Wallen Project08

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Graduate Student Database Project

Nicholas WallenDepartment of Computer Science

Florida State University

Major Professor: Dr. David Whalley

n partial fulfillment of the re!uirements for the De"ree of Master of Science


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Introduction#ac$"round

n the Computer Science Department at Florida State University% trac$in" a student&s pro"ress

throu"h the "raduate pro"ram has 'een handled separately and disjointly 'y the different staff

mem'ers 'ased on (hat they oversee. )o(ever% as multiple aspects of the students data must 'e shared

for various tas$s% this data is often shared via email and stored redundantly in e*cel spreadsheets across

the department. +his manner of stora"e often leads to hardships (ith re"ards to ho( the data (as

mana"ed% updated% and shared, (hen data needs to 'e updated% all copies must 'e updated manually

(ith "reat care so that out of date information is not $ept and recirculated throu"h the system. n

addition% various "overnmental and provisional 'odies re!uest periodic surveys to 'e done on the

ma$eup of the student 'ody. Currently% this is done 'y siftin" throu"h hundreds of papers for all the

students and countin" them manually. With a centrali-ed system% it could potentially ta$e a sin"le !uery

to count the students on a moments notice.

oal

+he o'jective of this master/s project is to create a data'ase to centrally handle the information

of all the "raduate students in the Computer Science Department% and to provide access to this

information (ith an easy to use (e'0'ased interface that can 'e accessed 'y any device (ith 'asic html

renderin" capa'ilities.

1e!uirements

1e!uirements for the system fall into three cate"ories% those tendin" to(ards the usa'ility of the

system% those to(ards the maintenance and alteration of the system% and those to(ards the security of

the system. For the first re!uirement% accessi'ility (as addressed 'y ma$in" the system accessi'le


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from the (e' via a standard (e' 'ro(ser% and no re!uired e*tensions% such as java% javascript% or flash.

+he system (as also desi"ned so that the users (ould 'e a'le to complete the repeata'le tas$s in a

streamlined manner to cut do(n on (asted time% and in a concise (ay to s(itch 'et(een tas$s. +o

address the maintenance of the system% a modular desi"n (as used. +his (as done so that 'u"s caneasily 'e found and additional features can easily 'e added to the system. +o address the security of the

system% users are re!uired to run sessions over )yperte*t +ransfer Protocol over Secure Soc$et 2ayer%

https.

Functional Description

Method of Use

+here are multiple users for this system defined 'y their role. First is the Director of raduate

Studies. t is this person/s jo' to initiate the student into the system 'y usin" the accept function. Usin"

this functionality% (hen a student arrives at the university% the director accesses the list of accepted

students and creates an entry for the ne( student into the "raduate student data'ase. +his is done 'y

chan"in" the status under 3attendin"4 to either 3yes4 or 3no4 and hittin" the su'mit 'utton. +he list of

students can 'e filtered 'y year% semester% and (hether the sou"ht de"ree is MS or PhD.


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Fig. 2: Alter/View Detail Function Student Select Page


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Fig. !: Alter/View Detail Function Student Detail Page

+he final jo' of the director is to indicate that the student is no lon"er an active student upon

the student&s "raduation or other(ise departure from the school. +his is done 'y a"ain "oin" into the

3modify permanent info4 form and selectin" 3de"ree status4 and chan"in" it to either e*pelled% left% or


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"raduated.

+he ne*t set of users of the system is the 15 mana"er and +5 mana"er. t is their jo' to record

the semesterly information re"ardin" the students/ position and their related pay. For first time students%

the data must 'e initiali-ed in the semester data ta'le. +o do this% the mana"er clic$s on the 35dd a +54

or the 35dd a 154 'utton on the navi"ation panel% and then chooses 3enter a sin"le student4 and then

fills out the appropriate data for that student. 1ecurrin" students may 'e entered at the same time 'y

instead choosin" 3enter students in 'atch mode%4 (hich copies a su'set of the students from the

previous semester to the current one. Finally% the mana"ers can edit the information (ith the +5 15

matri* mana"er.

Fig " Add Single #A/$A

+he person in char"e of payroll also has access to the system to vie( the costs associated (ith

employin" the +5s and 15s. +he payroll mana"er has read access to the +5 15 matri* that the 15


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and +5 mana"ers use to input the financial information. +he names of the students (ere omitted from

this vie(in" of the matri*.


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Fig % #A/$A &atri' &anager

I(ple(entation

+he system (as (ritten to (or$ (ith a mys!l data'ase 'ac$0end to store the data% and is (ritten

in Perl to create the pa"es to serve via apache. +he content of the data'ase is divided into four major

components. +he first is the applicant information that the student su'mits (hen re!uestin" admission

into the pro"ram. +his ta'le is pree*istin" 'efore the creation of this system% and (as adapted for its

ne( use. +his ta'le is used to loo$ up the student D% name and standardi-ed testin" scores. +he second

ta'le used is for data that is static for most of the student&s time in the department. +his ta'le holds the

follo(in" data:


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student% and a semester and year field for the semester and year this entry trac$s. startDate and endDate

mar$ the dates 'y (hich the appointment 'e"in and end. Fundin"+ype descri'es the type of position

the student has and can 'e one of the follo(in": &+5 = M5& for a student teachin" a class in the CS

major% &+5 0NM& for students teachin" a non0majors class% &+5 = 2 & for those teachin" a literacy class%&+5 0>1& for any other teachin" assi"nment% &15& for research assistants% &S & for those in the systems

"roup% and &>1& for all other jo' positions. ?o'code% projectcode% fundin"code% record% and employee D

all represent codes needed 'y the school to descri'e the student&s jo' position internally. ?descripction

descri'es the jo' and jSupervisor lists the staff or faculty mem'er that the student reports to for the jo'.

