CSC 333 Spring, 2003
Professor Brian Nejmeh
Gender Initiative Project
Dana Champion
Dave Lanzer
Jason Long
SRS Approved by:
Table of Contents
1. Introduction (this page)
4,5,6. Open Issues, References, & Glossary
1. Introduction
1.1. Vision
The vision for the Gender Initiative DBMS is to have a system which makes more readily available the Gender Initiative's references and information through a web interface that can be accessed from anywhere while providing adequate security.
As the all-in-one source for information on the Gender Initiative, this DBMS will house individual (yet interactive) databases for the program's calendar of events, their contacts, and the library of reference materials currently housed in the Gender Initiative?s office. Members of the Initiative will be able to control all information available on the site as well as approve or reject any information that people request be put on the site. Through this project, the Gender Initiative's leaders expect to have a system whereby they can disseminate information in a quicker, cheaper, and more efficient manner than they have to this point. This project will also be used to further explain the need for and the mission of the Gender Initiative.
1.2. System Goals
Provide better storage of information in a central location for all information pertaining to the Gender Initiative to prevent the loss and/or confusion of information regarding events and contacts
Are more events receiving responses and feedback from the Gender Initiative?
- Event requests are being answered, not just pushed aside, in order to add them to or remove them from the system
Are fewer events being lost and never addressed?
- An email is sent to the leader of the Gender Initiative upon receipt of a new event request
Cut back on the amount of paper being used to schedule meetings and speakers and to keep records of events and references
Is the Initiative consuming less paper after the system is implemented than before the system is implemented?
- Since everything is online with this system, no paper is required
Improve the method for anyone to submit an event idea with contact information
Are more events being submitted for approval?
- More people know they can submit events and actually know how to submit them.
Are the event requests more complete due to the requirements of the online system?
- Since the system requires that all necessary information be provided before submission, no information can be missing from an event submission
Improve the use of the Gender Initiative's library of references through an easily accessible online search
Are more people using the Gender Initiative's library to research topics pertaining to Gender than before implementation of the system?
- This would mean that the system has improved the use of the library of resources which is hardly used at present (before system implementation)
Improve the viability of the Gender Initiative in the eyes of the administration
Is the Gender Initiative receiving more funding for its endeavors?
- This would mean that the administration feels that the program is beneficial to the college community and is having a positive impact
1.3. System Concept of Operations
All user interactions with the DBMS are made through the Gender Initiative home page located on the Messiah College web server. On the home page, the user will be able to click on any of three links to this database: the calendar, contacts, or library.
After clicking on the calendar link, the user will be taken to a page dedicated to viewing the calendar. The calendar is displayed in table format beginning with the month selected by the user. The user also can search the calendar for any events pertaining to a specific topic of interest. If the user has an event idea and has gathered contact information for that event, the user can go to the submit event page, enter all required information, and click a button to submit the information for approval by an administrator. The administrator (user type) can approve or reject event ideas through a protected page which allows only the administrator to see what events have been submitted and are pending approval. If rejected, the information is deleted from the database.
The user may also view any public information about any of the Gender Initiative's contacts for various topics. Users may either view a list of public contacts or they may search for a contact based on the subject of that contact's presentation to or discussion with the Gender Initiative. Administrator users may add or delete contact information through a protected page.
Finally, the user may view any information contained in the library database. This database is populated with reference information which corresponds to packages of information located in the Gender Initiative office. Users may either view a list of items in the library database or may search for information on a specific topic. Administrator users may add or delete any information about or entries pertaining to any of the reference materials located in the office. This is a protected function which may only be accessed by an assigned administrator user.
1.4. System Overview
Interactions in the system take place over three components: a workstation, a server, and the databases. Using a workstation, the end user may access information from the databases through a web interface. The web page, located on the Messiah College web server, consists of links, text boxes, and buttons for the user to enter and locate topics of interest.
In submitting information to add to the calendar, a user enters all requested information per the specifications of the Gender Initiative team and clicks on a submit button to submit the event to be approved by a member of the Gender Initiative. The information is sent through the server and automatically entered into the Calendar Database with approval pending. If the user is attempting to retrieve information about an event (ex. View the calendar), the user clicks on a link which sends a request through the server and runs a query on the database to return a calendar of all information for the time period specified (ex. The month of March).
If the user wishes to interact with either the contacts database or the library database, the system follows the same procedure as above: interaction through the web page to the server which interacts with the database and returns information via the web.
All uses may submit information to be posted in the calendar, but this information must be approved by an administrator for it to actually appear on the calendar. The administrator may reject the event submission, at which point the submission is deleted from the database.
1.5. User Types
Public User: any user of the information made publicly available through this system and website. These users do not have permission to delete any information from the database and have only limited rights to add information to the database (information which must be approved by an administrator in order for the information to actually be added to the database).
Internal User: a member of the Gender Initiative who has rights to add, delete, and modify any information contained in the database and to approve or reject any submitted event ideas. This user is responsible for maintaining the database.
1.6. Constraints and Assumptions
- The initial version of the system (which includes the preliminary web page and the calendar database) shall be operational by March 13th with subsequent releases on April 8th and 14th which include the contacts and library databases, respectively.
- Selection of technology shall be restricted to technologies that members of the Gender Initiative are familiar with or can be trained to use.
- The Gender Initiative will have Messiah College web space for hosting the new web page.
- The hosting web space will be capable of interacting with a database and (ideally) storing the database for more efficient performance.
- Data entry will be handled by members of the Gender Initiative.
- Each part of the database will interact with other parts of the database, but many features will be left to a future project team to implement, such as automatically entering speakers from events into the contacts database (only from calendar submission), archiving, etc.
- The Gender Initiative will have people capable of maintaining this system after implementation and will handle the rights and responsibilities of administrator users.
- Platform (see Open Issues, References, & Glossary)
- Technology
