Dwarfsoft [GPA]

I am grappling with two assignments this weekend, CIS2003 (ASP.Net/Web Development) and CIS3006 (Business Project). For CIS2003 I am comparing a number of Websites for purchasing products online, and examining the ordering system for each. The task is to get us to identify what we like and dislike about different sites in order that we can implement them into our system as part of Assignment 2. As I intend to be developing an Online Book Store for Assignment 2 I have decided to Analyse Book Stores. The few I have had a look at are the USQ Bookshop, Dymocks, Angus & Robertson and Amazon.com.

Out of these websites I like Dymocks the most, though here are the improvements I would have for the design of the site and the ordering system:

1. Make its design scale to the screen. It appears to be designed for 1024×768, not higher or lower.
2. Make the “Sort By” drop down box actually sort the Items.
3. Modify the “Add To Basket” feature so that instead of taking you away from the search page to immediately view your basket, it shades the background of the selected item, adds a “copies” field, and allows you to keep browsing the rest of the items in your list.
4. Along with the above option there should be a “Go to Cart” button above and below each search page, and a “Go to Cart” button next to each selected item (next to a “Remove from Cart” button)
5. There should be no need to select whether I am searching for a Keyword, Author, Title, Subject, ISBN or Series. By entering in search terms, all of these options should be searched for the most relevant results.
6. On the Cart page there should be a “Continue Shopping” button (like on A&R, this is absent from Dymocks, and so the Browser Back Button is required) to take you back to the last search page.
7. The search results page should have the search field at the top to enable a new search to be conducted from the current page.
8. Tie in to Wikipedia for Information on Authors/Books.

Basically it should be the Dymocks Bookstore with a couple of features from the other sites, and some “AJAX” style features that do not require reloading the page in order to post selections. As this will be built in ASP.NET, the scripting will most likely be VBScript.

CIS3006 has me completing the Project Specification. The Project Specification is a combination of the Software Requirements Specification and the Software Design Description. This will be taking up the rest of my time this evening, and will take a few nights during the coming week. I am relying heavily on the process from Systems Analysis and Design (CIS3002) from last Semester. I already have a fully functional GZipped File Format that I have been successfully saving and loading XML to and from my Data Store. The Data Store is already set up with all the tables and relations it needs to successfully implement the Library. I am just needing to build the Classes to validate the information and then build the GUI on top of that, then build in the reporting.

Both of these Assignments are due on the 27th, which leaves under a week to complete both. Once this double is over with, there will be no major assignment pairing for the rest of the semester. There is a double due on the 22nd of October, but one is a CIS3006 Project Report, and I hope to have the project completed by that point in time.

Cheers, Chris.