IT3196 Final Project Report

AY2012 Group 1 Team FIT3196 Social Media Case Study

Final Project Report

School of Information Technology (AY2012 S1)

Module Group: IT3196_01

Team : 1F

Project Name : Tourism Board of Ferduland

Supervisor : Mr Benedict The

Submitted by : Chew Jing Kai (107001H)

Freddy Goh (105023H)

Liang Jian Lin (103141Z)

Lindsey Tan (101239J)

Diploma in Information Technology


Table of Contents

1. Project Brief................................................................................................................................................ 32. Project Plan................................................................................................................................................. 3

2.1 Project Team Organization..................................................................................................................... 32.2 Project Schedule.................................................................................................................................... 32.3 Software Tools Used for Development...................................................................................................4

2.3.1 Facebook Platform.......................................................................................................................... 42.3.2 WAMP (Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP).......................................................................................4

3. Target Audience.......................................................................................................................................... 54. System Description...................................................................................................................................... 65. System Implementation............................................................................................................................... 7

5.1 Check In................................................................................................................................................ 75.2 Find a Travel Companion..................................................................................................................... 115.3 Itinerary Helper.................................................................................................................................... 135.4 Tour Package....................................................................................................................................... 185.5 Hotel Reservation................................................................................................................................ 235.6 Journal Contest.................................................................................................................................... 365.7 Ask the Expat....................................................................................................................................... 485.8 Study Trip............................................................................................................................................ 51

6. Monitor and Measuring Metrics................................................................................................................. 566.1. Social Media Channels........................................................................................................................ 56

6.1.1 Facebook....................................................................................................................................... 566.1.2 Twitter.......................................................................................................................................... 56

6.2. Measure Your Successes..................................................................................................................... 566.2.1 HootSuite...................................................................................................................................... 566.2.2 Facebook Insights.......................................................................................................................... 566.2.3 Social Mention.............................................................................................................................. 56

7. Problem Encountered................................................................................................................................. 578. Future Enhancements................................................................................................................................. 589. Conclusion................................................................................................................................................. 5910. Appendix................................................................................................................................................. 60

10.1 Deployment Guide............................................................................................................................. 60

Diploma in Information Technology


1. Project Brief

As the official promoter of our country, Ferduland, it is our duty as the Tourism Board of Ferduland to create awareness and increase the exposure of our country to the rest of the world. With the tagline “Your World, Your Ferduland”, we focus on attracting more tourists and building a positive image for our country.

Tourism helps contribute to our country’s economic development by bringing in foreign currency and revenues generated from tourism related industries. We also aim to generate more employment opportunities for our local communities by involving them in tourism services. We strive to increase our country’s popularity across the world as it can determine the choice of country to visit for prospective tourists.

We can be interpreted as the “face” of our nation, entrusted with the responsibility of creating a positive first impression of our nation to tourists. We aim to portray our nation as safe and civilized in order not to jeopardize the general population of tourist that hopes to go to a nation without worrying about high crime rates or civil unrest.

2. Project Plan

2.1 Project Team Organization

Chew Jing Kai - Team LeaderFreddy Goh - MemberLiang Jian Lin - MemberLindsey Tan - Member

2.2 Project Schedule

Nanyang Polytechnic / SIT 3


2.3 Software Tools Used for Development

2.3.1 Facebook Platform

It provides a rich set of high-level platform components for third-party developers to integrate with their Facebook applications or external websites.

Graph API allows developers to read and write data, from and to Facebook.

Authentication enables applications to interact with the Graph API on behalf of Facebook users by providing a single-sign on mechanism.

iFrames allows applications to be hosted separately from Facebook but still operate within it.

Facebook Connect enables Facebook users to log on to external websites or applications with their account. Users would be able to post updates and information to their Facebook profile.

2.3.2 WAMP (Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP)

Windows is an operating system that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) platform for developers to create software applications.

Apache HTTP Server is a freely available and open-source web server that helps to deliver web content through the internet.

