5. C
ONCLUSION
5.1 Overview
The two basic aims of the project were successfully identified and implemented. An
online geographically oriented business directory system has been designed and
implemented, which offers considerably enhanced functionality over a traditional
directory service. The primary business look up part of the system was tested thoroughly
on a MySQL database with 20,000 generated test entries. The shop part was tested on a
selection of XML database files describing both products and services and worked well,
although, as explained earlier, the XML structure opted for on day one may have been
too simplified. The smart form system has been tested for four different smart form types,
and there is no reason to believe that this system will not work for more detailed smart
form types. The user interface is intuitive, quick to load and, most importantly, accessible
to all users of the web, having been tested on the JAWS 5 screen reader.
Overall, the system has a robust, modular design, making full use of the power and
flexibility of PHP combined with MySQL and XML.
5.2 Future work
A potentially interesting academic avenue of research arising from this project could be,
as mentioned earlier, the question of how to design a reliable user ratings system that is
some way resistant to abuse. Also worth a project unto itself would be designing a system
for caching remote XML data sources on a central server, updating each either on a
regular basis or when the remote file is changed.
The possibilities presented by utilising remote XML files as easily maintainable data
sources are endless. Features such as online ordering, customisable shop layouts and even
graphics could be implemented at the shop end while still preserving the system`s overall
flexibility. Such features could be offered at minimal cost, thus giving even the smallest
businesses, which may otherwise have no web presence, the chance to compete for
customers on the web.
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