Glossary and Information Sources - CMPUT301F13T13/StoryHoard GitHub Wiki

##Terminology we will be using:

Author: According to Wikipedia, an author is broadly defined as "the person who originated or gave existence to anything," and narrowly defined as "the originator of any written work". In our application, an author is a user who creates and/or edits stories.
url: Author reference date: Oct. 18, 2013.
User: According to Google, a user is "a person who uses or operates something," (Google search: definition of a user). In our application a user refers to anyone who uses the application. When they are solely reading stories, browsing stories, or annotating stories, they are simple users. When they are creating / editing stories, they take on the role of an author.
url: User reference date: Oct. 18, 2013.
Chapter: Refers to a story chapter, and is synonymous to the word "fragment" used in the project description (changed terminology from fragment to chapter to avoid confusion). It is synonymous to a "page" in a story that can have choices leading to other pages. According to thefreedictionary.com a chapter is one of the main divisions of a relatively lengthy piece of writing. url:Chapter reference date: Oct. 22, 2013.
Story: According to Wikipedia, a story (or narrative) is "any account of connected events presented to a reader or listener in a sequence of written or spoken words, or in a sequence of (moving) pictures"". In our application, a story refers to what an author can create and/or edit.
url:Narrative reference date: Oct. 18, 2013.
Local: Looking up the definition of local, we found it can be defined as : "Of, concerned with, or relating to a particular place or point in space." Local to us is relating to a particular place, and that is the phone's database. Stories stored locally are stored in the phone's database. url: local reference Date: Nov. 25, 2013
Locally Mirror: According to the following definition, data mirroring is "the act of copying data from one location to a storage device in real time...the information stored from the original location is always an exact copy of the data from the production device". We local mirroring to be an extension of caching. A story that has been locally mirrored is a story that has had an exact copy of the story on the server which it is mirroring. Users can read and edit and republish locally mirrored stories. There is no need for an internet connection since they are copied of the story on the server AT THE POINT AT WHICH THE STORY WAS MIRRORED. It is not updated whenever the original copy on the server is updated. Note that republishing them will overwrite any version that is currently on the server. Also note that as soon as a user downloads a published story by clicking on it, the story is automatically mirrored. Url: Data mirroring reference Date: Nov. 25, 2013
Cache: Cache is defined by google as "store away in hiding or for future use."We use a similar definition and apply it to stories. A cached story is one that the user has downloaded to their phone so that they are able to read it even without internet access whenever they want, i.e. a story is taken from the centralized server and saved linternally on the phone. Cache will be called download in our gui to be more user friendly. Note that for us, cache is a subset of locally mirror, which we implemented as an extension of cache. A user would not able to edit and re-upload a cached story, only view it. url: Cached reference date: Oct. 18, 2013.
Publish (story): Google defines publishing as the act of "[preparing] and issuing (a book, journal, or piece of music) for public sale." We modify this definition slightly in our app so that publishing a story means making it available to any other user, although not for public sale as in the definition. It is made available to other users by putting it in a server and making it accessible online.
url: Published Stories reference date: Oct. 18, 2013.
Create (story / chapter / choice): To create is to "evolve from one's own thought or imagination." In our application, the creation of a story is the act of actually creating a story. This involves specifying a title, an author, creating the first chapter, and then adding other chapters. This does not imply publishing the story. The creation of a chapter is writing the chapter's text, and if the author wants, adding choices to the chapter that will lead to another chapter. This can also involve adding an illustration to the chapter. The creation of a choice is creating the choice's text, and specifying what chapter it will jump to if selected. url: Create reference date: Oct. 22, 2013
Browse: Browse can be defined as "survey goods for sale in a leisurely and casual way." We modify this definition to looking through a list of available stories to see if there are any the user would like to read. An author can also browse through chapters of a story, which they will most likely be doing if they want to link two existing chapters together. url: Browse reference date: Oct. 18, 2013.
Read (a story): The verb read is defined as being able to "look at and comprehend the meaning of (written or printed matter) by interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed."In our application, we define reading as the act of selecting a story, either the user's own or someone else's, and reading the chapters that make up the story. The user does this by reading the first chapter of the story, and then selecting one of the choices available in that chapter to move on to the next chapter until the last chapter is reached (the end of the story).
url: Read reference date: Oct. 18, 2013.
Annotate (a chapter): To annotate is "to add notes to (a text or diagram) giving explanation or comment." In our application, authors/users will be able to annotate their story fragments if they choose. url: Annotate reference date: Oct. 18, 2013.
Photo: According to Google, a photo, or photograph, is a "picture made using a camera, in which an image is focused on to light-sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by chemical treatment, or stored digitally." In our application, a photo is an image as defined above, although it will always be a digital image, and it can be taken by a user/author or uploaded by a user/author from the gallery to incorporate it into a chapter. A photo in our application can also have a text annotation to go with it. Note that they are not the illustrations of chapters. url: Photograph reference date Oct. 18, 2013.
Illustration: According to Google, a illustration is a picture illustrating a book, newspaper, etc. We will use illustration to refer to the images uploaded by the author to annotate the chapter. url: Illustration reference date Oct. 22, 2013.
Choice: Links that allow travel between chapters. All chapters except for the story's initial chapter should have a previous chapter which links to the current chapter. url: Choice reference date Oct. 22, 2013.
Save(Story/Chapter): Takes the data from a modified story/chapter and pushes the changes to the phone. url: Save reference date Oct. 22, 2013.
Edit(chapter/story): Editing means to "modify" or to "adapt". Editing a chapter can involve changing the text, the choices, the illustration, and allowing for the posting of photos. Editing a story involves either changing the title or author information, or adding / modifying its chapters. Choices are currently not meant to be editable in our application. url: Modify reference date Oct. 22, 2013.
Images used for mockups:
http://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_category.php?id=177551 : Oct. 20, 2013 http://www.hdwpapers.com/castle_fantasy_art_scenery_wallpaper_alex_popescu-wallpapers.html : Oct. 21, 2013 http://www.hdwpapers.com/fantasy_castle_wallpaper-wallpapers.html : Oct. 20, 2013 http://www.hdwpapers.com/fantasy_unicorn_in_the_forest_wallpaper-wallpapers.html : Oct.21, 2013 http://www.hdwpapers.com/fantasy_castle_and_golden_dragon_wallpaper-wallpapers.html : Oct.20, 2013
Resources used for UI:
http://www.clker.com/clipart-camera-icon-5.html Nov.10
http://www.f-covers.com/facebook-cover/dull-brown-floral-pattern Nov.15
http://gothicbohemianstock.deviantart.com/art/Stock-Open-Book-85672857 Nov.15
http://bashcorpo.deviantart.com/art/Grungy-paper-texture-v-5-22966998 Nov.2
http://www.yay.se/resources/android-native-icons Nov.4
http://www.petervbrett.com/2012/07/06/the-quick-guide-to-becoming-a-well-rounded-fantasy-reader/ November.8
http://buzillo-stock.deviantart.com/art/texture018-110436495 Nov.11