Last Weeks Progress + This Weeks Plan

Last week we had the presentation and the Proposal document due, with all the preparations for both of these pieces and other assessment I was unfortunately not able to even get a real look in at PHP and finalizing our API calls for the groups project.

While we were briefly exposed to some more PHP in the workshop session,it seems clear that It will take some substantial effort to actually understand what it is that I need to be doing to have the database / log-in form and HTML elements interact correctly.

There have been several instances already during workshops for this course where I have largely felt lost. There has been a lot of processes undertaken to set up the zone, enable PHP and SQL, upload files to the server use the command line (putty in my case) SSH into the server and all sorts of other things. While I was able to accomplish the tasks put before me (as they were step by step instructions) I come away almost feeling more lost than when I started. Completing a task but having no understanding of the HOW behind the methods and the WHY is irksome.

I am hopeful that by the end of the course I will be able to fully understand the processes that I am undertaking and have greater control in how I can shape their outcomes, but at the moment I feel much more like an uneducated person blindly following a list of instructions. With the pressures of the team project I am hopeful that I will still have time for some self directed learning in the areas around severs, zones, back end access and all the other related jargon.

This week is shaping up to be less intense with other subjects and I am hopeful that I will be able to deliver a completed and functional Log-in system by the end of this week. I will take the initiative and do some reading on PHP before the workshop session so that I can more aptly ask for help if I need it. I will also esquire with my information systems tutor as to how I would implement such a system. Taking INFS7900 alongside this course has actually worked out quite nicely as we are learning the PHP myAdmin interface and the concepts underpinning such a relational database system.

In other project news our paper prototypes are going to be tested in this weeks contact session. In preparation the team has organised to have a meeting on Tuesday morning so that we can run an initial in group walkthrough of the system to weed out any obvious interface problems. We have still yet to decide who will be running the testing session with our prototype in the contact session and who will test other groups prototypes. I am expecting that we will discuss that tomorrow.

That is enough ramblings for one night. Until next update (hopefully there will be multiple this week)