Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Prototype 3

Hi folks. Another deliverable due Friday. As per last time, whatever you want to show can either be screen dumped into a Powerpoint presentation, or ZIP up the files you want to show and include clear instructions on what we need to launch to see what you want us to see!

Post a blog entry on your project blog with a link to where you have stored the ZIP file.
Also include instructions (README) on what to look at in the ZIP.

I would expect ALL project to have a mock up of their access database at this stage.
The visuals for most should be pretty much at finished stage (at least for part of the site / game).
You probably have flowcharts, sitemaps, game maps, etc. worked out.

Show it all.

Remember next week, you will have a detailed document with a project plan (MS project)

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

DATABASE TIPS

1) no spaces in field names, query names, tables names etc

2) If you have a list of possible values for a field, make it a lookup but NOT and MS ACCESS lookup.
i.e. if you have a member table with a country field. Make the country field country_id, then create a new table for Country which will have 2 fields country_id and country_name
WARNING, if you implement the lookup in ACCESS other than as described above, the database design will not translate to other database management systems. MS ACCESS is not only a database management system but it is also an application and because lookups occur so often, the application makes it easier and quicker. BUT DON'T USE IT.

3) When you want to be able to store zero or many languages for a member for example.
i.e. you have a table for languages with a language_name field which has the values English, Irish, French etc. You also have a table for Member with a field member_id which might have values for say 3 members. Each member can speak 0 or more languages. Create a new table Language_Member whose fields are the primary keys of the 2 tables Language and Member

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

digital media awards - Register NOW!

www.digitalmedia.ie

Weapons

drawings should include Elevation and Plan so that 3D models can be built more easily later

.ie, .com

.com is always the best to register. From a marketing point of view it is the first one that comes to mind. It is also easier and cheaper to register

.ie is probably the next best for an Irish company. It is more difficult to register and costs more..

For mobile web projects, you should also look at .mobi

Domain Names + hosting

You should identify an available domain name. Then identify a hosting company.

Look out for specials whereby if you buy the hosting for a year, you get a free domain name.

e.g. cleverdot.com
e.g. viux.com

Also be careful. Choose a hosting service that has the web technology that you want to use.
e.g. PHP, IIS, ASP, ASP.NET, COLDFUSION, ORACLE, ACCESS, MY SQL.

Make sure that the technologies that you want to use are part of your package.

REUSABLE COMPONENTS

If your project is suitable for reusing components, then do so.
i.e. build a common object. Then in the design refer to this

STYLES & TOCS

If you use heading STYLES in WORD, you can auto generate a table of contents.

You should include this in all documents

Naming

Use a naming standard to simplify identifying component in your project.

e.g.

if you have a map, with rooms on ground floor and more room on first floor.
Make sure to label each room as g1, g2 etc. f.1, f.2 etc. for example

SCANNING HAND DRAWN SKETCHES

If you scan in a pencil drawing it can be too light.

TIP:
photcopy the page with the darkness turned up.
Scan the photocopy.

Costs a bit more but if you have lot of scanning it's quicker than outlines each drawing again in marker.

SIZE MATTERS

pay attention to your file sizes when online.

There is a trade off to be made between quality and size.

This is especially true for 3D development

Competition

If you discover a competitor site similar to yours, don't panic. Record when you found it, bring it to the attention of the lecturers and do a SWOT analysis of it.
You now have a benchmark to compare against your site.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

CHARACTERS

google SITEPAL!

Example Detailed Design Doc

I've put the "Hold Yer Horses" design from last year in my folder on the P drive.
It inlcudes the finished game and documentation.

I suggest you look at the detailed deisgn document.
You may need other sections in your document but this is a good example of the type of thing we will be expecting.

Colm

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

FLASH

LearnFlash.com

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FILENAMES

Many servers will be on a different operating system to the one you are developing.
There may be limitations on filename.

e.g. some free servers e.g. brinkster, will rename your files when you ftp them to the brinkster server.

one way of getting around this is to use the old 8.3 filename convention

DATABASE

Make life easy for yourselves, treat field names like variables. Don't have any spaces in a field name. this will save you lot's of hassle later.

Likewise for tables, queries etc.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Important Notice

Tuesday Class 7th November.

This Friday, the second prototype is due.
As a result of creating this prototype each group should have already started their detailed design document.

For friday each group should produce a ZIP file, containing whatever is required for the prototype.
I expect most will use a powerpoint demo or Captivate movie.

Each project should name the ZIP file as MM306xx.ZIP where xx is the project group number.
Please publish this to your project website and email the link to all project supervisors.

I will not be at class on Wednesday morning due to attending an unavoidable meeting.
Groups from Wednesday's class are welcome on Tuesday and should you require my attention I will gladly meet with you at another time. Just contact me via email.

Thanks
Colm