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Client Requirement
The client required a social networking platform for faith communities to promote mutual goals and health and wellness. An interactive platform for diverse and multi cultural communities was built that encouraged health and wellness among the various congregations. This platform helps build trust relationships and promotes wellness of spirit, mind and body of the individual, families and communities.
The client required the following features:
- Ability to connect to the church and family and friends.
- Ability to connect and listen o sermons, Bible Study and community.
- Ability to learn more about the community and church.
- Ability to create a marketplace and trade
- Ability to create groups, communicate and share information with others from the same community.
- Meet people of the same faith and connect with the believers of the same faith.
- Get access to global Bible study, global ministry directory, chats, blogs, video chats, events, photo album etc.
- Ability for the admin to invite other church members to join the community.
Challenges
Team faced the following challenges
- Incorporating updated information at the backend using RSS feeds.
- Safe and secure data transfer during 3rd party API integration.
- Developing and maintaining a website that will incorporate a wide range of interactive features like blogs, live events, groups etc. to ensure user participation.
- An active and interactive social networking site that will be capable of handling millions of connections without slowing down.
- Web usability principles to be used for enhancing experience of users.
- Security measures for users information.
Technologies Used
| Operating System & Server Management | Red Hat Linux OS, Multi-Server Architecture with Staging & Production Environment through Version Controlling releases, Server Optimization, Security & SSL Implementation, Alert Monitoring System Integration, Server Performance Tuning at regular intervals, Software Firewall Configuration & Maintenance |
| Development Tools & Environments | PHP5+, Symfony Framework 1.4, AJAX, HTML5, CSS3 etc. etc. |
| Database | MYSQL Database Server, DB Clustering, DB Optimization, Master Slave Replication, Query Optimization, Scheduler for Backups |
Manpower
| Project Leader | 1 |
| Developers | 2 |
| Designers | 1 |
| Quality Assurance Testers | 1 |
Planning
Taking into consideration the enormous nature of the website, a four tier development approach was used.
- The Database layer – MySQL Server Database, Tables, Triggers and so on.
- The Data Access layer – the Data Access DLL responsible for accessing data from the database.
- The Business Logic layer – business logic procedures for modules.
- The User Interface Layer which forms the Graphical User Interface of the website.
Architecture
The development approach included PHP and MySQL to achieve the social networking robust nature.Modules like Blogs, Events, Groups etc. were developed in PHP such that they can be executed directly from the UI layer. RSS feeds were incorporated to enhance the user experience.
To enable the database access in an object oriented context, an interface that translated the object logic to the relational logic was created. This enabled communication between the relational databases in an object oriented manner. An intermediary abstraction layer ensured data access from database. The User Interface Layer was kept isolated from business logic with images, applications and data being called from their respective servers.
Development Highlights
A robust site was implemented using the symphony framework that was capable of performing all the crucial functions. Without adding too much code, all the necessary features and interactivity was added to the site. RSS feeds were implemented to enhance user experience. Usability guidelines were followed and interface was made easy to navigate with the use of AJAX, HTML and CSS. The site was developed and fully functional within a span of 3 months.
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