Description
The goal of this project is to build a graphical user interface (GUI) for obtaining, categorizing, and
interpreting attendance data obtained from the Opticon 2001 scanners that are used for attendance in
this class. The scanners are fairly primitive in how they work. Scanning an ID generates a new line in a
comma separated file that contains the decoded barcode number, what type of barcode, a time stamp,
and a date stamp, as such:
6275418101234550,Code-128,10:50:39 AM, 2/14/12
Your job is going to be to create an easy way for any user to update the attendance records for their
class, as well as explore attendance trends. The good news is, I’ll provide you a compiled class that
actually will update a given CSV file based upon the input that you give!
Classes
You must design and implement all of the following classes named as they are stated below. You may
choose to add more classes if necessary.
1. Attendance – A class that contains the main method to run an instance of the program.
2. Visualizer – A class that contains the way you will visually represent attendance
Input and Output requirements
Your program must be written using Java and Swing to provide a user-friendly application. Here are the
exact specifications:
1) Your program must contain a menu with at least the following options:
a. Quit – exit the application
b. Settings – contains “set current class” functionality.
c. Help –
i. About – displays an alert box with information about the project
ii. Quick tips – displays a brief (100-200 word) help documentation
2) Your program should maintain a file called saved.prefs in the current working directory
3) On initially running the program, you must allow the user to specify the initial class roster (in
this example, it’s CSCI_1000.csv).
a. Once this is set, you should record this file path in saved.prefs so any subsequent
launches of the program automatically is associated with this class as well as the latest
up_to_date attendance records for that course.
b. If the current class is ever changed, this should be updated in saved.prefs.
4) You need a GUI mechanism to prompt the user to enter attendance scan files
a. A user can enter at least one (and possibly more) files.
b. You must use the Java Queue interface to establish a way to process each file in the
order it was specified.
c. Once all files are specified, you will call the helper code to generate updated CSV files
d. You should show some sort of indication that each file is being processed
5) You need a GUI mechanism to “visualize” attendance in some way. Perhaps a chart. Perhaps
color coding. Simply keeping a raw percentage is not sufficient.
The Helper.class contains code that will do the nitty-gritty of updating the attendance and consists
of the following methods:
– Helper : default constructor
– void parseFile(String original file, String attendance_file, int
file_number) where
o original_file is a .csv file containing student names, 810 numbers, and existing
attendance
o attendance_file is a .csv file containing one class’ attendance scans.
o file_number is an integer number that will be appended on the output file
generated
parseFile, upon successfully completing, will generate a new file in the current working directory
called original_file_file_number. Thus, a call to parseFile(“default.csv”, “01-02-2012.csv”, “2”)
would generate a file called default.csv_2
Points
This project is worth 75 points towards your course grade. Grading of this programming project will use
the following rubric:
Proper documentation
(pre & post statements, commenting conditionals, not excessive commenting) and
JavaDoc.
10 points
Design Requirements
Your design requirements must contain not only a description (and/or UML diagram)
of the relationship between the classes you are planning on writing, but you must
also include some sample sketches of what you’re aiming to produce in your GUI.
You should justify design decisions.
20 points
Reflection Documents
This document should outline what changes were made from the original document,
as well as any technical challenges faced.
5 points
GUI Design
The GUI is well-designed and properly implemented. All elements interact with the
user or provide useful information.
10 points
GUI Operation
All operations work as planned. No unhandled exceptions are thrown.
20 points
Pair Programming Score 10 points
Total: 75 points
Note: This is our approximate grading distribution. Point values may vary.
Submission Instructions
One project should be submitted per team
1. Create a folder in an Odin account called lastname1_lastname2_proj4 where lastname1 and
lastname2 are your actual last names.
2. Copy all thoroughly commented Java source files in the folder created in step 1.
3. Place a working makefile in the folder created in step 1 that has three directives:
a. compile: compiles all of the source code
b. run: runs an example of your program
c. clean: removes all class files
4. Add a readme file to the folder created in step 1 which has your name and clear instructions on
how to compile and run your team’s program.
5. Remove all class files before submitting.
6. Navigate to the parent directory of the folder created in step 1 on Odin, and issue the command
below.
submit lastname_proj4 cs1302a
7. If the submission was successful, then a file that begins with rec will be created in the
submitted folder.
