Archive for October, 2007

Detailed Proposal

{ October 31, 2007 @ 10:21 pm } · { Caroline Pace }
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  • Aims

To design and create a website that features Video on Demand (Vod) and streaming video content of television programmes to respond to the current popularity of television online.

  • The Idea

I am proposing to produce a prototype website that takes advantage of the latest trend in television viewing, as it is moving away from tradition television sets and towards computers. This is occurring due to audiences desiring a greater control over their television viewing and to schedule programmes around their lives, not the other way around. I am focusing purely on television content as the marketplace for legal film downloads is stilled plagued by legal considerations.

  • “TV Heaven”

Although I will only be making a working prototype of this website, I have designed it in its entirety as a combination of the better features from competitors’ websites and unique features that I think will prove useful. The website will contain pre-recorded TV programmes and access to TV channels streamed online. This will be a mixture of free-to-view and pay content. There will be the ability to search for programmes available from other VoD websites so as to create an integrated website for the user. Overall, I wish to create a sense of community as is so greatly associated with television viewing. To establish this I will emplace a forum that is divided by TV genres, programmes and actors, the ability to post comments under a video and upload video responses. I will also provide detailed information on VoD and streaming media, as not all people are familiar with this technology.

  • Funding

To fund the maintenance and purchase of copyright to various television programmes I intend the website to be funded by a variety of means. Initially, revenue will be gained via programme sales. Secondly, throughout the various pages of the website users will come across advertisement banners sponsored by a search engine, Google for instance, flash advertisements and sponsored features. There will also be the ability for an entire series to be sponsored by a particular company and for adverts to be shown whilst the video is loading. In addition to this, at perhaps a later date, subscription may be a possibility to create ‘VIP members’ who will gain benefits such as money-off offers.

  • Applications

I intend to use Dreamweaver to create this website and Quicktime as my media player. I am using Dreamweaver as it is an application I have used previously and will be at ease creating a website with this programme. I have chosen Quicktime as it is a player that many users will have come across in the past as it is bundled with iTunes, a music player made popular by the corresponding portable mp3 music player, the iPod. It is also a format that is simplistic to use, has a stylish design and it will make it easier to reduce copyright theft as the application makes it difficult to save content by ‘right-clicking’.

  • Target Audience

My target audience will be anyone who wants to legally view high-quality television programmes over the internet. I cannot specify a particular age range or gender as I will be including a variety of television programmes targeted at the public as a whole. However, I believe that users would have to already be fairly competent with computers and the internet in order to know that it was possible to view television online.

  • Researching Competitors

There are many websites that you can use to watch television online however, many are link websites that take you to illegal content. In the UK there are very few places that distribute legal television programmes, and the majority of these involve downloading an application, such as BBC’s ‘iPlayer’. One website that is similar in nature to mine is MegaVideo.

This website has a clear design and easy tab system which helps the user find exactly what they want and has video content in numerous languages. It also features a ‘Premium’ membership which rewards members by allowing them to earn money through a rewards program, download original video files, and get advertising revenue with an Adbrite Publisher Account. However not all the video content on this website is legally obtained and the categories they use are extremely broad.
My website will have an advantage over MegaVideo by being a legal distributor, having clearly defined categories and assisting the fandom of programmes by creating a community.

  • Style and Design

The design of the website will reflect this simple mock-up, “TV Heaven” Mock-up (see Appendix 1).  It is a style that is similar to competitors’ websites but, the colour scheme will ensure the embedded media players are flawlessly merged into the website. Overall, the website will be simplistic in its look as users are more interested in the quality and variety of video content than a flamboyant website.

Proposal (Dorota Jablonska)

{ October 31, 2007 @ 5:34 pm } · { Dorota Jablonska }
{ Comments (2) }

Aim

For my second assignment I intend to create an interactive game in flash.

Project Outline and design

The game will have a turret point which shoots in the direction of the mouse. The turret point will shoot to the opponents which will go from top to bottom. To get to the next level users will have to shoot a sufficient number of the opponents. Users will start the game on the first level as a labour worker. If they shoot enough opponents they will get to the second level and they will get promotion for a senior worker.

