Chidi's Hub: The Computing Blog

In the previous blog, we discussed the  Entity Relationship Diagrams . In this post, however, I will be giving an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) made with Draw.io that reflects the content of my website. fig: Entity Relationship Diagram From the illustration above, it can be deduced that the Entities are: Customer Music Course Music Equipment, and Musical Instrument Each of these aforementioned entities have attributes, represented in an oval shape. Viz: Name ID Address Brand Price There are also relationships, which are represented by a "diamond shape". Lastly, I have also made use of the 1 to 1 cardinality ratio, and the 1 to many ratio as well.

(Freepik, 2020) Bis cobing defines Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) as "a graphical representation that depicts relationships among people, objects, places, concepts or events within an information technology (IT) system. An ERD uses data modeling techniques that can help define business processes and serve as the foundation for a relational database." ( Biscobing, 2019) The ERD comprises of certain terminologies used in relation to the items on the diagram. These are: Entity "An entity may be any object, class, person or place. In the ER diagram, an entity can be represented as rectangles.  Consider an organization as an example- manager, product, employee, department etc. can be taken as an entity." (Javapoint, no date) Attribute "The attribute is used to describe the property of an entity. Eclipse is used to represent an attribute. For example, id, age, contact number, name, etc. can be attributes of a student." (Javapoint, no date) Relationship The re

(Rawpixel, 2021) According to Oracle, a database is a well-organized assortment of structured information or data, which is often stored digitally in a computer system. To manage the data, a database management system (DBMS) is usually employed. The combination of the data, the DBMS, and the associated applications is referred to as a database system or simply a database. ( Oracle, no date) It ensures that the user can perform the following tasks: Create Read Update; and Delete Most databases today are designed using tables with rows and columns to enable efficient processing and data querying. The data can be easily accessed, manipulated, updated, controlled, and arranged using a DBMS. Structured Query Language (SQL) is the most widely used language for writing and querying data in databases. ( Oracle, no date)   Examples of Databases Below are some examples of Databases Microsoft SQL Server "SQL Server, developed by Microsoft, is a Relational Database Management System. It is bu

Storyset (2019) As a prerequisite for this module, I had to create a customer database. In the creation of this data base I had to create fields for "Customer ID/Number", "Customer Name", "Last name", "Phone number" and "Post code". I will be highlighting the processes I took in creating the customer database. The first step I took was to create the field headings, as listed in the introduction paragraph above. After crating these headings, I filled them with randomized values for the names, phone numbers, and postal codes. The table was beginning to look substantial. Finally, I formatted the data as a table. MS-Excel automatically created a bold border around the table, with the headings on it, as dropdowns. I added thinner lines between each column to make the values more distinguishable. Having done this, I saved my progress and stored it as my customer database file. Product Database Similar to the customer database, I also created

(Katemangostar, 2023) Software development comprises of various intricate procedures, which when carried out effectively, produce good results. This blog post aims at enumerating these steps, and explaining software development. "The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) refers to a methodology with clearly defined processes for creating high-quality software." (Altvater, 2023) According to Altvater, Software Development Life Cycle or SDLC is the process that produces the best quality software, with minimal costs, in the shortest possible time. (Altvater, 2023) There are six main SDLC methodologies, viz:  Agile Lean Waterfall Iterative Spiral DevOps    (Clouddefence, 2023) According to Robert Half, this SDLC model is the Spiral methodology. It provides an organized flow of steps which aid the firm or organization to produce good quality software in no time, which goes through testing and is soon ready for production use. (Half, 2023) These key steps include: Planning: This

Rawpixel (2018) I have selected the Reverb and Sweetwater product pages as case studies for my comparison in this blog. Sweetwater Sweetwater (2023) Opening the product page of the Sweetwater website, one is greeted immediately with a large banner occupying the entire screen. While this may serve a reason to the developers of this website, it does come off as obstructive and an ineffective use of space. The customer (myself, for example) is not immediately met with the products that make up the product page. Sweetwater (2023) The products are distinctly split up into categories, as seen at the left side of the picture above. However, pricing and details of the location and promotional offers of the product are not immediately seen. This would affect customers who purchase with price as a determining factor. It does not reveal the complete or sufficient details of the product on the product page at a glance, and will thus, impede or affect the user experience of the customer. Reverb Rev