MySQL database management software allows users to create relational databases to store data. It is multi-threaded and provides high performance support.



PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language that allows developers to create dynamic web pages using HTML.

3. Target Audience

Our main focus as the official tourism board of Ferduland is to attract and portray Ferduland as an excellent tourist destination for people of all age groups. As such, we have identified several audience groups that we hoped to reach out to in order for our campaign to be successful. We will be concentrating majority of our marketing efforts in engaging adults between the ages of 20s to 40s as this is the group of people that are likely to be financially independent and are legally able to make their own decision without the intervention of their parents or guardian. This age group are also targeted as they are more likely to have a wide network of friends on various social media platforms such as Facebook that could help to spread the words of our country to their friends and families, allowing us to reach an even bigger audience base without extra efforts.

Local service providers such as freelance drivers and tour guides are also on our list of target audiences as we would want them to advertise their services to prospective tourists. This would also give rise to possible collaboration between service providers to cater to specialized group of tourists so that they would have a positive experience while in the country.

The last on the list would be overseas schools. By encouraging the schools to organise overseas study trips, not only would their students be able to experience a different way of culture and possibly education, it can also help us, as the tourism board to set a positive impression into the minds of young students.

Our identified competitors are the Tourism Board of Singapore and the Tourism Board of Malaysia.



4. System Description

System Overview

Check In - An application that allows users to check-in and enjoy benefits when visiting spot of interests.

Find a Travel Companion - An application that allows users to find a partner to travel together.

Itinerary Helper - An application that allows users to plan a list of places to visit during their trip.

Tour Package - An application that allows users to purchase promotional tour package.

Hotel Reservation - An application that allows users to make hotel reservation.

Journal Contest - An application that allows users to win a trip to Ferduland through tweeting contest.

Ask the Expat - An application that allows users to ask and answer questions about Ferduland.

Study Trip - An application that allows students to travel to Ferduland for educational tour.



5. System Implementation

5.1 Check In

Check In

Features Publish check in Navigation map that pinpoints to the user’s current location Reference map with markers placed on all participating locations Notifying user through their choice of notification methods (Email, Facebook message and

SMS)



Lucky Draw

Features View lucky draw information View past lucky draw winners



Check-in Badges

Features Collection of check in badges Degree of promotional offers is determined by the number of badges collected List of check in made by user Lucky draw chance will be given for check in made at lucky draw participating location. Bonus lucky draw chances will be given to those who are from the event group (Find a

Travel Companion application). The number of bonus chances given is determined by the number of people in the event group.



Admin Panel

Features Select participating locations from a list of previously participated locations Search for new location with autocomplete map suggestion Dynamic resizable area(radius) search Administration of lucky draw



5.2 Find a Travel Companion

Find a Travel Companion

Features Search/sort/filter participatory content dynamically Option for profile to be taken off public listing



Event Invitation

Features Create event group Notify and invite user to event group



5.3 Itinerary Helper

Features Amount of plan-able columns determined by dropdown box Preview of the pre-defined location on mouseover Top 5 check in location under “Popular spots” All pre-defined locations sorted into different category

Features Location is draggable into the “Days” column



Features Step by step guide to using the application

Features Finished Itinerary can be printed Option to save the itinerary for future use



Features Creation of new pre-defined location

Features View of all pre-defined location Option to delete the pre-defined location



Features Editing the pre-defined location Option to delete the pre-defined location

Features View of all who have used the application



Features Assigning a pre-defined location to a checkin location

Features Creating a new category Option to edit existing category Option to delete existing category



5.4 Tour Package

Features Show the price and description of the promotion Countdown timer for the duration of the promotion Show the purchasable quantity left Show if there is an upcoming promotion Option to see past transaction(s) Option to purchase the promotion Option to purchase multiple unit of promotion



Features Show past PayPal transaction ID Show past transaction date Show past transaction purchase quantity Preview of the purchased promotion

