TESSERACT DESIGN

Software Requirements
Specification Document
Client Requirements Documentation
R-SPaCE Amanda Sorenson

Spring 2012

RADFORD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT

OF

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Contents
1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Purpose of this document ...............................................................................................................................3
1.2 Scope of this document ..................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Overview ........................................................................................................................................................3
1.4 Business Context ............................................................................................................................................3
2. General Description ..............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Product Functions ...................................................................................................................................... 4-5
2.2 Similar System Information ....................................................................................................................... 5-6
2.3 User Characteristics .......................................................................................................................................6
2.4 User Problem Statement .................................................................................................................................7
2.5 User Objectives ..............................................................................................................................................7
2.6 General Constraints ........................................................................................................................................7
3. Screenshots
3.1 Screenshot of the IT-AUTH Login Screen...........8
3.2 Screenshot of Event Management Website Form for Event Listings...................................9
3.3 Screenshots of the R-SPaCE Entertainment App User Interface...10
a. Screenshot #1 - The All Listings Screen..............................10
b. Screenshot #2 - The Event Detail Screen11
c. Screenshot #3 - The Home Page Screen..............................12

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1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose of this document
The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the tangible and intangible requirements for the
development of the RU Entertainment Android App for R-SPaCE. In addition to the Android app, we will be
developing a central website that will simultaneously update the app, R-SPaCEs website, Twitter account, and
Facebook account; requirements for the website will also be included in this document. The intended audience of
this document will be our client, R-SPaCE (including our point of contact Amanda Sorenson as well as the
Board of Executors), Tesseract Design (Team 07), and Dr. Lewis-Williams.
1.2 Scope of this document
The requirements elicitation team was Jennifer Gay, Tucker Lein, Justin Price, and Cody Robinson. This team
gathered the requirements for the project and presented them to our client contact at R-SPaCE, Amanda Sorenson,
and our Software Engineering professor, Dr. Lewis-Willams. The team may also contact Amanda Sorenson and
possibly other R-SPaCE members to gather requirements about the specific information they distribute.
Constraints for this process are that it must be completed by 03/22/2012. Also, all project requirements must be
specified as required by the Waterfall software development process.
1.3 Overview
The R-SPaCE Entertainment App will serve as an event notification system for students and other users with a
listing of current and upcoming events sponsored by R-SPaCE. All events, performances, and presentations will be
cataloged by type of events and by date. The app will be accompanied by a centralized website that will be managed
by members of R-SPaCE. Through this centralized website, R-Space will be able to simultaneously update all digital
means of information distribution (i.e. R-SPaCE website and social networks like Twitter and Facebook) with
information concerning current and upcoming events.
1.4 Business Context
Organization Overview:
R-SPaCE is a student organization whose purpose at Radford University is to work with other organizations on
campus to provide Radford students with entertaining events such as movies, performances, educational events, and
novelty events such as Build-A-Bear workshops.
The R-SPaCE mission statement is:
The Student Programming and Campus Events Board is the principal organization coordinating programming for
the Radford University student body and the university community at large, enriching student life through social,
multi-cultural, educational and entertainment activities with a co-curricular focus that supports the advancement of
the University and the 7-17 strategic plan.

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2. General Description
2.1 Product Functions
Our team is developing an Android app for Radford Universitys R-SPaCE as an event information sharing app. It
will catalog events in the app based on user preference. Our expected audience includes Radford University (RU)
students, faculty, and staff.
Distributing event information will be done through the central website that is being developed alongside the app;
this website has been designated as the Event Management Website (EMW). Authorized R-SPaCE members will
log into the EMW with their RU username and password to post event using a web form. After the user is finished
with the EMW, he or she may log out of the website.
Information gathered from the web form will then be stored in a database located on R-SPaCEs Radford University
server space (http://www.radford.edu/~rspace/). The EMW will also remotely update R-SPaCEs website and post
the information to their Twitter and Facebook accounts. R-SPaCE will decide on what users will have access to the
EMW and the ability to manage event information. This will be performed by an administrator on the EMW.
The exact content that will be entered into the web form still needs to be approved by the client. The general outline
of the forms content is:

Title
Date
Time
Location
Admission Price
Category
Description
Picture to display in Android app
Picture of Flyer

