Detailed project plan

Here's my preliminary weekly project plan. Dates refer to the beginning of that work week. Any comments are appreciated!

Now til Start:

• Phase 0: Getting development environment set up
  • Set up homepage, wiki, repositories, etc.

May 28

• Phase 1: Exploratory phase
  • Learn how to embed maps on a webpage.
  • Learn the relationship between Google Earth and Google Maps.
  • How are they the same, how are they different? What can you do with one that you can't do with the other?
  • Explore KML and general XML.
  • Explore Google Earth and Google Maps APIs.
  • Create a pie chart using KML.

June 4

• Finish exploratory work if neccessary.
• Phase 2: Finalize design
  • Page by page description of what the user sees.
  • How to input data. Are they going to upload files, input in a text box? What format?
  • How to export data. Format? Data persistence? Can users store data, results, maps, etc.?
  • What is the viewer? Google earth? Google maps?
  • How large are the pie charts going to be in comparison with the geography? How do we deal with the problem of overlapping pie charts?
  • How are we going to color the pie charts? What if there are large numbers of haplotypes, how do we color them all distinctly and usefully?
  • The results of these decisions will be a comprehensive design document posted on the wiki.

June 11

• Implement the basic pie chart generation functionality. Functionality should include:
  • Basic import of data.
  • Basic KML output writer.
  • Function that draws a pie chart.
  • Function that plots objects (working up to pie charts, but starting with placemarks) on a map.
• Write corresponding documentation.

June 18

• Combine pie chart generation and chart plotting functionality.
• Write the functions that allow adjustments to the output (e.g. changing pie sizes, allowing the user to change haplotype colors, etc).
• Write corresponding documentation.

June 18

• Work on a function that allows the user to move pie charts around spatially (and to save those movements).
• Write corresponding documentation.

June 25

• Write the functions that display the KML back to the browser.
• Write corresponding documentation.

July 2

• Prepare for Botany conference.
• Get code submitted to Google for midterm code check in.
• Get a prototype of the viewer available for download.
• Make sure I'm meeting the midterm evaluation criteria

July 9

• Work on bugs that arose from earlier code.
• Revisit full data manager design. Finalize UI design.

July 16

• Implement UI for the data import functionality.
• Expand (?) data files that are acceptable (haplotype, genotype, etc.)
• Write the corresponding documentation.

July 23

• Implement UI for customizing data analysis.
  • Example: the user should be able to select what loci/alleles/populations to include/exclude in the analyses.

July 30

• Implement UI for output data manipulation.
  • Example: the user should be able to change the relative pie sizes, move pies around, change haplotype colors, etc.

August 6

• Implement functions that allow the user to save the map visualization (e.g. jpg) or to save the KML file.

August 13

• Perform user tests.
• Ensure that the viewer and the data manager are well integrated.
• Deposit code with Google.
• Update website with new product, and all documentation.

August 20

• Done coding. Final evaluations.