DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTERISED RESULT PROCESSING AND TRANSCRIPT GENERATING SYSTEM

DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTERISED RESULT PROCESSING AND TRANSCRIPT GENERATING SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0   INTRODUCTION

A system is a collection of inter-related and inter-connected components that work together to perform or carryout a specific task in order to accomplish a particular goal. For every system, security is a paramount issue. Due to multiple security incidents around the world and the loss of sensitive data, it has become necessary to put in place a mechanism to prevent unauthorized access into the server housing a sensitive system such as the Student Result Processing System through scripts run on the website. This project is therefore concerned with designing and implementing a Php/MySQL to serve as the security mechanism between the front-end and back-end of the already existing Student Result Processing System. The Student Result Processing System automatically handle students' activities in the Department ranging from student  registration, keeping of students' files for decision making, computation and generation of students' grade points and transcripts respectively.

1.1     STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The problems identified to be solved by this project include the following: 
·     The safety of students records located on the server. 
·     The location of administrator passwords in the script file easily accessible via the website. 
·     Easy access and available of student transcript on demand.     
1.2     PURPOSE OF STUDY 
The major purpose of this study is to design and implement a secure database system to record and manage student information and their result from year one to final year.   
1.3     SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY 
This project work will be of immense help in securing student details and results stored on the Student Result Processing System in the Departments of  Computer Science and prevent malicious attacks and ease the delay experienced in the manual examination result processing system. Below are the advantages of this project: 
·     Provide a security mechanism for the Students’ Result Processing System. 
·     To ensure reliability and transparency in the creation and computation of results 
·     It provides security mechanism to check student or staff mischievous act of changing marks or grades on the result sheet. 
·     The system is secure from unauthorized access that can effect changes in grades of students and generation of accurate and error free student results information is assured. 
·     The separation of the front end and the back end to ensure data stored on the server is secure. 
·     It will ensure high level quality service development of the management which will ensure that students are not subjected to undue suffering in collection of their transcript or clearance prior to the deployment for youth service. 
1.6   OBJECTIVES OF STUDY 
The aims and objectives of this project work are as follows: 
.     To place a safety mechanism in the Student Result Processing System and separate the front end from the back end.
.     It will ensure high level quality service development of the management which will ensure that students are not subjected to undue suffering in collection of their transcript or clearance prior to the deployment for youth service. . 
1.7  SCOPE OF STUDY 
This project work will cover the entire back-end protection of the Student Result Processing System in the Departments of Computer Science, print student transcript at the completion of student academy year in the school.  Process student registration and also staff registration, grant access to staff to allow them access the system. 
1.8   LIMITATIONS 
Realizing the financial and time constraints usually associated with students in project of this nature, there is no research carried out that does not experience some difficulties. This work is no exception; the following factors posed serious limitations to the research work.  
Financial constraints: a study like this nature is expected to be carried out on a broader base but because of lack of funds required, some function and programs could not be applied.
Time constraint: in the course of the study, time posed a serious problem in carrying out the test. The duration given for the conduct of this study was short.
Non-availability of materials: during the course of this research, there were non-availability of some critical documents and materials which were classified as confidential.
1.9   DEFINITION OF TERMS 
The following are the terms used in the work: 
1. DATA: In computing, data is a collection of observations that has been translated into a form that is more convenient to move or process for useful decision making. 
2. PROCESS: This is a series of actions that occur with respect to time in order to achieve a particular result. It is a program in execution. 
3. SECURITY: This is the something that provides a sense of protection against loss, attack, or harm. 
4. MECHANISM:  This includes the methods, procedures, or processes involved in the way something works or is done 
5. DESIGN: Design is the creation of a plan or architectural blueprints that is used for the development of software’s. 
6. DATABASE: This is an organized collection of data for easy retrieval and updating. 
7. SCALABILITY: Scalability is the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle a growing amount of work in a capable manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth. 
8. TESTING: This can be described as a process of establishing that a software has attained a specific degree of quality with respect to user and system requirements and it is free of errors. 
9. SOFTWARE: Software refers to the programs that control the hardware and produce the desired information or results. 
10. BACK-END: This specifies all the actions that are done on the server and the data stored there. 
11. FRONT-END: This specifies the actions carried out on the web browser of a client accessing the server.