Level 3- team leader

Level 4- supervisor

Level 5- trainee manager

Level 6- manager

Level 7- director

The game will take place in a work environment. As a background I will use various photos which present shots from a warehouse then I will create a scrolling background

Target Users

I intend to place the finish product on my on my final project website which will aim at European Union citizens who come to England to start a new life. It will also be placed on the Independent Polish web portal www.bham.pl which provides visitors with information, forums, articles and chat rooms. The online community was established for and by Polish people who along with other immigrants for economic reasons arrived in Birmingham to start a new life. Those people often are very well qualified, but have only basic communication skills in English. Therefore they are unable to undertake tasks according to their qualifications which may lead them to a frustration. My game will give them the chance to take their frustration out, give a little bit of fun, make them laugh and possibly give the chance to virtually take their anger out on their bosses.

Market Research

I have done some initial research among the visitors of the Independent Polish web portal www.bham.pl. I asked them a number of question whether they would be willing to play the game or not. All of them said that they would at least try and they agreed that my project sounds like a good and fun idea. See appendices.

Similar products

A game where users can kill their boss for a number of different ways. The game may be consider as a bit violent. However, it definitely proves that there is a demand on such games.

  • Man Hunt

http://www.funny-games.biz/manhunt.html (Funny Games)

    1. The target is to kill the boss and to eliminate all guards
    2. users can move around the scene
    3. users have to find a knife which then will use to kill guards and the boss
    4. users have to use shift key to move quietly if they do not want to wake up the guards
    5. users score points when kills

  • Shoot Your Boss Game

http://www.pjlighthouse.com/2006/10/29/shoot-your-boss-game-p/

(PJ LightHouse)

1. Chinese game with a turret point which shoots in the direction of the mouse.

2. Great graphics.

3. Users kill supervisors which are situated all around the office.

  • Target Shooting Games

http://www.1888freeonlinegames.com/gpgm-free-online-target-shooting-games-to-play-2.html (1888 Free Online Game.com)

My technical objectives

1. Scrolling game background,

2. shooting objects,

3. scoring points,

4. levels,

5. sound- volume control,

6. variables

The main tutorial site which I use http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Flash/Games/1 (Tutorialized)

Usability test

When I finish the product I will do the usability test among Polish people who live in Birmingham.

Appendices

I have done my research verbally by informing my potential users what the game may look like as a finished product. I asked 25 people what they think about my idea and if they would be willing to play the game. 23 persons said it would be a good idea and 20 out of them agreed that they would at least try to play the game. Two persons said that the game may stir up aggression among the users towards their supervisors.

Resources

Developed proposal for my project

{ October 31, 2007 @ 1:58 pm } · { Kylie Gammans, Uncategorized }
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Introduction

      I propose to design and produce a game in Flash which promotes healthy eating and balance diets to younger children as obesity in young children is a worrying subject in society and I want to highlight this issue. Jamie Oliver is a professional chef who campaigns against junk food in schools; his campaign is called School Dinners and has been very successful, making them healthier across the UK. Click on the link below for more information into this subject:

        www.jamieoliver.com/schooldinners                                                          

      Whilst researching on the internet for ideas to make a game based on healthy eating, I came across an interesting article about how packed lunches are falling behind on school dinners as the nutritional gap widens; this aided me to focus on making my game based on healthy packed lunches. Visit the link below to view this article:

        www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/news_item.asp?newsCatId=2&NewsId=92

Target audience

This game is aimed at young children. I believe young children will be more engaging into this subject via a game as it will be fun, interactive and challenging and will keep hold of their attention, encouraging them to eat healthy. I also aim to make my game available to those children who have a disability; by making objects accessible, including keyboard access and by being colour wise when designing the game

The aim of the Game

Users will have a variety of lunchboxes to choose from; this option makes the game more interactive. The selected lunchbox will then appear at the bottom of the screen where they will have to move the lunchbox side to side. A mixture of healthy and unhealthy foods will drop from the top of the screen; the user will have to catch the healthy foods into their lunchbox which will increase their score and avoid the unhealthy foods as this will decrease their score. There will be different levels to this game; users will only be able to move up a level if a certain score is made. Every time users move up a level, the amount of points they need to get will increase, as well as this the speed that the food drops will also increase. Therefore this game is as a challenge for the child so their attention will hopefully stay more focused when taking part.

Each level will drop down different categories of healthy food to educate the child so that when the child has completed the game, they will see what healthy foods they have collected and what needs to be included in order for them to have a balanced healthy diet. To understand fully into how many different screens I want this game to include and what order the game will be played in refer to the written document of this proposal to see appendix one for a storyboard. As well as this, to see what one of the main screens of the game will roughly look like you will also have to refer to the written document to see appendix two for a mock up.