Features Allows the user to pay using PayPal



Features User confirms PayPal payment

Features Viewing a “Current” promotion Option to create a new “Upcoming” promotion



Features Viewing a “Current” promotion Option to edit an “Upcoming” promotion Option to delete an “Upcoming” promotion

Features Show past promotion Show preview of promotion content



Features Show past transaction of a selected promotion



5.5 Hotel Reservation

This feature would allow the tourist to make their hotel reservations through our application. As an encouragement to using our application, those that make their hotel reservation through the application will be able to enjoy a cheaper rate as compared to other means of reservation. Also, tourist would be able to make payment for their reservation through PayPal in order to secure their preferred room.

User will be presented with this image if this is their first visit to the application. They will have to click on this image for them to continue to use the application.



User will have to like our Facebook page in order to use the application.



User will choose their start and end date by clicking on the calendar icon. They have to choose the number of guests who will be staying at the hotel as well.



User will choose their preferred room by clicking on the radio button. If the room of that date is fully booked, it will be indicated.



User fill in their particulars and a reservation summary is shown on the right to show the users the information they have chosen previously.



User will confirm their details of the reservation before making payment through PayPal.



The amount to pay will be shown and user have to login to PayPal to make payment.



Users have to agree to the terms and condition before proceeding.



After the user pays the amount through PayPal, the room will be reserved for them. It will redirect them back to the Thank You Page.



A Thank You page will be shown and user has to check their email for more information.



This admin page is made available to those who are granted admin privileges. This image above shows the visitors who have used this application.



This admin page is made available to those who are granted admin privileges. This image shows the total number of different types of reservations rooms being booked.



This admin page is made available to those who are granted admin privileges. This image shows the report analysis of the user’s details and payment status.



5.6 Journal Contest

Users would tweet in less than 140 words on how much they wish to travel to Ferduland. Their entries will then be displayed and people would be able to vote for it. The entry with the highest number of votes per month will win a free trip to Ferduland. The monthly winners will also be displayed and the vote count per month will be displayed in the form of a bar chart.

User will be presented with this image if this is their first visit to the application. They will have to click on this image for them to continue to use the application.



User will have to like our Facebook page for them to continue to use the application.



This is the application main page when user first entered. They have a list of options to choose from as shown in the image above. The ‘View Admin Page’ button is shown only if the user is given admin rights.



If the user chooses to ‘Participate in Contest’ then the above image will be shown. The user will first need to have a twitter account in order to participate then he/she will have to authorize the application for them to take part in the contest.



Then the contestant will be presented with this image for them to tweet in less than 140 words or less on why they would want to travel to Ferduland.

Upon successfully submission, they will be presented with this image.



If they already participated within the current month, they will be presented with this image. Each user can only participated 1 time per month. They will have to take part the next month if they wish to.



All the entries submitted by the contestants will be displayed on this book. The users can click on the book and it will flip accordingly. They can also make use of the dropdown list to navigate to the page they want. Upon reading any entry they like, they may click on the ‘Vote’ button and it will be processed accordingly.



The votes of the current month will be displayed in the form of a bar chart. The bar chart will show the top 5 tweets of the month. The user may also choose to see results from the previous month by choosing it from the dropdown list. The table will show the total number of votes casted by voters.



This table will show the winner of the month.



This admin page is made available to those who are granted admin privileges. This image shows the visitors who have used this application.



This admin page is made available to those who are granted admin privileges. The admin will be able to add sentiment analysis words and give the points for each word into the database.



This admin page is made available to those who are granted admin privileges. The admin will be able to see the sentiment analysis report when the contestants have submitted an entry on why they want to travel to Ferduland. Positive points will be given if there are positive words and 0 points will be given if there are negative words. Average points are calculated based on the total number of points divided by the total number of entries.



