Software Engineering Experience

Taking this course really helped me mature as a developer. I learned so much in just one semester. The thing that I liked the most in this class is that we worked on real world applications unlike ICS 111 and 211. Another aspect of the course that I liked is the collaboration of students. In the past we were not supposed to share our work with other student in class. This course is proof that two minds are better than one. It's good to work with other people once in a while. I think it's a win-win situation because everybody gains from collaborating with each other.

I mentioned that collaboration is the best part of this course for me. I've met some awesome people and I'm glad that I was paired up with them. Even though there were times where it was really tough for us working late at night at Sinclair, we were able to keep the morale up high. The tools that were introduced to us in this course will be really helpful in the future as a developer. Version control like SVN and software ICU are some of my favorites. I'm actually looking forward for the next level of this class.

-David Joel Lazaro

Ecologineers v2.1

Our web application has come a long way since version 1.0. We've done a lot of bug fixes and added a couple of new pages that gives user's useful information. One of the pages we've added was the Home page. This is simply an introduction of our web application and what the other pages does. The second page that we added is the StopLight page. This page provides the user information depending on the carbon intensity of SIM_OAHU_GRID. It has four categories, green, yellow, red, and no data. This gives the user an idea of when they should be plugging their devices to the outlet. The third page is just a modified version 1.0 grid info page that displays the carbon intensity chart for SIM_OAHU_GRID. The user can now select a start and end date for the time period that they want a chart generated for. The user can also select from a pull down menu SIM_OAHU_GRID's sub-sources.

We tried to implement some extra credit features to our web application. One of them is the addition of nice urls for the links. Instead of the wicket gibberish url that it displays in the address bar, it now shows a nice bookmark-able link that is easier to remember. This means that the StopLight page is now called "stoplight" and the GridInfo page is now called "gridinfo" in the address bar of our browser. We also added an ajax page refresh for the StopLight page. What it does is it refreshes the page every minute so that it can update the users quickly instead of waiting for another hour to manually refresh the page.

Working on this application thought me some valuable lessons. It's clear that one person can only do so much. After trying to implement something for hours, I had to walk away from it and pass it to one of my group members. It's also nice to learn something new. The wicket framework can be really useful if I continue to learn it.

To try our updated web application, click here.

-David Joel Lazaro

GreenDepot Review

In summary, GreenDepot is on the right direction and just needs to fix some major bugs to get their application running smoothly. Right now the application is dependent of Ant. I would check the jar.build.xml to see if it's compiling the needed components for the system to run. I also suggest that a separate session class be created for getting and setting user input. Software ICU and Continuous Integration data shows that the group was working on it consistently. To view my full review, click on the link below.

GreenDepotReview

-David Joel Lazaro

Ecologineers Wicket Application

After working on WattDepot, it's time to put it in practical use by building a web application that can take advantage of it. We had to build a wicket application that shows the carbon intensity of a certain day. Our group name is Ecologineers. My partners for this project were Paul Galiza, Shaun Ramento, and Jarret Mizo.

Overall I believe that the project went well. Everybody did what they can to contribute to the project. We helped each other out when one needed help. The only thing I observed that got in our way of working on this project was our other class works. Me and Paul have midterms and C++ homework to work on. Meanwhile, Jarret and I also had some lab report to do for our networking course. I think we got most of the job done because we were always able to meet and work on the project as a group.



As for the current state of our application, our group was able to implement most of the requirements. We just couldn't tackle a couple of bugs due to time limit. One of the things that doesn't work is the color coding of the table in the webpage. It shows the text Red, Green, and Yellow instead of the actual color. We only need some more input validation in our date entry forms. Our system could also use some more test cases as you can tell from our hackystat image above. There were times where the system wasn't touched at all because we had other stuff to do. But when we do work on it, we all do it together as a group.

Click here to download and try our wicket application.

-David Joel Lazaro

WattDepot Ekahi Version 2.0

This assignment enabled us to correct the mistakes we made in the first version of our WattDepot system. Armed with better knowledge after being reviewed by our peers, our group made sure that the second version of our system is way better than the first. The main fix that we had to do was refactoring our code and break it up in different classes for each commands. Doing this enabled us to clean up the system. It also made test cases easier to do because we now have each commands return something rather than being void.

After doing the refactoring, we were able to implement the commands in a much more efficient way. We took many unnecessary codes out also. I believe that we were able to fix most of the issues that the reviewers have raised. The design of the system went from having one giant class to each commands being in their own class. At the end of it, we were able to get a 62% coverage in our system. I think if we worked on it some more then we could easily bring that coverage up.

My partner (Paul Galiza) and I worked pretty well as a team. We both had other things to do outside of this class but we were still able to pull through and work as a team with no problem. We met outside of class to work on the system as much as we can. In our group, we pretty much just worked on whatever was needed to be done. I think we both did a good job of carrying our weight when it comes to working on the system.