A suitable market

I believe this game could be used at schools as they could get the children to learn about healthy eating and as an added activity they could try to complete this game. If this game was to be used in schools, I feel that it would start to solve the problem of unhealthy packed lunches.

Existing games

‘Snack Dash’ makes users guide a character through a school to collect healthy foods and avoid the junk food. This game is about speed as users try to get through to the leader board. This game is similar to mine as it is a challenge for the child to complete the game; however mine also educates the child about healthy eating in packed lunches. To view this game click on the link below: 

www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/game.asp

        

‘A healthy lunchbox’ makes users drag food that they think is healthy onto a chopping board and at the end they see how successful they are. Although this game is promoting healthy packed lunches, my game aims to be more fun in order to entertain and educate the children. To view this game, click on the link below:

www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/flash/a_healthy_lunchbox_intro.swf 

Technical Objectives

I aim to show improvement in Flash by looking into different ways that the foods can drop from the top of the screen by researching into different types of movement such as random movement. I will also be understanding collision detecting as I will be using this for when the food will drop into the lunchbox or when it hits the bottom of the screen so it can disappear. As well as this I want to add a complex scoring system which is based on variables and I also want to include different levels. I aim to enhance on both my audio skills as I will try to add a volume controller and my animations as I hope to make them smoother. These different elements will hopefully improve my understanding into action script and make me more confident in Flash. Furthermore I aim to improve on my design skills to make this game look more professional.

Conclusion

I feel that if I manage my time successfully and research fully into trying to improve my Flash skills into the different areas I have mentioned above, I should produce a very successful project based on my aims. By making this game interactive, fun and challenging, children would be more likely to engage in this educational subject. Therefore I feel that if this game was to be used in schools it would be very successful in promoting healthy packed lunches.   

Developed Proposal

{ October 30, 2007 @ 11:06 am } · { Katie Butler, PHP, Web 2.0 }
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Project Outline

The main aim for my assignment 2 project is to design and create a fully working application for Facebook. However realistically speaking, this will prove to be a difficult challenge for me and my personal technical abilities, especially as I will be embracing the field of PHP and technologies that I have previously never used or worked with before. What’s more, professional developers themselves do not always produce flawless applications to begin with, so with this in mind I can probably expect that my own application will take a great deal of work and progress to become effectively useable. 

Ideally I hope to be able to meet the demands of this project outline, because in doing so I can expect many personal benefits. Nevertheless at the very least I will certainly produce a finished prototype for my proposed Facebook application.

Target Users

My taget users will initially be users of Facebook whose profession or hobby is as a web designer – a profession/interest which I can connect with. Nonetheless if this application does become developed successfully, then there is no reason to say why a similar application for photographers or designers for instance might not be developed as well, and which can be used in the same way.

Market Research: Analysis of similar/exisiting Facebook applications

In order to gain some insight into the types of characterisitcs that make an application successful on Facebook, I have done some initial research into similar existing applications to that of my proposed idea.

‘MySpace Link’ – The MySpace link is a popular application that allows users to put screen grabs of their MySpace page onto their Facebook profile. This application is what inspired my idea for a portfolio application specifically for web designers, and therefore the objectives for both applications are the same: 1) To Promote something 2) To Attract attention towards something that reveals more about that user, or represents that user.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2444083156&ref=s

‘Blog Link’ – Designed by the same developer, the Blog Link appears to be a relatively new application that is an extension or adaptation of the original MySpace Link. Instead of putting a screen grab of your MySpace page onto your Facebook profile, with this application you can but a screen grab link to your blog. As a new application the percentage of users is relatively low, however with the popularity of Facebook and blogging combined, I can almost certainly see this application growing in popularity, especially with professionals such as journalists etc.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2804306884&ref=s

‘Top Friends’ – The reason why I have considered the Top Friends application is because it uses ‘skins,’ something which I may incorporate into my own application. The use of ‘skins’ with the Top Friends application is extremely popular and makes the application highly distinguishable on a user’s page – This is a quality I would like my own application to have.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?api_key=217a985a6147764ff583cc944fa14633

‘Top Sites’ – Finally the Top Sites application is one that I came across when looking at the Top Friends application, and allows a user to put screen grabs of their favourite websites onto their profile. The application however doesn’t appear to be very popular which could be due to a number of reasons – I.e. It could be quite new, users might experience technical problems with it, however the reason why I feel it is not so popular is because it is quite broad. By this I mean that it may become more appealing if it was more focused, for example instead of just being ‘Top Sites’, it could be ‘Top Clothing Sites’ or ‘Top Music Sites’ etc.  

