Location Based System For Restaurant Surveys

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Client Requirement

Client required a location based survey system for restaurants. This system makes use of the location based technology and offers users a easy way to review restaurants.

Client’s specific requirements were:

• Client required an application that could look up for restaurants nearby with the best deals and alert users about it.
• A survey form should load on the users device and should have the ability to set rewards for customers.
• Graphical UI that is flexible for restaurant owners to build interactive surveys.
• Integration with social network to enable instantaneous sharing.
• Integrated user blocking mechanism to reduce chances of fake surveys.
• Advanced filtering and sorting techniques.
• Facility for data archival.
• Data assimilation facility to enable recording of trends, demographics and fashion
• Ability to print detailed analysis as well as graphical reports.
• Report generation along with the ability to print the executive summary of the survey.

Challenges

The team faced the following challenges:

• Developing the survey form as per the restaurant owner’s specific requirements.
• A custom tool was used to create the survey form dynamically. Data management for a dynamically designed form came as a challenge.
• Graphical representation of data in the form of a pie chart and bar chart came as a challenge
• Managing the survey form on mobile devices as per user demographics and location.
• Unique coupon generation for each user.
• Selecting a robust framework for supporting the community portal that will be accessed by
  thousands of users simultaneously.
• A sustainable load balance system for a website that will be live 24 x 7.
• Incorporation of web usability principles.
• Ensuring user privacy and safeguarding their content.

Technologies Used

Manpower

Planning

The Database layer containing MYSQL Server Database, Tables, Stored Procedures and so on.

• The Interface layer and Database Abstraction layer for converting data between incompatible type systems in databases and accessing data from the database respectively.
• The Business Logic layer consisting of all the business logic procedures for modules like
• Survey Creation, Location Creation, Location Manager Creation, User Profiles, Reporting etc.
• The User Interface layer which forms the Graphical User Interface of the website.

Architecture

PHP 5 and MySQL 5 was used for the development of this site to accommodate the enormous nature of the website with features for online surveys. All the modules such as Survey Creation, Location Creation, Location Manager Creation, User Profiles and Reporting were developed using PHP so that they can be directly executed using the UI. An interface translating the object logic to relational logic was used to
communicate with the relational databases in an object oriented manner. This enabled effective access to the database. The intermediary abstraction layer ensured ease of access of data from database. Triggers, stored procedures and custom MySQL functions used for complex calculation of data from multiple tables. Conditional syntax was used to ensure smooth functioning of the website. The UI layer was isolated from business logic and images, apps and data was called from their respective servers. Web usability guidelines were strictly followed and AJAX, CSS3 and HTML5 controls were used to make the site’s navigation more intuitive and user friendly.

Development Highlights

The site was equipped with a robust architecture. This provided for centralized access to numerous features like survey creation, ability to fill surveys and the ability to monitor statistics of these surveys under one roof. An extensive database was used for statistics and graphs. Pre development research was carried out making the database more and more compatible. SEO activities ensured high visibility for the site. Usability principles were followed to make the site easily navigable with the use of AJAX, CSS and HTML controls. Site was live within a span of 4 months.