Clarification need for the project specification

[christy smile]

Hi, All,
I am almost done with the project, and getting ready to write the documentation. HOwever, after reading about Sam failed the exam for some mundane details, I got scared and went back to read the project spec more carefully. I have come up with the following questions (for now^_^), your clarification on the questions would be highly appreciated!
(1) About the documentation, it says
"If you wish, appropriate parts of the user documentation may be provided on-line".
I am not sure what "on-line" means here. Please explain.
(2) "Your submission must run under a production (not development) version of Sun's Java 2 Platform"
What is the latest Production version of Sun's Java 2 Platform. I know someone posted a similar question before, I just cannot find it now.
(3) For criteriaFind, "This method searches the database for entries matching the criteria supplied. Criteria take the form of a comma separated list of <field name>=<value to match> specifications."
In my client GUI, I currently have two combobox for the user to enter Origin and Destination for the flight for the search. Do I need to provide input fields for other search criteria, such as Carrier, etc.?
(4) "Record locking must be implemented using the methods public void lock(int) and public void unlock(int)."
I use a lockmanager to do the locks and bypassed the lock/unlock methods in Data.java completely, does that adherent to this rule? I have read on this forum that a lot of people has changed the signiture of the lock()/unlock() and passed the exam, so are they not enforcing this very strictly?
(5) In the readme.txt, we need to provide the ways to start the server and client. Do we need to provide the commands for these in different platforms (e.g. in both windows and Unix environment)?
(6) For the design decision documents, I think the following is required by the spec:
(a) Extending or modifying the Data class
(b) RMI vs. Serialized objects
Please provide me some suggestions of other things we might want to put in this document. I am thinking about the following:
-- locking mechanism
-- MVC pattern used for main GUI design
-- Factory pattern for creating the connection.
Anything else?
That's all the questions for now. I am looking forward to your replies.
Christy

[Michael Morris]

Hi christy,

(1) About the documentation, it says
"If you wish, appropriate parts of the user documentation may be provided on-line".
I am not sure what "on-line" means here. Please explain.

That simply means accessible thru a web browser which implies HTML format.

(2) "Your submission must run under a production (not development) version of Sun's Java 2 Platform"
What is the latest Production version of Sun's Java 2 Platform. I know someone posted a similar question before, I just cannot find it now.

You should use any 1.3 version. The latest 1.3 is 1.3.1_02. You should not use 1.4.

(3) For criteriaFind, "This method searches the database for entries matching the criteria supplied. Criteria take the form of a comma separated list of <field name>=<value to match> specifications."
In my client GUI, I currently have two combobox for the user to enter Origin and Destination for the flight for the search. Do I need to provide input fields for other search criteria, such as Carrier, etc.?

That's up to interpretation, but most have chosen to allow a "Carrier" criterion as well since it is implied by example in the instructions.

(4) "Record locking must be implemented using the methods public void lock(int) and public void unlock(int)."
I use a lockmanager to do the locks and bypassed the lock/unlock methods in Data.java completely, does that adherent to this rule? I have read on this forum that a lot of people has changed the signiture of the lock()/unlock() and passed the exam, so are they not enforcing this very strictly?

I did the same thing you did and made a 154. I think the only requirement here is that your public Data interface on the client maintain the proper signatures, how locking is ultimately accomplished is irrelavent to this requirement.

(5) In the readme.txt, we need to provide the ways to start the server and client. Do we need to provide the commands for these in different platforms (e.g. in both windows and Unix environment)?

They shouldn't be different. If it's "java -jar client.jar" in Windows then it's the same thing on Linux and Solaris. Assume that the assessor will have a shell window open to run your apps.

6) For the design decision documents, I think the following is required by the spec:
(a) Extending or modifying the Data class
(b) RMI vs. Serialized objects
Please provide me some suggestions of other things we might want to put in this document. I am thinking about the following:
-- locking mechanism
-- MVC pattern used for main GUI design
-- Factory pattern for creating the connection.

That looks good. Any other patterns you used as well should be documented. Any "kludges" you had to do and why should also be documented. Anything in your design that you feel is particularly elegant. Don't be afraid to sell your accomplishments here.
Hope this helps,
Michael Morris

[christy smile]

Hi, Michael,
thank you for the quick reply
For commands to start the server and client, since
I also provided the commands to set the classpath, I actually meant if I need to provide that for both Unix and Windows platform, or I could just provide for Windows since it the platform I did the development and most of the testing.
Thanks.
Christy

[christy smile]

Hi, Michael,
Ignore the last reply I posted, you have answered that question quite clearly in another post.
Thank you!