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| My Journal |
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| Database Model |
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| Philosophy Statement |
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| Career Path |
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| Career Resume |
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| Presentation Outline |
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| Actual Presentation Notes |
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| 01/15/2002 | |
| Today I meet with Dr. Pankratz to discuss my project. I am assigned a scheduler program. This program will be a template but will use the Peace and Justice center as proof that my solution for the problem is appropriate. The program will be written in VB and later as a web application. | |
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| 01/16/2002 | |
| Today I considered some of the programming I will need to do in order to accomplish this project. I started laying out possible database designs and listing areas of possible problems. | |
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| 01/17/2002 | |
| Today I meet with Mr. Blahnik about some specifications of the project. We discussed in more detail about what the program will actually do, and what he has in mind for the project. | |
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| 01/17/2002 | |
| Met with Erin Bergman and Katie Wickman about what they expected out of the program when they first came up with the idea for the Peace and Justice Center. | |
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| 01/26/2002 | |
| Layed out the begining of what will eventually be the database model for the program. Ran into a few difficulties on how to represent time slots and if they were taken or not. | |
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| 01/29/2002 | |
| Created the first version of the database model. It needs a little work, but the basic design is good. | |
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| 01/30/2002 | |
| Meet with Mr. Blahnik to go over the first version of the database model. After discussing some issues with him we decided that we needed more information on how the program was actually going to run. We contacted the department on campus that schedules rooms and banquets to find out what kind of software they used if any. We found out they do use software to do the scheduling and decided to take a look at it. I have not had a chance to go look at the software yet, but I will be doing so soon. | |
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| 02/05/2002 | |
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Well I finally feel like my feet are on the ground again for this project. I was a little discouraged after my last meeting with Mr. Blahnik and was afraid I did a bunch of work for nothing. Today I visited the campus health center and event services. The health center was a little hesitant in showing me their program due to the confidential information in it. I was however able to persuade them to show me dates over the summer where there was minimal information. To my surprise the program they showed me was extremely useful. It gave me great incite into exactly how a similar program is used and how to manage multiple appointments at one given time. Next I traveled to Sue LaLuzerne’s office in event services to see what kind of scheduling program they use. They use a completely different software package that is absolutely huge. This software kept track of every room on campus what is scheduled for them at ever hour of the day, what catering is used if any, how the tables should be arranged, and even the price. This software did not give me as much of an idea how my program will work but it did bring up other possible issues that I would like to include in my project such as search capabilities, labeling who works scheduled open time slots, and canceling information. After being enlightened with these new discoveries I redesigned the database and found that Dr. Pankratz was right about the fact that I will be able to reuse a lot of my past information. The next hurdle I have is getting this database model past Mr. Blahnik. Hopefully I don’t fall a little short and fall on my face again. |
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| 02/06/2002 | |
| Today I started programming. I didn’t get to far because I have a feeling my database will be changing a little bit again after I meet with Dr. Pankratz and Mr. Blahnik tomorrow. | |
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| 02/07/2002 | |
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Today I got a chance to meet with Dr. Pankratz and Mr. Blahnik at the same time to go over the Application. This proved to be very useful and the meeting was quite productive. We didn’t really get a chance to go over the database design but we did lay out exactly what this program should do. We decided to make the schedule apply to only one specific job instead of many. For example, when I first designed the database and program I was designing it for a schedule that can assign a variety of jobs in one time slot. Now only one job can be assigned to the specified slot. Other slots can still be defined with different jobs, but the user no longer has an option of what kind of job will fill the open time slot. Due to this change I made a small modification to the database and laid out an instance for a possible schedule. The current model I think is pretty solid and I will test this solidity another meeting with Mr. Blahnik and Dr. Pankratz. |
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| 02/12/2002 | |