5.7 Ask the Expat

Allow user to post question, add tag to a question when they post

Allow user to answer question



Allow user to select the answer that they think is the best

Allow user to search for question by question title or tag



Allow admin to view the visitor of the application and the number of questions they have posted



5.8 Study Trip

Allow admin to create trip

Allow admin to view and update trip details



Allow admin to approve or reject trip request by school

Allow admin to view all reflection posted



Allow user to register an education account

Allow user to login with the account created to request for trip that is still available



Allow user to login with the account created to approve or reject trip application by student

Allow user to apply for trip organized by a school



Allow user to post reflection of a trip that he/she had gone for. They also can post the written reflection to their wall.



6. Monitor and Measuring Metrics

6.1. Social Media Channels

6.1.1 Facebook

It is a social network that allows users to create a profile, add other users as friends and exchange messages.

6.1.2 Twitter

It is a micro-blog that allows users to exchange small package of content such as short sentences, individual images or video links.

6.2. Measure Your Successes

6.2.1 HootSuite

It is able to track statistics on various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc).

6.2.2 Facebook Insights

It provides statistics for Facebook developers and Facebook page owners, to understand and analyze trends.

6.2.3 Social Mention

It has sentiment analysis which allows searching in multiple categories such as a Q&A site.



7. Problem Encountered

Check In Facebook Places has been deprecated; Facebook does not provide a way for developers to get

a user’s current location. Google Map’s set of coordinates is different from Facebook’s own set of coordinates. It

cannot be used directly on Facebook. Additional query is needed to find the closest correct match of Facebook’s set of coordinates.

In order to publish check in to a place, the place must have a Place Facebook Page. The distance between 2 points on Earth cannot be calculated using simple maths. A

Trigonometry equation that uses Haversine formula has to be used.

Find a Travel Companion In order to create an event, a valid Place Facebook Page and coordinates must be provided for

the location of the event.

Itinerary Helper JavaScript and DOM traversing Querying the correct Facebook page for the amount of check in Sorting the pre-defined location into the correct category

Tour Package Establishing a connection to PayPal Detecting a completed transaction Obtaining authorization token and payment ID

Hotel Reservation Difficulty getting users to make payment through PayPal

Journal Contest Authenticating Twitter with Facebook Difficulty getting the graph to display vote results dynamically



8. Future Enhancements

Check In Include user’s current location on the reference map. If the user is at a participating location,

the marker will change colour to tell the user that he/she is currently at a participating location.

Additional integration with Itinerary Helper application. Change the current list of check in into a map, depicting places that the user had travelled so far with details such as day and time; like a journal map.

Find a Travel Companion Private chat with webcam capability Integration with Skype to allow users to communicate through mobile devices.

Itinerary Helper Allow multiple saved itinerary Exporting itinerary as XML format Allow creation of user defined location Map implementation Incorporate itinerary into Tour Package application

Tour Package Allow service providers to register and advertise Allow service providers to collaborate Allow alternative payment mode other than PayPal

Hotel Reservation Having more than one hotel for users to choose from

Journal Contest Notify winner through Facebook message/SMS Allow contestants to share their journal entries on their wall so their friends will know and be

able to vote for it.

Ask the Expat Adding a delete function for the admin so that if there is any question that is spam, the admin

can delete those questions. The topic in the current question board is sorted according by the newest question posted.

What could be improved is to implement sorting for more columns like question title and the asker of the question.

Study trip Adding a function to allow school to view the reflection posted by the student. Trip registration by school and trip application by student can only apply. They cannot cancel

it once they have applied. Adding a function to allow them to cancel in the event they cannot make it at the last minute would make the application better.

Adding a function to allow school to invite their student to participate through Facebook message would also make the application better.



9. Conclusion

One of the core concepts of social media applications would be for developers to take into consideration the user’s impression and experience alongside the feasibility and functionality as any negative feedback could potentially reach out to millions of other potential users or customers. In a similar fashion, positive feedbacks could effectively bring our application and services to millions of others.

