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Welcome to the Project Wiki for the Kinetic Models Site!

This will serve as a place in which we can centralize our plans for the Kinetics Site. This page will contain an overview of the plan and our current status. Pages on the side will contain current notes on what each file already has as well as what is incomplete or needs to be added.

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Project Objective Statement

The goal for this website is to add more robust and user-friendly searching functionality for the database of combustion kinetics. In particular the goals of this project will be focused specifically on the needs of the graduate students within the lab in addition to the goals of the average user from the combustion chemistry community. We intend to look at the search forms on sites like PrIMe, NIST, CloudFlame, and RESPECTH and try to improve our User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) based on what they've already done.

This can mean:

• Expanding the database search forms to allow for greater searching flexibility;
• Bringing the website up to the latest standards within the Django framework;
• Incorporating frameworks like jQuery, Bootstrap, and FontAwesome to meet trends in modern web design;
• Creating custom stylesheets and logos to emphasize the distinction between pr.omethe.us and its older competitors.

Because the current priority is the searching functionality of the website, a large portion of the work will necessarily be done by studying the existing models. The first step involves looking at the models and their fields, and deciding how to design a form to search through them as thoroughly and intuitively as possible. Then we will have to create new Django Forms objects to add to existing views, and write functions that utilize Django's model-query syntax to pull the desired results succinctly and pythonically. Once a branch of the website has code for this added searching functionality, the plan according to Dr. West is to get a dedicated machine in 009G on which we can further develop the website via localhost:8000.

At that point we will need to run tests on the website, first for the accuracy and completeness of the search results. One challenge in particular will be writing automated tests using Django's self-testing syntax for the database searches, since the search results themselves may change as more entries are added to the database. A second stage of testing will involve the website's user-friendliness, working closely with the other members of the CoMoChEng group. The goal is to have the new search forms complete and ready for UI/UX feedback by the end of February.

At that point we can transition into experimenting with styling the website. I am currently studying different tools for creating and manipulating dynamic graphics on webpages. Coming into the lab with no experience with JavaScript and with basic experience with HTML and CSS, I am working independently to become more proficient in web development idioms. I have been pursuing the front-end web development certification on FreeCodeCamp.com, which covers modern HTML/CSS, JQuery, BootStrap, and functional and object-oriented JavaScript. I have also begun reading Supercharged JavaScript Graphics, by Raffaele Cecco. I plan to complete both the online course and the book by the end of February, to coincide with the completion of the new search forms.