Booking Agent

A streamlined approach to scheduling OCCC visits, organizing inmates and visitors

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thepullrequests

HACC Repository for "The Pull Requests" team

Team Members

  • Sid Savara
  • Nicole Hanabusa
  • Kristin Kogasaka
  • Cameron Ahana
  • Thomas Wassum
  • Katerina Walter
  • Kimberly Shigeta

Running the Prototype

  • This is a plugin that you install into a Wordpress install, as you would any other plugin
  • Due to the amount of setup needed and user documentation not ready yet, recommend going to http://cal.sidsavara.com and login with either login occc, password occc (for staff view) or login harry, password harry (for visitor view).
  • There is also a .wpress file uploaded. If you have a wordpress install, you can install the all-in-one migration plugin ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration/ ) and use that file

Devpost Info

1. Clearly describe the problem you addressed

OCCC Visitor scheduling is currently done manually via post-its, spreadsheets and phone calls. This system is error pront and time intensive.

2. Tell the story behind your project

I wanted to find a way to make something easy to maintain and deploy. I noticed that http://dps.hawaii.gov/ is already a Wordpress website: that means someone is already managing a MySQL install with PHP, and already managing Wordpress specifically. I thought - why not leverage this skillset. The plugin can either be installed directly in this same Wordpress installation, or it can be installed separately in a separate Wordpress installation.

3. Explain the impact if your solution were to be implemented

OCCC staff currently struggle with keeping up with demand for visits, as well as important activities such as the large amount of notes and paperwork being tracked. This system will help them with managing communications, managing scheduling and especially with tracking all variety of notes and relationships between inmates and visitors.

4. Explain why your solution is sustainable

The main reason I chose the technologies and platform I did was because I felt this was the most realistic combination of technologies and platform for technical staff to maintain. I did not want to add a new stack. So I feel it's very sustainable from an infrastructure standpoint

It is also sustainable from a development standpoint, because I tried to modularize the plugin (though I admit, some code is not as good as I would like due to the time frame and rushing). I tried to mimic the tables and spreadsheets intuitively in a MySQL database, so that it would be easy to report off and intuitive for future developers to customize.

I also went out of my way to avoid AJAX calls, even though on some screens I could have gained some response time if I had done so. I did this with the explicit intention of keeping it as a simple PHP + MySQL App

Finally, because I chose Wordpress as a platform, many security updates and performance increases will be handled automatically. I tried to use Wordpress APIs as much as I could, such as the way I modified the Dashboard, the Users Screen, the Menus and the way I generate tables. That way as the product gets better and more mature, and Wordpress keeps getting upgraded, this plugin will continue to match the look and feel and benefit from those patches.

5. Describe how your team worked with the Department Challenge Sponsor to identify and address key issues

I monitored discussion in the OCCC Slack Channel, Discussed with Denise, Judy and Tie (IT Staff) as well as messaged Erin (OCCC Staff) via direct message. A lot of what I gained was from the presentation and requirements documents

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