Blog Posts

The Final Week

This week, team Securix presented our final project at Final Design Review. After doing our presentation for the liaisons and coaches, we received great feedback and everybody seemed pleased with the final product. Following the presentation to the liaisons, we displayed our project to the general public at a showcase. Overall, the team had a great experience during IPPD and would like to thank all who were involved for their help throughout the year.

Week 13 Update

Slide from FDR presentation

This week, team Securix presented our FDR presentation during class to our peers and IPPD coaches. The feedback we received was mostly positive with many of the criticisms pertaining to the PowerPoint and presentation skills. To prepare for the final presentation next week, the team is going to keep practicing the presentation to ensure it runs smoothly. Additionally, we turned in our final poster and video that will be displayed during the FDR showcase. These will help tell the “story” of our project and solution. Aside from preparing for FDR, the team continued finalizing the web portal. We resolved some issues we had with the JDBC connectivity, finished all of the APIs and integration, and continued to work on authentication. Next week, we will finalize the online documentation for the web portal, finish the authentication or list the next steps to take, and present at FDR. The team is eager to show off all of our work this past year and is ready to pass the web portal off to the liaisons.

Week 12 Update

Atlas poster

This week, team Securix continued preparing for our Final Design Review (FDR) presentation. We completed the rough drafts of our video and poster that will be displayed during the showcase at FDR. Our video was shown during class and we got feedback from our peers on how we could edit it to make it better. We also posted our poster on the IPPD Teams channel where we obtained feedback on the layout and design. Next week, we will present our FDR presentation during class to prepare for the real event. We have also been working on the FDR report which will detail all aspects of our project for the liaisons. For the web portal we have continued developing the APIs, working on integration, and running tests. In the last few weeks of the class we will complete the integration, port the frontend to the hardware at the Hatchery, and finalize the testing.

Week 11 Update

FAQ page on secure web portal.

This week, team Securix continued to work on the deliverables for the Final Design Review (FDR). We completed the FDR report outline that details all of the sections that will be in the final report. We also filmed a video demonstrating the web portal and all of its features, which will be viewed during FDR. In class we received a guest lecture about storytelling that helped us brainstorm ideas for the video. The team also continued with the development of the web portal. The APIs for the FAQs page were completed and Active Directory authentication was worked on. Testing on both the frontend and backend was also continued. Next week, we will present the FDR video in class to get feedback from our classmates. For the portal, we will focus on finishing the integration with the backend and frontend.

Week 10 Update

Team picture after Prototype Inspection Day.

This week, team Securix presented our prototype at Prototype Inspection Day. After having the judges use the web portal, we received great feedback about things that we could change to increase the usability. These changes included things like implementing sorting on the forms pages, adding hover text over icons, and changing the colors of some of the buttons so they will stand out more. The team also begun writing our outline for our Final Design Review (FDR) report this week. We divided up the work and brainstormed the topics that should be included in the outline. Next week, along with continuing to work on the FDR rough draft, we will implement the changes from the feedback, continue testing, and add more error handling to the end points.

Week 9 Update

The Forms page of the web portal.

This week, team Securix returned from spring break and got to work on our prototype that we will be presenting at Prototype Inspection Day (PID) next Tuesday. For PID, our presentation will be similar to last semesters. We will have tasks pertaining to the web portal that users will complete then, we will ask the judges to fill out a survey about their opinions on the user interface and ask for their overall thoughts on the web portal. To get ready for PID we have continued working on the Guides and Forms APIs to insert, edit, and delete the files. We have also continued to construct the front-end by implementing search and filter options and completing the announcements logic. With the hardware at the Hatchery we have continued to work on the Active Directory authentication. This weekend we will integrate the front-end and the back-end and start practicing for our presentation next week. After PID next week, we will asses the judges feedback to determine what changes need to be made to the portal and fix any problems or bugs that may arise.

Week 8 Update

Announcements portion of the Dashboard.

This weekend, the team met with our liaisons at the Hatchery to help set up, and learn about the refreshed hardware. The week was then spent transferring the backend project and dependencies to the hardware, and setting up the required programs. We downloaded and set up parts of the database with Microsoft SQL Server and continued to work on the Active Directory integration and authentication. While the backend was being worked on, the main pages for the frontend were being completed, consisting of the Dashboard, Forms, Patches, Guides, and FAQs. In addition to working on the web portal, we established our plans for Prototype Inspection Day which will occur the second week after we come back from spring break.

Next week, the team will take a break from the web portal for spring break. When we come back, our main tasks will be to continue to develop APIs incorporating the backend hardware and, begin the integration of the frontend and backend via server side props.

Week 7 Update

New Guides page on the web portal

This week, team Securix gave our QRB2 presentation to a group of IPPD coaches. We gave updates on how our project was doing, told them our plans for the future, and went over issues blocking our progress. We received valuable feedback pertaining to the presentation itself, and our progress, that we will implement as we continue to develop the web portal. Outside of class, we successfully set up a local database with Microsoft SQL Server and integrated database authentication. The database will store page information and the paths to files on the file server. We also continued API testing on the file APIs. On the frontend, we continued the development of the Dashboard and completed the Forms interface and Guides page.

This weekend we are meeting with our liaisons to set up the refreshed hardware at the Hatchery. Once the hardware is set up we will begin integrating the hardware with our backend system. This will include downloading the dependencies needed and deploying the Microsoft SQL Server onto the hardware. We will also continue with the development of the Dashboard and begin the Patches page.

Week 6 Update

Architecture diagram of JPA entity classes. From https://www.tutorialspoint.com/jpa/jpa_architecture.htm

This week, the team began preparing for the Quality Review Board (QRB) presentation that will take place next Tuesday. This is our second QRB assessment this semester and the team is ready to give an update to the IPPD coaches about our progress. After the QRB2 preparation was completed, we continued development on the web portal. We are still waiting for the hardware to be returned to the Hatchery but we were able to work on the backend of the web portal by creating a mock Microsoft SQL Server database and populating it with tables. We will use the local database to configure the backend with SQL and begin writing JPA entity classes. The team has also continued to work on writing tests for the backend system and endpoints. On the frontend we finished the Guides page, Dashboard quick links section, and announcements components. We have also continued to work on converting the files to TypeScript. Next week after our QRB2 presentation, we will continue to work on the database on the backend, complete the forms page, begin the patches page, and implement a basic search logic with dummy data.

Week 5 Update

Reveal of the web portal name in the style of the popular word game Wordle

This week, team Securix finalized the name for the web portal we are developing. After approval from our liaisons we have decided to call the portal “Atlas.” In class this week, we received an informative presentation from a guest lecturer about leadership and improving our leadership skills. For the rest of the week, we continued with the development of the web portal. We began writing integration and smoke tests for the backend and finished integrating the Kerberos authentication. The team also completed the dashboard page and started on the forms page to upload and delete important forms. Next week, we will continue the page development on the frontend by continuing to work on the forms page and starting the patches page. We will also begin the preparation for QRB2, where we will present to a panel of coaches and receive feedback on our project and progress so far.