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4247506471&ref=s

Market Research: Would a web designer use my application?

Instead of just follwing my own judgement on whether my proposed idea would work well or not, I decided to contact an established industry professional through Facebook to see what their thoughts on my idea are, and whether or not they would potentially consider using the application on their own profiles.

My contact was Steve Firth, and below is a short extract from what I asked:

‘Im looking to develop an application for Facebook, and was proposing an idea which would allow web designers to put screen grabs of their work onto their profiles to promote themselves.
I was wondering what your thoughs on this idea are as a web designer (good or bad!) and would you consider using the application on your own Facebook account? if yes, why? if no then why not?’

Below is the response I got back from Steve: 

‘Yes i’d certainly use the app myself (would be nice to install a useful one for a change). Any extra links and exposure is always good, web worlds pretty saturated [mostly by bodgers] and anything that helps one rise above the bg noise is always welcome.As regards making it ‘commercially viable’ i’d consider keeping it quite open, don’t pitch it too tightly to a niche as if you miss it it’s pretty much end of story … if you kept it so that, for example other creatives could use it as a portfolio or even gen public you’ll probably get a wider uptake.If you’re being marked on just the app itself, that it works, forfills spec etc then keep the focus tight – that way you control the varibles that you’ll be marked on, take up being secondary.If you’re being marked on the ‘sucess’ of the app then flexibility is key, people will find use a general app for their purposes. Some gen thoughts:

You can go mad on javascript, facebooks dependant on it anyway (also with slow general loading times ppl wont notice the overhead)

Whilst your designing an app for webdevs, its the public that will ‘use it’ and public like shiney/popup things (am thinking ask’s use of url preview etc)

Any support for stylesheet switching so they can skin own portfolio? (cross url content is common on FB so isnt a security block on this)

Hope this is of help, feel free to msg/add me should you want to bounce any ideas off me or just fancy a webby chat.

gl with your app, it’s nice to see a some women coming into webdesign to balance off a pretty much XY world.

I feel that Steve has made several key points in his response that I can and should take into account, making this particular research quite valuable towards my assignment. For instance when he talks about targeting a niche or mass audience depending on the assignment criteria – I found this particularly important to consider. I also liked the fact that he too suggested the idea of using ‘skins,’ something that I have proposed but did not actually put foward to Steve in my original message.

A link to Steve’s company: http://www.devolved.co.uk/

Other comments welcome

Proposal

{ October 30, 2007 @ 12:57 am } · { Flash, Marie Williams }
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Aim 

Design, produce and test an online mobile application for Monday Street to use as a way of promoting new songs, upcoming gigs and news.

 Project outline 

 Whilst walking around, take a note of the amount of people on mobile phones, what are they doing? Are they making a phone call? Are they sending a text or browsing the internet?

 

For my project I am attempting to manipulate the extensive use of the mobile phone by consumers and then furthermore using it as a way of marketing and promoting the band ‘Monday Street’. As a young and up coming band, most of their fans will be using mobile phones if not, they will know some one that has access to a mobile.

 

My idea is to make an interactive flash website that people can access through their internet browser on their mobile phone; it will be through this medium that people will be able to get up to date information when ever they wish.

 Target Audience 

This is quite a hard area to differentiate one sector of the market, as the band I’m promoting are young. I want to stage my main platform at their fan base, this would be young adults, but then also I have to take into consideration the professionals, like their manager and producers; they will have some kind of say in what products are used to promote their band, therefore, I have decided to make an application that could appeal to people aged 18 and upwards. This will mean that I have to keep the product quite simple, but more professional in the way it is delivered and broadcast. 

 Colours, themes and designs 

From looking at the bands My Space, their photos, and seeing them live, I have quite a good feel about what they are about and how they wish to be viewed by the public. I am still brainstorming design ideas and I really want to make this one project stand out from my previous one. I have added a few colour charts, fonts and mock ups that are basic which will be built upon. (Appendix One)

     Mobile Content Online

Unlike producing a project simply for the open Internet market where every one can upload information when and how they please, the mobile environment is completely different to this.

 

One of the main aspects that I will have to consider is networks speeds and screen sizes, its ‘Adobe Flash Lite’ that will help me develop the content purely for mobile development and delivery, it will be this that will either make or break my project.

