the telephone number is a text field rather than a number is because telephone numbers usually start with a 0 and if I put the data type as numbers then it will not let me add a 0 at the front. USER MANUAL BRIEF INTRODUCTION The instructor database is a simple system to handle bookings given to the instructor. The system allows the instructor to control appointments already made and allows him to make new appointments. It allows him to keep electronic records of all students, past and present. The students all have unique student numbers that the instructor can use to search for them. It stores details about student’s names, addresses, telephone numbers and the lessons they have booked. There is a very easy to use form that allows the instructor to make a booking. Microsoft Access 2007 or later. To install the system one must either move the file onto the hard disc of the computer. This can be done by selecting the file ‘Instructor Database System’ and copying and pasting it into an empty folder on the hard disc, this maybe the best idea as there is a possibility a removable storage device could get lost or corrupt. This system could be also run from a removable storage device by opening the file and run it straight away. To back the system up the system the database file can be copied onto a USB pen or CD-R. When the system is going to be backed up, the file should be copied onto the USB pen, when this done a message box may appear asking if you want to replace the existing file just select ‘yes’ or ‘yes to all’. This would mean that the backup would be separated from the main system, meaning less chance of losing both the original and the backup. USING THE SYSTEM Here is a simple short set of instructions to use the system. When the instructor opens up they will be asked to log on, The username at the moment is Ian and the password is Burleigh. Once they enter all these details correctly it allows them to use the system. Once the instructor logs on, he will come to the main menu of the system, I am going to show him to basic things in this tutorial, how to find the phone number of a student and then how to make a booking. Below is the main menu, to get to the student phone number he has to select the student details button, then the screen will have three buttons saying details, he can select any of these three, they all do the same job. Once that is selected at the screen below will appear, there are no details at the moment, but once show details button is pressed all the details will appear. The instructor now needs to press the back button until he arrives back at the main menu, and then select availability details. Then select make a booking. Once the make a booing screen appears first he has to select the date that he wants, then the time and finally the student number. Once that is done press save and then it is saved. Appraisal Comparision of project performance against objectives. To compare the objectives and the performance , I will put the original objectives down and compare against each one. General Objectives Security. The database will be able to create reports to show what stage the student is at   The database will calculate how many lessons a student has had and how much they have paid with plus if there are any outstanding balances remaining. My system is designed to help the instructor, the instructor has many problems with the current system, and many times it has cost him jobless hours. The current system is very old and has a lot of potential problems and I wish to make a system that eradicates these obvious problems. My system for a start will store the entire student details carefully and properly in line with all data protection acts. The main thing is that these details should not get lost and the instructor has access to this all the time so that he can contact the student at any time. The details should also be available so that it can be updated any time it needs to be. By having all these details stored onto the system it is kept safely and in one place rather than having paper forms lying about getting lost and muddled up, these forms will only be accessed only in one place so if the instructor needs these back in the office or at to work from at home then it is not possible to have multiple copies as it will not all be up to date. For example if a student changes the home phone number then the instructor will have to update every sheet of paper he has with the students phone number if he does not then it will be inconsistent and this can cause problems. The main reason for my proposal of this system is to ensure that the instructor does not continue double booking and not booking students at all. Currently at the end of a lesson the student asks for a booking and the instructor will look in his diary and book appropriately, many times what happens is the instructor looks at the wrong date, for example if the student asks for April 21st 2008 then the instructor may accidentally open may 21st 2008 and tell the student he is free. But in reality on that day an on that time he is busy.