VIPS Lab 4 - User Manual
CS 411W Lab 4
User’s Manual
VIPS Prototype
Prepared by: VIPS INC
Date: 04/27/2009
Table of Contents
1 Welcome to the VIPS Prototype (Nicholas Bitto, Chad Pellitt) 4
2 Introduction (Nicholas Bitto, Chad Pellitt) 4
2.1 Purpose (Nicholas Bitto, Chad Pellitt ) 5
3 Getting Started (Chad Pellitt, Kyle Bohannon) 8
3.1 Website (Eric Schultz, Nicholas Bitto) 8
3.2 Test Harness (Kyle Bohannon, Nicholas Bitto) 9
3.3 Simulation (Jacob Baughman, Chad Pellitt) 15
3.4 Engine (Chad Pellitt, Jacob Baughman) 15
3.5 Barcode Scanner (Chad Pellitt, Nicholas Bitto) 16
4 Using the Prototype (Chad Pellitt, Jacob Baughman) 18
4.1 Website (Eric Schultz, Nicholas Bitto) 18
4.2 Test Harness (Kyle Bohannon, Nicholas Bitto) 26
4.3 Test Harness Simulation (Chad Pellitt, Kyle Bohannon) 38
4.5 Simulation (Jacob Baughman, Chad Pellitt) 41
4.5.1 Getting Started 42
4.5.2 Engaging the Engine 43
4.5.3 Engaging the Test Harness 44
4.6 Engine (Chad Pellitt, Baughman) 46
5 Error Messages (Nicholas Bitto, Eric Schultz) 46
5.1 Website Errors (Eric Schultz, Nicholas Bitto) 46
6 Glossary of Terms (Nicholas Bitto) 48
List of Figures
Figure 2.1.1 Real World Product Major Functional Component Diagram 7
Figure 3.5.1 Barcode Scanner 16
Figure 3.5.2 USB Port 17
Figure 3.5.3 Barcode Scanner Trigger 18
Figure 4.1.1 Register a new Account 19
Figure 4.1.2 Login Page 20
Figure 4.1.3 Visitors Page 20
Figure 4.1.4 Register a Visit Page 21
Figure 4.1.5 Sample Pass 22
Figure 4.1.6 Change Account Information Page 23
Figure 4.1.7 View account History Page 24
Figure 4.1.8 Faculty and Staff Page 25
Figure 4.1.9 Invite a visitor 26
Figure 4.2.1 Visitor Screen 27
Figure 4.2.2 Visitor Screen (part 2) 28
Figure 4.2.3 Modify a Garage Screen 30
Figure 4.2.4 Password Entry Box 31
List of Figures
Figure 4.2.5 Modifying Garage Information 32
Figure 4.2.6 Pass Screen 33
Figure 4.2.7 Password Entry Box 34
Figure 4.2.8 Modifying Pass Information 35
Figure 4.2.9 Department Screen 36
Figure 4.2.10 Password Entry Screen 36
Figure 4.2.11 Selecting a Department 37
Figure 4.2.12 Modifying Department Information 38
Figure 4.3.1 Scenario Screen 39
Figure 4.3.2 Pass Entry Screen 40
Figure 4.3.3 Garage Simulation Screen 41
Figure 4.4.1 Start menu 42
Figure 4.4.2 Administrative Command Prompt 42
Figure 4.4.3 Empty Garage 43
Figure 4.4.4 Active Simulation 45
List of Tables
Table 5.1.1 Account registration Errors 46
Table 5.1.2 Log In Errors 47
Table 5.1.3 Registering a Visit Errors 47
Table 5.1.4 Update Account Errors 47
Table 5.1.5 Invite a visitor errors 48
1 Welcome to the VIPS Prototype (Nicholas Bitto, Chad Pellitt)
Thank you for your interest in the Visitors Interface for Parking Services (VIPS). The VIPS prototype is a customizable product used to manage visitors in congested parking environments. The VIPS prototype is designed to aid visitors by allowing them to pre-register visits to the university and obtain a parking pass online. The VIPS prototype demonstrates the functionality of registering visitors through the VIPS website. The prototype also demonstrates the ability to administer visitors, allow faculty to register visitors, load different parking scenarios, view database contents, and manipulate a garage simulation.
This user manual describes the features of the VIPS Prototype and helps the user in the process of operating the prototype. The manual contains a section of user screens, error messages, and troubleshooting help.
