Feedback on Part 1 of the Software Engineering Large Practical

Software Engineering Large Practical

Feedback on Part 1 of the Practical

Stephen Gilmore

School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

November 7th, 2012

Stephen Gilmore Software Engineering Large Practical

About Practical 1

I There are 19 people taking the Software Engineering LargePractical. There were 14 submissions, and 5 non-submisisons.

I The submissions have been marked and comments returned.I The submissions varied widely.

I Some project submissions contained Java syntax errors andfailed to compile. Some generated warnings. Some generatedneither errors nor warnings.

I Some submissions had only limited functionality (e.g. a loginscreen). Some read the XML document from the server. Somecreated a database.

I Some looked more more like a submission for Part 2 thanPart 1.


Lessons learnt

I Discovered a bug in the “submit” command which is nowbeing fixed.

I Discovered an underspecification in the practical description,which should explain that we are using Java 1.6 and that Java1.7 language features are not available (such as strings inswitch statements).


Point of this lecture

I Give feedback on the submissions generally, rather thanindividually.

I Allow you to get a sense of where you are in the class.

I See examples of some app designs.

I Consider additional features which you might like toimplement.


Java and XML problems, warnings and errors

I Errors and warnings encountered are listed here.

I These included syntax errors in Java (e.g. missingsemi-colons) and semantic errors (such as “variable notdeclared” errors).

I Some XML documents were ill-formed (e.g. not a single rootelement).

I Many uses of generics were not complete, and led to “rawtypes”.

I Many imports were never used. Some variables were not used.


Java problems: syntax errors

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XML errors: “junk after document element”

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Java problems: “cannot be resolved” or is not a field

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XML problems: no resource found

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Java problems: generics and raw types

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Java problems: imports not used

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Unused imports in Java code

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Java problems: variables not used

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Java problems: Java 1.5/Java 1.6 incompatibility

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User interfaces in development

I Some submissions had more user interface code than others.

I Some had working buttons, menus and textboxes.


Blank screen

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Alpha version of interface: setting matriculation number

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Interface and settings



Interface of alpha version



Entering a student number



Candidate lists in development

I Some submissions were able to retrieve the candidate list fromthe server and display this.

I Some submissions just listed the names of the candidates.

I Some included election statements.

I Some included photographs of the candidates.


Interace of alpha version — listing candidates



Listing candidates



Sign-in screen — candidates listed



Logging in and viewing candidates



Viewing candidates by category



Additional features in development

I The application requires you to retrieve an XML documentfrom the server.

I We can’t be sure that this will always succeed. What if wehave no network connection?


Dealing with network connection issues



Going further: rating, deleting, and sending tweets

I The other functions required by the app include ratingfavoured candidates, deleting unfavoured candidates, sendingemail and sending tweets.


Candidates selected and rated



Rating a candidate and sending a tweet



Viewing details and rating candidates



Deleting a candidate



Database contents

shot 2012-10-30 at 13.50.20.png


Viewing the database

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Database

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Examples of good practice

I Adding logging to your app early helps you to develop itbecause it gives you a deeper understanding of how your appis working and what is not working.

I You are asked to add logging to your app so why not startnow and reap the benefits?


Logging: It’s great! Look how helpful it is.

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Logging: why not start now? Seriously, it’s great.

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Closing remarks

I When implementing your app you should pay careful attentionto the instructions in the practical handout which you receivedat the start of the course.

I You also have now available a sample XML file with data onthe candidates in the election. Note that this is only a sample,and not a template.

I For example, all of the candidates in the sample XML file hadmade three promises but this is not specified by theregulations so it would be possible for candidates to makemore promises, or fewer.


XML Update: new candidate added, with more promises

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End of course lectures

I Good luck!


Education

Feedback on Part 1 of the Software Engineering Large Practical