African Technical Interns Developing
Internet Resources

Report Africalink Partnership Program
2 July 1998 - 17 September 1998

Kibryisfa Achamyeleh, has successfully completed a two month internship with SANGONeT as part of the AfricaLink Partnership program. The internship ran from 2 July - 17 September 1998. The overall aims of the internship were as follows:

1. To confidently use the application, Cold Fusion
2. To assist Mike Jensen in developing the Africa Connectivity database using Cold Fusion
3. To assist SANGONeT with any necessary database application

SANGONeT
Southern African NGO Network
PO Box 31 Johannesburg, 2000•South Africa
Longebank Building (13^th Floor)•187 Bree Street•Johannesburg
Tel: 27 11 838-6943/4•Fax: 27 11 492-1058

Tasks

During his stay, Kibry has accomplished the following work:

1. The African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Connect Database (http://www.wn.apc.org/africa)

[Editor Note: see http://paradigm.sn.apc.org/africa which appears to be optimized for use with MS InternetExplorer. Alternative, Netscape works well with http://paradigm.sn.apc.org/africa/indext.htm]

The AISI Connect database is an online database which provides information on the communication infrastructure in Africa, specifically Internet connectivity. This service is a prototype under development for the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) http://www.uneca.org, in support of AISI, http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi. The database is a prototype under development and it was necessary to make some modifications and additions to the database

Kibru completed the following tasks:

• Modifications on the Web database including the addition of new fields.
• Designing a new graphical user interface.
• Designing a new home page using java applet menus. Each menu glows when a mouse goes over it.
• A text based home page has also been designed for those users who are using text based browsers.
• All the search forms have been modified to take less space on the screen and also to look more user friendly.
• In some of the search forms additions and deletions of parameters have been made.
• Most of the search results pages have been modified into table and paragraph formats.
• Modifications have been made to some of the queries and also new query parameters have been added to some of the cold fusion files.

Kibru has agreed to continue working on the database from Addis together with Mike Jensen, in his own time.

2. User Support Database

SANGONeT has been using and maintaining a support database, operational in Cold Fusion, which records all calls logged by our users. The database is used to track problems, follow up on technical support and maintain good contact with our clients. A number of modifications were required on the database to fit in with the support team's needs.

Kibru undertook and completed the following tasks:

• Design and activation of a user data entry form when a new user did not exist on the database
• Modifications to update the software field automatically
• Inclusion of a field to monitor time
• Sorting of all reports needed by date and time

3. Value Added Services Database

SANGONeT has just designed a value added services database to track services we provide to our clients in a more systematic and thorough way. A new Web database interface was required for the database, in order to input all value added clients. The database links in with the user support database described above.

Kibru completed the following tasks:

• Designing a data entry screen for the database
• Searching the existing using database, bringing up a report and allowing data entry into 6 related tables.