PJs Blog

Handing in the shop today...

Still haven't got the cookies working properly although at one point this morning I nearly sold 3 'true's and a 'false'! I also can't get my shopping basket correct but I've got to the point where I'm too tired to care which is sad.

Am going to ask my lecturer if he might go through it with me and explain where I've gone wrong and how to do certain features because I know what I want to do but I just don't understand where I'm going wrong.

This afternoon I'm going to write my report for eskimohouse and do some "easy" dissertation work.

UPDATE:

Dammit, had to actually present Border Events in front of class! I was told the lecturers were popping round each computer and looking. So I made a complete fool of myself showing the shop that didn't work but I think I was able to justify it a bit. I hope.

What annoys me is the amount of work and time and effort I've put into it and how little I've achieved- it's so frustrating and I don't feel at all satissfied. Never mind, it's over now and I've taken the afternoon off owing to hardy being able to keep my eyes open such was the 16 hour marathin yesterday! I was in at 9am this morning!

Ok, honesty is the best policy- I cannot program to save my life! Well ok I can get a few bits right but I am now confused and slighlty panicking because I cannot finish 'Border Events'. I understand what needs to be done just don't get how to do it! I hate that because I'm not stupid, I just don't have the right kind of mind. How I wish I was did have!

So after writing yesterday, I spent a bit of time styling CISDT website and then prepared to meet Gavin. After that I prepared eskimohouse stuff because I was deliberately putting off Border Events work oh I think I also worked out how I couldn't work on it at home!

I came into uni early today to see Gavin about my dissertation (which I feel so much better about) and to get on with my work and have made notes about what needs to be done and sort of how to do them- will see my lecturer soon and ask him some questions/ cry on his shoulder!

Basically..
ASP to do

• Change stock level after quantities of an item have been bought
• Check the customers table for email and password fields and check the details the user has inputted are the same

JavaScript to do

• Validate the register form
• Validate the login form
• work out the total ticket price, sub total, and add P&P price to get grand total
• incorporate the MOD10 rule to validate credit cards

and finally...

Cookies!

• work out the header code
• apply basketCookie to every page with a shopping basket on it
• apply CustomerCookie to every page to remember user

Oh and after that I have to style and validate the code with W3!

So it doesn't sound a lot but you try doing it when you're crap at programming and soemwhere between 20-30% of your module marks are riding on it! I'd better ace the exam!!

Will write more later to say how I got on!

THE FIRST UPDATE:

Since I wrote the below an estomated 7 hours have passed and from the list above I've done the JavaScript validation and half the cookie (although I may turn the cookie into JavaScript as well). Finishing the cookie is my next move because I need to get my shopping basket to work- that's the most important step now. Oh I've also styled the site- it looks a lot like the CISDT layout!

THE SECOND UPDATE:

Border Events sucks. Still no further forward on the cookie and shopping basket. Have heard the good news that we don't include the MOD10 rule on the site (YAY!) and am now trying to figure out the cookies and the shopping basket and if I have the will to live after that then I will sort out this login and registering problem I am having. Wish I knew about this sort of thing. I've been in uni for 13 hours- shows you how good I am! This is something I'd still like to look at in my own time to improve but I think I'd have to find someone who could go through it all with me bit by bit so I can have it explained. Might see who is hanging around in the Scottish Borders.

THE THIRD UPDATE:

"Everybody's changing and I don't feel the same"

THEN CAME THE FOURTH....

Still no further forward and am starting dislike everyone else who have managed to do this. I just don't understand why the cookies won't work and none of the online tutorials and the notes that I have explain this. It sucks.

Today I felt a bit miserable (poor diet + lack of sleep = run down 3rd year in final 9 weeks of entire course! (that's scary!)) so to cheer myself up, I thought I would knock the CISDT website on the head regardless of whether they want it or not.

So I fought with the CSS styling for ages and decided to re-create the site layout as a table. Which was the right idea but I got a bit confused and because lets face it- tables are confusing. I then went searching for sites that used tables and then used their code to help me create mine which was just what I needed and now, bar some styling and an idea I've had about pictures, I have created the CISDT website let me know what you think.

The final styling will happen tonight and I may have a play with the pictures idea.

Now off to complete some javascript and the MOD10 rule for 'Border Events'.

I didn't get much work done yesterday- having spent a weekend digging I was shattered by the time I got back to Preston. I then had to face an eskimohouse meeting which was and wasn't productive.

We have to have a PR event to advertise our product which will now be an Interactive PC Game because I don't think the DVD game will be ready at all; only a prototype sadly. We were supposed to have had the PR event this week but after we discovered our problem with the DVD we postponed it. The PR event must happen next week- product or no product. What's quite funny is that we're going to be raffling off a DVD player that will be no use to the PC Game at all!