 Market Research The Fray Website: 

I have taken a quick look at ‘The Fray’ website and really like the way in which each individual element at the top of the screen moves in slowly by itself, the volume control button is placed at the top right hand corner, discreet enough it doesn’t take your mind of the rest of the site.

 

The links between each page show another flash action as the buttons spin in the screen, however I don’t like that you have to scroll down the page to get the rest of the information, there is clearly too much information fitted into each section. The website is a bit bland and boring and could do with some kind of colour. (Appendix Two)

 

This website is just for the web only, there is nothing there that interacts with any kind of mobile device, ‘Monday Street’ will be one step ahead, I need to correctly design, construct and test my application to make it a success.

 

Testing is an area in which I will research more; I need to understand the whole process from start to finishing, by using websites such as http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/packing_lite_03.html I will be able to get some kind of idea of what processes I have to go through.

 Mobile Phones 

I also have to decide what type of mobile I will be aiming by project to be tested and viewed on. As there are so many different types of mobile phones it would be impossible for me to produce a product that could be all on all of the different platforms, therefore I have researched into two different mobile models and then from this research I have decided what mobile device I will be building my application for.

  Sony Ericsson W810i  

Screen Resolution: 176×220

Flash Lite Version: 1.1

Supported Content Type: browser

Device Profile Update: 3

Sony Ericsson has 18 different models with Flash Lite pre-installed.

 Nokia 6126 

Screen Resolution: TBD

Flash Lite Version: 1.1

Supported Content Type: TBD

Device Profile Update: TBD

 

I am still undecided which module I wish to make my application for, if I choose to make my application for the Sony Ericsson W810i, not only has it already got Flash Lite 1.1 installed in the phone, but the memory space is bigger and the screen resolution will be easier to work with. I also have this phone so will be able to test the application when ever I wish.

However when looking over my research I noticed that one of the media professional suggested that it “If you have a Nokia this is easier to get into” but I am unsure whether the screen size of the Nokia 6126 is too small. This is another area where I will continue too research.

 

During the research process I have been able to see that flash is an ever advancing technology, by using Flash Lite I am not only enhancing my skills but I am making a project that is up to date with the technology.

The Facebook Conquest?

{ October 29, 2007 @ 5:03 pm } · { Katie Butler, PHP, Web 2.0 }
{ Comments (1) }

Below I have collaborated links to some of the most interesting articles which show just how popular Facebook is, and how the site is becomming more than just a social networking site…

Article 1 – ‘Is Facebook the next frontier for online news?’

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/071008yung/

Article 2 – ‘UK Facebook users soar to 3.5m’

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/may/23/digitalmedia.facebook

Article 3 – ‘Microsoft strikes ad deal with Facebook’

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/aug/23/digitalmedia.microsoft

Article 4 – ‘Social networking a boost to PR’

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2195423,00.html

Article 5 – ‘Amnesty harnesses Facebook generation’ 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2187073,00.html

Azeem Ahmad – Final Project Proposal (Detailed)

{ October 29, 2007 @ 12:54 pm } · { Aggregators, Azeem Ahmad, CSS, HTML, RSS, Syndication, Web 2.0, XML, XSL }
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Project Outline –

Many internet users travel to various news websites to digest daily occurrences around the world. Most often have e-mail subscriptions (no matter how dated the service may be), and it is often tedious having to trawl through several websites to find the news the user is looking for.

A lot of people are now taking advantage of RSS, or Really Simple Syndication – a method of linking through a ‘feed’ that can provide up to 15 or more links (in this case, news stories) at once. This is a good new media technology, but it has room to be developed more. Subscribing to an RSS feed is anonymous, hence eliminating the need for e-mail news subscriptions, but placing several feed boxes on a browsers toolbar can seriously overload the screen with unnecessary information.

For my project I aim to manipulate four popular news websites, BBC News, Sky News, The Guardian, and The Mirror, and converging them into one feed so that online news users only need to subscribe to one feed.

I plan to do this by creating a one big feed, essentially a mash-up of the four feeds mentioned above. I will also attempt to categorise the links inside of the feed by genre so that browsing through the single feed is easier. Also, by categorising, I am also able to promote this product as an RSS 2.0 feed, rather than simply an RSS feed, thus enhancing potential attention from interested parties.

