Reference Stats: Client "done"
Thursday, October 1. 2009
The Adobe AIR portion of the Reference Statistics Tracker is "done" (and has been for a week or two now). I just got approval over the extremely basic wireframe layout of the backend (web-based) tool that actually shows the stats data. Although it's basically only storing a very small amount of data, there are so many different ways that the data itself could be shown. If you think about how Web Analytics software can show so many different things; also think about what stats you have with it...it's basically a huge (textual) database of single line entries - the address, the referrer, the time, the visitor's IP, and a response code...yet there are tons of different ways to show that data.
It's a simplistic tool with huge possibilities. I aim to be rather simple for the first iteration out of the door.
Speaking of the first iteration out of the door - I ended up copying/pasting a LOT of the internal code in the Adobe AIR client to finish it. Having a local backup database in case of internet connection failure was a "last minute" additional "requirement" that I hadn't anticipated in the planning process, so I had to hack a lot of ugly stuff in to the code - and to finish it without a lot of it being rewritten, well... Thankfully, I do intend to upgrade it, as I left out one (actually two) important features.
1. Remote upgrade.
(2. Specify end-points to receive dynamic setup info.)
I left out the upgrade script because (1)I've heard it's a resource hog, and is a pain to work with, and...(2)I know I'll need to manually upgrade our library's PCs at the next version because of DeepFreeze anyway. (I left out the portion of the settings because I'm not yet ready to release the code as open source just yet, so I can hard code that stuff for now.)
I will post pictures of both the client and the web tool after it's been in use for a couple weeks - I'd gather that'll probably be about a month from now (I can't start work on the web panel until Monday, and it'll probably take me about two weeks to finish).
It's a simplistic tool with huge possibilities. I aim to be rather simple for the first iteration out of the door.
Speaking of the first iteration out of the door - I ended up copying/pasting a LOT of the internal code in the Adobe AIR client to finish it. Having a local backup database in case of internet connection failure was a "last minute" additional "requirement" that I hadn't anticipated in the planning process, so I had to hack a lot of ugly stuff in to the code - and to finish it without a lot of it being rewritten, well... Thankfully, I do intend to upgrade it, as I left out one (actually two) important features.
1. Remote upgrade.
(2. Specify end-points to receive dynamic setup info.)
I left out the upgrade script because (1)I've heard it's a resource hog, and is a pain to work with, and...(2)I know I'll need to manually upgrade our library's PCs at the next version because of DeepFreeze anyway. (I left out the portion of the settings because I'm not yet ready to release the code as open source just yet, so I can hard code that stuff for now.)
I will post pictures of both the client and the web tool after it's been in use for a couple weeks - I'd gather that'll probably be about a month from now (I can't start work on the web panel until Monday, and it'll probably take me about two weeks to finish).
