College Information Retrieval Using Touch Screen KIOSK

College Information System
1. ABSTRACT
Assumption College, Changanacherry
1.1 ABSTRACT
This software is for students/visitors to access the college database using a touch screen. Students/visitors have easy access to various useful information such as building layout, pictures, textual information or notices. The kiosk is a powerful tool that can provide dynamic digital information after just few touches to the screen. You dont need a mouse or computer skills to access information. The embedded touch screen is used here as input device. The touch screen includes a Touch Sensor Panel, Controller and interfacing software. Touch-screen technology makes the kiosks easy to useall you have to do is touch the graphic icons on the screen, and your information is on the way. This also helps the students to access information about the class timing, location of classrooms, notices etc and of various departments from college system database. Thereby, the college authorities can provide the correct information to the needed person without any human intervention and can manage centralized multi-user information system.
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1 PROJECT OVERVIEW

This is a college information retrieval system which can be used to retrieve college information. This system is designed mainly for college visitors and students to access any college related information like which provides an alternative to the hectic web surfing. The front end is designed using c#.net High Level Language and SQL in the backend for data manipulation. The system is controlled by a system administrator. Only the system administrator can insert information into the database and decide the information to be provided to the users. The users can just retrieve information like contact number, about the college, faculty details, various departments, and so on. Immediate notices can be displayed using a window application which is under administrator control. Other notices are stored in the database by the system administrator which can be viewed by the users. Information manipulation can be done only by the administrator. Another feature of the system is the user can locate any teacher by providing department name, teachers name, time and day information as search keys. In this system, we have concentrated on the department on computer science, Assumption College for this purpose.
2.1.1 OBJECTIVE
Our main goal is to build a kiosk application that is faster, efficient, and less expensive. It includes the key features of any successful kiosk and is flexible enough for future extension.
2.1.2 BENEFITS
1. Fast retrieval of entries from database 2. Cost effective 3. Time saving 4. User friendly 5. Quick implementation results 6. Convenience 7. Password protected-only authorized one can make data entry
2.2 ORGANISATION PROFILE

Rhydo Technologies (P) Ltd, Cochin, an ISO 9001:2008 certified company, is a pioneer in India doing Research & Development in electronics and embedded systems since 1996. Rhydo Technologies designs and manufactures a variety of Power Electronics Products like Inverters, UPS, Servo Stabilizers and SMPS. It also designs and develops microcontroller based Custom Embedded Systems. Rhydo offers complete power solution needs for both home and industrial customers. The company is one of the few product suppliers to develop both hardware and software. Rhydo Technologies Pvt Ltd is an Authorized Business Partner of Power ware Corporation for Kerala region. Rhydo does R&D in power electronics and microcontroller based embedded system design and development which provides the foundation for future growth. It offers customized embedded system research and development. Rhydo offers training in fast growing area of Embedded Software. The company provides opportunity for young talents to do their academic projects in Embedded Systems, Microcontrollers, DSP, VLSI, RTOS, Robotics and other Softwares. It has a corporate-wide commitment to quality that extends to every level of its activities. The company operates as per ISO 9001 specification. All Rhydo operations are covered by detailed internal quality specifications that are reviewed and updated regularly. The objective is continuous improvement and total customer satisfaction
2.3 ABOUT THE PLATFORM

