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Jenn, Grant, Tim and Pete met up to fix up the bits of code that we had created for the GUIs (which are now avalible on our website under 'Screenshots') - we went for a blue coloured look for the most part and we discussed what more would we need to do. Though we were planning on getting a small socket program written that really didn't happen but it is to be done by the end of next week.

We really have been trying to get some work done but in reality it is really hard as so many things keep on popping up.

The project is progressing forward which is always nice and hopefully we can put everything together in the near future and have something working by the end of the holidays - 2 weeks? Yeah we can do it

Yay finally updated to make it look super neat rather than neat :) Added a nice background, new colours, updated screens, new "Releases" and Downloads areas, still waiting on Phil's photo though

Also the top image was changed from a smaller version of the splash screen to something a little more presentable. I'm quite proud of it if I do say so myself.

Coming soon will be all new Screen shots of the Prototype.

Minutes Fri 18/6/2004
-Grant, Jenna, Pete and Phil met up in the project lab to discuss what we are going to do over the holidays
-Looked over the idea that Jenna had set up about the user list and IP adress and what sort of protocols that will be used for the network traffic (such as UDP, TCP)
-Then started looking at user interfaces and using JCreator to write our projects - every one got a copy of JCreator
-Deligated tasks as follows to come up with the GUI of the various models:
Jenna: Profile/ Room Creation and Main GUI
Grant: Whiteboard
Tim: General Chat, Chat and File SHaring
Pete: Audio and Video Conferencing
Phil: Poll and start working on ideas for network socket codes
-Decided to have another meeting in a weeks time to put together what we have and to make sure that we can get it all compatiable

Yay the diary is back and after some tweaking is now fully functional and back to what it was like before oh happy dance. Pity about exams though as nothing is going to get done this week at least.

It is amazing how when one member is sick and can't make the meeting that hardly anything gets done - but the website was played with, the tech manual put up though the diary went down and is in the process of being relocated to a new server (hence the 'stuck in text format'). We decided that we will be getting a prototype with chat and minial whitebaord functionality by the end of our holidays and that we need to continue coding it and getting the cores to connect to one another. But with exams coming up we are putting the project 'on hold' until they are over before having a major coding session to get stuck into it.

Peer Assessments were due and the like - lots of bribing. But really the group works well together and everyone does their part so we have good group dynamics at the moment.

Ah the diary went down and we have decided to move it to Pete's machine instead

Very unproductive meeting, we did dicuss some more about the CORE and its interactions and we started writing an abstract class for the modules themselves as well as dealing with the issues of when a core drops out and what this might entail.

Had another meeting today though this one was much more productive than the last as we started talking about the exact classes and abstractions that we will need to the Modules and the Main GUI as well as having a look at the Java SDK in order to see what functionality we would need in the abstract class for the modules and how we would load them exactly.

Jenna also brought in some possible icon ideas - but the 'look' is now on the back burner we are instead concentrating on the Core and how it is going to interact with the modules (we had a Polling vs Event debate and it is still going on now).

We have decided (with Daniel's insistance of course) to have a working prototype with CORE, CHAT and minimal WHITEBAORD to be ready by the end of mid session holidays - so this means that each of the group are going to think about the interactions and specifics before the meeting on Wednesday where the whole team will sit down and get some coding down (preliminary code will also be brought to the meeting as well)

After a last minute scramble, coffee and MSN meeting the prelim tech manual got completed as of 12.51 today.

Most parts were completed (minus the audio which is much the same as video anyway)

Some pretty diagrams and layout was completed and made into pdf format

This was then sent along to Daniel. [Click on the Image to see larger version - it is the image that features in the Tech Manual]

TO DO: Big coding session where all members start coding the CORE program - there are many assignments due for members this weekend so they probably wont have time spare then but hopefully a coding session will be arranged

Went though a lot of things in both meetings and came up with lots of plans, ideas and tasks that must be done.One thing though the Prelim Tech Manual needs to be submitted on

Friday so we have to get it done.First thing in the meeting we talked about the Core and some ideas on how it would work - what sort of packets would need to be sent as well as the types of connections we will be using:
1. Have a 'server' that sits in the middle, CORE programs will wrap packets and send them onto the destination and then 'unwrap' and send tot he appropriate module
2. Video conferencing and audio make their own connections
3. Wrapper of CORE will include:
UserID (Inet Address)
Module ID (enum)
Data (object)
[Wow serious dejuvu]
We then discussed some of the 'layout' of the

