Next two weeks…

Since today is the last days of blogging this blog will outline what I will do over the next two weeks, all the way up to the 14th the poster evening.

Over the weekend I will finish off my report which will give me a week to give it to PFR to go over along with me proof reading it myself and making sure the report reads and looks good as well as making sure my references are all in check.

During the week I am to present a live demo of my work to the seafood production team – this will be fun to do but it will also mark the end of my time at PFR… I am also a little nervous to present but that’s just me.

After that is complete I will finish off my poster design along with printing it to make sure it looks good, along with the poster class we have next Wednesday.

Once that is complete it will be the 14th and it will be onto the poster evening which will officially mark the end of my project.

Also over the next two weeks I have my final SDV-502 assignment to finish so when that is also completed that will mark the end of my year at NMIT and will wait for my results and then hopefully my graduation.

This will be my last blog for NMIT I cannot believe that this blog site is now 3 years old…

PFR Project Reflection

 

So since the end of July I have been doing my work-placement over at Plant & Food Research, creating a web application that will visualise there already existing data, along with setting up for their next season of data.

Starting the project from scratch was a new experience as they had a general idea but no way of implementing it. I started with the design aspect, that was the funniest part for me as I love to design, designing the UI was a lot of fun and an aspect that I spent a lot of time time on, It was also the part of the project that I enjoyed the most.

The next part was adding in the charting features, using chart.js and even the amount of JavaScript in my project was all new to me, and it was a huge learning curve but it was also fun learning all of these new skills. Also Charting data in general was new to me as well as I have never had to work with data sets this big before.

The web application was built on the Django framework my skill with frameworks was very limited before going into this project with only really using the VUE.js platform, so this was also a huge learning curve for me. Along with using the Django framework for the first time, was having to learn some basic python as the Django framework uses python.

Working closely with the seafood production team and scientists was also good experience for me as it gave me a good taste in working in a team with different tech levels. I would go to them every week with a design and different features of the web application and they would give feedback on the changes. This was a good way of doing things as it would help us with our work loads week to week and we could also talk about our concerns and issues we where currently having.

Overall my time at Plant & Food Research has been pleasant and eyeopening on the whole web application development cycle, I wish I could have spent more time developing and been able to add all the features I wanted to but with only having 300hrs to do my project I am proud with what I managed to get completed. I will be miss working at such a company and I will also miss my walks to work as I was lucky enough to only live 30 minutes away, these walks is where I would solve a lot of coding and design issues I was having as it was good time away from the screen and just think in my head.

I wish nothing but the best for everyone that I worked with at PFR and I thank them so much for giving me this opportunity to work with them. Also to my fellow students Deja and Achu for joining me at project and how we would all come together and talk about our separate projects and PFR. Also thanks to NMIT for getting me in contact with PFR and teaching me the skills so I was able to create something for them.

I really enjoyed my project this semester and it was a good way to close out my studies at NMIT.

 

 

PFR Final Week

Over the last few days I have managed to fix the cors issue and delpoy the app over the PFR network allowing the staff to access the app via mobile and desktop. This was a huge step in the development of my app as Ive been looking forward to see the app work over the network and with different users being able to access it.

I still have a few smaller features to implment over the next 4 days, our PFR presenentation has been pushed back to next Thursday the 7th of November the day we have our reports due, so this is really finishing up super quick at the moment.

Over the weekend I am going to hopefully finish up my report and start proof reading it over the next few days along with hanging it into PFR to over look.

Personal side, I am feeling much better now, and I am no longer in pain which has given me alot more engery to carry on with my work.

Reflection post is coming up and that will mark the end of my project blogs.

Last week of blogs

This week is our last week of blogging as we are handing these in this week, so my plan of attack this week is it finish up the remanding small details at PFR, along with creating a small presentation that we will give next Tuesday to some of the staff at PFR.

This will consist of a few slides and a small tech demo off the Web Application. At the moment I have ran into some more CORS issues with linking the csv back to the graph, but to combat that I have created the web application as an website that is the same but it isn’t running off the django framework that way I can show them still and give my self some more time to fix the django CORS issues I have again.

Personal note I have been having Jaw and dental issues again and I had to have emergency work done over the long weekend which has put me out of action for today (Tuesday 29/10/2019)

Will be posting a few more blogs this week as I make progress and then a final reflection post.

Update – Week Starting 14th October

Over this week I have been concentrating more on the report and poster side of my project, so not much time working on the web application.

At the moment we are to make a list of what we want to complete and start working on the documentation for our project, which staff can use if they need help using the web application.

Its hard to believe that our project is almost over already, it seems like we have just started it also crazy that this semester is also over.

The past week I have also been dealing with health problems, I have been having ear pain so I have been going to the doctors along with project and report writing.

My poster is also coming along nicely will update in the following week with some screen shots of my poster progress.

Project Blog 08/10/2019

Over the last week they wanted some new features to the web application , and that was to be able to change the the class and species with a drop down menu, over the last week this feature was added and it working as intended. I am very happy to get this working and without many issues.

I have also started to deploy the web app as a desktop app but this is all being done locally – I will try to set up meetings so I can get the app running on the network.

I have also started to split my week up between project work and then report writing. with the days going by super fast, I have started to design my poster.

This week I will  continue to work on tidying up the application along with the report. No meeting this week so not much to report on and last week it was a short meeting as my supervisor(David) was away.

Project Blog 26/09/2019

Over the next few blogs the titles will be changing from blog #1 etc to the week and month I am posting as we are in the home stretch of the project.

