Software Development

  Assignment 1 Guide

Investigation Phase - Output Form Design

Introduction

Outputs of your program

Task D: Draw a draft output form

Carry out the Task

Introduction

Objectives

This guide  will help you to: -   

·   Complete the second part of assignment 1:task d - Output Form Design

You should have a copy of  following two assignment documents.

Assignment Scenario

Assignment 1: Investigating the problem

Outputs of your program

You should have drawn an input form already for Assignment 1 Task d. To complete this task, you also need to draw an output form.

Your Seed Program: 

The outputs of your program are related to the things the user wants to know, the end results. Remember, the clients wants the program to do the following...

"The program must calculate how much of each seed type should be sown, and how many whole bags of each seed must be purchased."

~~ Outputs ~~

So the outputs of your program must be-

1. amount of lawn seeds in grams

2. number of bags of lawn seed

3. amount of hay meadow seeds in grams

4. number of bags of hay meadow seed

Now that you have a list of outputs to your program - items 1 to 4 above - you need to draw an output form that will display the appropriate information.

Task D. Draw a Draft Output Form

So, how do you draw an input form? Since your output form will display information then you will not need control on the form that accept user input, such as textboxes.  You will mostly need controls that display information such as labels.

~~ Sketching an Output Form ~~

Lets investigate which input controls could be used for each number above.

Possibly, the only output controls you could use are...

Icon	Control Name	What it looks like on the form	What it is for
	Label		Used for displaying information to the user and labelling other controls
	PictureBox		You can display pictures inside this control
	CommandButton		The user clicks the command button.  E.g. OK, Cancel etc.

Although the command button is not an output control, you will probably want one on your form for allowing the user to end the program.  Perhaps you may want to include another one for the user to go back to the input form.

~~Activity~~

Activity A

Using paper and pencil, draw a quick sketch of your output form.  Remember, you can include pictures on your form to make it look more attractive.  You can also change the colour of the form and the labels.  You may also want to include command buttons for navigation and for ending the program.

Carry out the Task

Using a word processor, draw your output form using your sketch from activity A for reference.  You will need to draw all the controls you think will be needed. 

Write your name at the top of your document header. The structure of your document should be as follows:-

 Assignment 1: Investigating the Problem:

      Task d: Draft Output Form

Your draft output form drawing should go here.

Underneath you should include annotation, explaining what your form does and how it will work.
  

Have you finished all the tasks and handed them in? 

If so - well done.