VI RTUAL RECREATION CENTER
Lee Pey Ling
Faculty of Information Technology 2002
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5548.2
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2002
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VIRTUAL RECREATION CENTER
By
Lee Pey Ling
A repo rt submitted
in partial fulfilment of the r eq uireme nts for the degree of Bachelor of Information Technology
Faculty of Information Technology UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARA W AK
Mac 2002
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DECLARATION
No portion of the work referred to in this report has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other
university or institution of higher learning.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank the following people whose support throughout this project.
First of all, I would like to dedicate my highest appreciation to my supervisor, Prof. Madya K. Narayanan. I would like to thank him in advising and guiding me throughout the time in building this project and prototype.
Secondly, I would like to thank Mr. Tan, my ex-supervisor in my ex-training company. He helps me a lot in solving the technical term in processing the prototype.
I would like to thank all the lecturers, FIT supportive and non-supportive staff and all the staff in FIT SHOP. Thanks in helping me developing this system.
Finally, I would like to dedicate my special thanks to my parent and family, friends and course-mates. Thanks for their fully supports and understanding.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declara tion 11
Acknowledgments III
Table of Contents I V
List of Tables V 1l1
List of Figures IX
Abstract X
Abstrak XI
1 Chapter 1: Chapter 1 Introduction and Problem Statement 1
1. lIn troduction 1
1.2Problem Statement 2
1.3 Objectives 4
1.4 What is Virtual Recreation Center? 5
1.5Thesis Outline 10
2 Chapter 2: Literature Review 12
2.1 Introduction 12
2.2 Technology Review 13
2.2.1 Client-side Technologies 13
2.2.2 Server'side Technologies 14
2.3 Investigation 17
2.4 Implementation Tools 19
2.4.1 Why PHP is used? 19
2.4.2 Why MySQL?
2.5 SMTP Server 21
2.6 Conclusion 21
3 Chapter 3: Methodology 22
3.1 Introduction 22
3.2 Methodology 22
3.2.1 Problems and Objective Implementation 22
IV
3.2.2 Literature Review 22
3.2.3 Identify System Needs 24
3.2.4 System Design 24
3.2.5 System Implementation 24
3.2.6 Testing 24
3.2.7 Evaluation 24
3.3 System Requirements 25
3.3.1 User Requirements 25
3.3.1.1 Emotion Icon 25
3.3.1.2 Ability to Update Records 25
3.3.1.3 Ability to Search 25
3.3.1.4 Flexible User Interface 26
3.3.1.5 Ability of Quick Access 26
3.3.2 System Administration Requirement 26
3.3.2.1 Sign In Function 26
3.3.2.2 Sign Out 26
3.3.2.3 Ability to Update Record 27 3.3.2.4 Reasonable User Interface 27
3.4 Summary 27
4 Chapter 4: System Design 28
4.1 Introduction 28
4.2 Objectives 28
4.3 System Architecture Design 29
4.3.1 General Briefing ofthe System 29
4.4 Data Flow Diagram of System
30
4.4.1 Context Diagram
30
4.4.2 Level l 32
4.4.2.1 Browse Selections 32
4.4.2.2 Go to Photo Gallery
33
4.4.2.3 Go to Storyteller 34
4.4.2.4 Go to Message Board 35
4.4.2.5 Go to E-card Sending ,36
4.4.2.6 Go to Polling 37
4.4.2.7 Exit System 38
4.4.2.8 Sign In 39
4.4.2.9 Process Query 39
4.5 User Interface 40
4.6 User's Side 40
4.6.1 Default Page 40
4.6.2 Photo Gallery 40
4.6.3 Storyteller Corner 41
4.6.4 Message Board 42
4.6.5 E-card Sending Service 43
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4.6.6 Polling 43
4.7 System Administration Side 44
4.7.1 Sign In 44
4.7.2 Process Query 44
4.7.3 Sign Out 45
4.8 Conclusion 45
5 System Implementation 46
5.1 Introduction 46
5.2 Implementation Tools 46
5.2.1 Web Server 46
5.2.2 Database Tool 47
5.2.3 Web Browser 48
5.2.4 SMTP Server 48
5.3 Technology Used 49
5.3.1 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 49
5.3.2 J ava Script 51
5.4 Development Tools Usage 51
5.4.1 Paint Shop Pro 51
5.4.2 Adobe PhotoShop 52
5.5 System Environment 52
5.5.1 Operating System 52
5.6 Conclusion 53
6 Testing and Evaluation 54
6.1 Introduction 54
6.2 Problem Encountered 54
6.2.1 Technical Problem 54
6.2.2 Programming Language
55
6.2.3 Combination of Tools
