So, for my midterm, I decided to expand on my original PHP application, WearCaster. It was originally a little PHP app that pulled up New York City temperature readings (from Yahoo! Weather RSS feed). Based on my temperature parameters, WearCaster would let me know what I needed to wear before I step out the door. Here’s my original blog post documenting it. For the midterm, to avoid potential conflict with another company/individual, I changed the name (apparently, wearcaster.com, has been bought/squatted).

Please follow this link to see my presentation of Fashion Forecast for Intro to Computational Media for the Web.

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df35f6dh_111dq37wjhh

This time….

1. Plug your Zip Code anywhere in the US
2. Choose a Wardrobe based on your personal fashion preference
3. It’s Guy + Girl friendly so nobody get’s left out!
4. More choices: Keep hitting that refresh button to see new outfits!

So, during my brainstorming for Fashion Forecast, here were features I wanted to implement. However, due to the 1-week Midterm deadline turnaround, I wasn’t able to get them all here. However, it’s something to think about for future implementation.

1.  Wardrobe Selection based on fashion brand [Was able to implement]

2. Ability for user to customize Fashion Forecast with their own closet selections (via uploaded photo content). [PHP/Database creation, user accounts required. Haven't explored/learned that yet]

3. More weather variables (precipitation). [Found weather RSS feeds to be more complicated to parse, still haven't found a good service quite yet]

Troubleshooting:

1. Setting Temperature:  Rather then write a series of LONG IF STATEMENTS, (ex: if $myTemp < 40 && $myTemp <= 55, etc.), for my temperature ranges, I created a function and variable that would fold that neatly to my two important functions (myAdvice function and the wardrobeImage function).

2. Randomizing Images (all 331 of them): How to generate random images directly from PHP to my web browser? After consulting with fellow peers, I made 2 variables. $folderName to generate the path to the proper image folder based on the temperature parameter, $imageName to generate the randomized images per clothing item (top, bottoms, accessory, etc). Together, $folderName and $imageName would write the direct file path to the images needed per category.

3. Outputting Advice: One of my issues with PHP was handling arrays. After much consultation, I managed to make my messy code alot neater by packaging it below in a series of arrays.

PS: I would also  like to thank my ITP peers for helping me out when I was in some tough spots. Corey Menscher, Rune Madsen! Beers/Donuts/Cliff Bars all around.

Alright, enough reading, please check out my latest improvements to Fashion Forecast.