Anyway Gavin (lecturer) asked to have a look at the DVD structure and I spent 1.5 hours with him and Ruksana (HR manager) trying to figure out DVD Lab Pro - which isn't the right software for out game sadly. Never mind; you learn from experience.

When I got back I updated my eh logbook to include all my work and wrote the minutes and agenda for the week. Need to email Joanne to ask questions about DVD Lab Pro.

So major work of the day was me and my dad digging the garden (which has resulted in a bruised hand!). The house we moved to in Scotland was a new build which came with a garden of weeds for free. My parents love gardening and have spent a lot of time, effort and money into creating it and they're doing an excellent job. I help out when I can because I quite like gardening- it's healthy and quite therapeutic and relaxing.

I did a bit of university work which included Eskimohouse work. We were intially making an interactive DVD game but we've come up with a few problems as we're learning on making a DVD from scratch. We are making a PC version of the game in Macromedia Flash as a back up in case our DVD doesn't come off. We wrote an XML file for each question category which will contain the questions and answer for each question and I had to input the music questions and answers.

Why oh why do ASP books come with pictures of snakes on them? I very sadly have a major phobia of snakes and even a hand drawing of them seems to freak me out. Just because ASP is spelt asp- it's not fair!

Deadline Day!

Well I made my deadlines which was a good thing. Had a minor panic at the library when it came to printing out the poster of Thunderbird One because Illustrator on the uni network wouldn't open my Illustrator file and I had a slight panic, but luckily Photoshop would so I was able to check the crop marks and print it off.

I then went to my commercial website lesson where I handed the report in and carried on with my shop- am slightly worried it won't be ready in time so I will have to do a lot of extra work on that- it's annoying that it has taken me so long to get into ASP!

In fact it is more than annoying that I have recently got right into my course- why this couldn't have happened in first year is beyond me!

On the train (I went back home to Scotland for a weekend away from uni and for Mother's Day) I planned the programme for the CISDT event- I need to find out what specification I'm working to regarding size and page numbers before I can finally plan it.

I also planned my website a little bit but work won't start on that till Thursday when I've handed in and demonstrated 'Border Events'.

Anyway no more work was done on Thursday owing to tiredness and travel.

Now don't get me wrong; I don't leave my work till the last minute- well not always, but I've been particularly busy (doing ludicrous amounts of work)over these last few weeks with my Young Enterprise company EskimoHouse that I've fallen behind in everything else. Today is the last day before my 3D model is handed in and before my commercial shop report is handed in.

Graphics is finished virtually- just need to print off my poster, make a CD cover and add a couple of notes to my report and sort out the huge appendices.

'Border Events' (my commercial 'online' shop) is however, nowhere near finish. I've only just got into the ASP coding (takes a while I'm not a natural programmer/ code writer). Luckily the shop doesn't have to be finished till next week so I can leave things like CSS styling, validation and creating the top events table till later. Today (at the library) I'm going to finish my ASP code, write a cookie or two and figure out how to implement the MOD10 rule.

I will finish the CISDT advert today as much as I can. Hoping to hear back today about whether I am making their stationery and also as to whether they still want this website I've been working on.

No progress on mine or CISDT websites yesterday- I spent all night writing JavaScript for Border Events.

Working hard today, after logging off the computer this morning at 3.20am, I was in the library by 10.15am to start work on my new website, carry on with the CISDT website, render my 3D Thunderbird 1 model and then to carry on developing 'Border Events' my online commercial shop that would sell tickets to events in the Scottish Borders if it wasn't for the fact that this is just a university assignment.

After taking a while to figure out ASP, I've found I'm quite enjoying it and I wouldn't mind taking Border Events to the next level after I graduate. The only problem is I'm not sure how to do it and also the MOD10 bank rules are quite interesting/ extensive so there could be more research required. Wouldn't hurt to research in my spare (hah!) time!

My 3D model has been quite fun to make as well, although I'm not sure if I've done it correctly but Jim can tell me after Easter. I'll try and put some of the files on my website soon for you to look at. Just need to create an animation for it now and then that's graphics finished. Today I figured out my rendering problem which was (as I suspected) a problem with my material maps. I had set the planes' material as polished metal and then I couldn't see the body. To fix this, I encased the model in a box so that the lights would reflect and a) give a more even light to the plane and b) actually show the body of the plane against a background. Then I rendered it. Exciting times!

My CISDT website; fingers crossed my clients still want this- am getting mixed signals! Luckily it's going to be sorted out as I finish off some of the bugs. I need to figure out linking a background image in CSS as this doesn't appear to be working with the code I'm using at the moment! Got some JavaScript to play around with on my links as well!

My new website! Wow, I've never dedicated a website to myself completely. Actually, that's a lie- I have but it was before I knew how to build websites properly. This website is going to be an online CV which will contain examples of work I have done and also things I'm working on in my spare time.

The purpose of this Blog at the moment is to record the work I'm doing so that I can refer back to it easily when it comes to writing reports (like the dissertation report).