55
6.2.4 System Debugging 55
6.3 Testing Criteria 56
6.3.1 User Acceptance Testing 56
6.3.2 Performance Testing 56
6.4 Summary 57
7 Recommendations and Future Work 58
7.1 Introduction 58
7.2 Recommendation 58
7.2.1 Security 58
7.2.2 Address Book
59
7.3 Future Works
59
VI
7_3_ 1 Application in Other Fields 59
7.4 Summary 60
Bibliography
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List of Tables
Table 2.1 Comparisons for Storyteller Corner
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Table 2.2 Comparisons for E-cards with Song Dedication16
Table 2.3 Comparisons for Message Board 17
Table 2.4 Comparisons for Polling Service 18
Table 2.5 Comparisons for Photo Gallery 19
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List of Figure s
Figure 3.1 Adapted from Seven Phases of SDLC, Systems Analysis &
Design by Kenneth & Julie E. Kendall. 23
Figure 4.1 Context Diagram 30
Figure 4.2 Data Flow Diagram Levell 31
Figure 4.3 Process Browse Selections 32
Figure 4.4 Process Go to Photo Gallery 33
Figure 4.5 Process Go to Storyteller 34
Figure 4.6 Process Go to Message Board 35
Figure 4.7 Process Go to E-card Sending
36
Figure 4.8 Process Go to Polling 37
Figure 4.9 Process Exit System 38
Figure 4.10 Process Sign In 38
Figure 4.11 Process Query 39
Figure 4.12 Photo Gallery Main Page 41
Figure 4.13 Storyteller Corner Main Page 41
Figure 4.14 Message Board Most Popillar Page 42 Figure 4.15 E-card Sending Service Sending Page 43
Figure 4.16 Polling System Suggest Page 44
Figure 4.17 Administration of Message Board 45
Figure 5.1 Coding Part 49
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ABSTRACT
This thesis introduces a system of a virtual recreation center, to provide entertainment to the online users. There are five modules inside the virtual recreation center. There are storyteller corner, photo gallery, message board, polling and e-card sending service. This is a server-side system, which means the server will handle all the requests fi'om the users and send back to the user browser. The main objective of the virtual recreation system is that creates an online entertainment channel to UNIMAS users. All the data and information are kept in the relational database. Users can browse through the system. There is an administration part. Only administrator has the authority to access the system administration. This prototype will be developed into a functional system.
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ABSTRAK
Thesis ini memperkenalkan satu sistem pusat rekreasi secara virtual di mana ia akan membekalkan perkhidmatan penghiburan kepada penggunanya.
Terdapat lima modul dalam sistem pusat rekreasi ini. Mereka terdiri daripada penyampaian penceritaan, koleksi gambar, papan peninggalan pesanan, sistem perundian dan perkhidmatan penghantaran kad secara elektronik. Ini merupakan satu sistem yang berasaskan server, di mana semua pengurusan kod adalah berlaku di server dan bukan di pihak pengguna. Objecktif utama sistem pusat rekreasi ini bertujuan untuk membekalkan perkhidmatan penghiburan yang bermanfaat kepada semua warga UNIMAS. Semua maklumat dan data akan disimpan di dalam sistem database. Terdapat sesuatu bahagian administration yang hanya boleh dilihat dan diproseskan oleh pekerja eksekutif. Sistem ini akan dijadikan kepada sesuatu sistem yang boleh berfungsi.
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Chapter 1 Introduction and Problem State ment
l.1 Introduction
Many people could describe well a recreation center if they were asked to.
They might describe the recreation center as an open space, located near a housing area or town. The recreation center is filled with different children playing equipment, many long benches under the trees, and sometimes it might have a pond in the middle of the recreation center.
At the recreation center, one finds many people, folks, and different group of families, are doing different activities like jogging, sitting and chatting, and playing around, especially in the morning and in the evening. There is no certain rules restrict them. One can do anything he or she wants at the recreation center in order to get relaxing and have fun, no matter they are alone or in group.
