Project Date: 2022

Project Abstract:

To create a sign in client to have students and other users sign into before using the universities machine shops and send the recorded data to an online database.

Project Description:

While I was working as CNC shop specialist at my university, I was assigned to create a sign in system for the machine shops. A simple google document setup could’ve worked – but I wanted to practice my coding skills and learn how to connect java and online databases. Turns out it is a lot simpler than I thought! The client is coded in Java and uses the Java Swing API for GUI creation. The GUI was created in the NetBeans IDE as it is easy to iterate GUI elements as it is drag and drop. The requirements were to record the students name, their NetID, a work plan the student plans to do, and a field for the students senior design team if applicable. The data is then recorded and a list of currently clocked in students are temporarily stored and displayed. This is helpful information for the shop monitors to quickly know how many students are currently using the shops (at the time of writing, the school had a limit on students in a room due to the COVID-19 pandemic). When the user punches out, the data is then appended to the MySQL database using the JConnector API. In case a user were to forget to punch out of the machine shop, all currently clocked in users are clocked out at the shop close time and appended to the database. This system was designed to be as foolproof and easy to use. For example, a user can not punch in unless all important fields are filled, and an error modal will pop up explaining the error. In the case a connection to the database can not be found, the data is stored locally on a csv file that can be uploaded when a connection is re-established. This was a fun little project that did not take as long as I thought it would and is currently deployed on several machines at Rutgers University.