Department of Computer Graphics

CGT 456 Hypermedia Authoring II

Scenario

You have been hired by Glotzbach Enterprises to produce a secure web based classified site.  Glotzbach Enterprises is a medium sized startup company that specializes in offering surveillance and security consulting services.  They have been receiving a high volume of calls from customers who want to purchase surveillance gear. This is not a service that the company currently offers.  The COO  has been charged with conducting a feasibility test of this concept.  The company wants to know if this would be profitable for them on a large scale.

You have been hired to create a fully functional prototype that would allow Glotzbach Enterprises to test their idea.  You are known in the industry as being expensive, but always delivering on time.  Your ability to "get inside" of your client's head and delivering exactly what he/she wants is legendary.  Because of your reputation Glotzbach Enterprises has hired you as the project manager in this endeavor.

The company is located approximately 300 miles from your center of operations.  Because of this, management at Glotzbach Enterprises has decided to go with your suggestion of doing everything electronically (FTP, E-mail, etc.)  They are not too technologically savvy, so you might have to run through how to FTP or conduct a live chat session via MIRC or netMeeting, etc. with them.

In short, you are the person in charge.  You will set the milestones, get the needed resources, pester the client as needed, etc. Go get the job done.

Client Preliminary Decision

While nobody at Glotzbach Enterprises has the skills to pull of this project, they have made some preliminary decisions/client mandates that you should review.  You are in the position of either accepting these as is or "talking some sense" into your client if any of the mandates seem unreasonable or unproductive.

• Use a small scale database such as MS Access, provided by Glotzbach Enterprises.
• Design a logo for our company --- we don't have one.
• Integrate levels of security so that only those registered with the site can purchase items, but those not registered can only view.  Also only management can delete items.
• Music on each page that plays in the background and changes depending on what page the user is on.
• Pull down menus like on the Microsoft page.
• Flash animation on each page that show our company image.
• Searchable by all attributes (date entered, date expire, description, category, etc.)

Class Mandates
You must incorporate these into your project.  These are not negotiable with the client.

Required Features

• You must have a mechanism for people to create free accounts.
• Only users with an account can sell items.
• Users without an account have the option of a) only being able to browse or b) create an account.
• You must properly handle duplicate usernames (ask them to change it).
• Users should be able to search by at least one criteria.
• You MUST code the ASP portions manually.  HTML portions may be done with an editor.
• The entire site must use CSS to format the pages.
• Do not use a flat table approach.
   

Deliverables

You are to deliver two copies of the project: one on-line using your course account.  Send the URL to your client via e-mail.  A second copy should be delivered on permanent media such as CD-R.  There are CD burners in Knoy 346. Please include a readme file on the CD-R indicating how to "install" your web application.  This should state the directory structure of your site, instructions on where to place you database file and/or how to set up any DSNs.

Grading Criteria

50% Functionality (Does it work)
30% Design
10% Client Interaction
10% Pre-production documentation

CGT 456