In the event of a cancellation or a time change, the EMW administrator will be able to use the form to edit events in
the database accordingly or send out a new event that notifies app users of the update. The EMW will not be able
make changes to events that have already been posted to the R-SPaCE website and their Twitter and Facebook
accounts. Any changes to content on those sites must be performed manually.
The Android app will include a basic structure made with PhoneGap and be deployed onto Android devices. When
the Android device is connected to the internet, the app will request new event information from the event
information database on the EMW and store it in a local database located on the Android device. All information
displayed on the user interface of the app will be read from this local database.
When the user launches the app, they will be presented with the home page. From this page, a navigation bar will
lead them to the different kinds of lists of events they may browse. Options on the navigation bar include All,
Favorites, and Categories. When the user selects an option on the navigation bar, a new page will load that
displays the list of events associated with that option. The user can then select an event they wish to know more
about and a new page with details of the event is displayed. In these pages, the user may select a Back button to
return to the previous page or select a Home button to return to the home page.
In the events details page, the user will be able to attach an alert for each event in the app; the date and time of the
alert will be customizable by the user. This will send a system alert from the Android device that will notify the user
when the event draws near. Additionally, a user may specify an event as a Favorite from its event details page.
This will allow the ability to distinguish an event without having to attach an alert to it.
The events will be split into categories. An alphabetical list of the categories will be available in the app so that the
user may also be able to view events by category. The categories include:

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Cinema
Concert
Education
Favorites
Late Night
Novelties
Performance

While in the home page of the app, the user may also select a Settings button. This will take the user to another
page where the user may edit settings related to the app. These settings include the ability to set the default time
decrement when creating a new system alert. When the new alert is set, the time will be set to the time of the event
minus the default time decrement. Other settings include disabling the device from receiving push notifications. To
the return to the home page, the user will select the Back button.
2.2 Similar System Information
Event Management Website
Our Event Management Website can be compared to Ping.fm and HootSuite
Comparisons:

1. Ping.fm
Ping.fm has access to many more social media outlets, but R-SPaCE only operates with Twitter,

2.

Facebook, and Wordpress. So our EMW will only allow those three outlets along with the Android
app.
In Ping.fm you select which social networks you would update and connect them to your account; our
EMW has R-SPaCEs credentials built in so there is no need to customize the setup.
Ping.fm only allows updates that include one message and a picture depending on the social network
where our EMW will have multiple fields for title, date, description, and category. This allows our
EMW to provide a more organized and descriptive submission for wordpress and the Android app.
Ping.fm can only update persons pages on facebook and not organization pages. Our EMW will
update R-SPaCEs facebook organization page.
HootSuite
HootSuite has access to many more social media outlets in the same way Ping.fm does.
HootSuite uses a dashboard GUI system which allows for more complex organization. Our EMW uses
a plain html form for simplicity.
HootSuite also connects the social media accounts to the HootSuite account where our EMW has
the credentials of the R-SPaCEs accounts built in.
HootSuite can update facebook organization pages unlike Ping.fm but the account needs to be
connected through facebook unlike our EMW.
Weaknesses of Existing System

No quick and easy way of accepting a new facebook, twitter, or wordpress account.
No other social media outlets can be updated other than facebook, twitter, or wordpress
Strengths of Existing System

Ability to update Android app

More descriptive and detailed information.
Takes in input that will be used for the most detailed outlets (wordpress and the Android app) and
posts to the limited outlets (facebook and twitter) using only a portion of the input. The system
will interpret the input for the differing social media outlets
Android App
Our App can be compared to TV Listings for Android and Event Countdown Lite.

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Comparisons:
1. TV Listings

Displays listings of currently airing shows by channel, whereas the R-SPaCE App only lists
events by time.
Each channel has up to the next three shows listed.
Has shown listings split in three tabs: Whats On?, Movies, and Sports, whereas the R-SPaCE App
can show listings based on many more criteria.
Allows user to browse through time slots (by 30 minute increments) to see what shows will be
airing at later times. R-SPaCE has all events listed over a much longer period of time, so there is
no browsing by specific times.
Allows user to set notifications for shows when the show starts, but only as early as 3 hours before
it begins despite being able to browse to much later times, whereas the R-SPaCE App will allow
users to set their own times for the alerts.
Allows the user to view a more detailed description of the shows, but its limited to the basic guide
information.
Allows users to search through the listings for certain shows, or set the date and time to quickly
jump to view showings at that time.
Allows users to remove channels that they dont want to view, in R-SPaCE student users cant edit
the listings themselves.
Allows users to select different service providers for different sets of channel and show listings.

2. Event Countdown Lite

Allows user to create and edit their own list of events.

Displays a countdown (and count up) until and after an events designated time.
You can set a location for the event, and view that location using Google Maps.
User can set multiple times for notifications, as short as 1 minute from the event and as long as 1
week before the event.

