: VISUAL BASIC PROGRAMMING ASSIGNMENT

Commercial Applications Development

Major Project

You may work individually or in groups of not more than two.

Problem description

Eight clubs compete in a tenpin bowling competition. There are ten frames (sets of pins) and two balls are available if required by each competitor in each frame to knock down all pins. A “strike” is when all pins are knocked down with the first ball. A strike counts as 10 (there are ten pins) but also is affected by the scoring for the next two balls bowled. For example if a strike is bowled in the first frame and then a spare the score for the first ball is 20 (10 plus 10). If two strikes are bowled consecutively then 8 and 1 the score on the first strike ball is 28 (10 plus 10 plus 8) and on the second strike ball 19 (10 plus 8 plus 1). If a strike occurs in the last frame the competitor gets another frame and two more balls. Therefore a perfect game is 12 strikes (10 frames plus two more). If all pins are not knocked down with the first ball the remaining pins may be knocked down with the second ball. If this occurs it is referred to as a “spare”. A spare is also affected by the score of the next ball bowled in that if a 7 follows the spare the score for the spare (2^nd ball) is 17 (10 plus 7). If a spare is bowled in the last frame then the competitor gets another frame and one ball. If all pins are not knocked down by the two balls bowled for any given frame then the score is simply the number of pins knocked down. The maximum possible score in a game is 300.

There is an individual competition and a team competition. Teams consist of 4 competitors plus two reserves. Teams can be “mixed” i.e. have both men and women.

There are two categories of competitor: men and women. This could change in the future so it is best to allow for other options. One way of doing this is to list the categories on another sheet in the spreadsheet.

Individual competition

Competitors take turns for each frame. As each competitor is selected their score to that point should come up on screen preferably frame by frame not just a single number. For individual competition results the program must identify the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd men and 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd women.

Team Competition

For each team drop the worst member’s score then add all the remaining individual scores. Rank the teams and identify 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd.

Solution design

Competitor entry is ideally to be via a MS Word document which the clubs would submit. One document corresponds to one club’s entries. The name of the club should be in the first table. The Word document should then contain a table where each row consists of the competitor’s name and sex.

The data in the Word document is to be imported into MS Excel. The Excel component should be forms-based. User entry into the worksheets themselves is not desirable and will lose marks. A new competition should be able to be started in a user-friendly manner eg “Bedrock Tenpin Bowling Competition”. The competition date and time will need to be entered. The Word data import will need to occur for each of the 4 teams. In Excel each competitor should be assigned a unique number. There should be provision for on-screen correction of competitors’ details: name, sex and number entered. Teams may also need to be corrected. For team events competitors may be scratched and reserves promoted into their place. Competitors need to be identified by club also.

Results should be produced on screen in a convenient easy to read format including the competitor’s name, sex, club and total score. Placings from first to third should be highlighted in some fashion. There should be provision for the results to be exported back to MS Word in tabular form and also to PDF files.

Warning

Avoid attempting too much and not completing a solution which works to some extent. Build your solution in stages, for example get individual competitor processing working first before attempting team results.

Data

Some sample competitor data will be available on vUWS. Use this to test your program.

Marking

The system described above is a complete system which would earn high marks if all aspects work well. You may choose to omit some features if you find them too difficult or time consuming. If you omit some features you will receive a lower mark.

You must demonstrate expertise in VBA coding for a Pass grade. A project using normal Excel formulae and little or no VBA coding or forms will not pass. An important aspect of the project is the user interface, the system must be user-friendly, it must have a clean, easy-to-use, forms-based interface which demonstrates your knowledge of use of forms and controls such as buttons, boxes, labels, multi-pages etc. VBA code must be well-documented, modularised and controls must have appropriate names and captions.

Recommended sequence

1 Setup a worksheet with provision for a list of competitors and ten frames of two (20 columns)

2 Enter the names, club, sex for a team and enter a set of results

3 Your sheet should now correctly calculate total scores.

4 Sort the sheet into descending order and identify 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd men. Now loop through the results and identify 1^st woman, 2^nd woman, 3^rd woman.

5 This is the beginning of a pass level solution (including steps 6 & 7).

6 Now build a form to allow easy entry of scores for a given competitor. The form should display the score as each ball is bowled. Competitors take turns and should be able to be chosen using a combobox. Error trapping would be minimal. This is a basic pass @ approximately 50%.

7 Another form should be developed for display and calculation of final results. This will be a mid to high level pass i.e. 55-62.5% depending on ease of use, good design of forms and some elements of good coding style. Some user error minimisation methods may be evident.

8 Now you have a choice of the following extra components:

a) Another form for competitor details entry.

b) Team results (another worksheet may be useful)

c) Output of results to Word & pdf (easiest) plus ability to name the output files.

d) Importing of entrants from Word

e) Editing of competitors’ details

9 Assuming items 1 to 7 all work well, any two of the above in 8 will gain a credit, three of the above a distinction, all of the above a high distinction.

For credit grade and above, forms should be well-designed, attractive and easy to use. Code should be modular, showing good use of naming and inclusion of comments. User errors should have been considered and steps taken to minimise or prevent. Some form of in-system help for users is an excellent feature to include. Any weaknesses in the above criteria will downgrade the mark within a grade category, for example if two items in 8 have been completed for a credit and the forms have some faults, code is poorly laid out and no error trapping then only a basic credit @ approximately 67% would be applicable.

Submission

You may work individually or in groups of two. Anyone forming a group of more than two will be penalised. It is expected that you will demonstrate your system to the tutor in the last week or two of session as described in the Learning Guide. A schedule of when you will demonstrate will be released later. It is your responsibility to ensure you are able to demonstrate your system on whatever equipment is available, either laboratory computers or your own machine. If you are absent for the demonstration you must arrange another time. Projects will not be marked without demonstration. It is recommended that you carry out practice demonstrations beforehand to ensure all is in readiness. Last minute changes to code are not recommended as they often result in programs failing to work properly with heavy loss of marks. You will be asked questions about your project. Failure to satisfactorily answer questions posed will result in loss of marks or in severe cases be referred for academic misconduct. You must also upload a zipped file (WinZip) of your project to vUWS by the due date. Late submissions will attract standard UWS penalties of 10% per day.

Our website has a team of professional writers who can help you write any of your homework. They will write your papers from scratch. We also have a team of editors just to make sure all papers are of HIGH QUALITY & PLAGIARISM FREE. To make an Order you only need to click Ask A Question and we will direct you to our Order Page at WriteDemy. Then fill Our Order Form with all your assignment instructions. Select your deadline and pay for your paper. You will get it few hours before your set deadline.