MyISERN 2.0 Review

The code I reviewed is from team yellow.

1. Installation
I can download the distribution file without any problem. I also unzipped it with ease because I used the WinRAR, but my other team member had problem unzipping it while using the default window unzipper.

Since there is no installation guide, I followed the developer guide and tried to build the system. Since team yellow is using a whole new system, there is no easy runnable war file. I downloaded XAMPP and Symfony as the guide told me to. When I tried to install the XAMPP, I had problem of getting the Apache server running. However, my other team member do not have that problem. After googling several pages, I discovered that this is quite a common problem, and there are many ways to "tweak" around it. I use the word "tweak" because none of them seem to guarantee to fix the problem. I finally got the XAMPP homepage show up on my localhost after I turned off my firewall and stopped some of my IIS services, which I have no clue what those services are used for.

However, my journey is pretty much ended here. I tried to install the Symfony framework, which is a lot harder than the XAMPP. The link provided in team yellow's guide does not give any useful information and it is more suited for unix users. The "pear" command-line thing seems come up from nowhere. I searched inside the folders from XAMPP and Symfony, and I did find some things called "PEAR", I tried every single execuatable, but they did not give me any luck. I tried to refer to the guide from team lime, which is using the same framework, but team lime is using WAMP, which is something different from XAMPP, and thus did not go too well either.

My other team members are pretty much stuck as I do. I finally had to give up after like two hours of searching the internet and reading relevent materials. Although Edward is managed to get the Symfony working at the end, he did not get the web app running still.

2. Code format and conventions
I have no experience for programming in PHP, therefore I do not know how well-formatted the code is. I remember team yellow mentioned a PHP eqivalence of checkstyle in their demo, but due to the reason I couldn't get the system running, and there is no guideline on how to run the tool, I have no clue to test it out.

3. Test case
Black box perspective: Since the system is not built, I cannot evaluate this.
White box perspective: Same reason as above.
Break da buggah: Same reason as above.

4. User interface
Although I am not able to build the system, I am able to see part of the website in my browser from those PHP files. The interface is very clear, and I like the coloring of the table cells which makes the whole page pretty neat. However, since these are partially of the interface, I cannot really evaluate it.

5. Three Prime Directives

Since the program cannot be built, it does not accomplish a useful task. As an external user, I am not able to install and use the system. As an external developer, I am not able to enhance the system easily, maybe I could get it working after putting considerable amount of effort into it.

6. Summary and lesson learned
From this review, I once again realized how important the documentation can be to a system. I had terrible experience working with software that has bad documentations. I do admire the courage of team yellow to take on a brand new system. Here is one suggestion I have: create a detailed installation guides with A LOT of pictures in it, you can safely assume the users have no knowledge of any tools you have used here, which is probably true for most of the class. Do not refer to any other online guides, they might not suit your system the best.