As you have seen, investing the time necessary at the start of the project will save a lot of production time and headaches as you get deeper into the production process.
In the case of the Oakbridge Community Center, three main features need to be developed. They are:
A tour based on interest. This section is the center's initial presence on the web and is to be designed to enable a first time visitor to "tour" the center based on interest. There are three interests: Sports, Fitness, and Community outreach.
An online booking facility for current members. This will enable them to reserve sports fields and tennis courts, book fitness classes and meeting rooms, and so on.
An interactive chat facility where various community and center groups can get together for online meetings and discussions. This feature will provide everything from video feeds to simple chat sessions.
You will notice that at this stage, there is no talk of technology and so on. Keep it simple and save the "Techie Talk" for the work group. The obvious question, therefore, is, how does each feature work? It works by presenting a rather simple objective for the feature and then developing a logic chart that meets the objective.
The tour works in a relatively simple manner. The visitor arrives at the community center's main page and is presented with a tour link. When it is clicked, the visitor sees a page offering three tours. The user selects his or her area of interest, and the appropriate page is built and displayed in the browser.
The objective is rather simple: Provide the visitor with the opportunity to tour the Oakbridge Community Center site based upon interest.
The process starts with the visitor deciding to take a tour. The page he or she sees contains a side menu containing a list of facilities. The user either has to choose a facility to proceed or press the browser's back button to return. If a facility is selected, a query is sent to the database to see if a record exists and, if it does, to retrieve that record. The record is then displayed on a web page.
The logic chart for this feature is shown in Figure 4.10.
With this feature, the user, a member of the community center, books an admission ticket to public skating, swimming, or other public recreational pursuits offered to the community at large. In addition, the user can book a sports facility?baseball, tennis, soccer, or football. In all cases, the booking is done based on availability and valid membership.
The objective? To provide the member with the opportunity to book sports and fitness offerings available to the public and the members of the Oakbridge Community Center.
In this instance, the first thing to be confirmed is the member being logged into the site. The member then selects the facility or activity. If the booking is not available, the site presents the visitor with this information. If it is, the member is shown the schedule for the next seven days and is asked to make a selection. If the time is not available, the member is given the opportunity to choose an alternate time. If it is available, the slot is reserved and the member is asked if he or she wants to reserve another time.
The logic map for this feature, as shown in Figure 4.11, is a bit more complex than the tour, but it is still relatively simple to follow.
The meeting facility is a little bit different. It is to be designed to provide community outreach to various groups in the community and at the community center.
The objective is rather simple: To provide the Oakbridge community and various community center organizations and clubs with an online facility to meet and discuss issues through video, audio, and chat services.
On the surface, this application may appear to be quite complex. When you break it down into a series of logical steps, though, it becomes a rather manageable project.
The user member logs in and is immediately connected to the Flash Communication Server. When the connection is established, the site asks the user to makes some choices. If the user requests video capability, the browser checks to see if this feature is available, and if it is, a video stream is established. If audio is also requested, the same check is made, and that stream is established. In the case of chat, the connection is established with no check. When the meeting gets underway, the system waits until the user is finished. When this occurs, the audio, video, and chat streams are closed and the main meeting page where he or she then logs out. The logic map for all this is shown in Figure 4.12.