Market Research –

One very successful website that does this is http://imooty.eu, a news aggregator for the whole of Europe. Imooty allows users to pick and choose which particular publications they want to see an RSS breakdown (of top headlines) on the users ‘my imooty’ page – a clever individualisation for the website. Such personalisation of the site will keep viewers and readers coming back to the site for more, and more regularly, as all of the news they wish to digest is on one page. Imooty also has options to view the news for the rest of Europe, and is a very successful website.

Upon viewing the page source code for imooty, it is clear to see that the technical side of the website is heavily reliant on javascript coding, and embedding CSS into RSS coding, both of which are advanced coding procedures. For my project I simply intend to create a single feed which is a mash-up of four feeds, rather than creating a whole website.

I intend to create my product by obtaining and re-writing the RSS feed codes from the four sites mentioned, including date, category and GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) tags – so that any copyright issues are avoided. A simple breakdown of how one link in one section of the whole feed will look something like this:

<xml type="text/xsl">
 
<rss xml: version="2.0">
  <channel>
        <item>
      <title>Saudi king chides UK on terrorism</title>  
      <description>Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah accuses Britain of doing too little to fight international terrorism.</description>  
      <link>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7066867.stm</link>  
      <guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7066867.stm</guid>  
      <pubDate>Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:21:57 GMT</pubDate>  
      <category>UK</category>  
      
    </item> 

As seen from the box above, the link is the first story from the BBC News front page, taken at 1237 on Monday 29th October 2007. The date is relevant as the feed constantly is self-updating.

Included in the sample feed is the formatting of the code, in this case, XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) – this method eliminates the need to include CSS into the code. As with every RSS feed, the ‘version’ and ‘channel’ tags remain present, so too do the ‘item’ and ‘description’ tags.

However, the features that make this an RSS 2.0 feed, are the other tags. In this case, because the BBC is the original creator of the page (containing the story), there is no need for a GUID, hence the ‘false’ answer to the tag – the link simply points to the page that it is describing.

 

Also included is the publication date, and the category. These two categories are often overlooked when people create RSS feeds, but are now becoming increasingly relevant as the latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox now include standard options into their browsers that tell users when RSS feeds are present on a page, and also allow users to browse directly through a feed by category.

 

Conclusion –

 

To sum up, my product will be a single RSS feed that is an amalgamation of four mini RSS feeds from BBC News, The Guardian, The Mirror, and Sky News. I will also be including features that will make this a Web 2.0 technology, such as:

·         The publication dates of the feeds, so that they are self updating

·         A GUID – so that the feed that I have created is unique

·         Category tags, so browsing through the feed is easy

·         XSL encoding, so that the need for CSS is eliminated.

Draft Proposal

{ October 26, 2007 @ 6:59 pm } · { Caroline Pace }
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  • Project Idea

When I first approached this assignment I had little conception of what I could create as my prototype and knew even less about the specifics of television online, although I had briefly touched upon it as a web user and television scholar. In speaking with my tutor he suggested the topic area of Video on Demand (VoD) as a new direction of television online that would also relate to my specialism.

I have produced websites before but, nothing that features video content so I thought this would be an ideal opportunity for me to create something more professional than I had in previous assignments. It will also expand upon my expertise in television by adding another facet to my abilities, enabling me to provide something different to employees when I graduate.

  • To produce a…

In order to develop my idea further I researched into the technology of VoD, how it works, which broadcasters are using it, what applications are used to create and view video content and, most importantly, who are my potential competitors.

This wealth of research led to much brainstorming of what I wanted my project to achieve. Ideally it will be a website of television programmes, mainly UK and US based, that viewers will be able to stream to their computers. Although most of the content would be available for a nominal fee, there would be programmes available for free, but this is dependant on the copyright restrictions of each individual programme, especially in relation to US produced programmes.

  • Pre-Production

As I am still in the planning stage I will need to complete research into the format of streaming and applications I wish to use. I intend to use either Windows Media, RealPlayer or Quicktime as these are media players commonly used by websites and users. Once I have finalised this decision I will make sure I am able to use the technology correctly to ensure my prototype is to a professional standard. I intend to achieve this through using online tutorials, video lectures and text books to teach myself the skills I will need to use.

  • Addressing my Professional and Technical Objectives

This project will not only improve my skills in Dreamweaver but, also enhance how I create websites and the content I use, resulting in a higher quality project. I hope by experimenting with streaming video files and learning more about this subject it will help my overall knowledge of television online. It may also lead to creating a CV website, featuring my show reel, once I have graduated as a way of advertising myself to prospective employers.

