Discussionweb v. 2 Overview

The Dicscussionweb v.1 code has been modified to a degree to warrant a v. 2 release (as opposed to v.1.2 for example). However there are still a number of features that we (the developers) would of liked to include in this release, but due to time constraints and in an effort to avoid out scoping v.2’s modifications over v.1, these features have been omitted. Perhaps a future v.2.1 release, or even a v.3 release could accommodate these features.

What follows are lists of all the bugs corrected, new features implemented and new features omitted in the Discussionweb v.2.

Firstly, these are all the bugs that were present in v.1 of the Discussionweb that have been corrected for v.2:

- Input fields that require the submission of data in order to ensure that the Discussionweb functions correctly (for example the user’s Full Name field), now enforce input.

- When updating a user’s email address or when an end-user creates a new user account, should the email address submitted be unique, then the ‘email address already assigned to a user’ error is no longer encountered.

- All hexadecimal colours selected in the Administration Console appear as meaningful colour names, as opposed to a select few appearing as their actual hexadecimal values.

- Completely null messages or forums (no titles or bodies) can no longer be submitted.

- Should a user hit their web browser’s refresh button after posting a new message/reply to a message (for example, to see if any new postings have been made by other users since), their message is not resubmitted.

- Should an administrator refresh the main forums page after having created a new discussion forum, their web browser will not resend the data and create another of exactly the same forum.

- The ‘spacer.gif’ file that is used to indent message replies is now transparent, such that if the page background colour changes, the GIF file remains invisible.

- A user’s unique identification (that is passed between every page the user visits whilst they are logged in) is now not lost upon the user logging in and changing their password at the same time.

- There are now no ‘Back’ or ‘Forums’ links on the main forums page, as this is the main hub area and these links are not needed there.

- The forum title is now present on the screen when posting a new message, replying to a message, or when viewing an entire message thread.

- The indentation of reply messages is now consistent for all replies.

- All replies posted now have the date and time when they themselves were posted, not the date and time of when the message at the top of their tree was posted.

Here follows a summary of all the new features implemented in Discussionweb v.2:

- Users are now presented with meaningful results screens upon the changing of their password from the login screen.

- When users are created, they are now by default granted access to all forums, instead of just the first one that was created.

- When a new forum is created, all users are by default granted access to the forum.

- All combo box choices are now ordered alphabetically.

- The emailing of recent headlines to all users has been implemented.

- The option to email userids and passwords to all users has been removed due to the fact that once a user’s userid and password are combined and then hashed to fill the user’s password field within the database (also the value that is passed in the URL to uniquely identify the user logged in – for security), the password cannot be re-obtained.

- Files can now be uploaded with all new messages or replies that are posted.

- The underlying table structures have been modified to make them relational, as opposed to stand-alone tables, such that the quality and efficiency of storage of data is improved.

- Discussion forums (and all their postings) and messages (and all of their sub-postings) can now be deleted by administrators or end-users, should end-users have been granted the privilege.

- All password entry fields are now asterisked for security purposes.

- A default Windows font (Arial) and a default Unix font (Helvetica) have been hard-coded into the Discussionweb’s style sheet, as an alternative to the selected font, should it not be supported by the user’s operating system.

- Whenever a new password is to be submitted, the user is now prompted to input this password twice instead of just once, helping to verify its correctness.

- The entire look of the Discussionweb - in terms of default colours and layout - has been modified to make it more usable.

- All information displayed to the user has been modified in terms of its syntax and layout, such that a higher level of usability is ensured.

- A greater number of default colours have been made available to administrators for formatting the look of the Discussionweb. The selectable colours are now also dynamically read from an underlying database table, such that colours can be added to this table and they will appear as options when administering the colours of the various elements of the Discussionweb.

- Before deleting a user/forum/posting, the user is prompted to confirm that this in fact what they wish to do, should they have chosen to delete accidentally.

- All text entry fields now only allow sensible maximums that will prevent functionality/display problems from occurring during the Discussionweb’s operation.

- Each page within the Discussionweb now yields a meaningful web browser title.

- The navigation bar is now only displayed below a selection of rows, as well as above it, when there are sufficient rows printed on the screen to make returning to the top when at the bottom, to access the navigation bar there, an inconvenience to the user.

The following were ideas/exercises to be performed to improve v.2 of the Discussionweb over v.1, but due to time constraints and their complexity being out of the scope of this version, they were omitted:

- Allow administrators to add/edit/delete colours for use in the Discussionweb from a screen, without having to delve into the database itself.

- Allow users to personalise their postings by having an assigned image accompanying their messages.

- Allow users to rate messages posted by others, for example giving messages a score out of 10 or perhaps a ‘thumbs up/thumbs down’ rating. Messages could then be searched for based on their rating.

- Provide a platform independent universal installer that automates the tasks of installing and configuring the Discussionweb. That is, all necessary SQL scripts would be executed automatically, with instructions and prompts (to substitute variables into the SQL scripts) being displayed to the user by an interactive interface.

- Thoroughly test the Discussionweb on various operating systems and through various web browsers to verify that it functions/appears correctly under varying hardware and software configurations.

- Conduct a usability study to gain information that could be used to refine the Discussionweb to make it easier to use by its intended user base (administrators, power users and end users).