Monday, January 24, 2005

IERI Utility

The detailed report is complete. The script is not the prettiest or most efficient, but it should get the job done. The script makes a number of calls to the database and works extensively with the dataset open. This has the potential of slowing things down, but the fairly linear nature should help somewhat with speed. Plus I don't expect a lot of people to be running reports at once. The portions of the sript dealing with the enacted analysis are particularly poorly written. Part of it is the complexity of the database design, which was necessitated due to the complex relationship between all the data. A lot of data pulled from the db is from other users reports. It's not displayed, but the work-arounds wouldn't be necessary if the SQL statements and scripting were better crafted.

Usability wise, the report is a bit unweildy if you're looking at a couple of activities that each have a number of sightings. A number of interface enhancements could improve things (such as turn-downs, a tabbed structure, and summary/drill-downs). But I think the report is readable regardless of the problems.

Still, this is just a temporary fix until a new version is available. Perpetually on the drawing board, but hopefully I'll get to it sometime this year.