I also want this website to appear professional in its design and content, something I feel I have not achieved in my previous work due to my inexperience. To achieve this I will timetable my week to ensure that I maintain work on the prototype throughout the semester and therefore not produce a rushed website.

A draft proposal (dorota jablonska)

{ October 26, 2007 @ 1:14 pm } · { Dorota Jablonska }
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  • I will create a game in flash.

The game will have a turret point which shoots in the direction of the mouse.

The turret point will shoot to the opponents which will go from top to bottom.

To get to the next level you will have to shoot a sufficient number of the opponents.

the game takes place in a work environment- warehouse

You will start the game on the first level  as a labour worker. If you shoot enough opponents you will get to the  second level and you will get promotion for a senior worker.

And then as follows:

Level 3- team leader

Level 4- supervisor

Level 5- trainee manager

Level 6- manager

Level 7- director

  • The game will be placed on my final project website which will aim at European Union citizens who come to England to start a new life. It will also be placed on the Independent Polish web portal  www.bham.pl which provides information, forums, articles, chat rooms for Polish who live in Birmingham
  • The game will aim at European Union Citizens who come to England to start a new life. Those people usually emigrate for economic reason. They are often very well qualified but thy have only basic communication skills in English. Therefore they are unable to undertake tasks  according to their qualifications which may lead them to a frustration.
  • My game will give them the chance to take their frustration out, give a little bit of fun, make them laugh
  • My technical objectives- Scrolling game background, shooting objects, scoring points, levels, sound- volume control,
  • The main tutorial site which I use http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Flash/Games/1
  • Design: warehouse, changing templates- different photos of a warehouse,
  • Similar products ….
  • When I finish the product I will do the usability test among Polish people who live in Birmingham When completed I will test the product on the potential target audience.

Simple login script?

{ October 26, 2007 @ 12:27 pm } · { Marc Taylor, PHP }
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Like mentioned in one of my previous blogs, in order to start any tutorial in which requires a database you need to download MySQL and PHP which works simultaneously together. Once you have downloaded these two, and preferably Apache to view your final outcome, (which I can assure you is one of the hardest parts) you can start on one of these simple tutorials I found at : http://www.trap17.com/index.php/php-simple-login-tutorial_t7887.html Within this tutorial it gives you a step-by-step guide looking at creating a simple login section. 

  1. After getting MySQL and PHP up and running on your computer, you need to create 4 blank PHP web pages entitled: register.php, login.php, members.php, and logout.php.
  2. Once these have been created and up and running, we need to create a database in MySQL in order to store the users information. The code they used is

 Name the table “dbUsers.” It will need 4 fields:

[I]Name             Type                 Addition[/I]
id                  int(10)              Primary Key, AUTO_INCREMENT
username            varchar(16)          Unique
password            char(16)          
email               varchar(25)   

  1. When this is done we need to start creating and designing the registration page. This can be done by creating a PHP document called dbConfig.php. This file about to be created contains the coding to enable PHP and MySQL to communicate with one another. With the code above you need to enter users into the equation by adding them into the MySQL saved file.
  2. Then into the dbConfig.php file add the following code to call MySQL for the database information

 <?
// Replace the variable values below
// with your specific database information.
$host = “localhost”;
$user = “UserName”;
$pass = “Password”;
$db   = “dbName”;

// This part sets up the connection to the
// database (so you don’t need to reopen the connection
// again on the same page).
$ms = mysql_pconnect($host, $user, $pass);
if ( !$ms )
{
echo “Error connecting to database.\n”;
}

// Then you need to make sure the database you want
// is selected.
mysql_select_db($db);
?>   

  1. You need to then set up the registration page we created in step 1. (Register.php) in order to do this inset this code into the document

 <?php

// dbConfig.php is a file that contains your
// database connection information. This
// tutorial assumes a connection is made from
// this existing file.
include (“dbConfig.php”);

//Input vaildation and the dbase code
if ( $_GET[“op”] == “reg” )
 {
 $bInputFlag = false;
 foreach ( $_POST as $field )
  {
  if ($field == “”)
   {
   $bInputFlag = false;
   }
  else
   {
   $bInputFlag = true;
   }
  }
 // If we had problems with the input, exit with error
 if ($bInputFlag == false)
  {
  die( “Problem with your registration info. ”
   .”Please go back and try again.”);
  }

