This is a sample functional specification, a part of Ventura College - VC54 Advanced Java Class Project and is intended for educational purposes.

VCJUG.com  
Functional Specification

Dick Eastlake
Last Updated: February 6, 2002

- C O N F I D E N T I A L -

© 2002 R. T. Eastlake. All Rights Reserved. 

Overview

VCJUG.com   is the official website of the Ventura County (California) Java User Group, It is being developed by the students of the Advanced Java Class under the leadership of Greg Boswell

This spec is a draft and is not complete. All of the wording will need to be approved by the class before it is finalized. The graphics and layout of the screens is shown here merely to illustrate the underlying functionality. The actual look and feel will be developed over time with the input of classmates/designers and iterative user feedback.

This spec deals specifically with the membership signup, profile/demographics, login and security roles of the membership of the user group. Other aspect of VCJUG.com   will be discussed elsewhere.

Scenarios

Scenario 1: New Member.
A new member signs up for a VCJUG.com   account.

Scenario 2: Current Member.
A current member simply accesses VCJUG.com , uses auto login or enters a username and password, and accesses the site.

Scenario 3: Administrator.

Non Goals

This version will not support the following features:

• XXX.

VCJUG.com   Flowchart

This flowchart is meant to provide the structure for the "storyboard" of using VCJUG.com  :

Screen by Screen Specification

VCJUG.com   consists of quite a few different screens. Most screens will follow a standard format, with a look and feel to be synchronized with the rest of the site. This document is more concerned with the functionality and the interaction design, not the exact look and layout.

All screens are created in HTML using JSP, Java Servlets and Javascript.

Each screen in VCJUG.com   is known by a canonical name which will always appear, in this document, with an underline, so you know we're referring to a screen by name, for example, Home Page.

Splash Screen

An annoying, gratuitous Shockwave animation that plays music and drives everyone crazy.

After the animation/music has played for about 10 seconds, a link that says "SKIP THIS" will fade into view in the bottom right corner. To avoid people seeing this and clicking on it, SKIP THIS will be so far down and to the right that most people won't see it. It should be at least 800 pixels from the left border of the animation and 600 pixels from the top.

Clicking on SKIP THIS goes to Home Page. When the animation is complete, it will redirect the browser to Home Page automatically.

Open Issue
We should deposit a cookie on the user's computer if they click SKIP THIS which will cause the animation to always be skipped in the future. Frequent visitors should not have to see the animation more than once.

Home Page

Displayed when the Shockwave animation is complete. As relates to the membership signup, profile/demographics, login and security roles aspect, the Home Page serves three purposes:

1. Allow members who have already signed up to log on. This link is at the upper right of the middle/right frame.
2. Allow people to learn about VCJUG.com and consider whether they want to sign up with a link on the middle
3. Allow people who want to sign up to do so. Link to become a member at the very top of the left frame AND with a blurb on the right frame - just below the login link.

The Home Page (for the purpose of this spec) would look ~ like this:

Clicking on the link that says " log on" goes to Log In Form. Clicking on either of the links that say"become a member" goes to Sign Up Form. The six links at the bottom display pages with static text to be provided by management, which are beyond the scope of this specification. They will not have to change very often.

Log In Form

The Log In Form is used by current members to log into their accounts in order to find out the current time. It looks like this:

The right side of the screen behaves the same way as described previously under Home Page.

The name boxes allows for up to 40 characters each to be typed. The password box allows for up to 10 characters to be typed. To disguise them and prevent hacking, as the user types in the password box, asterisks (*) will appear instead of the characters that they type.

Technical Note
This is accomplished using <INPUT TYPE=PASSWORD>

When the user clicks Log In, the following checks are performed on the server:

1. If the first/last name was provided, but it does not correspond to a registered member, the server returns another page that looks just like Log In Form, only this time, a red error message is inserted above the address box, saying "Thename you provided is not a member. Please double check it. To become a member, click on the link on the right side of the screen." Although this text is in red, the text "Please enter your name" still appears in black. The incorrect name that the user originally typed will now be pre-populated in the edit box. [ Question to developers. Can we use JavaScript in this case so that if the user then clicks on the link to become a member, we automatically pre-populate that name on the sign up form? ]

2. If the name was provided, and it does correspond to a registered member, but no password was typed at all, and the email link is clicked we send an email to that address containing the password. The subject of the email is "Your VCJUG.com   membership". The email is in plain text. The exact wording of this email is TBA.

3. If the email address was provided, and it does correspond to a registered member, and a password was provided, but the password is incorrect, the server returns another page that looks just like Log In Form, only this time, a red error message is inserted above the password box, saying "The password you provided is not valid. Please double check it. Remember, passwords are case-sensitive." If the password typed does not contain any lower case alphabetic characters, we add this text to the message: "Perhaps you've accidentally turned on CAPS LOCK?" Whenever the password is incorrect, the Log In Form comes back with the password box clear.

4. If the email address and password are OK, jump straight to Members Page .

Open Issue
Need to decide about JavaScript in case #2

Open Issue
Need wording for password email.