When it comes to the virtual recreation center, the description might have slight changes. Recently, information technology takes place in replacing 0UI'
daily life with a virtual space. Virtual is a computer term. It refers to the creation of the certain space through imagination. Anyhow, the concept of the virtual recreation center is still same as the traditional one. The slight change is the virtual recreation center is filled with texts, graphics, music and photos.
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One can access it at anytime, anywhere via Internet. They do not have to stay in the same space at the same time.
Conceptually, both of the recreation centers serve the same purpose.
1.2 Problem Statement
In fact, there are two main reasons encouraging me to develop this project. To me, they are important and should not be neglected. These two reasons are internal and external problems. The internal problem involves the performance of the existing official website of UNIMAS. On the other hand, the external problem involves the real Internet world that the users expose to.
The users refer to all UNIMAS students, lecturers, staff and supported staff.
I. Internal Problem
Basically, one could easily log in the official website for UNIMAS, www.unimas.my. to browse through the website content. Inside this website, he or she could acquire some formal introduction related to UNIMAS, the latest events, information about faculties, the Counselor, the staff, contact links and others.
Somehow, there is no existing entertainment system for the users. Although there is an -'entertainment related website, www.calm.unimas.my.it is not
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sufficient and efficient for the users. The services provided are limited. The website is not as complete as what users expected.
UNlMAS has good environment and complete facilities to let the lecturers to share their knowledge and let students to enhance further knowledge and study. However, what else can the users do rather than studying and teaching? Relaxing is the answer. By the way, how could they obtain the entertainment that will benefit them? How should they differentiate a good link with others?
A well-prepared and educational entertainment system is the best solution to solve the problem. Therefore, Virtual Recreation Center is being developed. It is a brand new service in UNIMAS. Virtual Recreation Center is the suitable recreation center for them. Not only for the relaxing usage, the system could be accessed to share opinions, to share their hobbies and to observe the ideology tendency of those undergraduates.
II. External Problem
Undeniable, the users could easily obtain the entertainment services like chatting ICQ, games online and casino online via Internet. The problem with these linking is do not have any restriction. Users especially students may easily influence by the yellow culture and western culture. They may connect to that inappropriate and dishonorable information inside the linking.
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Recently, the world is filled with the terrorism and religion issues. Some information may mislead the users' consciousness. That might be very perilous for those who do not infiltrate the information before accepting them.
Due to all these problems, Virtual Recreation Center, which is going to be developed is an under control system. An administration part would be added to protect the content of it. Once any unhealthy information is found, it would be deleted or edited immediately.
1.3 Objectives
Virtual Recreation Center is quite new to the university campus. Thus, this is a chance to develop the virtual recreation center to evaluate on the effectiveness of this system.
In the new information century, the virtual recreation center replaces the traditional recreation center. People have fun and relaxing without gomg· to shopping center, recreation center and cinemas. This may save the environment from pollution free.
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Among the other objectives are:
• Avoid some bad effects coming from the students in roaming in Kuching town to seek for entertainment during weekends and holidays.
• To provide a good environment for the users to show their talent and interests in different fields.
• To learn the process of developing the virtual recreation center through my own imagination.
• To process a prototype of the virtual recreation center
• To shorten the gap between lecturers and students.
• To understand the users' opinions regarding the latest issues either in Malaysia or foreign countries.
• To study the possibility to enhance an entertainment channel in university campus.
1.4 What is Virtual Recreation Center?
This project is an online entertainment-based system. It is one of the branches of UNlMAS Knowledge Portal and UNlMAS Virtual Campus Project. It might be integrated into these projects. This project will be developed into a functional prototype.
It will provide entertainment services to the UNIMAS users. My project will emphasize on the services those are relax able and suitable for all users. It has some challenging functions to show the users' creativity and talent as well.
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Users could share their interests and acqUlre entertainment through this virtual recreation center. In addition, it will become a path where can shorten the gap between all executive staff and students.
Basically, this system IS developing based on its multimedia representation.
There will be much interactivity involved in this system. This system IS
considered as multimedia based since it has interactive events.