 // Fields are clear, add user to database
 //  Setup query
 $q = “INSERT INTO `dbUsers` (`username`,`password`,`email`) ”
  .”VALUES (‘”.$_POST[“username”].”‘, ”
  .”PASSWORD(‘”.$_POST[“password”].”‘), ”
  .”‘”.$_POST[“email”].”‘)”;
 //  Run query
 $r = mysql_query($q);
 
 // Make sure query inserted user successfully
 if ( !mysql_insert_id() )
  {
  die(“Error: User not added to database.”);
  }
 else
  {
  // Redirect to thank you page.
  Header(“Location: register.php?op=thanks”);
  }
 } // end if

//The thank you page
elseif ( $_GET[“op”] == “thanks” )
 {
 echo “<h2>Thanks for registering!</h2>”;
 }
 
//The web form for input ability
else
 {
 echo “<form action=\”?op=reg\” method=\”POST\”>\n”;
 echo “Username: <input name=\”username\” MAXLENGTH=\”16\”><br />\n”;
 echo “Password: <input type=\”password\” name=\”password\” MAXLENGTH=\”16\”><br />\n”;
 echo “Email Address: <input name=\”email\” MAXLENGTH=\”25\”><br />\n”;
 echo “<input type=\”submit\”>\n”;
 echo “</form>\n”;
 }
// EOF
?>   6.      We need to next check that the information provided by the registered user corresponds with the information within the set up database. Since when the user registered, we encrypted their password using the MySQL PASSWORD() function, we re-encrypt the password the user supplied in the login form and cross-check this with the existing value in the dBase. If login information is O.K., then we need to use sessions to store the user’s ID so they can access member-only content. <?php
session_start();
// dBase file
include “dbConfig.php”;

if ($_GET[“op”] == “login”)
 {
 if (!$_POST[“username”] || !$_POST[“password”])
  {
  die(“You need to provide a username and password.”);
  }
 
 // Create query
 $q = “SELECT * FROM `dbUsers` ”
  .”WHERE `username`='”.$_POST[“username”].”‘ ”
  .”AND `password`=PASSWORD(‘”.$_POST[“password”].”‘) ”
  .”LIMIT 1″;
 // Run query
 $r = mysql_query($q);

 if ( $obj = @mysql_fetch_object($r) )
  {
  // Login good, create session variables
  $_SESSION[“valid_id”] = $obj->id;
  $_SESSION[“valid_user”] = $_POST[“username”];
  $_SESSION[“valid_time”] = time();

  // Redirect to member page
  Header(“Location: members.php”);
  }
 else
  {
  // Login not successful
  die(“Sorry, could not log you in. Wrong login information.”);
  }
 }
else
 {
//If all went right the Web form appears and users can log in
 echo “<form action=\”?op=login\” method=\”POST\”>”;
 echo “Username: <input name=\”username\” size=\”15\”><br />”;
 echo “Password: <input type=\”password\” name=\”password\” size=\”8\”><br />”;
 echo “<input type=\”submit\” value=\”Login\”>”;
 echo “</form>”;
 }
?>

7 Next is to set up a members area

members.php

Now that the user has logged in successfully, and has his id, username, and login stored in session variables, we can start working with member-only content. A major thing to remember is that any page you want to carry session data over to you must declare a session_start(); at the top of your code.

CODE<?php
session_start();

if (!$_SESSION[“valid_user”])
{
// User not logged in, redirect to login page
Header(“Location: login.php”);
}

// Member only content
// …
// …
// …

// Display Member information
echo “<p>User ID: ” . $_SESSION[“valid_id”];
echo “<p>Username: ” . $_SESSION[“valid_user”];
echo “<p>Logged in: ” . date(“m/d/Y”, $_SESSION[“valid_time”]);

// Display logout link
echo “<p><a href=\”logout.php\”>Click here to logout!</a></p>”;
?>  7.      And lastly when the user exits the website we should be able to offer the ability for the user to destroy the session variables. In order to do this open up the logout.php document and copy and paste this coding  <?php
session_start();
session_unset();

session_destroy();
// Logged out, return home.
Header(“Location: index.php”);
?>  This tutorial is pretty straight forward, and the coding seems reasonable enough to read and understand. However the coding is very long winded therefore you can see how many files and how long the coding for each section needs to be. For login sections alone it requires 4 pages, what about all the other sections people require? How many files will you need to create? Marc  Http://marc.izonedesign.co.uk

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