Advantages of Agile Methodology

Agile development model is also a type of Incremental model. Software is developed in incremental, rapid cycles. This results in small incremental releases with each release building on previous functionality. Each release is thoroughly tested to ensure software quality is maintained. It is used for time critical applications. Extreme Programming (XP) is currently one of the most well known agile development life cycle model.

Advantages of Agile model:

• Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software.
• People and interactions are emphasized rather than process and tools. Customers, developers and testers constantly interact with each other.
• Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months).
• Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication.
• Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers.
• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design.
• Regular adaptation to changing circumstances.
• Even late changes in requirements are welcomed

Disadvantages of Agile model:

• In case of some software deliverables, especially the large ones, it is difficult to assess the effort required at the beginning of the software development life cycle.
• There is lack of emphasis on necessary designing and documentation.
• The project can easily get taken off track if the customer representative is not clear what final outcome that they want.
• Only senior programmers are capable of taking the kind of decisions required during the development process. Hence it has no place for newbie programmers, unless combined with experienced resources.

Connecting Android with PHP, MySQL

 I am going to show how to make a simple Android app that will call a PHP script to perform basic CRUD(Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations. To brief you on the architecture, this is how it works.

First the android app calls a PHP script in order to perform a data operation. The PHP script then connects to the MySQL database to perform the operation.
So the data flows from your Android app to PHP script then finally is stored in your MySQL database.

1. Create MySQL database & Tables

2. Connecting to MySQL database with PHP

db_config.php

<?php


define('DB_USER', "root"); // db user


define('DB_PASSWORD', ""); // db password (mention your db password here)


define('DB_DATABASE', "abc"); // database name


define('DB_SERVER', "localhost"); // db server


?>

db_connect.php

db_connect.php
<?php

/**
* A class file to connect to database
*/
class DB_CONNECT {

// constructor
function __construct() {
// connecting to database
$this->connect();
}

// destructor
function __destruct() {
// closing db connection
$this->close();
}

/**
* Function to connect with database
*/
function connect() {
// import database connection variables
require_once __DIR__ . '/db_config.php';

// Connecting to mysql database
$con = mysql_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD) or die(mysql_error());

// Selecing database
$db = mysql_select_db(DB_DATABASE) or die(mysql_error()) or die(mysql_error());

// returing connection cursor
return $con;
}

/**
* Function to close db connection
*/
function close() {
// closing db connection
mysql_close();
}

}

?>

Codeigniter Basics

CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications. Codeigniter's in-built methods and tools saves a lot of time rather than depending on pure PHP language. You'll realize the benefits of it once you start creating the SEP.

How To install CodeIgniter?

Remember to setup XAMPP on your local machine before installing the codeigniter. 

Step 1 : Download codeIgniter from Here

Step 2 : After downloaded codelgniter extract in your server root directory i.e. your htdocs folder

Step 3 : After that rename that folder into your project name In my case its folder name is CI you can rename whatever you want

Step 4 : After that open your browser and run http://localhost/CI/

Your Page get look like this as seen below

Getting Started With SEP

Software Engineering Project (SEP) is one of the most important subject modules for SLIIT 3rd year Software  Engineering students. This subject module helped us to gain a new experience as software engineering students during the 3rd year.

What is SEP?

For this subject module simply we had to complete a fully functional project for a real world client. This is a four member based group project and all the members should have to give their maximum effort to make it a success. The experience gained in this subject module directly helped us when we went to our internship program interviews. So it's up to you to make your project a success.

Getting Started 

Attend the SEP lectures, don't miss them out because your lecturer provides all the resources and guidance for the project. You should find a good team to work with and you'll be allocated a supervisor to guide you through out the semester. Then meet your client and get all requirements, have a clear plan. Start building the project for the iterations,

Tips For a Successful Project  

• Hold regular team meetings with the team and supervisor
• Meet the client and get all requirements and get a clear idea
• Work with agile methodology
• Find a suitable framework for your project
• Update the target process 
• Discover all resources, don't wait for everything 
• Be prepared and have a plan
• Manage your time efficiently
• Follow business ethics when dealing with the client and supervisor

For our SEP-I project we made an online web portal for our client, Mr. Dinal Fernando who is the owner at MyStyle International promotional products. We used PHP language to create our web portal using the codeigniter framework. I'll be discussing the basics of our project on the upcoming posts.