2 Introduction (Nicholas Bitto, Chad Pellitt)
According to the US census (GIS Lounge, 2001), urban population densities are steadily increasing. Parking in these areas has become a great burden. The effects of the population growth are felt everywhere. One particular place parking is a burden is on urban universities. The amount of incoming students and faculty place a big toll on limited parking resources. The university parking offices must manage all parking patrons. These patrons vary greatly and include students, staff, faculty, and visitors. The university subscription parkers demand a high level of service, and the universities have developed a reasonable solution for their subscription patrons. However, many universities have left out their visiting patrons. Visitor Interface for Parking Services (VIPS) will solve the visitor element in this complicated parking equation.
Visitor parking is difficult to manage in a subscription-based environment, resulting in visitor frustration and loss of revenue. Current visitor parking systems on university campuses are complicated and ineffective at managing visitors. The current process at Old Dominion University involves a customer finding a parking space close to the parking office. The customer must then physically walk into the parking office to obtain a visitor pass. The evolution finally ends with the customer walking back to his car and attempting to find parking close to his destination. The visitor parking process is difficult and inefficient. The University is attempting to use an outdated process to handle modern visitor demands. James Long, ODU Parking Services Director, stated ODU fields 15,000 visitor requests per year (J. Long, personal communication, September 11, 2001). The demand for visitors is high, and the process currently does not effectively manage the demand.
VIPS Inc. has a solution for these visitor woes. VIPS has designed a solution that will seamlessly integrate into the University’s current parking solution and provide the much needed service to visitors. The VIPS solution will solve the current problems of managing visitors and streamline the process. We hope that you, as a visitor, faculty, or parking administrator, will find VIPS to be an effective solution to meet your visitor parking needs.
2.1 Purpose (Nicholas Bitto, Chad Pellitt )
VIPS will be a customizable add-on that integrates with whatever current parking solution is in place at the university. The VIPS product is designed to manage the university's visitor demands. The VIPS system will allow visitors to register online and obtain a visitor pass to the University. The visitor will have a choice between two parking garages. The visitor pass will allow the visitor to enter their chosen parking garage through authenticated barcode access. The VIPS product will also provide a means for faculty to register their guests. The VIPS system stores all of the visitor data, which will allow for the development of visitor trend analysis. VIPS will allow the university to effectively and efficiently manage visitors without placing added stress on subscribers.
VIPS will offer the university's visitors the ability to reserve parking online. Since VIPS allows the visitor to register online, there is no need for the visitor to waste trips going to the parking office. The VIPS system will allow visitors to choose a garage they want to reserve a parking space in. VIPS will not guarantee a specific parking space. The VIPS guarantee is there will be an available space in the applicable garage. The methodology VIPS uses to reserve spaces is an algorithm that calculates spaces available and spaces reserved. The university will be allowed to limit the amount of visitors the garage can accommodate.
VIPS Inc. will use a gated garage for access control. The visitor pass will have a printed barcode. The barcode will be scanned at the entrance of a gated garage to grant the visitor access. Once a visitor is granted access, the database is updated and a current status of the garage is available. The current status of the garage will provide all users with the space available in the garage. The space available will be delineated by faculty, students, and visitors. The VIPS system will also integrate with the current technology in place, which will ensure every time a car enters or leaves a garage the database is updated. The updated database will ensure an accurate real-time status of the garage and ensure space reservations can be accommodated. The database will also provide the university with the ability to use VIPS to develop visitor trend analysis, to help predicate parking utilization.
The VIPS system will also provide the university faculty with the ability to pre-register their guests. This will lift the burden off of visitors and ensure a smooth interaction with university guests. The VIPS website will have several authenticated user levels. The user levels will allow for a standard user, faculty user, and an administrator. The website will also verify with the database to ensure that the users are valid. VIPS dedication to information security will ensure all users are authenticated and permitted the proper access into the system.
Figure 2.1.1 illustrates the major functional components of VIPS. The light blue boxes indicate hardware, and the dark blue boxes indicate software. The grey box indicates assumed customer hardware, and the black box indicates assumed customer software. VIPS will tailor a solution for any hardware configuration a customer has in place.
Figure 2.1.1 - Real World Product Major Functional Component Diagram
3 Getting Started (Chad Pellitt, Kyle Bohannon)
The section provides information on how to get started using the VIPS prototype. There are separate sections for each component of the system, describing what to do first. The initial setup and starting options are explained for each of these components.
