Criterion A: Planning
Auction service featuring database and reports
1. Defining the problem
A while ago Krzysztof Kuczynski, the owner of a pawnshop company, realised his business could not
follow the competition and stopped paying back. He examined carefully his cash flow, as well as
profit and loss account. Eventually, he came to a conclusion that a huge part of his problem is the
diversity of the structure of his customers - the company was too dependent on regular customers
and could barely attract new ones. Moreover, he found out that most of his competitors outmatch
him when it comes to the online rivalry - his company was not present online and did not possess any
measures to promote itself nor allow customers for contacting it. Additionally, he could not easily
identify the current market trends and did not have any appropriate tools to do that. Thus, he asked
Dawid Plona, a III LO student, to come up with a solution to his problem, in the form of a website.
I decided to prepare and present a completed from scratch website, connected with a newly created
MySQL database, to him as my client. The website would allow users to create accounts, add
customised auctions, search through others' auctions and exchange messages between each other
and the administrator, who would be in charge of maintaining and controlling the database with use
of administrator features. Moreover, the administrator would be able to generate and export overall
and monthly reports regarding auctions and users to identify current trends and find new, active
clients. Simultaneously, the client agreed to become a tester and adviser for this product. Soon
thereafter the client specified his more strict requirements regarding the product. They are described
in the Appendix 1 - interview with the client.
Word count: 284
2. Rationale for the solution
I decided to prepare a website in HTML language, with usage of CSS style sheets and some
JavaScript features, since a website created this way will not only be clear, transparent and
minimalistic - and these are the features customers appreciate and the client expects - but also the
code will be ordered, understandable, minimalistic and easy to follow and modify, even for another
programmer, which will make the product by far more extensible. The scheme of a manually written
website's design may be easily prepared and labelled, making it intuitive to manipulate existing
blocks and classes, be it its CSS design or HTML structure. JavaScript minor scripts may provide neat
quality of life features and enhance user experience.
As for the handling and maintenance of the database, I decided to use PHP language and MySQL
Queries, which will allow sufficient complexity and comprehensibility of the product by providing
user with a possibility to selectively display various data based on the input with use of complex
queries. PHP predefined functions may contribute to optimisation of code and ensuring extensibility
and safety. This way the site will be efficient, protected, and all the input and output operations on
the database will be managed in an dynamic, adequate and structured manner on an outside server.
Additionally, use of PHP will allow implementation of additional libraries, responsible for vital
features, such as PDF generation.
Auction service featuring database and reports
1. Defining the problem
A while ago Krzysztof Kuczynski, the owner of a pawnshop company, realised his business could not
follow the competition and stopped paying back. He examined carefully his cash flow, as well as
profit and loss account. Eventually, he came to a conclusion that a huge part of his problem is the
diversity of the structure of his customers - the company was too dependent on regular customers
and could barely attract new ones. Moreover, he found out that most of his competitors outmatch
him when it comes to the online rivalry - his company was not present online and did not possess any
measures to promote itself nor allow customers for contacting it. Additionally, he could not easily
identify the current market trends and did not have any appropriate tools to do that. Thus, he asked
Dawid Plona, a III LO student, to come up with a solution to his problem, in the form of a website.
I decided to prepare and present a completed from scratch website, connected with a newly created
MySQL database, to him as my client. The website would allow users to create accounts, add
customised auctions, search through others' auctions and exchange messages between each other
and the administrator, who would be in charge of maintaining and controlling the database with use
of administrator features. Moreover, the administrator would be able to generate and export overall
and monthly reports regarding auctions and users to identify current trends and find new, active
clients. Simultaneously, the client agreed to become a tester and adviser for this product. Soon
thereafter the client specified his more strict requirements regarding the product. They are described
in the Appendix 1 - interview with the client.
Word count: 284
2. Rationale for the solution
I decided to prepare a website in HTML language, with usage of CSS style sheets and some
JavaScript features, since a website created this way will not only be clear, transparent and
minimalistic - and these are the features customers appreciate and the client expects - but also the
code will be ordered, understandable, minimalistic and easy to follow and modify, even for another
programmer, which will make the product by far more extensible. The scheme of a manually written
website's design may be easily prepared and labelled, making it intuitive to manipulate existing
blocks and classes, be it its CSS design or HTML structure. JavaScript minor scripts may provide neat
quality of life features and enhance user experience.
As for the handling and maintenance of the database, I decided to use PHP language and MySQL
Queries, which will allow sufficient complexity and comprehensibility of the product by providing
user with a possibility to selectively display various data based on the input with use of complex
queries. PHP predefined functions may contribute to optimisation of code and ensuring extensibility
and safety. This way the site will be efficient, protected, and all the input and output operations on
the database will be managed in an dynamic, adequate and structured manner on an outside server.
Additionally, use of PHP will allow implementation of additional libraries, responsible for vital
features, such as PDF generation.