The .NET is a new development platform that helps in creating Web applications very fast. It allows the developers to write their applications/programs in any of the .NET languages with which they are most comfortable, as they can share their applications/programs with those of their co-programmers, programming in another .NET compatible language. This feature is referred to as cross-language development is the primary strength of the .NET platform. The languages supported by the .NET platform are called .NET languages. A few of the common .NET languages are C#, Visual Basic.NET, Visual C++.NET. The .NET Framework can be hosted by unmanaged components that load the common language runtime into their processes and initiate the execution of managed code, thereby creating a software environment that can exploit both managed and unmanaged features. The .NET Framework not only provides several runtime hosts, but also supports the development of third-party runtime hosts. For example, ASP.NET hosts the runtime to provide a scalable, server-side environment for managed code. ASP.NET works directly with the runtime to enable ASP.NET applications and XML Web services. The .NET Framework is an integral Windows component that supports building and running the next generation of applications and XML Web services. The .NET Framework is designed to fulfill the following objectives:
To provide a consistent object-oriented programming environment whether object code is stored and executed locally, executed locally but Internet-distributed, or executed remotely. To provide a code-execution environment that minimizes software deployment and versioning conflicts. To provide a code-execution environment that promotes safe execution of code, including code created by an unknown or semitrusted third party. To provide a code-execution environment that eliminates the performance problems of scripted or interpreted environments. To make the developer experience consistent across widely varying types of applications, such as Windows-based applications and Webbased applications. To build all communication on industry standards to ensure that code based on the .NET Framework can integrate with any other code.
The .NET platform is centered on two basic concepts. These are: 1) Common Language runtime [CLR] 2) Base Class Libraries [BCL] Common Language Runtime: A runtime is a component, which a computer must have, in order to execute programs written in a particular programming language. The runtime component of a language provides the basic features needed by the programs written in that language execute successfully. When a program is executed, it links to the runtime component of the language in which it is written, to get the basic functionality it requires. The .NET Common Language Runtime provides facilitates single
8 Assumption College, Changanacherry
runtime to serve multiple languages. The CLR is similar to the Java Virtual Machine [JVM]. It provides the basic execution services and makes a .NET program written in any of the .NET languages executable on the .NET platform. This is possible because of the Common Type System, built into the CLR. This system supports the types and operations found in almost all the .NET programming languages. The CLR provides the basic functionalities required by programs to execute successfully on the .NET platforms. Base Class Library : The .NET environment provides a Basic Class Library which can be used by all .NET languages. It provides the basic functionalities like console input/output, text manipulation, mathematical functions etc. to the various .NET languages. Besides providing the basic functionalities, the BSL makes cross-language communication possible. The BCL includes a small subset of the entire class library and is the core set of classes that serve as the basic API of the CLR. The Framework Class Library (FCL) is a superset of the BCL classes and refers to the entire class library that ships with .NET Framework. It includes an expanded set of libraries, Integrated including Windows Query, Windows Forms,ADO.NET, ASP.NET, Language Presentation Foundation, Windows
Communication Foundation among others. The FCL is much larger in scope than standard libraries for languages like C++, and comparable in scope to the standard libraries of Java. When a program written in .NET language is complied, it produces (a) Metadata and (b) Microsoft Intermediate Language.
Metadata: The code that is developed with the compiler of a language is called the managed code. For the runtime to provide services to the managed code, the compiler should produce metadata. It includes the complete specification for a program. For this, it record all the information related to every objects of the program. The information is required to use the object. It includes: Name of the object Names and types of all the fields of the object Names of all the member functions, including names and types of their parameters After being provided with above information, the .NET runtime is able to create objects, access data and call member functions. The metadata is stored along with the code. Microsoft Intermediate Language : When a .NET program is compiled, what we get is MSIL along with metadata and Common Type System. It is MSIL that facilitates cross-language integration. The MSIL is compiled to get the machine code and not interpreted. Thus .NET program are compiled twice. During the first compilation process, the source code is converted into MSIL, which is machine independent. It is stored in the files on the system. During the second compilation, the MSIL file is executed and CLR transforms it into machine code.
The various other features of .NET platform are:
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Interoperability Because interaction between new and older applications is commonly required, the .NET Framework provides means to access functionality that is implemented in programs that execute outside the .NET environment. Language Independence The .NET Framework introduces a Common Type System, or CTS. The CTS specification defines all possible data type and programming constructs supported by the CLR and how they may or may not interact with each other conforming to the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) specification. Because of this feature, the .NET Framework supports the exchange of types and object instances between libraries and applications written using any conforming .NET language.
Simplified Deployment The .NET framework includes design features and tools that help manage the installation of computer software to ensure that it does not interfere with previously installed software, and that it conforms to security requirements.
Security The design is meant to address some of the vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflows, that have been exploited by malicious software. Additionally, .NET provides a common security model for all applications.
Portability The design of the .NET Framework allows it to theoretically be platform agnostic, and thus cross-platform compatible. That is, a program written to
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use the framework should run without change on any type of system for which the framework is implemented. While Microsoft has never implemented the full framework on any system except Microsoft Windows, the framework is engineered to be platform agnostic, and cross-platform implementations are available for other operating systems. This makes it possible for third parties to create compatible implementations of the framework and its languages on other platforms. Class library The .NET Framework includes a set of standard class libraries. The class library is organized in a hierarchy of namespaces. Most of the built in APIs are part of either System.* or Microsoft.* namespaces. These class libraries implement a large number of common functions, such as file reading and writing, graphic rendering, database interaction, and XML document manipulation, among others. The .NET class libraries are available to all CLI compliant languages.
Memory management The .NET Framework CLR frees the developer from the burden of managing memory (allocating and freeing up when done); instead it does the memory management itself. To this end, the memory allocated to instantiations of .NET types (objects) is done contiguously from the managed heap, a pool of memory managed by the CLR. As long as there exist a reference to an object, which might be either a direct reference to an object or via a graph of objects, the object is considered to be in use by the CLR. When there is no reference to an object, and it cannot be reached or
used, it becomes garbage. However, it still holds on to the memory allocated to it. .NET Framework includes a garbage collector which runs periodically, on a separate thread from the application's thread, that enumerates all the unusable objects and reclaims the memory allocated to them.
The CLS is a statement of rules that allow each language to interoperate. The CLS defines not only type information, but also method invocation, error handling, and so forth. The Application Class Libraries and Services represents the rich set of libraries and APIs that have been created to support virtually all aspects of programming. Visual Studio.NET is an important part of the .NET Framework because it provides a means for the programmer to access the framework at any level. It is a complete set of development tools for building web applications, web services, desktop applications and mobile applications. The Base Class Library, part of the Framework Class Library (FCL), is a library of functionality available to all languages using the .NET Framework.The Common Language
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Runtime is the virtual
machine
component of the .NET framework. All .NET programs execute under the supervision of the CLR, guaranteeing certain properties and behaviors in the areas of memory management, security, and exception handling.
3. SYSTEM STUDY AND ANALYSIS
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3.1 STUDY OF EXISTING SYSTEM

