In the past week or so I have added descriptions to the mock application, I have created two digital clocks to add to the mock application to demonstrate the difference in time between the United Kingdom and South Africa and I have managed to get a file upload system working.
I have also tried to develop a mock sound recorder for the mock application as flash cannot record sound without a dedicated server (I did not know this so I have learnt something), this does not work as yet.
I have also been working on inserting data into the database for the blog, this does not work either but not through lack of effort in fact this has actually lead me to what I believe is the root of all my problems.
At the beginning of this project I planned the website and application around using a single table within a database. I did this because in my past experience of using php every exercise I have worked upon has always used only one table within a database. Today I have discovered that for a website and application like the one in my project I would need to use a different table for each functional component i.e. one for the blog, one for the gallery, one for the audio etc... The login script would also need to generate a unique identifier that gets sent from the server to the flash file that is stored and then used when sending information via other scripts to the other tables for their various functions, thus displaying each user individual content. If this is the right process it means that I have acquired a very useful bit of knowledge and this can only be good but it does create a few problems. I voluntarily sat in one of the php sessions last year and I learnt what in my opinion is a good understanding regarding the basics of php scripting, to make my site and application work the level of knowledge needed seems to be beyond my current ability. With time I am confident that I could learn the knowledge needed to make this all work but there lays the problem, we are three weeks away from hand in and I don’t believe this leaves me with enough time to complete that task. This problem leaves me with an important decision to make, I can put all my effort into developing my scripts in the hope that I may gain most if not all of the functionality I require for my project or I can start focussing on the positives. When I started this project I believed I had a great idea in theory and I still believe that now, I have learnt a great deal about the successes and failures within mobile development and I now have a wider knowledge of best practices and usability within mobile applications. I have learnt a lot from my lecturers about the design and development process and I believe that I have put this into practice during this project, so I do not want my project to fail because of coding difficulties. I understand that it is important to try and develop a working project, in industry projects are often developed by teams of people who often bring unique skills to the table to complement each other in the developments process and maybe this project has taught me that my role may not be in scripting coded languages.
I am going to develop my project to a point using simulations of working parts where necessary in order to perform some user testing. The user testing will be conducted with the aim of gathering data regarding the ideas within my project, the aesthetics and the usability rather than the usual bugs and error fixing. I have spent a long time on this project and I have exhausted a lot of effort and I believe by taking this route in the final weeks of the project I can gain something in terms of feedback on a professional level in order to meet some of my own learning outcomes. I am not sure what this will mean for my grades but I have to choose a path and this one provides me with a useful end product, the other path could just leave me frustrated.
I do not believe I have made a mistake in choosing this project, I do believe I may have overestimated my coding abilities but this at least highlights an area that I can focus upon in my future development as a multimedia practitioner. I have struggled with the concept of developing ideas in theory that will not work for various reasons as I like to have a finished article to show for my work, although in this case the development may not be about my project but in fact it may be the development of myself and as long as I stay enthusiastic and inquisitive and I put in the hard work that development may be successful but never finished as learning is something that should never stop.