| Today I got a chance to visit with Dr. Pankratz about where my project is going. We discussed the new database model and some of its current weaknesses. After making some suggestions to strengthen the model I went back home and toyed with the model a bit. I feel the new model is now an improvement over the past one. | |
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| 02/14/2002 | |
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Today was quite a productive day. I meet with both Dr. Pankratz and Mr. Blahnik again to discuss my database model. fortunately this went very well, and only one very small change was made to the database. As a result the current model I have is quite stable. Now that this is out of the way I can really get to creating the program. Unfortunantly Next week is going to be very busy with my other classes, so I don't know how much of a role I can get on considering my limited time. |
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| 02/18/2002 | |
| Today I created all the main forms in Visual Basic, and got the program ready for the database. Now once the database is created I can start pulling data from the database and really get on a role. | |
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| 02/20/2002 | |
| Brace yourself...the Access database is complete. Well, at least I hope it is anyway. Now that it is actually made I can't believe I didn't think of this design earlier. Instead we really got to the design a round about way, but oh well it is there and now I can get going on it. | |
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| 02/21/2002 | |
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Today I meet with Dr. Pankratz primarily to discuss how to go about the walk through that is coming up in a few weeks. As a result we discussed how this will help my project come together because right now it is kinda all over the place. I also got a chance to do some more programming today. I was able to connect to the database, but I am having a little problem connecting with an ADO connection. I wish I had more time to look at it but the night is running short and I have other stuff to do, so tomorrow look out VB. 30 minutes later… Ok, I couldn’t take it any longer. It was just annoying me, I would have lost sleep over this. I took on the VB beast again, and oh yes, I have returned victorious. The ground shook with the fall of the mighty connection error and with no one around but me and my trusty water jug I knew this moment was only the first of many milestones to come. |
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| 02/22/2002 | |
| Today I did quite a bit of work with the program. My roommates went to the basketball game so I got a chance to listen to some good music and write the login portion of the program. | |
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| 02/23/2002 | |
| Well fortunately I caught a bit of some virus today, so I was able to put on a couple of sweatshirts and do quite a bit more programming. I did a lot of the setup of the schedule grid and such. | |
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| 02/24/2002 | |
| Today I am feeling much better, so that is a definite plus. I took a break from programming today and organized my presentaion for the walk throughs coming up. I decided not to worry about screen shots yet because I am sure there will be some pretty big changes before the actual walk through date. | |
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| 02/26/2002 | |
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Meet with Dr. Pankratz to discuss the walkthrough. Also got a chance to set some goals and checkpoints for the project. Such as setting up the Oracle Database and demonstrating the program to possible users. Did some more programming with the schedule. Primarily set up the actual layout of the schedule in proportion to the screen size and job interval. Attempted to make contact with Tod Maki. Could not at the time so I sent him an email asking him to get back to me when he gets a chance. |
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| 03/01/2002 | |
| Got a response from Tod Maki and will hopefully talk to him first part of next week. Despite the multiple trips to the Health center I did get a chance to do a little programming not as much as I would have liked to at least it didn't sit idle. | |
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| 03/03/2002 | |
| Happy I am still alive after traveling to Milwaukee and back to see Bush and Default last night during the snow storm. I must say it was worth it though, they put on a good show. In celebration of my survival I decided to program some more. Got quite a bit done, but I am having a small problem changing the background color of specific cells. I know it can be done, so I am sure I will figure it out eventually. | |
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| 03/04/2002 | |
| Prepared for the big presentation I have tomorrow. Got the print outs ready and created a sample instance that goes along with the program. | |
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| 03/08/2002 | |
| Today I finally got a chance to meet with Tod Maki. We talked about what this Oracle database will be accomplishing, and how it will be set up. We discussed other issues such as accessibility through the internet which he assured me is possible. Before leaving he insured me that he would email me all the information needed to access the database through my computer by Wednesday. | |
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| 03/15/2002 | |