A new concept that was introduced to us while building this version of the system is Software ICU. Software ICU is a way of tracking the "health" of our project by monitoring the vital signs of the system. To do this, we used the system called hackystat. In a nutshell, hackystat monitored almost everything that we did involving the project. The screen shot above shows the current health of our system. Although it could be improved, our group really worked hard on getting the system up and running with minimal flaws.

The following questions are something that we are able to answer after getting our system up and running:

• What day and time during the month was Oahu energy usage at its highest? How many MW was this?
  The timestamp 2009-11-02T20:00:00.000-10:00 netted a high 995MW.
  
• What day and time during the month was Oahu energy usage at its lowest? How many MW was this?
  The timestamp 2009-11-02 netted a low 493MW.
  
• What day during the month did Oahu consume the most energy? How many MWh was this?
  No available data found for this month to answer this question.
  
• What day during the month did Oahu consume the least energy? How many MWh was this?
  No available data found for this month to answer this question.
  
• What day during the month did Oahu emit the most carbon (i.e. the "dirtiest" day)? How many lbs of carbon were emitted?
  The timestamp 2009-11-05 is one of the dirtiest day which emitted 29,959 lbs or carbon.
  
• What day during the month did Oahu emit the least carbon (i.e. the "cleanest" day)? How many lbs of carbon were emitted?
  The timestamp 2009-11-07 is one of the cleanest day which emitted only 22,908 lbs of carbon.

Click here to download the Ekahi branch of the WattDepot system.

-David Joel Lazaro

Code Review Experience

Reviewing each other's WattDepot systems clearly has a positive outcome. Clearly the other groups had different ways of building the system. Its good to know that I'm able to help them out by pointing out the errors so that they can improve their system. Reviewing the other systems also helps me because I can see how to improve our system also. I saw some better ways of implementing some methods that would make the system much more efficient.

The best way of responding to a code review is by taking it in positively. The reviewers of our system pointed out many things that we can improve on. They've spotted errors that we didn't catch ourselves. They have suggested many things to improve our system. The next part now is to try and implement those suggestions and fix the errors that they found.

-David Joel Lazaro

Code Review: WattDepot Eono Branch

This is my software review of the WattDepot System Elima branch by Scott Wong and Kelli Sawai. The template I used was provided by Philip Johnson.

A. Review the build

A1. Download the system, build it, and run any automated quality assurance checks (use "ant -f verify.build.xml"). If any errors occur, note these in your review.

-Build Successful

B. Review system usage

B1. Run the system. Exercise as much of its functionality as possible. Does it implement all of the required features?

help

-Works

quit

-Works

list sources

-Works

list summary {source}

-Invoking the command does nothing but returns to the command line interface.

list sensordata {source} timestamp {timestamp}

-Works

list sensordata {source} day {day}

-Doesn’t check the data for the duration of the day.

list power [generated|consumed] {source} timestamp {timestamp}

-Works

list power [generated|consumed] {source} day {day} sampling-interval {minutes} statistic {max|min|average}

-Works

list total [carbon|energy] generated {source} day {day} sampling-interval {minutes}

-Invoking “>list total energy generated SIM_WAIAU_8 day 2009-11-15 sampling-interval 30” results in the following error:

Exception in thread "main" org.wattdepot.client.BadXmlException: 400: Range extends beyond sensor data, startTime 2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-10:00, endTime 2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-10:00: Request: GET http://server.wattdepot.org:8182/wattdepot/sources/SIM_WAIAU_8/energy/?startTime=2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-10:00&endTime=2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-10:00&samplingInterval=30

at org.wattdepot.client.WattDepotClient.getEnergy(WattDepotClient.java:566)

at org.wattdepot.client.WattDepotClient.getEnergyValue(WattDepotClient.java:614)

at org.wattdepot.client.WattDepotClient.getEnergyGenerated(WattDepotClient.java:637)

at org.wattdepot.cli.ListCommand.listTotalGenerated(ListCommand.java:362)

at org.wattdepot.cli.CommandLineInterface.main(CommandLineInterface.java:109)

chart power [generated|consumed] {source} {startday} {endday} sampling-interval {minutes} file {file}

-Can’t get this command to work properly. Nothing happens when I invoke the command.

B2. Try to break the system by providing it with unexpected input. Can you make the system crash or generate a stack dump? If so, note the input that caused the failure.

