Grade 11 Social Network Program

[Mokusei]

Hello members of the forum. I have been given an IT project at school, for Grade 11. It is split into various phases, and my first phase is due for 30th July 2010.

It is a basic investigation and analysis of what the program should do and provide. We have been assigned the task of developing a simple offline social networking application in Delphi.

What I am kindly requesting from the forum members is that you please try and suggest various parts of a social networking application that does not use the Internet or networking at all that might be useful.

The reason I am asking this is because we have to submit official questionnaires with the project, and a forum questionnaire is one of mine. It is something most others will not think of doing.

This application will basically be a social networking application restricted to one computer, but multiple users can log into the application with their personal details. Only those users that have created an account can choose to be friends with each other and interact, etc. An offline Facebook with one PC and multiple accounts. But it cannot be that complex as that would be quite a task.

I will eventually create a poll to narrow all the possible features down to a manageable level. Thanks so much.

[Dean]

To start - I've never used Delphi, so I'm not sure of implementation, but using OO concepts...

I'd imagine the main component would be a profile (object?).
Then a way of saving the information (database?)
and then a way to link profiles

That's the basic system

[Mokusei]

We have only one section left over in Delphi at school and that's OOP, but we haven't yet done it, so I'm not familiar with it. What you have mentioned sounds very accurate though. I'll have a main way of interacting with the program (called a unit or form), then I will be using a database and SQL to interact with saved info. The profiles will be linked using database entries as well.

[LazerFazer]

At a very basic level. you'd need a profile, a database, and interaction between profiles. How you go about implementing the interaction portion is completely up to you. Obviously you'd need some sort of 'friend' concept, much like Facebook or any other networking site has. Then you'll need to allow interaction between friends, but not between strangers, so some sort of variable permission system would be necessary. In terms of interaction, beyond the basic 'add a friend' and 'message your friend' you should have something to keep the people interested...maybe photo sharing, video sharing, perhaps a 'points' system to encourage use of the more advanced features.

If you want to make it more complex you can allow people to design their own profile page. Since this is more of a stand-alone program, you can implement different widgets that would, for example, alert you when you have a 'friend' request, when you have new messages, when a video/picture/article/whatever mentions you, etc.

[Mokusei]

At a very basic level. you'd need a profile, a database, and interaction between profiles. How you go about implementing the interaction portion is completely up to you. Obviously you'd need some sort of 'friend' concept, much like Facebook or any other networking site has. Then you'll need to allow interaction between friends, but not between strangers, so some sort of variable permission system would be necessary. In terms of interaction, beyond the basic 'add a friend' and 'message your friend' you should have something to keep the people interested...maybe photo sharing, video sharing, perhaps a 'points' system to encourage use of the more advanced features.

If you want to make it more complex you can allow people to design their own profile page. Since this is more of a stand-alone program, you can implement different widgets that would, for example, alert you when you have a 'friend' request, when you have new messages, when a video/picture/article/whatever mentions you, etc.

Thanks for all these great ideas! That points system is also really cool. Maybe I can use that to unlock the use of various features within the program. Once you reach 15 points you can customize your profile's background colour, or use a picture, etc.