)ours lists the num'er of hours the student (or$s (ee$ly. +each is a fla" that is set if the student is in a

teachin" position.

Fig + Se(ester In*or(ation #able

+hree other ta'les are used 'y the data'ase to mana"e users and their privile"es. radUsers%

radPa"es% and radPrivile"es 6see Fi" @8. radUsers contains the username and the pass(ord for the


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account. radPa"es contains pa"e D% used to uni!uely identify the pa"e% pa"e2in$% a lin$ that the script

uses to find the correct section of code for that pa"e% and &pa"eDesc& (hich is a description for the end

users to $no( (hat that pa"e is for. radPrivile"es descri'es user privle"es 'y mappin" a user&s

username to the pa"e D&s of the pa"es he has access to.

Fig , -ser Pri ileges #ables

Sessions

User sessions are mana"ed 'y the Perl module c"i:sessions. c"i:sessions provides t(o (ays to

trac$ users of the (e' pa"e. +he first is throu"h a coo$ie mana"ement system. +his mana"ementsystem (as not chosen for this project so that users (ithout a coo$ie supportin" 'ro(ser could use the

system. +he second (ay of detectin" users is 'y callin" Asession0Bid68% (hich returns the id of the

session% and em'eddin" the value in the (e' pa"e. When a related (e' pa"e is su'mitted to the

(e'server% if it has a session id% the perl script connects to the data'ase server% loo$s up the id% and if it


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e*ists% loads the saved data into the session varia'le. f the pa"e does not send a session id% the script

"enerates one for it% and if it sends a faulty id% it returns the user to the lo"in screen.

)+M2

We' pa"e desi"n (as done (ith the aid of the perl module html:template. +his allo(s for the

html to 'e (ritten in a template file separate from the perl code to increase code reada'ility and

reusa'ility. When a template is called% the script loads data from the template and su'stitutes any perl

varia'les in the template (ith the correspondin" varia'le in the script. Many different templates (ere

desi"ned for the various pa"es% as (ell as a "eneric template for pa"es (ith less content. 5ll templatesload t(o frames: &content&% for the specific content of the pa"e% and &noncontent& for items standard to

each pa"e such as the lin$s to the different section and the lo"out 'utton.

Future or0

While this project has supplied the 'asics for a system to $eep trac$ of students% many further

enhancements are desired for "reater control of the information.

+he first major enhancement (ould 'e for advisors to 'e a'le to lo" in and see the information

for their students. +hey should 'e a'le to see (hat prere!uisites the students have ta$en% and still need

to ta$e% as (ell as information a'out their jo'% pay% room assi"nment% and email address. +he advisors

should also 'e a'le to fill out semester and yearly pro"ress reports on phd students (ho have advanced

to candidacy. 5lso useful (ould 'e the a'ility to record (hich classes have 'een recommended 'y the

student&s advisor% as (ell as ta$en classes and "rades made in said classes.

5nother useful addition to the system (ould 'e an e*tended system 'y (hich a student should

e*it the system. Currently% the rad Supervisor simply mar$s &"raduated&% &left&% or &e*pelled& in a


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students status (hen the student leaves, instead% a system could 'e set that allo(s the supervisor to

simply clic$ a 'utton and have the system automatically chec$ (hich "raduation re!uirements have

'een met% (hich are currently 'ein" (or$ed on% and (hich are unmet.

>ther improvements to the system should relate to the maintenance of the system. +here should

'e some method for the users of the system to correct mista$es made 'y themselves that do not re!uire

them to contact the (e'master to modify the mys!l ta'les to fi* the pro'lem. Similarly% user account

"eneration% pass(ord mana"ement% and course and advisor status should 'e modifia'le from (ithin the

user interface for privile"ed users.

5nother (ay the system could 'e improved upon is (ith the matri* mana"er. Currently% it

re!uires the user to type in the values for each of the fields that are in the matri*. +he 'urden of typin"

in the users could 'e eased 'y creatin" pull do(n menus for enumerated values and 'ooleans.

5 prototype for a more visually appealin" and intuitive template (as (or$ed on and

implemented for the matri* mana"er. +his ne(% more user friendly desi"n could 'e propa"ated

throu"hout the system.

Finally% a "eneral !uery capa'ility should 'e added. +his feature (ill 'e very useful (hen

attemptin" to fill out surveys re"ardin" our "raduate students% to ans(er !uestions from administrators%

or to o'tain information for various reports.

onclusions

n conclusion% a data'ase is a far more efficient mechanism to store and or"ani-e data than

spreadsheets, it allo(s for a centrali-ed facility that can easily 'e modified and !uic$ly shared amon"

multiple users. )avin" a (e' 'ased front end removes the re!uirement of users havin" to understand

and use a data'ase directly% and allo(s users to connect from any(here (ith an internet connection and


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a 'asic (e' 'ro(ser. t also allo(s the possi'ility of !ueries to o'tain information for various surveys.

Due to the num'er of users readin" and modifyin" student data in the department% it is an ideal use for

such a system.

Documents

Wallen Project08