Project Complete! : Conclusions Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 11 May 2010 at 3:35 PM, in

This project has extensively developed my skills acquired throughout the four years of this multimedia course.

The project allowed me to practice the skills acquired from the project management subject included in the final year of the course. The project management of this project required discipline to following goals and deadlines set down in the scoping phase, I have learnt to delegate my time more effectively.

Development of the project further improved my skills and understanding of most software packages commonly used in industry such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash and Microsoft project.

I have a new understanding of what goes into a multimedia project such as a website, the different technologies that can be used and how they can be used to enhance a website or web application. It has made me realise the importance of project management, usability and testing. It has also made me realise my own personal styles and ability.

The finished project: Envisionlimerick.ie

Presentation Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 30 April 2010 at 6:46 PM, in

Presentation done - The upload feature did not work as for some reason it was sending back the error - Invalid file. I tested it when I got home and it worked so it must have been something to do with the proxy in college or possibly the computer.

The finished product : Envision Limerick

Final Report Sumitted Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 22 April 2010 at 10:31 PM, in

Handed up report today. For the next week i'll be adding finishing touches and user testing.

Backup server Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 13 April 2010 at 10:30 AM, in

I've decided to upload the site to a different server as occasionally the server goes down and if it happens on demonstration day it would not be good!

Upload facility working!! Posted by William Fitzgibbon , at 12:10 AM, in

I have finally finished coding the upload facility - to allow users to upload their 'visions' (images of buildings) etc. The images will be uploaded to a file on the server called 'buildingsPending' the information related to them will be added to the database - it is up to the administrator to make sure the image is appropriate and move it to the right file location.

Java Hell Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 07 April 2010 at 12:40 PM, in

I'm trying to get my java log-in program working with mySql and on the server, it's taking too long and i'm just going to use php now that I have found a tutorial on the internet. Better to have it working somehow.

LOgin tut:

http://www.howtodothings.com/computers-internet/how-to-make-a-login-system-for-your-website

Upload tut:

http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_file_upload.asp

Photo competition and our vision sections done. Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 06 April 2010 at 6:56 PM, in

Completed the our vision section on the main page and photo gallery section in the city section.

Almost there Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 01 April 2010 at 2:22 AM, in

Almost finished the project.. Design finalized after a change of colour scheme! Forum almost fully operational. Adding final touches all the time. Big tasks left now: Validation, Cookies to remember users and allow one vote per day (this may take longer than expected) Log in function, and finish buildings and scenes: everything in place just monotonous work left to do.

I've been non-stop the last two days creating the background image including logo and redesigning (slightly) the navigation. I have also made the forum more user-friendly by adding a dynamically driven accordion spry, rollover image links etc.

Voting system done.. Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 29 March 2010 at 5:33 PM, in

It took me all days but I have the voting functionality complete, When the user clicks on the vote button the 'vote' field in the database to the corresponding building is incremented by 1. To accomplish this I used php script vote.php which connects to my database and increments the according value. This line of code I used in flash on the button(as2): loadVars_out.sendAndLoad("http://www.envisionlimerick.phpzilla.net/vote.php", loadVars_in, "POST"); this sends the name of the building as the parameter through the url request.

My problem now is to limit it to one vote per user per building.

A Big Headache Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 25 March 2010 at 9:41 PM, in

This week I've been working on 3 Major tasks, The voting function, the logIn function and the ability to replace building dynamically (temporarily) so the voter can see the building in it's setting: I didn't do this originally as the coding was complex as the building in the carousels are in a separate swf from the one the building to be replaced! I thralled through code on the internet for communicating between swf's but it was quite cumbersome with the possibility of many errors at run-time.

My solution: I changed the code in the loaded carousel swf so instead of the building appearing at the side of the building, the building to be temporally replaced is unloaded and the buildings in the carousel is enlarged in exactly in their place- when the user closes the carousel the building(original) is put back in it's place.

Re-do Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 18 March 2010 at 4:53 PM, in

Currently I'm redoing the 'docks' flash file as it is way too large (36Mb)Have no idea why it's so large because everything in it add up to about 6Mb and the 'medieval' section is no way as large. I might also mention here the flash bug which forced me to slice the large photographs(jpegs) up so they don't appear as red rectangles when imported into flash. See:Adobe TechNote

Problem Solved - Problem encountered Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 15 March 2010 at 9:35 PM, in

I have the code for generating an external xml for the building carousels working but the swf file that contains them all is too large for the server and slow to download!!