(Freepik, 2014) As stated in this e-commerce module, the 4Ps of marketing are, "Price", "Promotion", "Product", and "Place". This blog post aims not only to explain these marketing principles, but also to explain how these 4Ps have been incorporated into the development of my e-commerce website. Product The key questions to be answered by any marketer, about the products are: "Who needs it, and why? What does it do that no competitor's product can do?"  (Twin, 2022) "The job of the marketer is to define the product and its qualities and introduce it to the consumer." (Twin, 2022) fig: 1.1 As a case study, I have taken a screenshot of a product in my e-commerce website. The page above not only describes the color and brand, but also describes the product to customers. Price Another crucial aspect is the price of the commodity. It is important that the marketer determines how much a product is worth, and how much customers s

Pressfoto (2019) Alt tags refer to the words "that can be inserted as an attribute in an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document to tell Website viewers the nature or contents of an image." ( TechTarget, 2012)  These words or texts "appears in a blank box that would normally contain the image. Alt text is useful when an image link is not available because of a broken or changed URL or some other issue." ( TechTarget, 2012) Title tags, on the other hand refers to "HTML code tag that allows you to give a web page a title. This title can be found in the browser title bar, as well as in the search engine results pages (SERP)." ( AT Internet, 2019) As stated above, the title tags play a role in the display of a website in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). Both the alt tag and the title tag serve additional benefits to a page's SEO. This is because "alt text is a good place to place relevant keywords to improve your website’s search engine optim

  Rawpixel (2018) Creating a contact form was, for me, as crucial as any other part of the website creation process. While every goods or service-based website should provide services professionally, there are always bound to be complaints, enquiries, and customer feedback. Creating a platform where customers feel heard is the purpose I believe the contact form serves. My template had an already-generated contact form in place. It boosted my efficiency, because I just had to make some design corrections, then tweak and add more information to the form where necessary. The image above is the finished contact form on my e-commerce website. I included the map at the bottom of the page to enable the customer quickly locate the business by glancing through the map. I had the initial idea to create two compulsory fields for "First name" and "Surname". However knowing that most customers would prefer the focus being on their enquiries or complains, I made no field compulso

Rawpixel (2021) Creating an 'About Us' page for the first time involved some research into the about pages of similar websites. I used the Sweetwater and Reverb websites as case studies.  Sweetwater Sweetwater (2023) I found the About Us page in Sweetwater website fairly informative. I was impressed with the mild colour scheme palette used, and the aesthetically pleasing look of the images they used too. Sweetwater (2023) The page also contained information on the mission, history and members of the organization as a whole. Reverb Reverb (2023) The Reverb About us page also contained information about the organization, missions, history, and prospects.  Reverb (2023) While not unappealing, the page without a picture of staff, or a description of the organization did not strike positively with me. I believe that the presence of pictures on the about page not only subtly encourages the reader to keep reading, but also creates an overall improved aesthetic view of the webpage. Ref

Creativeart (2016) Despite being a computer enthusiast, and a tech fanatic for numerous years, creating a website was not something I had ever done, till my encounter with Wix. Creating an account was nearly seamless, with just my email address, and I had the option to create a website from scratch, or modify an already-existing template.  Wix (2023) Wix (2023) The Wix website had a plethora of sample templates, as seen above, but because the type of website I was interested in was an E-commerce website, I had to tailor my search accordingly.  As already stated in my website initial ideas, in a previous blog post, I intend on establishing a site for musicians of all skillsets, and interests. Making my website stand out more meant that I had to inspect and look out for the lapses or weaknesses in several notable music e-commerce websites, and try to rectify them. Some of the sites I visited to compare their home and product pages are Reverb and Sweetwater . Reverb (2023) Sweetwater (2

Rawpixel (2020) After careful evaluation of my website initial plans, below will be the hand sketch of the initial design, as well as the digital sketch. Hand Sketch Hand Sketch Digital Wireframe Digital Wireframe To design this digital wireframe, I have used an Online Flowchart Maker  called draw.io to make a custom website template that best matches my website initial idea. Reference List            Rawpixel (2020) Free Photo: Website Development , Freepik . Available at: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/website-development_11428440.htm#query=website%20content&position=5&from_view=search&track=sph (Accessed: February 4, 2023).