3.1 Website (Eric Schultz, Nicholas Bitto)
The VIPS website allows a visitor to print out a visitor's pass to a college or university. A faculty or staff member with an account can invite a visitor and email the invited visitor a pass. Visitor trend date is gathered in the VIPS database and allows the Parking Services staff to make decisions based on a better understanding of visitor traits.
The website has four main sections:
1. Unregistered accounts
2. Log In
3. Visitors
4. Faculty/Staff
1. Unregistered accounts- When a visitor arrives to the VIPS Website for the first time, they need to create an account. The Unregistered Accounts page contains a form to create an account. An account allows a visitor to store his settings for multiple visits. The website can be found at http://cs.odu.edu/~eschultz/BlueTeam/register/ .
2. Log In- After a visitor has created an account, he needs to login to the VIPS Website. This prevents unauthorized users from accessing restricted areas. The following option is available on the page:
a. Log in
-Enter a valid username (an email address)
-Enter the username's password.
The website can be found at http://cs.odu.edu/~eschultz/BlueTeam/login.php .
3. Visitors- After a visitor logs in, he will be redirected to the Visitors Page. The Visitors Page displays the accessible pages for that user. The website can be found at http://cs.odu.edu/~eschultz/BlueTeam/visitor/index.php .
The VIPS Website Visitor page allows a visitor to:
a. Register an account
b. Print out a pass
c. Update personal information
d. View History
4. Faculty/Staff- After a faculty or staff member logs into the VIPS website, they are redirected to the Faculty/Staff Page. The website can be found at http://cs.odu.edu/~eschultz/BlueTeam/invite/index.php .
The VIPS Website allows a Faculty/Staff member to:
- Invite a visitor
- View invitation history
3.2 Test Harness (Kyle Bohannon, Nicholas Bitto)
The VIPS test harness contains several web pages designed to interact with the VIPS database and garage simulation. The Test harness requires the garage simulation to be running in order to be fully functional. Each page of the test harness is described in detail below.
1. Visitor page – this page allows the creation, deletion, and modification of visitor accounts. (figure 3.2.1)
Figure 3.2.1 Visitor page
It is located at http://webspace.cs.odu.edu/~wbohanno/411/visitor.php. The page contains the following elements:
- Password form
Figure 3.2.2 Password entry
Allows you to enter the password to gain access to the page.
- Simulation date
Figure 3.2.3 Simulation date
Allows you to change the date that the simulation uses in its algorithms.
- Simulation state
Figure 2.2.4 Simulation state
Allows you to pause or resume the simulation by clicking the appropriate button.
d. Create a new visitor form
Figure 3.2.5 Creating a visitor account
This form allows you to input a new visitor into the VIPS database.
e. Search form
Figure 3.2.6 Searching for a visitor account
This form allows you to use multiple search options to find and display a visitor. After a search, the following items are displayed.
i. Update a visitor form
This form allows you to update visitor information.
ii. Table of located visitors
This is a table showing all the visitors found by the search, with an option to select one of them for the update.
2. Garage page – this page allows the creation, deletion, and modification of visitor accounts. (figure 3.2.7)
Figure 3.2.7 Garage page
It is located at http://webspace.cs.odu.edu/~wbohanno/411/garage.php. The page contains the following elements:
- Password form
Figure 3.2.8 Password entry form
Allows you to enter the password to gain access to the page.
- Simulation date
Figure 3.2.9 Simulation date
Allows you to change the date that the simulation uses in its algorithms.
- Simulation state
Figure 3.2.10 Simulation state
Allows you to pause or resume the simulation by clicking the appropriate button.
- Create a new garage form
Figure 3.2.11 Adding a new garage
This form allows you to input a new garage into the VIPS database.
e. Search form
Figure 3.2.12 Searching for a garage
This form allows you to use multiple search options to find and display a garage. After a search, the following items are displayed:
i. Update a garage form
This form allows you to update garage information.
ii. Table of located garages
This is a table showing all the garages found by the search, with an option to select one of them for the update.
3. Pass page – this page allows the creation, deletion, and modification of passes. (figure 3.2.13)
Figure 3.2.13 Pass page
The pass page is located at http://webspace.cs.odu.edu/~wbohanno/411/passes.php. It contains the following elements:
- Password form
Figure 3.2.14 Password entry form
Allows you to enter the password to gain access to the page.
- Simulation date
Figure 3.2.15 Simulation date
Allows you to change the date that the simulation uses in its algorithms.
- Simulation state
Figure 3.2.16 Simulation state