The existing procedure to get any college related information is to surf the web or to enquire from the information department. It will be difficult for college visitors to go to the information department with their queries. Also people who dont know internet surfing finds it very difficult to search the web. The existing method to pass notices is using notice board and immediate notices are passed as announcements. If a student wishes to locate any teacher, she has to look the teachers time table and requires enquiring many to correctly locate the teacher.
3.1.1 DRAWBACKS
A person who dont know how to access the internet finds it difficult to get college information In the case of power failure, immediate notices cannot be passed Students who are not present at the time of announcements wont get correct information Locating a teacher with name, time and day is very difficult
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3.2 PROPOSED SYSTEM

Keeping the drawbacks of the existing procedures to access information in college in mind, we planed to develop a COLLEGE INFORMATION SYSTEM which uses touch screen kiosk. This software for students/visitors is to access the college database using a touch screen. Students/visitors can easy access to useful information such as building layout, pictures, textual information, notices and so on. The kiosk is a powerful tool that can provide dynamic digital information after just few touches to the screen. You dont need a mouse or computer skills to access information. Touch-screen technology makes the kiosks easy to useall you have to do is touch the graphic icons on the screen, and your information is on the way. The kiosk can even be set up to provide information, animation, or advertisements when it is not in use. Updating the kiosk database is almost effortless. New information or changes can be added immediately. Our main goal was to build a kiosk applications that are faster, better, and less expensive. And includes the key features of any successful kiosk and is flexible enough for future extension." This system helps the students to access information about the location of teachers, notices etc and of various departments from college system
database. There by, the college authorities can provide the correct information to the needed person without any human intervention and can manage centralized multi user information system.
3.3 FEASIBILITY STUDY

The aim of a feasibility study is to see whether it is possible to develop a system at a reasonable cost. At the end of the feasibility study a decision is taken whether to proceed or not. A feasibility study contains the general requirements of the proposed system. Let us consider the task of setting up an Information retrieval system for a college. The study might identify the following general requirements for the system: To be simple and easy to use. To store all relevant details of the college.
To produce immediate displays, current notices, etc. helpful.
To produce all sort of displays that a visitor to the college finds
To correctly locate any teacher if her name, id and time is known.
The feasibility study is the important step in any software development process. This is because it makes analysis of different aspects like cost required for developing and executing the system, the time required for each phase of the system and so on. If these important factors are not analyzed
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then definitely it would have impact on the organization and the development and the system would be a total failure. So for running the project and the organization successfully this step is a very important step in a software development life cycle process. In the software development life cycle after making an analysis in the system requirement the next step is to make analysis of the software requirement. In other words feasibility study is also called as software requirement analysis. In this phase development team has to make communication with customers and make analysis of their requirement and analyze the system.
By making analysis this way it would be possible to make a report of identified area of problem. By making a detailed analysis in this area a detailed document or report is prepared in this phase which has details like project plan or schedule of the project, the cost estimated for developing and executing the system, target dates for each phase of delivery of system developed and so on. This phase is the base of software development process since further steps taken in software development life cycle would be based on the analysis made on this phase and so careful analysis has to be made in this phase.
Though the feasibility study cannot be focused on a single area some of the areas or analysis made in feasibility study is given below. But all the steps given below would not be followed by all system developed. The feasibility study varies based on the system that would be developed.
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Feasibility study is made on the system being developed to
analyze whether the system development process require training of personnel. This help in designing training sessions as required in later stage. .
Is the system developed has scope for expanding or scope for
switching to new technology later if needed in ease. In other study is made to find the portability of the system in future. .
Is the cost of developing the system high or does it meet the
budgeted costs. That is a cost benefit analysis is made. In other words an analysis is made on cost feasibility of the project. This helps in identifying whether the organization would meet the budgeted costs and also helps the organization in making earlier and effective plans for meeting extra costs because of the system development. .
Analysis is made on what software to use for developing the
system. This study and analysis would help to choose the best implementation for system and the organization. This feasibility study includes factors like scalability, how to install, how to develop and so on. This feasibility study in short includes the analysis of technical areas. This analysis helps the efficiency of the system developed to get improved. This is because by choosing the correct system .
technology by making analysis on the needs of
helps in improving the efficiency of the system.
The above feasibilities are analysis which helps in development
of the system. But the scope of feasibility study does not end with this. Analysis or feasibility study also includes the analysis of maintenance stage. In other words feasibility study is made to analyze how one would maintain the system during maintenance stage. This helps sin planning for this stage and also helps in risk analysis. Also the analysis helps in making analysis about what training must be given and how and what all documents must be prepared to help users and developers to face maintenance phase.
Advantages of making Feasibility study:

There are many advantages of making feasibility study some of which are summarized below:
This study being made as the initial step of software
development life cycle has all the analysis part in it which helps in analyzing the system requirements completely. .
Helps in identifying the risk factors involved in
developing and deploying the system. .
The feasibility study helps in planning for risk analysis.
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Feasibility study helps in making cost/benefit analysis which
helps the organization and system to run efficiently. .
Feasibility study helps in making plans for training
developers for implementing the system. .
So a feasibility study is a report which could be used by the
senior or top persons in the organization. This is because based on the report the organization decides about cost estimation, funding and other important decisions which is very essential for an organization to run profitably and for the system to run stable.
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4. REQUIREMENTS
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4.1 HARDWARE REQUIREMENT

PROCESSOR HARD DISC SPACE MEMORY DISPLAY KEYBOARD COMPONENTS : Pentium Processor : 40GB and above : 256 MB RAM : 14inch Monitor : 104 keys : Mouse attached
4.2 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT

Operating System Front-end Back-end : Windows XP : C#.NET : Database SQL Server 2005
4.3 SELECTION OF SOFTWARE

The .NET platform is used for this project development. The softwares used in this project are C# and Microsoft SQL Server.
4.3.1 C#
The goal of C# is to provide a simple, safe, modern, object oriented, internet-centric, high performance language for .NET development. C# is now a fully matured language. In C# we can see the influence of Java, C++, Visual Basic and some other languages. The fundamental C# language is simple with fewer than 100 keywords and a dozen built-in datatypes but its highly expressive when it comes to implementing modern programming concepts. C# includes all support for structured, component-based, objectoriented programming. C# contains keywords for declaring new classes and their methods and properties, and for implementing encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism, the three pillars of object-oriented programming. The C# language was originally developed by a small team led by two distinguished Microsoft engineers Anders Hejlberg and Scott Wiltamuth. The various features of C# are: In C#, everything pertaining to a class declaration is found in the declaration itself. C# class definitions dont require separate header files or Interface Definition Language [IDL] files. C# also supports interface, a means of making a contract with a class for the services that the interface stipulates. C# provides support for directly accessing memory using C++ style pointers. It warns the CLR garbage collector not to collect objects referenced by pointers until they are released.
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C# also provides support for structs. Struct is a restricted, lightweight type that, when instantiated, makes fewer demands on the operating system and on memory than other conventional class does. C# provides full support of delegates, to provide invocation of methods through indirection. C# provides component-oriented features, such as properties, events, and declarative constructs. Component-oriented programming is supported by the storage of metadata with the code for the class.
4.3.2 MICROSOFT SQL SERVER

Microsoft SQL Server is a computer application used to create desktop, enterprise, and web-based database systems. It is used at different levels and with various goals. SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is the next version of MSDE and is a free, easy-to-use, lightweight, and embeddable version of SQL Server 2005. SQL Server 2005 (codenamed Yukon), released in October 2005, is the successor to SQL Server 2000. It included native support for managing XML data, in addition to relational data. For relational data, T-SQL has been augmented with error handling features (try/catch) and support for recursive queries (Common Table Expressions). SQL Server 2005 has also been enhanced with new indexing algorithms and better error recovery systems. Data pages are check summed for better error resiliency, and optimistic concurrency support has been added for better performance. Permissions and access control have been made more granular and the query processor handles concurrent execution of queries in a more efficient way.
Partitions on tables and indexes are supported natively, so scaling out a database onto a cluster is easier. SQL CLR was introduced with SQL Server 2005 to let it integrate with the .NET Framework
5. SYSTEM DESIGN
5.1 ELEMENTS OF DESIGN
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5.1.1 SYSTEM DESIGN

Design Objectives: System design is to deliver the requirements as specified in the feasibility report. The main objectives of the design are 1. Practicality 2. Efficiency 3. Cost 4. Flexibility 5. Security System design contains Logical Design & Physical Designing, logical designing describes the structure & characteristics or features, like output, input, files, database & procedures. The physical design, which follows the logical design, actual software & a working system. Logical Design The logical design of a system pertains to an abstract representation of the data flows, inputs and outputs of the system. This is often conducted via modeling, which involves a simplistic (and sometimes graphical) representation of an actual system. In the context of systems design, modeling can undertake the following forms, including:

Data flow diagrams Entity Life Histories Entity Relationship Diagrams
Physical Design
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The physical design relates to the actual input and output processes of the system. This is laid down in terms of how data is inputted into a system, how it is verified/authenticated, how it is processed, and how it is displayed as output. Physical design, in this context, does not refer to the tangible physical design of an information system. To use an analogy, a personal computer's physical design involves input via a keyboard, processing within the CPU, and output via a monitor, printer, etc. It would not concern the actual layout of the tangible hardware, which for a PC would be a monitor, CPU, motherboard, hard drive, modems, video/graphics cards, USB slots, etc.
The processing techniques are Batch Processing Real-time Online Combination of all Structured design is a data flow methodology. The graphical representation of data flow, communication & defining the modules & their relationship with each is known as Structure Chart. This method decomposes & modularizes the system so that the complexity & manageability will come down. Thus reducing the intuitive reasoning & promotes the maintainable provable systems.
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This type of design follows top-down & hierarchy, which will have one single entry & single exit, The advantages of this method are 1. Critical interfaces are tested first 2. Early versions of the design, through incomplete are useful enough to resemble the original system.
3.
Structuring provides control & improve morale processing.
4. The procedural characteristics define the order that determines
Major System Design Activities are

1. DB design 2. Program design 3. System & program test preparation 4. System Interface Specification 5. Audit Consideration 6. Audit control & Documentation control
Major design process parts are

1. O/p design 2. I/p design 3. File Design 4. Procedure design - Computer design - Non-computer design 5. Control design
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These parts are inter-dependent on each other. System Specifications is a document, which will have a result of system design process, it serves as a Blue print for the project development & maintenance. Prototype is a working system that is developed to test ideas & assumptions about a new system.
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5.1.2 INPUT DESIGN

Objectives of Input Design are
1. Controlling amount of i/p 2. Avoiding delay 3. Avoiding errors in data 4. Avoiding extra steps 5. Keeping the process simple.
Major concerns about the input

1. What input is needed
2. How & where is i/p created 3. How should source documents designed 4. What format should be used for Input 5. What medium should be used to store data
Input Verification can be done using

Key verification Use of self checking numbers Visual display Hash Total Checking between range Reasonableness Test Verification of Codes Verification of data Type
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Verify Combination data Sequence Check
Concerns for designing an i/p screen

1. Easy to use 2. Improved processing speed 3. Menu driven Approach 4. Highlighting the information on screen 5. Usage of appropriate colors 6. Editing through display screens
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5.1.3 OUTPUT DESIGN

The output design is an ongoing activity almost from the beginning of the project. The most common output media are computer printers and VDT screens. Computer print charts and VDT screen layout sheets are used for detailed description of outputs. Microcomputers are having a dramatic impact upon output design. The availability of laser printers, along with graphics software and desktop publishing software has given us the high quality print for text and the flexibility of graphics.
Output Design Objectives

Assure Purposeful Output Make Meaningful to User Provide Appropriate Quantity Appropriate Distribution Assure Timeliness Choose Effective Output Method
Output devices are

VDU Printer Computer output Microfilm (COM)
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Choosing Output Technology

Who will use/see the output? How many people will need the output? Where is the output needed (distribution/logistics) What is the purpose of the output? How quickly is the output needed? How frequently will the output be accessed? How long must the output be stored? What special regulations apply? What is the cost? What are the environmental factors (noise, temperature, space, hardware)?
Output Design Consideration
Type of user & purpose Format Frequency & times Volume Sequence Quality
Content

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5.1.4 DATABASE DESIGN

A database is a set of logically related files organized to facilitate access by one or more applications programs & to minimize data redundancy. Main objectives of DB are 1. Eliminate the redundancy of data 2. Data integrity 3. Share data among users 4. Incorporate changes quickly & easily 5. Simplify the use of data 6. Cost effective 7. Improve accuracy & consistency 8. Exercise central control over standards
The Design Process

The design process consists of the following steps[4]:
1.
Determine the purpose of your database - This helps prepare Find and organize the information required - Gather all of
you for the remaining steps.

2.
the types of information you might want to record in the database, such as product name and order number.
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College Information System 3.
Divide the information into tables - Divide your information
items into major entities or subjects, such as Products or Orders. Each subject then becomes a table.
4.
Turn information items into columns - Decide what
information you want to store in each table. Each item becomes a field, and is displayed as a column in the table. For example, an Employees table might include fields such as Last Name and Hire Date.
5.
Specify primary keys - Choose each tables primary key. The
primary key is a column that is used to uniquely identify each row. An example might be Product ID or Order ID.
6.
Set up the table relationships - Look at each table and decide
how the data in one table is related to the data in other tables. Add fields to tables or create new tables to clarify the relationships, as necessary.
7.
Refine your design - Analyze your design for errors. Create the
tables and add a few records of sample data. See if you can get the results you want from your tables. Make adjustments to the design, as needed.
8.
Apply the normalization rules - Apply the data normalization
rules to see if your tables are structured correctly. Make adjustments to the tables, as needed.
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To manipulate the operations on the database, a set of programs are maintained called Data Base Management System (DBMS). It is used to access, maintain and control large, shared files.
The Main advantages of database are 1. File consolidation 2. Program & file independence 3. Access versatility 4. Data Security 5. Program development 6. Program maintenance 7. Special information
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5.2 DATA FLOW DIAGRAM