| Well, I made it back safe and sound from Las Vegas. I even made a whole twenty five cents; I don't know how that town survives. As for my project I actually made quite a bit of progress today. It did take me a little bit to get back into the project, but once I got my bearings set it was fairly smooth sailing. Today's largest triumph is that I finally figured out how to color code the flex grid. Some things seem like they should be so easy, and they actually turn out to be, but Visual Basic just seems to go about it in odd manners. | |
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| 03/16/2002 | |
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I needed a break from unpacking so I decided to work on my project for a bit. I created another form for the program which gives detailed information about each slot. This will eventually be the form that will assign the contacts to the time slot, but I did not get a chance to work on that yet today. Unfortunately I have not heard back from Tod Maki yet. I was hoping to start testing out Oracle database, and make sure my program could switch between the two connections. |
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| 03/18/2002 | |
| Today I got a chance to work more on the newest form. Now a user can log in and reserve an empty slot. In addition a person with Admin rights can log in and assign any contact to a specified slot. | |
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| 03/19/2002 | |
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Tried to contact Tod Maki to see if he needed any more information so I could start accessing the Oracle database. I sent him an email, with the hopes he replies to me soon with the information I need in order to access the server. Well today I ran my program and uncovered a bug that took me quite a while to fix unfortunately. I just couldn’t find what was causing it, but I did so all is well. I then wrote the section of the program that allowed a contact with Admin rights to add and delete new slots. |
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| 03/21/2002 | |
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Got a chance to meet with Both Dr. Pankratz and Mr. Blahnik. We primarily talked about the Oracle database and my plan of action on how to get that portion of my project complete. I was advised to talk with Carson Diltz about an Oracle template that he worked on last semiester for Database. Emailed Carson as advised by Mr. Blahnik and Dr. Pankratz about the Oracle template. Emailed some times we could try to get together so hopefully we can meet sometime next week. |
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| 03/26/2002 | |
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Today I met with Carson to go over some Oracle information. We didn't have to meet too long he just gave me some templates and some instructions on how to connect to the database that look like they will be very useful, but I haven't had much of a chance to look through them yet. I was also able to talk with Tod Maki a bit. He apologized for not getting the database set up yet and said he would do it tonight and email me the information. Hopefully I can really get going on the Oracle section tomorrow then. |
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| 03/30/2002 | |
| I did quite a bit of programming today. With all of my room mates gone I got a chance to work on permissions of the program quite a bit. I had most of the admistration stuff done already, but now I had to restrict the normal users of the program and the viewers from haveing admistration rights. | |
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| 04/02/2002 | |
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Today I wrote the section of the program to add a new job. In order to do this I had to create another small form to get all of the information about the job to be added. This functionality will be available to users with Admin rights only. Tried to go in to see Tod Maki, but he was not there, so I called him and left him a message on his voice mail. So, hopefully he listens to the message and gets back to me right away. |
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| 04/08/2002 | |
| I got a chance to do a fair amount of programming today. I wrote the portion of the program to add a new user and eventually will be slightly modified to allow a user to change his/her own information. | |
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| 04/09/2002 | |
| Today I have done what I may consider the greatest accomplishment yet. I got access to the Oracle database. It took a quite a few tries, but I did it. I then got a chance to test out the access I was given, and it even worked. Needless to say I am pleased. | |
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| 04/11/2002 | |
| Got a chance to play around with Oracle queries today. Set up the database and was able to get my application to connect to it. I got an error on a statement that used INNER JOIN and found out that can not be used in Oracle. That won't be a big change and I will work on it tomorrow. | |
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| 04/12/2002 | |
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Today was a frustrating day. I can not seem to get any query to work through the application. I can use the exact same query in the SQL Plus program that I used to create the Oracle database and it works fine. According to the state of the connection the connection to the Database was made successfully, but the queries still do not work. In order to make sure I am doing everything correctly I used Carson, Laura, and Jeremy’s CS 330 program as a reference and everything appears to be the same. So, I am going to try and get with Carson or Tod Maki sometime to see if they have any advice for me. 30 minutes later...I was getting frustrated, so I left the computer before it left through the window of my townhouse. I come back, run the program, sure the thing will fail again...but wait. What's this? Tt works! I guess it was getting sick of me, but all is well again. |