Weaknesses of Existing App

Events cant be grouped for faster viewing.

No search function implemented.
Users cant remove events they dont want to view.
Strengths of App

Numerous categories that events can be sorted by.

Events have very detailed information, and are easy to view.
App allows users to set their own times for notification, as well as default times to be notified
before the event.
2.3 User Characteristics
The users of the central website will be the client, R-SPaCE, and whomever they designate to update the website.
The users will be college students with experience in using computers, familiarity with simple web forms, and
updating websites.
The users of the app will predominantly include RU Students, Faculty, and Staff, but may also include residents
from the surrounding localities. The general age range for users of the app will include people from 18-60 with an
Android device and a familiarity with Android applications. They should possess the ability to interact with the
features of the app to obtain the event information they are seeking.

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2.4 User Problem Statement

R-SPaCE desires to a way for their organization to provide mobile access to their event organization. The primary
purpose of the app is to allow users to view that information from their mobile device on and offline. The app user
also may have trouble remembering events. To account for this, the app will let the user attach an Android system
alert on to each event. The user will specify the time and alert that the alert will notify them about the event.
R-SPaCE is also currently has an inefficient way of transmitting their event information to the digital marketing
platforms. Currently they have to log into their website, Twitter account, and Facebook account individually and
post new information. Another problem associated with this redundant process is that is increases the possibility of
typos and inconsistent information across all digital platforms. Our app will require an additional website for them
to login and post information.
To fix this redundant process, the website that is being built alongside the app will post the new information from
one place; the R-SPaCE member will only have to enter and post that information once.
2.5 User Objectives
R-SPaCE Entertainment Android App

Alert Notifications Users will be able to create alert notifications for events that they are interested in
receiving a reminder notification for. The user will select the date and time for the reminder notification.
Also, alert notifications will be sent out when changes, such as cancellations or changes in date/time, occur
for listed events.
Users will also be able to mark events of their choosing as favorites.
Hyperlink to an external ticket processing website currently used by R-SPaCE to allow students to purchase
tickets online in advance. This will provide all-in-one functionality by using the app; users will be able to
click on the link to be taken to the ticket processing website.
Mobile access, via Android devices, to listings of current events on Radford Universitys campus. There
will be three tabs: Home, All, and Categories. The user can search listings by going to the Category tab
which divides the listings up into categories and displays the current number of listings per category.

Event Management Website

A central website where R-SPaCE can create new listings and update current listings without having to log
into multiple websites and update each one individually. R-SPaCE will use web form to create/update
listings and the R-SPaCE website and Facebook and Twitter will all be updated simultaneously.
2.6 General Constraints
Technical constraints for this app include that it only be available for devices that run the Android mobile operating
system; the minimum supported version of the operating system is 2.2. It will also require that it be built with
HTML5 and PhoneGap 1.5. For the website, it will be built with HTML and PHP and any modern browser shall be
capable of using it.
A time constraint is placed on this project because the app and the website must be completed and delivered to the
client by April 26, 2012. This gives the team roughly 4 months to complete the project.

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Screenshot of the IT Auth Login Screen

(This will be your initial login screen you will log in using your RU Credentials (RU username and password)

Once you have successfully logged in using IT-AUTH, this will take you to the Event Management Website. On the
website, there are four options that you can click on:

Create Event
The Create Event page will be empty with boxes ready to be populated with event detail
information. You can create multiple listings instead of having to do a single form for each
event. You would do this by clicking on the plus or minus buttons to add or subtract lines
from the form. On the form, the app image refers to the thumbnail images viewable on the
all listings and home page. The flyer app image refers to the larger image viewable on the
Event Detail Screen after a user clicks on the app image to get more detailed information.
Update Event
The Update Event page will populate the information from the listing that you have
already created and will allow you to edit the listing with any changes.
Delete Event
The Delete Event page will also populate the information from the listing that you have
already created and will allow you to delete this listing.
Admin Options
The Admin Options page will allow you to add or delete users who can make changes (i.e.
create, update, or delete events) to the Event Management Website.

There is a help link available should the user have any difficulty in entering in the dates, times, or prices for events.
The standard logout link for the user to be logged out of the system is located in the top right hand corner of the
website.

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Screenshot of the Event Management Website Form

(The screenshot below is the Event Management Website with the form on the Create Event page)

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Screenshots of the All Listings Screen for the R-SPaCE Entertainment Guide User Interface

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Screenshot of the Event Detail Screen For The R-SPaCE Entertainment App

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Screenshot of the Home Screen for the R-SPaCE Entertainment App

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