Project Objectives Discussion

[tlanclos]

Team, please contribute all notes / features you gathered from our meeting with Techneaux

[tlanclos]

Features/Notes:

• customer must be able to take a picture of their issue and enter a description and contact info. in the mobile application and send that data to the Ticket API to be stored in the database.
• the customer will be required to enter their company's name and their full name (site & customer) (validation will be required).
• customer authentication will require company name and full name and must be persistent
• JSON will be used as the standard data-interchange format.
• the rest interface will be implemented in python using Flask and possibly Flask-RESTful frameworks.
• a server will be provided with Ubuntu.
• a pre-existing database will be used to store/verify customer data.
• security is a must, data will be encrypted using SSL (X.509 certificates) (we will need port 443 opened for this)
• our initial implementation will use apache, but we may potentially swap the apache http daemon with nginx if time is available.

[jensen-cochran]

Features/Notes

App

• User will be able take a picture of an issue they are having and send the picture along with a description of the issue, their name, and their company to Techneaux
• There should be an initial setup screen where the user will login as a specific customer and the user should enter their first and last name (as separate fields)
• The information the user entered on initial setup should be stored in the application and persist until uninstall. This initial setup should only happen once per install.
• There will not be logout functionality. If for some reason the user needs to 'login' as another user, the app will have to be reinstalled (this isn't likely to occur very often if ever)
• The app may some way to have a user enter their site as a field. If a single customer has multiple sites, this functionality will let Techneaux know at what site the issue is occurring.
• Targeted platforms and the technologies used to develop the application are still TBD.

API

• The app will be able to send a request to a REST API server with the picture the user took and the other fields (customer, user's first name and last name, site) to create a ticket.
• Tickets, upon creation, will be stored in an existing MSSQL database as a new ticket type to be displayed on the existing ticketing system, which is a Silverlight app.
• The specifics of integration with the existing ticketing system has not been discussed in detail.
• Communication with the API will be secured with SSL.
• Ubuntu will be the operating system for the server
• Python with the Flask web framework and SQLAlchemy ORM will be used to develop the API
• Initially the API will be deployed on an Apache server with mod_wsgi but may be moved to NGINX with uWSGI if time permits.

Other

• In the future, a desktop application may be developed that communicates with the REST API. It will be similar to the mobile app but will allow customers to send screenshots of their computer instead of pictures taken with a camera.

[jpp3911]

N/A

[Koubidoo]

Features/Notes:

-OS used will be Linux Ubuntu
-This project WILL be extended. (Keep in mind while programming and documenting)
-Project will be integrated with existing database.

-The design should not be complicated, and will have only 2 pages.
-The first page will be the initial setup, which will include the user's first and last name as separate fields. It will also include the company credentials. This info will only be filled out once, and will be saved for future tickets once completed.
-User will have the option to take a picture, and attach it to a description of their problem.
-There will be a notes section where the description of the problem should be explained.
-The specific site where the problem is occurring will also need to be mentioned.
-The REST API will interact with the app to take all the information given by the customer and create a ticket for it.
-Security on data transfer will be necessary.
-The API will be implemented in Python using Flask.
-Implementation will use Apache

[djFaulk]

App Features:

• Users will be able to send a brief description of their problem, with their contact information and an optional picture attachment displaying the problem.
• Contact information will be collected initially and stored for later use, meaning the users only input their information once
• Location of problem may also be specified
• There will not be an available option to revise contact information initially
• The only way to switch users is to reinstall the app
• Possible extension to Desktop app

API Features:

• API will be a RESTful API using Python w/ FLASK framework
• API will take in user's data (Problem, picture, location, contact info) and create a ticket for Techneaux
• Will interact with pre-existing database
• Server will be running Ubuntu
• Security for API will be handled with SSL
• The server will be Apache (Possibility of using nginX)