A Reminiscence
I used google to search up an old science fiction story I posted at SFFWorld. I wrote that story when I was in the last year of my secondary school in 2000. (i.e when I was 17 years of age). You can view it here:
There seems to be 5 errors that I’m receiving on this page. It appears that plugins that used to work are now not working. I’ll remove them when time permits.
I think I’m ready to unveil my web application that I developed for my technical report. It uses GoogleMaps, AJAX, Javascript (I know that Google Maps uses Ajax but I’m talking about using Ajax and Javascript in other portions of the site). I hope to improve it even more before the final deadline (look and feel). I’m learning a lot of web based technologies from this TR. I just hope that my profs will like what I did in the Geomatics part (i.e. visualizing the location of soundings and displaying of processed data online). I still have a bit more to do, i.e. allowing users to download the raw datasets. I’m also thinking of allowing online modification of the database. But all that will be done in due course. I believe I’ve finished what my supervisor from the Ocean Mapping Group wanted me to do. So now, all I have to do is just improve the look and feel.
Just use the sample data sets that has been inputted in the text boxes. And click query (just below the large Map of Eastern Canada). You will be confronted with 2 baloons displaying the location of soundings. I’ll upload more data sets if I have the time.
Why I did this application? Currently the ocean mapping group has tons of data lying about. This application serves to demonstrate the usage of a database as a central repository of those datasets. This application also enables online viewing of these datasets and semi-’offline’ viewing (using Google Earth). The web application had to have the ability to query different facets of data (date/depth/cordinates). All this have been implemented and are working well.
I used MySQL as the database backend. As for scripting, I used PHP and Javascript.
I also used GoogleMaps.
Other relevant technologies:
CSS (I hope to extend my CSS knowledge by making the layout even better than what it is now. To be honest, yes you don’t have to tell me, the layout is too simple. But perhaps this has its own advantages).
Ajax – I managed to display the images in the same page by making calls to a php file on the server! Wahoo!
There’s a lot for me to learn, but I’m glad I have started the process of self discovery. Before, I was totally clueless on web based scripting and server (& client) side scripting. I was a computer science student (and also a Geomatics Engineering student) who had only theoretical knowledge of programming and no industrial experience. This project has given me the ability to harmonize not only what I’ve learned in Geomatics Engineering but also in computer Science. And it has also allowed me to develop an application that will solve an existing real life problem.
So, I’m accepting suggestions and constructive criticisms. Please send them to me at
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