The DFD is a hierarchical graphical model of the system that shows the different processing activities or the functions that the system performs and the data interchange between these functions. The system is represented in terms of the input data to the system, the various processing carried out on these data, and the output data generated by the system. It has the purpose of clarifying systems requirements and identifying major transformations that will become programs in system design. It is the major starting point in the design phase that functionally decomposes the requirements specifications down to the lowest level of detail. DFD is an elegant modeling technique that turns out to be useful not only to represent the results of structured analysis of a software problem, but also for several other applications such as showing the flow of documents or items in an organization. In the normal convention a DFD has four major symbols.
SQUARE: represents external entity [ source/sink]
ARROW: represents shows data flow
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CIRCLE: represents a represents a process
OPEN RECTANGLE: represents a data store.
Process Work or actions performed on data (inside the system) Labels should be verb phrases Receives input data and produces output Dataflow Is a path for data to move from one part of the IS to another Arrows depicting movement of data Can represent flow between process and data store by two separate arrows Data store Is used in a DFD to represent data that the system stores Labels should be noun phrases External entity
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External entity that is origin or destination of data Is the singular form of a department, outside organization, other IS, or person Labels should be noun phrases Source Entity that supplies data to the system Sink Entity that receives data from the system
Context diagram
The DFD which is the top-level view of IS is called a context diagram. It shows the system boundaries, external entities that interact with the system, and major information flows between entities and the system.
Rules for drawing DFDs

1) Establish the context of the data flow diagram by identifying all the net input and output data flows. 2) Select a starting point for drawing the data flow diagram from inputs to outputs or backwards from outputs to inputs or from the centre out. 3) Give meaningful labels to all data flow lines. 4) Label all processes with action verbs that relate input and output data flows. 5) Omit insignificant functions routinely handled in the programming process. 6) 7) Dont include control or flow of control information. Do not try to put too much information in one data flow diagram.
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8) Be prepared to start over. Often the data flow diagram does not begin to flow without several false starts.
5.3 TABLE DESIGN

The most important aspect of building an application is the design of tables or the database schema. The data stored in the tables must be organized in some manner, which is meaningful. The overall objective in the process of table design has been to treat data as an organizational resource and as an integrated whole. The organization of data in a database aims to achieve three major objectives, which are given below. 1. Data Integration 2. Data Integrity 3. Data Independence Several degrees of normalization have to be applied during the process of table design. The major aim of the process of normalization is to reduce data redundancy and prevent losing data integrity. Redundancy refers to unwanted and unnecessary repetition of data. Data integrity has to be converted at all levels. Poor normalization can cause problems related to storage and retrieval of data. During the process of normalization, dependencies can be identified which cause serious problems during deletion and updation. Normalizing also helps in simplifying the structure
of tables. The theme behind a database is to handle information as an integrated whole thus making access to information easy, quick, inexpensive and flexible for users. The entire package depends on how the data are maintained in the system .Each table has been designed with a perfect vision. Minor tables have been created which though takes much space facilitates the process of querying fast and accurate.
TABLE 1: LOGIN
FIELD
ID LOGIN NAME PASSWORD
DATA TYPE
NUMBER(4) VARCHAR(15) VARCHAR(10)
TABLE 2: NOTICE
FIELD
NOTICEID SUBJECT DATE
DATA TYPE
NUMBER(4) VARCHAR(15) VARCHAR(10)
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College Information System TIME VARCHAR(10)
TABLE 3: TIMETABLE
FIELD
DEPTID TEACHER ID DAY TIME TEACHER CLASS
DATA TYPE
NUMBER(4) NUMBER(4) VARCHAR(10) VARCHAR(10) VARCHAR(15) VARCHAR(10)
TABLE 4: DEPT
FIELD
DEPTID
DATA TYPE
NUMBER(4)
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College Information System DEPT NAME HOD VARCHAR(10) VARCHAR(15)
6. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING
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6.1 INTRODUCTION
System implementation is the process of bringing a developed system into operational use and turning it over to the user. Implementation activities extend from planning through conversion from the old system to the new. All hardware required is tested and installed properly and ensures all connections are made correctly and accurately. The computer program component of the overall system is debugged and made error free. The computer programs are ensured that it successfully executes its program logic. The computer programs are tested in a planned, top-down sequence that includes structured walk-throughs. When all the hardware and software components are set, the overall system is tested to verify whether the system has met its design objectives. The proposed system has two main modules and both the modules are thoroughly checked. The administrator functions are tested by providing various data entries and making modifications to the data and checking whether he changes are updated in the database. The user functions are tested by progressing through the various interfaces and checking whether the correct information is provided by various interfaces.
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6.2 WORKING OF THE PROJECT

