This week we were asked to have a working Demo for our class on the 25th. Researching ways to start this demo a team member found open Source code, we thought this would be a good place for us to start. Adding on to the open source code one of the teams members uploaded the code to Github so we could all play around with it and get a feel for how the code worked. As we began playing with it we realized that some of the pieces were “sticky” meaning they were very hard to move and you almost had to grab them from the bottom of the piece to be able to move them to a new location. This was the only major drawback from the demo. So in this upcoming week we will continue working on the demo and fix the buttons so they move easily. Other features that were incorporated in the puzzle were 3 difficulty levels (easy, medium and hard). There is also a working refresh button and a restart button.

Next week we hope to resolve the issue with the pieces but as for now we believe we are on the right track.

From the blog klentblog » cswsu by klent22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week my group and I continued to work on the puzzle app. We tried to fix an open source code we had found that we thought would be a perfect fit for this app but we were unable to do that. We had another person in the class look it over to try and find why the code was producing a black image and not the image we had selected but they were unable to figure it out as well. After all that we just decided to get rid of it and start new. We began searching again for other open sources and we came across some more code. This code we were able to run it, put our own images in it and the images are being produced correctly. Some things that we needed to fix were that the code right now only takes small images. If you choose a large image it takes up more then the page and is near to impossible to complete. We also noticed that if the jigsaw pieces were a light color or white they disappeared into the background, so we changed the background color to help that problem.

One of the assignments for this week was to have a running app that we could bring in for Monday so that the whole application can get put together.  This way the testing groups can start playing around with the actual product. By getting this done we as a class will have an idea where we all stand and what should be worked on next. I am excited to see what this application will look like after everything comes together.

From the blog klentblog » cswsu by klent22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week we meet up as a class and had Tim from the Worcester Art Museum come and see what we have been up to for the past couple weeks. We showed him our puzzle that we had created and it wasn’t quite what he wanted. The puzzle pieces were boxes and he decided that he wanted jigsaw pieces. Now knowing this information we went back to our old code and realized that the code we had might not be any help to us for this puzzle. We decided to start over completely. We decided to look at some open source code and see if we could implement that so that we could get a good start, but then we came to the conclusion that it might be best to take all this code that we have found and start from complete scratch and come up with an original piece of code. This is where we will begin our week and meet up as a group to dig into this puzzle application.

From the blog klentblog » cswsu by klent22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week we continued to work on the puzzle demo that we will be showing the class and Tim from the Worcester Art Museum tomorrow. We started to go back to the code and clean it up a bit. I also started to look at other apps and how they are designed and what neat features they have that we may want to incorporate. One thing I found was how the image was in the background of the puzzle so you could see what the puzzle would look like when it was finished. We thought this would be something cool to add. That is one of the things we will work on in the coming weeks.

We had a chat with the class on Monday and one of the tasks I was asked to do was to email Tim and see if we could get the Jpeg of what the puzzle is going to be using. He has emailed us back, but we haven’t received the images yet. Hopefully Monday we will be able to get those and start using the right images. We also need to know what colors he would like the app to be so we can implement that.

So far we are progressing at a good rate. I am interested to see what the final app will look like. Still lots to do but it’s coming along nicely.

From the blog klentblog » cswsu by klent22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Myself and two others have decided to work on the puzzle that will be part of the app for the Idea lab at the Worcester Art museum. This week we have decided to research different ways we could program the puzzle. We have found a few different languages that will be useful!

One of the languages we are thinking of using is JQuery. We will use this to actually make the jigsaw puzzle. This language has a lot features that can be used to help build a jigsaw. When I learn more about the language I will post more on how we will be using it and if it really is helpful!

We might also look into using PHP because PHP helps split the image up before we put it back together. These are just a few of the ideas my group and I have been throwing around. For this first week, we mainly have been researching ideas on what will be the best way to program the puzzle. Next we will most likely start trying to come up with a program that maybe will outline the puzzle, for the outlining we are most likely going to program it in JavaScript and HTML5.

From the blog klentblog » cswsu by klent22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week we met with Katrina and Tim, they work for the Worcester Art Museum. They will be the ones telling us what they would like to see for this application, that we will be developing on statues that will be on display in June. Each week in groups we will work on certain aspects of the application and then present them to the class, this is when Stacy or Tim will let us know if we are creating there idea as to how they saw it or if we are missing it, in which we would have to go back and redo some things to make this application what they have envisioned.

When we met with them, I got a better understanding of what it is that we will be working on, they explained to use that their will be two applications geared towards children and at least two geared toward young adults/ adults. After talking about what was expected from them, we were able to go up into the conservatory and see the statues that the museum has been working on restoring. A lady who had worked in the conservatory talked to us about the history of the statues. One of the statues had been completely broken and in a bunch of pieces, but now it is almost whole statue. We will be using this idea that the statue was broken and put back together as possible part of the application like a puzzle.

I am very excited to be working on this project with the class, we will be getting a glimpse of what the working world might actually be like!

From the blog klentblog » cswsu by klent22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

My name is Kathleen, I am a first semester senior at Worcester State University. I am majoring in Computer Science. My interest in computer science is network security.

I am excited about the project that my class and I will be working on. This will be the first time I will be working on a program that will actually be used by the public. It will be interesting to put all the learning we have had over the years to make something that others will find useful and fun to use. This project will introduce me to what the work field might be like. It will be a good stepping stone before graduating.

This is the first blog that I have ever created, and it was fairly easy to catch on too!

From the blog klentblog » cswsu by klent22 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.