CS433 - GeoQuest

CS433 Final Project GeoQuest Suwat Ch. & Glen Chang

Introduction

Design

Example

Run GeoQuest

Extensions

   Schema

   Summary

   source code

Introduction

This is the final project for CS433 Practicum in Database. The purpose of the project is to demostrate the use of Java Applet in a client-server environment. PREDATOR is the database server used in the project.

GeoQuest aimed to provide a service for people to quickly and easily search for information based on locations and/or services seeked. The user can visually see the individual locations on the digital map, and jump to the associated web site. Some built-in searches include restaurants, hotels, and cinema. Any other types of data can be inputted as desired.

Design

The main applet is class 'MapApplet' which corporates with class 'JGUI'. This two applets are loaded within the main html page and communicates with each other. MapApplet handles all the UI interfaces and the construction and interpretation of the queries. JGUI was provided and handles the connections with the PREDATOR server.

MapApplet is divided into three main sections: MapPanel, QueryPanel, and ResultPanel as shown below.

MapPanel handles map drawing, zooming, and pinning of user location. It also displays the location of the query results on the map according to their exact locations. Locations are determined by their latitudes and longtitudes. As the map is scaled up and down, the location references are re-adjusted accordingly.

QueryPanel presents the user with three functionalities: Query, Register, and Remove. 'Query' lets the user search for several categories of locations. 'Register' can insert records into the database, and 'Remove' deletes the record from the database. Depending on the categories selected, the QueryPanel will display the corresponding info panels.

ResultPanel displays the results of an query. Each result has a name and a button what will bring up the link on a new browser window. The panel is derived from our new class 'ScrollPanel' which can contain any component class and provide scrolling capabilities.

Schema

The standard schema contains (latitude, longtitude, name, url). However for specific category, the additional information can be added to improved the selection predicate.

Schema: People (latitude, longtitude, name, url)
         Restaurant (latitude, longtitude, name, url, foodtype, rating, price)
         Hotel (latitude, longtitude, name, url, rating, price)
         Cinema (latitude, longtitude, name, url)

Extensions

The first implementation of the project applied on Ithaca, NY. However, to extend to other cities, the scanned map together with the exact latitude and longtitude coordinates are needed. The registration of the interesting places can be done thru GUI as mention earlier.

Summary

The purpose of GeoQuest project is to expose CS433 student to the real DataBase application. Built based on client-server architecture, the project provided us a lot of experiences both DBMS and Java programming language. Since the project was done in two weeks, there are still many things to be improved such as map draw algorithm, better nicier GUI etc. Please feel free to contact us if you have any question or suggestion.

Suwat ch.

Glen Chang

Source codes

Source codes provided below are written in Java programming language. They are the exact codes used to implement GeoQuest application. Any download can be done freely without informing the authors. However, authors shall bear no responsibility due to damage occur by its use.

RestaurantPanel Class