Transcript The SCOUR Project

The SCOUR Project
Search Contents Of
Union’s Registry
Presentation Outline
Main Objectives
 System Overview and Purpose

 SCOUR
 USE
Functionality
 Current State of Project
 Future Work

Main Objectives
Create an efficient system to facilitate
scheduling meetings within the Union
College Community
 Successfully implement SCOUR into the
Union College Community
 SCOUR must be extremely stable and
able to recover from a unpreventable
crash

Current System
Doesn’t exist!
 Professors must e-mail students and
correlate an appropriate meeting time
 Current process can take hours

Benefits of an Electronic
Scheduling System
Saves time and aggravation
 Provides one medium for scheduling
meetings rather than many different
processes

System Overview
Composed of two different programs
 SCOUR- a program that parses Union’s
class roster pages and creates a database
 USE- a program that allows users to
schedule meetings and search SCOUR
(search contents of union’s registry)

SCOUR – Purpose



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Create a database based on the results of
scouring through union’s class roster web pages
Should run automatically with little or no human
interaction
Constantly run in order to keep database up to
date with current class schedules
Will provide vast amounts of data that can be
used for various queries
Class Roster Pages
USE- Purpose

USE is a web-based application that
allows users to interact with the SCOUR
database
 Allows
users to interact without any
knowledge of SQL
 Comfortable GUI for computer illiterate users
 Example
Functional Requirements

Reliable database system
 Back-up
system if primary server goes down
 Backbone of my project
 Up to date information

Easy to use web interface
 Intuitive
navigation
Queries

Stored Procedures

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Look up a students schedule
Find an optimal meeting time for a group of users
Find an open class room and reserve a time

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Must implement with current system
Print a transcript with out grades
Endless Possibilities

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Can search to see if anyone has the same class schedule as
you, etc.
Find a list of students who have already taken a class you are in
Technology Implemented
Red Hat Linux
 Java SDK 1.4.01

 Applets
 ACME
MySQL
 PHP

GIF Encoder
Current State of Project

SCOUR complete
 All
the data can be obtained through SQL
queries
 Thoroughly tested and all the bugs have been
worked out
 Slow query problems solved with more
advanced indexing system

Average query time .01 seconds
Current State of Project (cont.)

Currently working on USE system
 Successfully
implemented raster graphics to
display complicated query results
 Need to work on developing more queries to
interact with the database
Graphical
 Text Based

Future Work

Database can serve as backbone for online
advising system
 Contains
information on classes taken and gened
credit

Can serve as an e-mail host
 Teacher
and students can send out e-mails to other
users in a certain class

Serve as an online calendar for users
 Calendar
like interface
 Would help users manage time
Conclusion

For the system to be fully functional and efficient
 SCOUR
must be up to date
 Users must accept it and make it their primary way of
scheduling
 Must interact with other systems successfully such as
Union’s web pages and room scheduling

Union’s web pages must be correct and current
 Must
be reliable and fast
Questions?
Any comments or suggestions about
SCOUR or USE?
 Any comments or suggestions about
presentation?
 Thank you for your time