So, this week after the successful connectivity of csv’s I have started working on the database – this was hard at the start of the week due to the network at work with blocking a lot of the local services I wanted to run. Though with changing from xampp to wamp I have managed to get rid of the errors I was receiving from xampp (error code #1932) that code was not kind to me at the start of this week.

But now that I have managed to fix the error the database is now working, and I am currently creating the dropdown menu/list for the species and class for each tank page. This will be my task for this week and next week as well.

I am really enjoying my current project as they are giving me freedom to work on with whatever I want and every Tuesday I get to showcase what I have achieved in the previous work – and during those meetings we get to talk about what we are having issues with and if any changes to be made.

This was a shorter posting as this will be an ongoing task.

The missing weeks blog

So first of all I just want to say sorry about the lack of content on my end – it has been a hectic few weeks at project as I have been struggling to connect my graphs to the csv I have created for them – this CSV will be the main information input for the web application.

Well a huge break though happened last week on the Tuesday (17/09/2019) this was the day that I finally got the graphs to link and update via the CSV PFR wanted  from there it was all steam ahead – over the next week and some weekend work I created over 165 graphs all with information related to the tank. Along with custom colours for the line graphs.

I felt extremely good after achieving this in my project as it was weighing heavy on me as it was such an important part of the project and I felt like I couldn’t get it done. But it goes to show if you work hard and not give up you can over come anything.

No new features have been added to the UI front… (Yet) I am trying to stop myself from changing to much as we are all happy with how it is looking so fat.

After the last meeting this week we have talked about what I can add over the next few weeks, It is dynamic headings on each page. A kind of drop-down list which changes species on the tank page, that way the user doesn’t have to change code themselves.

For this I have started creating a small database that will hold the information I need. This will be my task for the next week. Something extra I would like to add to the web application would be a calendar system that would show the user who is using what tank and for how long – that way they know that tank will be booked. This might take awhile which is why I have made it an extra with my spare time only going towards it.

I have also started the report as that due date is only a few weeks away – this will add more complexity to my workload as I will have to find a perfect balance between project/report/blogs and my school work!

Again sorry about the lack of blogs and information coming out on my way! this is not good on my part!

 

Blog 5

Blog Week 5

Week 5 into project already and the last week of August… its crazy how fast this project is going – this is going to be one of the bigger weeks.

To start off on Tuesday we had a meeting, and everyone was present, students and staff that are helping us with out projects. During this meeting I asked about what data they would really want in the graphs. This meeting was also extremely helpful with getting feedback on the UI.

UI Feed-Back overall the UI went down great! We all agreed that having either page breaks on the landing page or a tank sorter would be extremely helpful and help with navigation. Another suggestion was to add different Icons to different sized tanks – at the moment I have only one icon for all tanks which to me is very overwhelming. We also talked about adding some more information about the tanks on the landing page – this is to assist the users so at a quick glimpse they know what is in the tank and if the tank is either big, small, or even a tray.

Onto the graph side of things about talking about it and wanting the graphs to be connected to some sort of data source we have decided to go using a basic CSV file (Databases are currently on the way but due to the time constraints on the project a CSV file be used).

A CSV file will also be surfactant as not every single piece of data will be needed for visualising with the web application, I am making for PFR.

So this week I will create the CSV with some data, and try to connect it to Chart.js this I don’t know how to do but I will give myself one week to get it done, lucky for me there is a lot of information on how to do this and a good amount of tools on how to get it done.

Timeline for CSV connectivity:

Tuesday 27^th August – Friday 30^th August – research CSV connectivity, and test with mock data before adding to project.

Tuesday 3^rd September – Friday 7^th September – implement CSV connectivity for one Tank once that is completed spend the rest of the week creating graphs for all over tanks.

During the meeting we also talked about more features that could be added once the core visualisation is completed. This will covered in the week 6 or 7 blog – if all visualisation is completed with the timeline I have created.

Implementing this will be challenging, but I look forward to learning how to create data from a CSV along with learning the language to be able to do for future projects.

Blog Week 4

Blog week 4

Over the past two weeks I have been concentrating my time on getting the final UI in place – making sure it functions correctly and works as intended in both mobile and desktop views.

To start with I had a few drawings of designs I wanted to try out, I always wanted it to be a simple, modern design where the user didn’t have to be overwhelmed by clunky and complicated UI elements.

Also over the week I want to get all the tank pages up and running with the home page directing them to the right page – using the Django template/page system I have made almost 40 pages – each page represents a tank with all its separate information on it.

When the user opens the Tank-Page they want more detailed tank information will be displayed including and image of that tank.

This page will also display the graphs that will visualise the important data PFR requires.

One of the main reasons why we wanted to go with having the web application be able to work on both desktop and mobile devices. Adding touch functions will be added once the more complicated aspects of the overall project have been completed.

Overall this week has been a big success on the UI front, no doubt as the project goes on more changes will be added to the web app.

One thing I would really like to add to the web application is having a sort function on the landing page of the application, where the user can click on the section of tanks they want, once then the application will only display those certain tanks.

I have used many different css effects and animations to assist with the creation of the web application these are:

• Easing
• Lightbox
• Portfolio-carousel
• Portfolio-parallax
• Portfolio – these are set of animations that I have used in the past and they feature nice design aspects that I am used to working with.

Elements I am also using are:

• _box
• _divider
• _form
• _alert

As the project contunies different elements will be used to fit the UI needs.