Online Voting System by Sanghun Chi ECE345

Introduction Traditional voting system inefficient. Takes time and human resources. Does not give an instant Poll result. Hard to track who voted and who didn’t Online Voting System Instant Poll result Easy to keep track of voters Use of Internet

Project Objective Develop an web based voting system to be used in ECE department or other departments. Must be Database driven in order to keep track of voters. Administrator and user level access. Firmly understand web technology such as CGI, SQL and Perl.

Original Design Use an existing personal web account. Unix compatible server. CGI bin available w/ Perl. mySQL database available w/ Perl DBI module. Move to NT server when finished. Perl available. Microsoft SQL available with virtually no difference in syntax.

System Structure Web server: UNIX or NT system with PERL interpreter w/ database interface. Database: mySQL or SQL compatible. Client: Internet ready with a browser. Language: PERL, SQL, HTML, Javascript.

Technology Description(1) PERL: A popular parsing script language used to write CGI applications. mySQL or SQL: Structured Query Language, a relational database system. HTML, DHTML and Javascript: Central language in creating an interactive web page.

Technology Description(2) CGI: Common Gate Interface, an interface to a software in a server. DBI: Database Interface, need database driver to work. Dependent upon Database system.

Administrator Interface

User Interface

Problems and Challenges Difficulty debugging Perl scripts. Started with limited knowledge in Perl and SQL, leading to making numerous changes because of limitations on Perl and SQL. The differences between NT and Unix servers with Perl and SQL.

Recommendations Fully implement the Online Voting System to ECE NT servers. Use Bluestem for authentication. Add users automatically using PH system. Implement and Deadline to vote feature.

Question?