Client requirements

Leggo My Demo is an online platform for budding DJs and electronic music players to showcase their talent by uploading audio-visual demos of the samples of their art. Each month, new demo submissions are selected, and winners are provided with network exposure and a feature at the monthly events on Miami Beach.

Strategic Intent:

“To provide an online platform for showcasing and promoting new talent in new electronic music domain.”

Client requirements:

• The website will be a platform for music artists to display their videos.

• The client wanted the following pages in the website

  1) A window that features-

   - Demo of the month video

   - Track of the month video

   - Track of the week video

   - Fastest Rising Track video

   - Top News video

  2) 2 Advertisement Banners for the Knight Foundation.

  3) A play list with the following options of browsing –

   - Top Tracks

   - Singles

   - Full Demos

 And charts giving the graph of the particular track against the parameters of its Peak, its position Last week, and the number of weeks it is on the chart (weeks on).

  4) An Editor’s Choice Window, where the tracks of the editor’s choice will be displayed.

  5) A Rising Tracks Window, where the upcoming tracks will be showcased.

  6) A New Tracks Window, where new entries will be listed.

  7) For each of the videos shown in the play list, there will be options by which the audience can view and listen to the track, and also move it up or down the chart, if logged in.

  8) Each video shown will have the details regarding the Name of the video, the name of the artist and genre of video, as well as any comments that it might be associated with.

  9) The options of Review and viewing the profile of the artist will be available for each video in the play list.

• The News Section:

  1) The News Section shows all the news of site.

  2) It will have options for viewing the Top News or Latest News, as per the member’s choice.

  3) The news will have news, images, and descriptions. It will also have the posted date. 

  4) The entire news article can be read by clicking on the 'Read more' link.

  5) The member will be able to add news by accessing the link 'Post News'.

• Videos Page:

  1) This will be a video gallery, which displays all videos uploaded on the site. This will give all information about the videos, such as video image and description

  2) Each video will be associated with related information such as the name of the video and the artist, the date on which it is posted, and the number of views and comments that it gets

  3) Also there will be a facility wherein the member can upload a video.

• Charts:

  This section will have the charts similar to those on the Home Page, depending on the ratings received by each individual video.

• Search:

  1) This section has the search functionality.

  2) There are two search options in module: Search for Tracks and Search for News. In search for tracks, search for the track records according to six parameters such as title of track, artist who posted the track, genre, country, state and city of the artist.

  3) In search for News, search is for news records according to the title of the news and member who posted this news.

• About Us:

  This will have the information about the organization.

• Forum:

  1) It will have the various forums organized into various categories and sub-categories.

  2) All the posts will be tabulated for easy browsing, and will have the relevant details such as the member who initiated the post, the last post in the category and the associated threads and replies.

  3) The registered members will be able to post new threads by using the New Thread link.

• Events:

  This section will have a list of upcoming events, along with the date and time details and associated tags.

• Along with these, there will be other facilities, using which a guest can register, and registered users can log in and upload their music.

Challenges

Development of every web based portal had myriad inherent challenges and constraints. The most critical problem that our team had faced was to understand the needs and requirements of all the stakeholders to make the site as per their expectations. At the same time it became imperative for us to study the psyche of clusters of target customers, their need, their taste, choice and so on.

Technologically, we had many constraints like-

1) Developing a Robust framework for the site which is capable of managing millions of users at a time without buckling down the system and site.

2) Developing and incorporating an extensive list of profile customization options, my account, my collection, cWorld etc for enhancing users' active participation.

3) Synchronizing the integrated features like my offers, my listings, buy cToons, trade board, auctions etc to function smoothly while being executed simultaneously.

4) Despite having complex structure and system, ensuring the easy navigation through the implementation of Web Usability principles in the website design.

5) Enabling the site to operate at top speed even in peak traffic hours and maintaining good load balance. Ensuring safe and secure transfer of data.

6) Ensuring safe and secure transfer of data.

To overcome the aforementioned challenges and provide a robust web application to the client as per his requirements we used various technological approaches that are discussed in the next part.

Tools and technologies used

Probably the most popular language on the Internet used for web based scripting. Very fast interaction with databases. Read more Free, highly customizable low maintenance database management system. Consistently stable in high volume data environment with a wide range of support available for free over various forums and support portals. The preferred database used with PHP as a scripting language. Read more JavaScript and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML used for Crossover browser support, quick data updates. Scalable JavaScript used to provide enhanced user experience and validation. Open source and license free, sturdy platform with powerful capabilities used as Server.

Resources

Project manager 1 Business analyst 1 Designer(s) 3 Programmer(s) 5 Testing & QA stuff 2 Total manpower 12

Planning

With the prior experience in developing web based applications, Agile Technosys followed a multi-tire approach towards the development:

1) The Database layer containing MY SQL Server Database, Tables, Stored procedures and so on.

2) The Data Access layer containing the libraries responsible for accessing data from database.

3) The Business Logic layer consisting of all business logic procedures for modules like User Profiles and Report generations, Invoice generation and so on.

4) The User Interface Layer which forms the Graphical User, Interface of the website.

Architecture

PHP and MySQL formed the basis of development as the site has a program of Social Networking portal with extensive features. Company Profiles, Inquiries, Job Listings, Applying for Jobs, Job seekers Profile, Search and Advanced Search and other modules were developed in PHP such that they can be executed directly from the UI layer. These PHP files consisted of all Business logics used for respective modules like Save (Add/Update), Delete, Get single object, get multiple objects for listing and were designed to be capable of handling many more logics which were not related to the database. The Data Access layer contained the libraries responsible for accessing data from database and built a generic query for insert, update, delete and select, depending on the business class. All business layer components were coded to use this library for data accessing process from database. The UI layer was kept free of any business logic with images, applications and data being called from their respective servers. Sub-domains were used for the different areas of the website to guarantee scalability.