Online Review System
Categories : All, Case Study, Media and Entertainment, Mobile and Wireless, Retail / E-commerce
Client Requirement
This is for everyone who wants to give their precise review about any product / Service as well as for the ones who are looking for such reviews to make the right decision to buy something. This would facilitate users to search and post for reviews on various products and services.
A user wishing to add a product review should be able to do that for all its attributes that are already mentioned and he should be able to add his own attribute as well. However, that attribute will be displayed once it is approved by admin.
For example: if you are writing the specifications of a smart phone, you fill up values in the existing attributes, but you want to add your own about how good the ‘selfie’ photos can be taken. So, he can add the attribute which will go to admin for approval after which it will be displayed to other users.
This way users can keep adding the product reviews; but not too generic. They can add the exact specifications so that the person reviewing it can make the right decision whether he should buy or not.
Project Challenges
- One of the biggest challenges here was to manage and list upon the attributes for all the products with their datatypes.
- Making System to accommodate all possible categories and Sub Categories of Products and Services which will be created by users and Managed by Admin was the biggest challenge.
- Another one was to manage database redundancy for managing attributes which might refer to same thing with different name Like (Price and Cost are two different attributes referring same thing).
- Developing an open System any user can post comment and Share and ask questions from the system.
- Filtering data based on Measurable and Non Measurable quantity.
- Setting the comments was also a challenging thing; as the comments can be made directly upon the review of the product and also as a reply to a comment
- Creating a separate account for so many users and handling bundles of data was not an easy thing too.
- Developing the mobile interface for easy access to view all data without compromising any feature / capability of the system
The company faced the following challenges while developing this system:
Technologies Used
| IOS SDK: Xcode 6.0 | Xcode is a tool, also called as IDE, used to develop iOS and Mac applications. It is a main component of Xcode toolset. It groups most of the tool needed to develop software in a streamlined and interactive manner. |
| Core Data Framework | The Core Data framework provides generalized and automated solutions to common tasks associated with object life-cycle and object graph management, including persistence. |
| Database: SQLite | The SQLite database is a small, compact, and self-contained database available on multiple platforms and available to the public. It has a small footprint and is easy to install and administer. In addition, many devices have the SQLite database already installed, including Android and Blackberry devices. |
| Android ADT Eclipse Plugin | Android Development Tools (ADT) is a plugin for the Eclipse IDE that is designed to give you a powerful, integrated environment in which to build Android applications. |
| Programing Languages | IOS: Objective C Android : Java |
| MVC | The model–view–controller framework separates the representation of information in a computer program from the user’s interaction with it.The model consists of application data and business rules, and the controller mediates input, converting it to commands for the model or view. |
Manpower
| Project Leader | 1 |
| Developers | 6 |
| Designers | 2 |
| QA | 2 |
Planning
- The entire concept of the system popped in the mind when the people realized that they tend to buy wrong products. So, the idea of making a collection of reviews started so as to help people in making the right choice..
- The first step of the planning was to make the format for the people to specify the reviews. There can be several attributes of the several products that people will want to rate or comment about.
- The next step of the planning was to creation of user accounts and deciding the display of the reviews. Each user can build up their own profiles to check the reviews as well as to submit the reviews. Also, the user can comment on the existing reviews and reply to someone’s comment!
- One of the main factors of planning was security, for the obvious reasons! The question was, “What if the users write something about the specification that does not exist in the list?” Of course, they can mention it, but it will be displayed once the admin approves it.
Architecture
Looking at the requirements and functioning, the MVC architecture was used:
- Model: It is responsible for the encapsulation of the underlying data
- View: It deals with the data presentation from the model to the user
- Controller : It responds to the requests of the users
Development Highlights
This is indeed a useful thing for all the people who wish not to buy wrong products. So, there is not just a website for this, but also the application! A lot of people had put in time and efforts to put this amazing idea in life. The entire project was divided into the small modules which then were worked upon so as to make the work easier and quicker.