Tasks Left To Do: Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 12 March 2010 at 4:46 PM, in

Create 'user profiles' interface
-Button animation
-External flash display of photos
-Links
-Programming

Finish 'explore' map
-Add zoom transition
-Fix and create links
-Change colour of notes to red
-Add section for non-architecture art

Finish 'get creative' section
-Create form for submitting artwork
-Create/add tutorials html and link with button
-Add download template link
-Change colour of note to red
-Code download and upload functionality


Create the 'our vision' section
- Add text, images and video


Finish Home page section including html
-Improve header and add footer(with internal and external links etc.)
-Add site map section and link on homepage
-Add remaining rollovers
-Add functionality to log in

Finish explore city main
-Finish navigation links
-Finish and improve voting and info interface
-Code voting and dynamic content **
-Take photos of walls and graffiti etc in Limerick
-Create building examples for medevil section and add the new navigation
-Repeat for city center section

Server Posted by William Fitzgibbon , at 1:11 AM, in

Should have added this link a while back. I'm using a free hosting site to test my site for various things such as the forum and layout and links ect. ( it's easier as you know how the final product will look and behave - layout and loading time ect.)

www.envisionlimerick.ie

Forum up and running Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 07 March 2010 at 11:28 PM, in

Using MySQL and PHP, still have to style it and create links.

Full screen or Centered? Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 06 March 2010 at 4:55 PM, in

Don't know weather to have the swf file take up the full screen in the browser or have a background with it centered in the middle with the nav bar relitive. Gonna try them both and see which one looks better..

Preloaders Posted by William Fitzgibbon , at 4:52 PM, in

Just completed adding preloaders to most of my swf files, slight problem with internet explorer- you have to refresh the page in order for it to load.

Navigation Bar Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 02 March 2010 at 12:04 AM, in

Sound Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 01 March 2010 at 8:48 PM, in

Following the demonstration of the first prototype, I was advised to add sound to website. I created a sound on/off button and have added it to the nav bar which I have also created this week. The functionality is addded to to all the buttons except the 'map'(back to menu) button which I need to find out how to do.

Putting it all together Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 23 February 2010 at 1:02 AM, in

This week I'm working on adding all the flash components I've been working on together. I am connecting them with navigation buttons to load and unload them. I have also created the map for the 'explore' section where the user can select where in the they want to see. Hopefully I'll have enough done and working error free by friday for the presentation for the first prototype.

Front-End Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 17 February 2010 at 12:14 PM, in

I have been working on the front end a bit this week, I have improved the main interface and started the html code for it. I have also switched it (index.swf) to action script 3.0. I got code to replace the tweening I did in AS2.0 to move around the 'plans' , the AS3.0 code simplifies the process by using the transitions and easing classes.

Added functionality to carousel so when you click on the building the others fade away and information on that building is displayed - I did this using only code.The information is coming from external xml

Problem Solved! Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 05 February 2010 at 12:29 AM, in

Solved the problem of loading images into placeholders to replace old building with new. They are being loaded from an external folder - this cuts down on loading time for the user - the next step is to have them change dynamically based on user votes.

A tutorial showing how to load images dynamically
Load Images tutorial

Progress Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 29 January 2010 at 12:27 PM, in

I'm making some head-way this week by finishing creating the graphics for the main interface and most of the graphics (buildings) for the expolore section. I'm also testing how the interface will work (i.e use cases and test .fla files to play around with)


I still haven't figured out how to swap images in the swf at runtime - I hope to figure out how to it this week, the next step after that will be to set up the database.

Overcame the problem of incorporating the images in a carosel Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 25 January 2010 at 7:01 PM, in

I overcame the problem of including a 3d carosel of images (of buildings) into the main swf.The movieClipContainer must be in the same movieClip as the button triggering the load of the external swf.

At the moment I have to have have a separate MCcontainer for each building rather than the same MC loading and unloading the content corresponding to each buildingButton.

Progress Report1 handed up Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 21 January 2010 at 10:24 PM, in

Report handed up with gantt chart of progress

Problem swaping images in flash dynamically Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 20 January 2010 at 11:14 PM, in

I've ran into a problem with the function of swapping the existing bitmap building with what the user has voted for....hmmmm

Also I have the logIn and signUp code complete- now I have to integrate into the front end ( when its finished ).

Graphics for 'docks' scene Posted by William Fitzgibbon , at 8:21 PM, in

This week along with finishing off my progress report I have been working on the first scene in the explore section the docks scene. I edited the panorama photograph in photoshop - cropped, sliced and adjusted hue - I then imported those graphics into flash as layers and then converted it all into a movieClip. I am currently working on the code.

Editing photographs Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 14 January 2010 at 10:54 PM, in

This week I am mainly concentrating on editing the panorama photographs- Separating the buildings from the skyline and foreground and adjusting the temperature and hue using camera raw. I aim for them to look futuristic and surreal. I am also creating the main interface - playing around with ideas and researching how to create a dynamic photo gallary.

Logo Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 12 January 2010 at 3:21 PM, in

Almost finished the background image and going on to working with the gallery code.

Logo decided but not finished Posted by William Fitzgibbon , 07 January 2010 at 8:16 PM, in

I have decided to change the name of my website to "Envision Limerick" as this describes best what it's about.

Interface layout decided and built Posted by William Fitzgibbon , at 8:12 PM, in

All this week I have been working on my project and programming assignment - Although I have been sick and not done as much as I wanted.