'The Generator' is ready for testing...

Work has been underway on 'The Generator' now for the last three weeks… we have the first phase of the development completed ready for focus group and internal testing!!! Development progress over this time has been as follows;

15th May 2009

Install virtual desktops and supporting libraries to allow Skype installation.

14th May 2009

Started investigate the addition of Skype interface. Problematic as the Skype interface does not run in a headless environment.

13th May 2009

AIM, Yahoo, ICQ and MSN configured and tested. Added support for different presence and presence text. This will allow campaigns to alter their presence text and possibly have time based availability. Possibly extend to subject matter as well?

12th May 2009

DNS mapped and new services migrated. Minor issue with dynamic image processing. IM server configured and connecting to external systems.

11th May 2009

Server delivered and managed to complete;

OS build

Installation and test of Database

Installation and test of Web Server

Installation and test of Image libraries

Installation and test of Message Queue components

Installation and test of IM components
DNS mapping will take place tomorrow.
Acceptance Test Specification completed.
Version 1 of User Guide finished, ready for delivery.

10th May 2009

Validation of Acceptance Test Specifications and User Guides. General bug fixing and tidy up in preperation for new server delivery. Server build, DNS mapping and DB port expected for tomorrow.

9th May 2009

Completed summary reporting functions. System now produces 4 visual items for each campaign showing;

days traffic by type; sms, im, email [bar chart]

distinct users by type; sms, im, email [pie chart]

last 7 days traffic by type, sms, im, email [stacked bar chart]
moderation gauge, which swings between green and red depending on how much moderation work needs doing. [gauge]

8th May 2009

Development of basic Moderate functionality now completed. Messages can be viewed, paged through and marked as accepted or rejected. Also added the ability to view messages that have already beeen moderated but not yet sent.
It appears there is a paging bug as present when moderating the last page of messages!

7th May 2009

Development and testing of the Campaign module completed. Seed messages can now be added, modified and deleted.
Issues with YIM seem to be fixed. Problem related to presence response generated for an 'unregister' presence notification. Yahoo! don't expect to receive said and then go on to bar subsequent connect requests for 5-10 minutes.

6th May 2009

Development of the Campaign module is almost complete. Currently supports;

add a new campaign

list exsting campaigns

edit campaign details including; name, description, T&Cs message and start/end dates.

Call To Action module includes;

support for SMS, email and IM CTAs add new CTAs

edit existing CTAs

toggle on/off moderation for any given campaign
Seed Messages module left for later date.

5th May 2009

Development of the Accounts progressing well. Currently supports;

list exsting accounts

change password for parent and child accounts

create sub accounts

delete sub accounts
No access control exists as yet nor the ability to change the account name/description.

4th May 2009

Started web site (here!) today. Initial graphics are done and the Ajax request agents have been written and tested.
Added little spinny graphic to top right corner of white insert to show the Ajax element is talking to the server.
The spinner was created at AjaxLoad.info

3rd May 2009

Integration of Yahoo! Messager connection generating errors at this time. We will continue to tune the connectivity.

2nd May 2009

Installation of chat libraries completed including libxmpp and supporting Python libraries. Completed integration of MSN, ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger. 29th April 2009 SMS Integration completed.
Added +447781484448 and +447781484449 to test campaigns 1 and 2. 28th April 2009 e-mail interface completed.
Email email2gentor@the-generator.net for test campaign 1 or testc@the-generator.net for test campaign 2.
Phase 1 of main message processing engine completed.
Processing engine connects to queue and accepts messages. New users are added and message exchange takes place.
No welcome message processing actioned as yet.

24th April 2009

Test machine built. System is running on a Centos 5.2 virtual host
Database built and database table constructed.
Message queue installed. Initial messages queues defined and tested.