Tech Manual that Jenna had come up with - though Daniel told us not to bother with UML - but it makes it look pretty

Also discussed possible exception and error handling such as if a CORE drops out then the video connections to this core are also severed - Video uses UDP and it wouldn't notice

Also Threaded server (issues with Swing will have to be addressed later on if they arise)

Need to look at possible functions and the data structures and protocol - BASIC core protocol
- State (intitate, terminate, continue) in the chat - chat structure wrapped and sent through TCP fromt eh core
-core needs src and destination
-articulate the protocol and how it actually does these sorts of things
How are the modules going to converse with one an other? Need to think about this as well
Need the following in the Tech Manual (after looking at a few examples)
Components, Algorithms (not yet though)
- assumptions and psuedocode, Datastructures - explain and the members, Configurations, functions inc pre and post conditions
- what has to offer

How components interact with the core and the types of information that is exchanged

Daniel's

'wants': Spinning icons and windows especially tween the users in video conferencing - nice icons that bounce and generally do groovy things

Grant: well we can start with the modularity... i'm guessing there'll be a core that'll handle connections to the room, and modules'll pretty much just be independent applications that'll submit packets to a core scheduler thingy which'll pass them onto the room, and the room'll pass named packets to a module... since the modules open seperate windows there's no real need for other comms. okay, well it shouldn't be too hard to whip up a basic template for the modules to submit stuff to the core... basically just module ID, user and/or room, and data... the core doesn't need to know what the data is, it just needs to be a dynamic size

Hmm how does the module distinguish valid users/rooms?

Grant says:it should be able to ask the core

Phil Street says: Fair enough

Phil Street says: Hmm ok easily done, just need to use a common interface class for modules.. easy.

Putting Zero COnfig on hold

protocol would just be the net traffic... core packet containing headers and a module packet as data

MUST HAVES:
Profile and Room Creation
Main GUI (inc User List and Status Bar)
Whiteboard
General Chatting
Private Chatting
Video Conferencing
Audio COnferencing
File Sharin
OPTIONALS (1)
Poll
Environment Settings
Options Panel
ONLY IF HAVE PERFECT
Skins
Desktop Sharing
Drew pridy picture of the interfacing of the 'modules'

Taking a good gander at JMF on wednesday meeting

EDIT: Changed year from 2005 to 2004 - took me a while to figure out why it was always up the top but I did - go

Tim found a sample Whiteboard written in JMF = is possible - will try and use what we can of it

Pete VNC code for windows (c++ though)

? only if have time - VNC on the 'back-burner' so to speak

- Daniel told us not to worry too much about security issues such as encryption

Talked about access to labs and the user accounts which we don't have yet.

Lecture:
- Prelim user manual needs: bulleted sub areas, overviews, objectives and the like in the (Tech Man need a description of the functions), common methods as well as user interface mockups (QT Designer?)
- have layers of description (CD @ back with code on it)
Why have we done things a certain way (ie comments)
- tutorials (not really in prelim one though)

Discussed draft of the interface and possibilities of things we can omit at this stage - decided to call our project Aelgy, set up meeting time with Daniel, client/server and zero config discussion and started thinking about what will happen when the user first connects to creating profiles and rooms.
- when join already formed group an IP is assigned as part of the zero config protocol
- desktop sharing: are we emulating or full access like VNC
- tabbed chatting
- hideable windows - dock verses floating windows debate - support docking later on
- benchmarking the settings for connection speed and the like to optimise performance (ie turning of Video conferencing for those with dial up)

Possible Project names: Ringcast, GlobeMeet, Binky, Aelgy, Z-CAMP, VirCla, Occurous

Made up list of requirements (draft version), started doing some research (Zero-config), plug in debate, and that we should come up with the name for our project.

Discussed possible meeting times and looked over schedule

Met with Daniel Saffioti about the "Peer-to-peer Computing Environment for PC and Mac" - decided to do this

Met on Tuesday 2nd March, went through project list and emailed about

5 of the projects

Group formed Friday 27th Feb