Sportsmans Application

Introduction

General Explanation

Sportsmans Application(Hunter's Journal) is a social network for hunters, fisherman and all the rest of "Sportsman". Project consists of a website and mobile applications. Project is sponsored by Mr. Rick Frisbie of Frizco Development. We took the project over on Fall 2011 to contribute last years progress. It is decided to be two semesters long. Our main tasks were fixing the database, implementing new requirements for the website, creating Android and iOS applications.

Team Members

• Ozan Olgu Adiguzel
• Deniz Demir
• Umut Can Genlik
• Yigit Can Karatas

Status of The Project When We Started

After 2010-2011, first version of the website was up and running until the server it is running on was crashed. Database was gone. The only thing left was PHP codes of the website and objects used in style. Mobile application development was started from scratch. We did not receive any code or documentation(except for wiki) about the project. What made this project challenging was to understand what was done last year. We have received a very limited amout of documentation. In order to contribute, initially we had to understand how the website was working. Eventually we started with approximately 80 PHP files , an imported forum software, a sytle sheet and the wiki.

Progress We Made

Website

Here is a list of most significant changes and refinements we made:

• Creating the database: We did reverse engineering to obtain the tables, fields and relations of the database that was working along with the website before it was lost. We used the existing PHP codes to do so. That was the first thing we did since we wouldn't be able to do the rest without a database. The mistakes we made in definitions and relations of tables caused so much time loss. Although we had a working database after the first month of the project, we have been doing changes and corrections on it for the whole time.
• User information handling: We started to encrypt our users' passwords. We use md5() function to encrypt passwords. This function calculates the MD5 hash of a string, and returns that hash. After we did encryption part, we need to "forgot password" page to allow users changing their password. We added reminder question, and reminder answer attributes into our "user_info" table in the database. Question is a random string that will be created by user. The user will assign a question, and its answer for him/herself while s/he are registering. The answer is also stored as encrypted into database. Therefore, nobody, even the database administrator, have ever known the users' password, and answer.
• New forum: We have installed a new version of forum, since we couldn't figure out how it was supposed to work, we installed it again according to the demands of Mr. Frisbie. The external software we used can be found here.
• Search parts for buddies and communities: We had incomplete search pages for buddies and communities. We created those. Buddies was added into database by administrator. We created an interface in the search page, so that users can easily find and add their "buddies".
• Delete options: We added delete option for hunts, trophies, communities, and buddies. So, unwanted hunts, trophies, communities, and buddies can be easily removed by users.
• New locked and backpack pages: As Mr. Frisbie wanted so, we separated the locker and backpack pages.
• New scouting types: Droppings and animals were added to scouting section of the website.
• Fixed bugs: A brief list of corrected bugs would be:
  • Being able to create a community without logging in.
• Cosmetic refinements: We have changed the logo, some icons, colors and styles to make the website more user friendly.

Incomplete Parts

All items in those lists must be discussed with Mr. Frisbie and Prof. Steflik before implementation.

Website

• Back button problem : This problem one of the biggest problem that our website has. Each time an action is taken, you end up in the home page.
• Blog: We have received a new requirement 3 weeks before the due date. So we didn't have time to create a fully functional blog section to the website. Blog section will be controlled by the administrator. Admin will authorize users to write blogs. Those blogs will be accessible by everyone(users and non-users).
• Search Buddy --> Don't show "Add buddy" link if that user is already added as a buddy.
• Trophy photos for a hunt. For now, all trophies are shown. Trophies belonging to that hunt should be shown.
• Message complication in forgot password part.
• Bugs in setting up a backpack.
• Forum account: In its current form, a separate account is needed for the forum. Forum account should be created as a new user signs up yo Hunters Journal, all fields required by Phorum should be obtained from Hunter's Journals registration page. When a user wants to go to the forum section, Phorum should not do authentication again.