>list total energy generated SIM_WAIAU_8 day 2009-11-15 sampling-interval 30

Exception in thread "main" org.wattdepot.client.BadXmlException: 400: Range extends beyond sensor data, startTime 2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-10:00, endTime 2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-10:00: Request: GET http://server.wattdepot.org:8182/wattdepot/sources/SIM_WAIAU_8/energy/?startTime=2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-10:00&endTime=2009-11-15T00:00:00.000-10:00&samplingInterval=30

at org.wattdepot.client.WattDepotClient.getEnergy(WattDepotClient.java:566)

at org.wattdepot.client.WattDepotClient.getEnergyValue(WattDepotClient.java:614)

at org.wattdepot.client.WattDepotClient.getEnergyGenerated(WattDepotClient.java:637)

at org.wattdepot.cli.ListCommand.listTotalGenerated(ListCommand.java:362)

at org.wattdepot.cli.CommandLineInterface.main(CommandLineInterface.java:109)

>list sensordata SIM_OAHU_GRID timestamp break

should never happen.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException

at org.wattdepot.client.WattDepotClient.getSensorData(WattDepotClient.java:372)

at org.wattdepot.cli.ListCommand.listSensorDataTimestamp(ListCommand.java:320)

at org.wattdepot.cli.CommandLineInterface.main(CommandLineInterface.java:65)

>list sensordata test day test

should never happen.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException

at org.wattdepot.client.WattDepotClient.getSensorData(WattDepotClient.java:372)

at org.wattdepot.cli.ListCommand.listSensorDataDay(ListCommand.java:92)

at org.wattdepot.cli.CommandLineInterface.main(CommandLineInterface.java:77)

C. Review the JavaDocs.

C1. Does the System Summary (provided in an overview.html file) provide an high-level description of the purpose of the system? Does it explain how each of the packages in the system relate to each other? Is the first sentence self-contained?

-The system summary provides a high-level description of the purpose of the system. Doesn’t really explain how the packages in the system relate to each other because only one package exist.

C2. Do the Package Summaries (provided in package.html files) provide a high-level description of the purpose of the package? Do they explain how the classes in the package related to each other? Is the first sentence self-contained?

-Main package summary refers to an example of WattDepot interaction.

C3. Do the Class Summaries (provided at the top of each .java file) provide a high-level description of the purpose of the class? Does it provide sample code for clients of the class, if useful? Is the first sentence self-contained?

-Accurate high-level description of the purpose of the class. Doesn’t provide sample code for clients of the class.

C4. Do the Method Summaries (provided before each method) explain, from a client-perspective, what the method does? Do they avoid giving away internal implementation details that could change? Do they document any side-effects of the method invocation? (Note that you can click on the method name to see the source code for the method, which is helpful to assessing the correctness and quality of the javadoc.)

-The method summaries does a pretty good job on explaining what the method does. They were able to do it without giving away internal implementation details.

D. Review the names

D1. Do another pass through the JavaDocs, this time concentrating on the names of packages, classes, and methods. Are these names well chosen? Do they conform to the best practices in Elements of Java Style, Chapter 3? Can you propose better names?

-Naming scheme looks fine.

D2. Once you have reviewed the names displayed in the JavaDocs, review the source code for internal names in the same way.

-Source code internal names looks fine also.

E. Review the testing.

The system should provide a useful set of test cases.

-Only test present is the example test provided by the instructor.

F. Review the package design

F1. Consider the set of packages in the system. Does this reflect a logical structure for the program? Are the contents of each package related to each other, or do some package contain classes with widely divergent function? Can you think of a better package-level structure for the system?

-System only contains one package. Maybe create a separate package for commands class, test cases, etc.

G. Review the class design

G1. Examine its internal structure in terms of its instance variables and methods. Does the class accomplish a single, well-defined task? If not, suggest how it could be divided into two or more classes.

-After going through the instance variables and methods of the system, I conclude that the classes in the system could be divided into separate classes instead of one big class that does many things. This will make the code easier to read and makes creating test cases easier.

G2. Are the set of instance variables appropriate for this class? If not, suggest a better way to organize its internal state.

-Looks fine.

G3. Does the class present a useful, but minimal interface to clients? In other words, are methods made private whenever possible? If not, which methods should be made private in order to improve the quality of the class interface to its clients?

-No private methods observed in the system.

H. Review the method design

H1. Does the method accomplish a single thing? If not, suggest how to divide it into two or more methods.

-Each methods seems fine in accomplishing a single thing.

H2. Is the method simple and easy to understand? Is it overly long? Does it have an overly complicated internal structure (branching and looping)? If so, suggest how to refactor it into a more simple design.

-The methods looks fine. They are easy to follow and understand.

H3. Does the method have a large number of side-effects? (Side effects are when the result of the method's operation is not reflected purely in its return value. Methods have side-effects when they alter the external environment through changing instance variables or other system state. All "void" methods express the results of their computation purely through side-effect.) In general, systems in which most methods have few or zero side-effects are easier to test, understand, and enhance. If a method has a large number of side-effects, try to think about ways to reduce them. (Note that this may involve a major redesign of the system in some cases.)

-No side-effects observed.

I. Check for common look and feel

I1. Is the code implemented consistently throughout the system, or do different sections look like they were implemented by different people? If so, provide examples of places with inconsistencies.

-The code seems to be consistent throughout the system. It doesn’t look like two people implemented the code.