12e
Evaluation
How well does the final outcome meet the requirements?
It has been agreed with Mr G Yuen and Mrs R Hollands that the final meets all the requirements of the functional specification. The first point to make is that the solution was in Microsoft Word. This was the only option apart from using a web-based interface and in my opinion, it is the securer of the two. It would have been preferred to use Microsoft Access but the church is not in the position to pay out any money to Microsoft.
The final solution will now be measured against the success criteria outlined at the end of the spec:
- “Time taken to input, save and upload sermon data via form must be shorter than creating print out, waiting till Thursday to give print out to Mr Yuen, the time it takes Mr Yuen to update HTML code and upload the changes to the code to web server via FTP.”
This was tested and it actually only takes a maximum of two minutes to input the sermon data into the form, append it as a new node, select the output and press the button: 'Parse and upload'. This is a VAST improvement.
- “There must be less input mistakes made than before.”
Sometimes, if Mr Yuen was in a rush, he would code lazy html. Now with this automated solution, Mrs Hollands is able to generate only valid XHTML and she doesn't know any HTML herself!
- “The solution must provide a secure front end and hide the processes and storage in the background.”
This is true, no data is stored inside the Microsoft Word document, the document itself (SMS.doc) is actually tagged 'read-only' and all procedures are done behind the scenes. The user only notices that the website is updated instantly! It is a secure, subtle and swift solution.
- “The final solution must be easy to use and easy to navigate.”
Feedback from the client and the test user group during the prototyping period has been the main contributing factor to the successful completion of the this criteria. Even though it a
- “It must also notify the user of any errors or other problems.”
The solution also keeps the user well informed of the job in hand. Examples shown below:
Weaknesses/improvements
The GUI is slightly crowded. The use of tabs was considered but that also could have over complicated the system. With the current design, everything you need is immediately before your eyes.
A more advanced search and the ability to change the FTP username and password would be good improvements for the future. At the moment the HWEC ftp server log on details are constants within the actual code. So if the password were to change someone will have to go into the code and make the adjustments in the VB environment - this is a weakness but something that can be resolved in future.
Mr Yuen asked if it could be made into a standalone executable, this is possible and it would be the most logical progression of the solution. Mr Yuen does not use Microsoft Office but makes use of the open-source solution from Sun Microsystems: OpenOffice. The VBA code does not work in that environment - so if the form was re-created in say, Visual Studio and the code copied over there too it would be able to be saved as an exe and thus allow Mr Yuen to use it at home.
The effectiveness of the solution
Did you really need to code?
The functionality required by the specification and gained by the final solution could not have been recorded by a macro or solved by simply using some of Word's in-built features. Every interaction with the XML and the other features had to be hand coded.
My own performance
I am very happy with the final product. It works very well indeed. Surely this must reflect the effort and time I put into this project as well as my own performance.
Current skill level
Having not done any event driven object-orientated programming before (apart from inputting instructions to an electronic turtle in primary school) I was surprised that I was able to satisfy the requirements of the spec with such 'finesse'. I was determined to relieve my mother of this problem even though I believe my lecturer had concerns about the complex nature of it for a while. Skill wise, I have a good understand of the fundamentals of event driven languages, the Visual Basic Syntax has been mastered to some extent and I have been able to interact with the XML DOM well.
Areas for improvement...
Designing instead of hacking. Currently, I am a bit of a cart before the horse programmer!
