CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Web design is a process of conceptualization, planning, developing and execution of electronic media content delivery through internet in form of markup language suitable for interpretation by a web browser and display as a graphical user interface (GUI). The main intent of web design is to develop a website (that is a collection of present content and interactive feature in form of web pages) that will enable users at any location to access remote information in websites on any issue or topic of their choice at their own convenience. Such websites can be built using notepads (which requires knowledge of codes0 or other advanced software such as macromedia. The development of websites requires the use of HTML, XHTML or XML tags. When displaying more complex media on the website like animation video or sound, plug-ins are required such as Macromedia flash.
The problem is that, more often than not, the people who provide the content for a site are not the same people who handle its design. Frequently, the content provider doesn’t even know HTML. How, then, is the content to get from the provider into the Website? Not every company can afford to staff a full-time Webmaster, and most Webmasters have better things to do than copying World files into HTML templates! Maintenance of content " driven sites can be a real pin, too. Many sites feel locked into a dry, outdated design because rewriting those hundreds of HTML files to reflect a new look would take forever.
The solution to these headaches is database-driven site design. By achieving complete separation between site design and the content one wants to present, one can work with each without disturbing the other. Instead of writing an HTML file for every page of your site, one need only to write a page for each kind of information one wants to be able to present and allow the users to post new content themselves using a simple content management system without a lick of HTML! I shall now take a brief look at what websites are and how one can achieve dynamic scripting with databases.
1.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In the 1950’s and early 1960’s, prior to the internetworking that led to the internet, most communication networks were limited by their nature to allow communications between the stations on the network and the prevalent computer networking method was based on the central mainframe method. The spread of the inter-network began form into an idea of a global inter-network that would be called ‘the internet’, and this began to quickly spread as existing networks were converted to be compatible with this. This spread quickly across the advanced telecommunication networks of the western world and then began to penetrate the rest of the world as it became the def-facto international standard and global network.
Following the commercialization and introduction of privately run Internet Service Providers in the 1980’s, and its expansion into popular use in the 1980’s, the internet has had a drastic impact on education, commerce and virtually every aspect of life. This includes the rise of instant communication by e-mail, text based discussion forums and the World Wide Web (websites).
The historical background of web design could be traced back to 1990 when accessing information through the internet was rather a technical affair that even Ph.D holding physicists were often frustrated when trying to swap data. Then one of such physicist, the now famous Tim Berners " Lee, cooked up a way to easily cross-reference text on the internet through "hypertext links". This wasn’t a new idea, but his simple hypertext markup language (HTML) managed to thrive while ambitious hypertext projects floundered.
By 1993, almost 100 computers throughout the world were equipped to serve up HTML pages. Those interlinked pages dubbed the World Wide Web (WWW), and several Web browser programs had been written to allow people to view Web pages. Because of the popularity of the Web, a few programmers soon wrote Web browsers that could view graphics images along with the text on a Web page. One of these programmers was Marc Andreessen; he went on to become rich and famous selling the world’s most popular Web browser, Netscape Navigator. Today, HTML pages are the standard.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The traditional manual system of the company management for registration of clients in the Public Complaints Commission is faced with the following problems:
· The need for provision of additional offices and staff to carryout the admission and registration processes as well as the cost involved in making this possible.
· The need to cut off time and cost spent in manually registering and offering appointments to customers and clients.
· There is a high degree of information errors when the organizations operations are done manually and minor errors tend to be ignored often.
· Records of staff kept by the organization management is prone to loss at any time and they are also bound for damages as continuous retrieval and storage of files could bring about the tears and wears of the files because they are manually stored.
· Continuous storage of records on the organizations activities, updating of staff records, searching for client’s information manually consumes time and could be very tasking due to bad filing system.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This study is aimed at first evaluating the present manual system and then developing a web based system of managing and keeping records of the organizations operations and managing client information effectively. In a nutshell, the objectives and aim of this study are to:
· To efficiently and effectively manage time resource.
· To manage staff and client’s data appropriately.
· To enable access to information easily.
· To reduce cost of obtaining information.
· To facilitate data processing.
· To design and create appropriate user interface for various application needs.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study is concerned with the design and implementation of a website for an organization that will aid in managing the commissions operations, activities and the staff/client information.
The scope of study is limited to the following areas;
· Management of staff/client information
· Registration of clients/customers on-line
· Provision of information about the commission and its activities online
· Keeping records of the commissions activities
· Offering of information about client requirements for contact and appointment
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will be of much significance to the commission in reducing the current problems faced with using the manual system of the office management and appointment processes by introducing the online system of managing the commission which enhances efficiency,