The proposed touch screen kiosk system works in two major modules: user and the administrator. The administrator only has the power for data entry and manipulation. The user is provided the authority to view various details about the college but not make any data entry. The administrator has interfaces for entering and modifying data. The users have interfaces to view details of his/her choice.
ADMINISTRATOR
LOGIN
INSERT TIME TABLE
URGENT NOTICE
NOTICES
ADD DEPARTMENT T
ADD TIME TABLE
INSERT NEW NOTICE
EDIT NOTICE
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USER
FIND THE LOCATION OF TEACHER
SEARCH NOTICES
VARIOUS DETAILS ABOUT COLLEGE
VIEW URGENT NOTICE
HOME
ABOUT COLLEGE
VISION & MISSION
INFRASTRU CTURE
CONTACT
COURSES
DEPARTMENTS
FACULTIES 47
COLLEGE MAP
1. ADMINISTRATOR
The main task of the administrator is data entry. The Administrator after Login has an interface for inserting data about location of class, notices, pictures etc. The various functions of the administrator can be further divided into four modules. The four modules are insert data, edit data, insert time table, urgent notice. Insert Data This module provides the entry of new notices which the user can access via Notices link. The administrator can enter new notices in the data entry space provided. On clicking the submit button the notice along with date and time get saved into table NOTICES and the database is updated. Edit Data This module provides provision for editing existing notices. It helps to remove unwanted notices. On clicking edit data the list of existing notices will appear and a delete button is provided corresponding to each notice. On clicking the delete button the notice will be deleted from the table and database is updated. Insert Timetable
This module provides provision for entering various departments, head of the departments, teachers and their time table. It includes the classroom location of each teacher for every period. This module provides two options: 1.3.1 Add Department This option provides facility for entering department name and HODs name. On clicking OK button, the details entered along with department id is entered into table DEPT and the database is updated. 1.3.2 Add Time table This option provides facility to enter departments, teachers, day, period, class and room no:. On clicking the OK button all details entered along with department id and teacher id will be entered into table TIMETABLE and the database is updated. Urgent Notice This is the window application that is embedded in the project. On clicking the Urgent Notice link, a window will appear that displays the notices at the same time it is being entered by the administrator. The administrator system acts as a master system and the touch screen act as a slave.
49
2. USER
Users have an interface for displaying the data from the table according to his requirement. The user can get various information of the college and also view various notices. The users functions can be divided into two modules.
2.1 Information Retrieval The user can get various information of the college such as about the college, contact details, vision and mission, infrastructure and so on. The user can also find in which classroom a particular teacher is for the current hour. 2.2 Notices This module helps the user to search notices by date. By selecting a date and clicking the search button, a table that lists all notices published on that particular date will be displayed.
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6.3 SOFTWARE TESTING

Software testing is an integral part of Software Development Life Cycle. Software testing is any activity aimed at evaluating an attribute or capability of a program or system and determining that it meets its required results. Although crucial to software quality and widely deployed by programmers and testers, software testing still remains an art, due to limited understanding of the principles of software. The difficulty in software testing stems from the complexity of software: we can not completely test a program with moderate complexity. Testing is more than just debugging. The purpose of testing can be quality assurance, verification and validation, or reliability estimation. Testing can be used as a generic metric as well. Correctness testing and reliability testing are two major areas of testing. Software testing is a trade-off between budget, time and quality. The various testing methods are as follows:
Black box testing Testing without knowledge of the internal workings of the item being tested. Tests are usually functional. Conformance testing
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Producing tests for the behavior of an implementation to be sure it provides the portability, interoperability, and/or compatibility a standard defines.
Functional testing Validating an application or Web site conforms to its specifications and correctly performs all its required functions. This entails a series of tests which perform a feature by feature validation of behavior, using a wide range of normal and erroneous input data. This can involve testing of the product's user interface, APIs, database management, security, installation, networking etc testing can be performed on an automated or manual basis using black box or white box methodologies. Integration testing Testing in which modules are combined and tested as a group. Modules are typically code modules, individual applications, client and server applications on a network, etc. Integration Testing follows unit testing and precedes system testing. Load testing Load testing is a generic term covering Performance Testing and Stress Testing. Performance testing Performance testing can be applied to understand your application or WWW site's scalability, or to benchmark the performance in an environment of third party products such as servers and middleware for potential purchase.
This sort of testing is particularly useful to identify performance bottlenecks in high use applications. Performance testing generally involves an automated test suite as this allows easy simulation of a variety of normal, peak, and exceptional load conditions. Stress testing Testing conducted to evaluate a system or component at or beyond the limits of its specified requirements to determine the load under which it fails and how. A graceful degradation under load leading to non-catastrophic failure is the desired result. Often Stress Testing is performed using the same process as Performance Testing but employing a very high level of simulated load. System testing Testing conducted on a complete, integrated system to evaluate the system's compliance with its specified requirements. System testing falls within the scope of black box testing, and as such, should require no knowledge of the inner design of the code or logic. Unit testing It is the testing of individual software components or modules. Typically done by the programmer and not by testers, as it requires detailed knowledge of the internal program design and code. May require developing test driver modules or test harnesses. Compatibility testing Testing how well software performs in a particular hardware/software/operating system/network environment and different combination s of above.
7. FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS
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7.1 FUTURE SCOPE OF THE SYSTEM