As the Tourism Board of Ferduland, we are concerned with providing our guests with excellent services and hope that they will leave the country with memorable memories. In order to achieve that aim, we would have to begin from the analysis of the mentality of our targeted audience group which is classified into 3 main categories namely: “Free and Easy Travelers”, “Guided Tour Travelers” and “Exchange Students”.

It is only after we understand how our targeted audience would react and behave, then would we be able to design and develop applications that could fulfil the core functionality and to enhance the overall user experience.

In the midst of developing our application that could fulfil the criteria of functionality and user experience, our team met with various limitations such as the depreciation of the Facebook Places API and PayPal’s security implementation that disables all PayPal operation within an iFrame which is required by Facebook to load our application.

Therefore, overcoming these limitations within the deadline became our next immediate task as the functionality of the application would be affected.

While we could proceed without overcoming these limitations, we took into consideration that we have become too reliant on the internet to close in on the distance between us and our targeted audience group. As such, we have to design our application to fulfill their top priorities such as security and privacy. This is especially important on social media platforms because at the moment, there is no implementation that could differentiate a genuine user from a fake amongst the millions of registered user.

To conclude, social media may have presented to individuals and business owners a whole range of opportunities to reach out to their targeted audience, but developers should not neglect privacy and security just because this power of convenience is easily obtained.

It is only when the concerns of their users are properly addressed and resolved, then would they be able to ensure continual use of their application and bring about value to their brand and product.



10. Appendix

10.1 Deployment Guide

Hardware Configuration DeploymentInstalling Apache HTTP server

1. For Apache HTTP, open the Apache installer in the “installers” folder, follow the step by step installation.

2. At the “Install to..” segment click on “Change” and use “C:\Apache2.2\” instead and click OK.

3. Finish the rest of the installation and you are done.

Configuring Apache HTTP server1. First create a folder “C:\www”.2. Go to “C:\Apache2.2\conf”, replace the httpd.conf file with the one in the installers folder. 3. Stop and start Apache server again so that the changes can take effect.

Add Apache bin folder to PATH1. Start -> right click “Computer” -> Properties 2. Click “Advanced system settings”. 3. Click “Environment Variables…”. 4. Look for “Path” Variable under “System variables”, select it then click “Edit”.5. Add “;C:\Apache2.2\bin” to the end of the line. (Important: Don’t forget to put a semi-colon

[;] before the Apache bin folder path.)

PHP Installation1. In the Installers folder, there is a PHP folder and inside it, there is a php-5.3.3-Win32-VC6-

x86.zip, right click and select extract all. 2. Set the location to “C:\php” and click “Extract” 3. Follow the steps in “Add Apache bin folder to PATH” to add this php folder to the Path

system variable. This time add “;C:/php” to the end.

Configuring PHP1. Go to “C:\ php\”, replace the php.ini file with the one in the installers folder2. Restart Apache2.2 using the Services console.

MySQL Server Installation1. Run the MySQL server installer file mysql-5.5.21-win32.msi in the Installers folder, in the

MySQL folder.2. Finish the installation with the default settings.

MySQL Workbench Installation1. Install the “Visual C++ 2010 Redistribution Package x86” vcredist_x86.exe 2. Install the “.NET 4.0 Client Profile” dotNetFx40_Client_x86_x64.exe3. Run the MySQL workbench installer file in the Installers folder in the MySQL folder.4. Finish the installation with the default settings.

For the application to work, the database is needed. Import the Application Database.sql in the Installers folder using MySQL Workbench.

Application Deployment1. For deployment of application, put the whole project folder into the “C:\www” folder.



2. Make sure the settings at the facebook developers website application settings match the folder path.

3. For the config.php file in the project folder, make sure the app id, app secret, appnamespace match the one at the Facebook developers website application settings.

4. Make sure the appfolder match the path of your folder hierarchy.


IT3196 Final Project Report

Documents

social media

social media

granted admin

current promotion

upcoming promotion

defined location

targeted audience

upcoming promotion