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| 04/13/2002 | |
| Didn't get much of a chance to work on the project today due to my home inspection, my family visit, and a concert in Milwaukee, but I did get to play around with Oracle and see the difference between Oracle and Access. | |
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| 04/14/2002 | |
| After finding the slight differences between Access and Oracle I was able to do a simple check to see what type of database was being used and then query the database with the appropriate string. After that was done I fixed up a few bugs I found through my own testing and having my room mates play with the program. | |
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| 04/17/2002 | |
| Although it may not look like a lot I actually did quite a bit of programming today. Today was basically clean up day. I cleaned up the little stuff, including forms some error checking. I wrote all the little thankless jobs that go unnoticed unless they are of course not done, and when they are found they are a crippling blow to the usability of the program. | |
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| 04/18/2002 | |
| Today I got a chance to do more Error checking. I forgot that if an apostrophe was entered into a field it would fail when trying to add it to the database. So, I fixed that little problem up as well. | |
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| 04/20/2002 | |
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Today I did extensive testing in Windows 95. I fixed the little problem with the calendar control between 95 and the other operating systems with a SysInfo control which allowed me to access what version of windows was being used. The problem with the calendar shocked me. What happened was under Windows 95 to get a short month length on the calendar control I had to set MonthLength equal to 0. In other versions of Windows I had to set MonthLength equal to 1. I had a similar problem with setting the first day of the week. I also found a small bug with the dates being a two digit year or a four digit year. My first assumption was that this was once again a Windows version problem, but after looking into it more I found that it was actually an Access problem. When the date got entered into Access, Access would convert the date’s format. I am not exactly sure what caused the difference in formats because I am using the same version of Access in my room as in the labs. In order to fix this error I changed the data type of the date field to text. This still allowed me to do all the comparisons I needed to do and did not change the formatting of the date. |
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| 04/22/2002 | |
| In preparation for my presentation I talked with Dr. Pankratz about installing the Oracle client on the computer in Cofrin 11. We were able to get in contact with George Possley and he installed the client on the machine immediately. | |
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| 04/23/2002 | |
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Today I got a chance to test out the client that was installed yesterday and everything worked out great. I also did a great deal of other Windows 95 testing and found a few bugs in the program that were not Windows 95 related. They were of course fixed. I tried reaching the database from work and was not able to make a connection. So, I stopped in to see Tod Maki. I found out that the firewall is what prevented this. He assured me that I would be able to access the database from off campus as long is I can get past the firewall. I will be doing more testing of this theory, but if this program is to be used more off campus this firewall issue could present a problem. |
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| 04/25/2002 | |
| Meet with Erin Bergman and Katie Wickman of the Peace and Justice Center to give them a demonstration of the program. Things went very well, in fact they said it was “exactly” what they are looking for. That made me quite happy. | |
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| 04/28/2002 | |
| Practiced my prsentation in Cofrin 11. Went through the entire presentation. It went a little long, so I may have to cut some things out, but I think I will just play it by ear incase I need more time. | |
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| 04/29/2002 | |
| I gave my presentation today. It went pretty well I think, and surprisingly I wasn’t nervous, not really sure why. I just went up there, said what I did, and had some fun. I hope it came off that way because I really wanted to show that I enjoyed working on this project. | |
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| 05/01/2002 | |
| Today I started putting the binder together. I wrote an instruction manual for how to convert an application from an Access database to an Oracle database. | |
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| 05/03/2002 | |
| Continued working on the binder. I wrote both a user manual and an administration manual. I also made a few visual changes to my website. It was just a little too dull. | |
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| 05/03/2002 | |
| Today it was my goal to finish up the binder so I could have a chance to study for my Corporate Finance final Monday. Will I did it. Here it is, my last entry. It has been quite a time. Thanks for reading. | |