The system can be enhanced by adding new modules. The system will be converted into online applications. The objectives specified, while starting the system designs are achieved. As the progress in life is advanced from the known to known, the future of any Software packages lies in its ability to progress from the specified to the general. The basic structure of the product was designed in such a way that the incorporation of additional utilities and function could be accomplished very easily without any changes in the basic design. The present system helps to locate any teacher from the Computer Science department. The system can be further modified so as to locate any teacher belonging to any department in the college.
55
8. CONCLUSION
56
8.1 CONCLUSION
A college information system is developed. This system can be used by any college visitor or student to get knowledge about the current events in college or any college related information. Only a valid administrator can work with information manipulation. An important advantage is that only valid current information is provided by the system, since the unwanted notices being deleted by the administrator. The software was developed in C#.NET and SQL. It is expected to live up to the objectives for which it was designed. In the proposed system it is sure that it must reduce the manpower and time duration. Thus this system is a boon when viewed with a resource saving perspective, which is vital for the system like COLLEGE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL USING TOUCHSCREEN KIOSK
The project titled COLLEGE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL USING TOUCHSCREEN KIOSK has been done successfully and satisfies all the requirements specified. This system helps in providing live data to the authorities and help in decision making without wastage of time. This software provides a user-friendly approach towards the system. This system has been well developed and when implemented, is bound to satisfy all of the requirements. Painstaking efforts have been taken to make the software impeccable and upgradeable. There is a hope that this software will be utilized to its maximum and will do a good job in the long run. The program for carrying out various activities have been run and successfully tested to ensure that the software developed meets the needs satisfactorily.
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9. APPENDIX
58
9.1 DATA FLOW DIAGRAMS
59
9.1.1 CONTEXT DIAGRAM
USER
COLLEGE INFORMATION SYSTEM
ADMINISTRATOR
9.1.2 LEVEL 0 DFD
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9.1.3 LEVEL 1 DFDS

62
ADMINISTRAT OR LOGIN 2.1
IMMEDIATE NOTICE 2.2
DISPLAY
63
DISPLAY
DEPARTMENT IDENTIFICATI0N 5.1 LOCATING TEACHER 5.2
64
TIME TABLE Assumption College, Changanacherry
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66
9.2 SCREENSHOTS
67
HOME
68
ABOUT US
69
INFRASTRUCTURE
70
VISION &MISSION
71
CONTACT US
72
COURSE DETAILS
73
DEPARTMENTS
74
FACULTIES
75
SEARCH
76
SEARCH
77
ADMIN LOGIN
78
ADMIN HOME PAGE
79
INSERT DATA
80
EDIT DATA
81
INSERT TIME TABLE
82
ADD DEPARTMENT
83
ADD TIME TABLE
84
NOTICE
85
URGENT NOTICE
86
COLLEGE MAP
87
BIBILIOGRAPHY
Offline Resources:
Programming C# 3.0 - Jesse Liberty & Donald Xie Comdex Computer Programming Course Kit - Vikas Gupta Elements of System Analysis - Marvin Gore & John W Stubbe
Online Resources:

www.wikipedia.com www.aptest.com www.microsoft.com web.sxu.edu www.softwaretestinghelp.com www.microsoft.com
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College Information Retrieval Using Touch Screen KIOSK

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College Information System

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

2.1 PROJECT OVERVIEW

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

2.2 ORGANISATION PROFILE

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

2.3 ABOUT THE PLATFORM

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

College Information System

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

The various other features of .NET platform are:

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

College Information System

Runtime is the virtual

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

3. SYSTEM STUDY AND ANALYSIS

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

3.1 STUDY OF EXISTING SYSTEM

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

3.2 PROPOSED SYSTEM

College Information System

3.3 FEASIBILITY STUDY

To produce immediate displays, current notices, etc. helpful.

To produce all sort of displays that a visitor to the college finds

To correctly locate any teacher if her name, id and time is known.

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

Feasibility study is made on the system being developed to

Is the system developed has scope for expanding or scope for

Is the cost of developing the system high or does it meet the

Analysis is made on what software to use for developing the

technology by making analysis on the needs of

helps in improving the efficiency of the system.

College Information System

The above feasibilities are analysis which helps in development

Advantages of making Feasibility study:

This study being made as the initial step of software

Helps in identifying the risk factors involved in

developing and deploying the system. .

The feasibility study helps in planning for risk analysis.

Assumption College, Changanacherry

College Information System

Feasibility study helps in making cost/benefit analysis which

helps the organization and system to run efficiently. .