As the user accesses in the virtual recreation center, he or she could choose what they want to do. Inside the system, it is well prepared with some functions. There are five main modules or services. They are:
• Storyteller Corner
• E - card with Song Dedication
• Polling Service
• Message Board
• Photo Gallery
Every service will be divided into different functions. Each service is totally independence and stand-alone.
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1. Storyteller Corner
In the storyteller corner, one could create a story and share it with all the online users in UNIMAS. There are some interesting sub-functions inside this corner. These functions would be:
• Top voted story
• Most readers story
• The fully set story list
• Searching for a certain story through the category, the author's name, title of the story, the date of submit
• Creativity board
• Voting service with cookies setting.
• Reviey.,T
The stories would be separated into different categories.
II. E - card with Song Dedication
The e-card service is providing to all the UNIMAS users. Student would like to send an e-card to his or her friend during the friend's birthday, or' any other special events. These events may include:
• Birthday wishing
• Thank you
• Happy Graduation
• Get well
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• Regards
A song could be dedicated to someone along with the e-card. Certain songs would be setting in the channel to let them make decisions. Users might search the card sent to them through the search function by entering the sender ID.
III. Polling Service
Voting service is different from the voting service providing in the storyteller corner. This is an independence voting service. There are two different parts emphasize in the voting service.
• The Webmaster would create a question and let the user to vote.
• Or, the student could create the question by its own.
A form is provided to fill in the question and its options. Anyone who wants to vote could choose to vote any part they want to.
A chart would be used to represent the result. Besides, the students could do any reviews on the voting questions. Cookies setting would be provided in this voting service.
There is one special event adding in this service. This service will be connected to the forum part of UNIMAS Knowledge Portal, which is a well-designed forum. The questions exist in this service will become one element of the forum. The questions will be discussed in forum part. The discussion will
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become more attractive since the voting result will support the statements. The voting result could become the evidences to any surveys carried out.
IV. Message Board
The message board is another interesting service. Anyone could leave his or her message on the board. He or she could express the feeling Or opinion on the board. Emotion expression images are inserted in this service. Users could choose the images they like to represent themselves. Every receiver will receive a short invitation message from the sender to view the message at virtual recreation center.
The messages will be categorized into different categories. The categories may include:
• Apologize
• Urgent
• Thank you
A counter has been set to count the number of users viewed.
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v.
Photo GalleryIt is a function filled up with a collection of photos. Online users could upload their favorite photos and share them with others. A voting service would be prepared too. Every user will have an independence folder to keep the photos they submit.
Users could write some comments about the related photos. Besides, users could invite their friends to view the photos by sending an invitation message.
VI. Administration
Every service would be prepared with an administrating part. It is a convenience to the Webmaster to edit, delete, and resave the data. All the information is stored in the database. Different service connects to different database.
1.5 Thesis Outline
This report will be divided into seven chapters. Every chapter will define different scope of works involved in developing the system.
In chapter one, a brief introduction and problem statement will be discussed.
The chapter will let the readers know what is the purpose of the study, scope of the project and research significance. It will explain the problem statement in details.
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When the readers go into further observation, meaning that chapter two, he or she will obtain the reviewing of existing systems. Comparison among the technology, the programming used, the system features and the system interface will be drawn out.
In chapter three, the methodology used to develop the prototype will be emphasized. Through system development life cycle, the readers would understand the flow of the jobs, which are going to do. The requirement specification will be defined.
Follow by chapter four; it will involve the system design. The system design includes the system architecture and the input and output design.
Chapter five defines the system implementation. The designed prototype will be implemented through the programming part, which is going to compile.
Chapter six will involve the system testing and evaluation. System testing, system evaluation and system limitation will be taken into accounts.
Finally, in chapter seven, it concludes the work and recommends the future works. It describes the improvement that might be developed to enhance the system.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we might go through a deeper view in the technology used, the programming used, and the system interface designed. In order to have the correct view and comparison, some web sites with the same modules and functions have been browsed through to have a complete investigation to the existing systems.
The system is involving the usage of Internet. Before developing the system, the technology used and programming used have to be fixed. The technical terms have to be chosen to obtain a perfect result. Therefore, we might have to understand briefly about the common technologies used in developing a web
related system. The technologies include the server-side technologies, the client-side technologies and the database system. After understanding those techniques, we have to make decision which technologies are being used in developing the proposed system. Therefore, this review element is important in judging the effectiveness of the system.
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