by Alisha Kamat
Microsoft Engage 2022 Mentee | GSoC 2022 Contributor

The application is based on the 2nd project (data analytics for the automotive sector) and provides quantitative insights into the car industry

Application concept and overview

CarDB is designed to be a freemium application with the B2C features open to all (unregistered) users
and the advanced B2B features (such as detailed analytics) available to only the registered users.

UI design principles

The application adopts a clean, minimalistic, responsive and intuitive UI design

Agile Methodology - Scrum

Features of the Application

B2C features

1. Provides B2C users with a list of specification details based on a number of filtering criteria
2. Keeps the users informed about the most popular choices (of Make, Model, Fuel Type, etc.) among different groups

B2B features

1. Provides B2B users (industry experts) with an in-depth analysis of the trends in the automobile industry based on different filtering criteria
2. B2C features available for all users; B2B features available for only registered users
3. Provides demography based details and various analytics
4. Supplies information to automobile experts related to total sales and revenue of the industry so far
5. Both grid and graph visualisations have been enabled for B2B as well as B2C users

Admin features

Allows admin access to perform CRUD functionality for

1. Data maintenance
2. User management

Process flow diagram (Top level)

Database schema

Note: The demography table isn't entirely optimized in the current form. Ideally it should be split into several smaller tables. For the prototype, I've prioritized simplicity over optimization to reduce the administrative overheads.

Challenges

1. Industry knowledge - The complexity was not just on the technical side but also had the challenge of learning about a completely new field - automobile industry.
2. Creating realistic datasets - Even before starting on the application design, the bigger challenge for me was to first create the realistic datasets for this application to work well, without falling in the garbage-in-garbage-out trap.
3. Code reusability - My original application on the local server was optimized for code reusability. However due to problems encountered after hosting it online (possibly due to cross-platform compatibility issues), I had to drop the guard a little (and allow a little code duplication) so I could build a single codebase that works locally as well as online.
4. Time management - Out of the 3.5 weeks we had for this program, my final exams took up 2.5 weeks, splitting the focus, effort and time for 2 high priority tasks.

Future Scope

1. Provide a separate detailed popup page for each car specifications along with individual car images
2. Include a 'User Review' section
3. Q&A section and discussion forum for increasing user engagement and time spent on the website
4. Comparison section for 2 or multiple cars
5. Show different financing options and tools (like EMI calculator)
6. Include a predictive analysis feature that allows industry experts to understand future market trends
7. Provide analysis results to users in textual format (conversational)
8. Have transactional level data to help provide better and diverse analysis results to users
9. Allow uploading of csv file for adding data through admin screens of the database to save data entry effort for bigger datasets

Tech Stack

     

Requirements

• Software

  • XAMPP version 3.3.0 or higher
  • PHP version 7.4.22 or higher
  • MySQL version 10.4.19 or higher

• Hardware

  • 4 GB RAM or higher
  • An open and analytical mind :)

Instructions for setup

1. Clone this repository using git clone https://github.com/alisha-kamat/Microsoft-Engage-2022
2. Move the Microsoft-Engage-2022 folder to C:\xampp\htdocs
3. Run the http://localhost/Microsoft-Engage-2022/admin/setup-db.php file to setup the database on your local machine
4. The website is now running on http://localhost/Microsoft-Engage-2022/homepage
5. For accessing the admin pages:
   
   • Username: cdbadmin
   • Password: cdbpw

Troubleshooting tips

Issue	Solution
The website is not loading i.e. URL in point 4 above is not working	Ensure all the files have been copied, without errors, to replicate the github structure Locate the .htaccess file and move it into the right directory Also ensure that Apache and MySQL are running
The website is loading but the tables and graphs are missing	Use phpMyAdmin or MySQL Workbench to check whether the database and tables have been created Also ensure that the data insertion scripts have been executed successfully

Links

• Demo Video
• Deployed Website
• Preliminary UI Design
- Presented to mentor in the second team meet
• Sprint Document
• Project Timeline

List of screens

HomePage

Research

Overview	Car Research

Analytics

Registration	Login

Dashboard	Region	Age

Gender	Colour

Admin Screens

Admin login	Admin Dashboard

View Specs records	Edit Specs data	Add Specs record

View Sales records	Edit Sales data	Add Sales record

View Demography records	Edit Demography data	Add Demography record

View Users records	Edit Users data	Add Users record

Special acknowledgement

Shoutout to my mentor Parvinder Kaur ma'am for providing invaluable feedback and suggestions.

Need Help?

Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn