Free Function Of Input Controls Research Paper Example

Input controls

The input controls play the role of receiving input data and/or signal from the user. After receiving data, the input controls also respond to the user by adjusting in accordance with the characteristics of the received data. The input controls can also receive input data from a different control. An example is a click event to checkbox option whose associated data can be displayed on the textbox control depending on how the system has been programmed. The response from the input control may be in the form of error message in the case where wrong data is entered by the user or where the control is used wrongly (Nelson, 2014, Gass, 2013).

Types of input control and their functions

There are various types of input controls that are incorporated within any user interface to offer an easy way of interaction with the system. Some of the controls include textbox control,, password control, checkbox, radio buttons, image control among others.
Password control permits the user to enter sensitive input such as passwords in the form of secret codes that ensures that no unauthorized user gets the right of entry in to the system and data files. The input texts entered are rendered in such a manner as to conceal the characters such as a sequence of asterisks. The user password method offers just light security protection to the system.. Nevertheless, it is masked by agents of users from observers who are casual. The password codes are transmitted to the server in plain text and thus can be read by anyone having low level access to the network (Baird, 2014, Sengupta & Dasgupta, 2013).
The textbox control is used to accept text data entries from the user. The text entries can be pure alphabetic characters, alphanumeric characters or even numeric data defined as text depending on the specification by system designers and/or programmers. The text entered can be short or long text in the form of strings such as names. It is associated with a single line text input. An attempt to enter wrong data item or type will prompt the system to send either warning or error message to the user through textbox control (Baird, 2014, Sengupta & Dasgupta, 2013).
Checkbox is another input control that allows the user to select two or more data items for input. The selected data items(s) can be processed directly by the system or displayed on a different control such as textbox or labels prior to final processing (Baird, 2014, Sengupta & Dasgupta, 2013).
The radio button controls are also input controls that permit users to select only a single option of a given data item out of the available options. The data item associated with the selected option button can also be processed directly when a click event to a command button is made or it can be displayed on a different control such as textbox or text area control before processing. Both checkbox and radio buttons thus have the role of reducing errors that could have occurred if users are allowed to input data directly from the keyboard (Baird, 2014, Sengupta & Dasgupta, 2013).

Data integrity errors

Data integrity error involves those errors that compromises the accuracy of data input to the system, resulting to inaccurate output. Some of the errors include design errors which results to program failing to conform to the system specifications. Next is missing characters in text entered which all goes through processing. Next is the transposition error which involves the interchange of characters within a word, text or number accidentally while typing. Omissions are also type of errors which may not be noticed in case input controls are not employed to send error messages to the user. Others include read errors, also called base calling errors, deletions, poor quality reads as well as routing errors due to other errors during the input of data such as uniform resource locators (URL). The presence of input data control will not allow these errors to proceed through processing without being identified and reported to the user (Patel & Jain, 2012).

Advantages and disadvantages of restricting user interfaces

Restricting user interfaces will mean that interactive features are reduced. This becomes advantageous in the sense that learning the system becomes easier and fast as the learner will have to master just a few features available. Restricting user interfaces is also a way of protecting the system in such a way that more experienced users will not get away of accessing and corrupting system files. The interface also becomes easier to design if only a handful of features are to be presented. In addition, the interfaces become simpler and easier to understand.
There are also limitations of restricting user interfaces. First, users will not be able to explore all the system components available in an easy way given that navigational features may be reduced to a certain extent. At times, the interface can become substandard when it is restricted to an extent of lacking some significant features. The interface and hence the system as whole may not be user friendly if users cannot easily navigate through it.

Web-based input for making a hotel reservation

The following shows user interface for online hotel reservation where customers or clients can carry out booking process or rooms and meals in advance.
The interface above consists of a form with two frames. The first frame helps the user to enter room details while the second frame is for entering meal details. Room numbers and dates are selected using the drop down arrow (combo box) as shown in the text boxes for the purpose of eliminating data entry errors. The amount and total amount will are stored within the database and thus will appear automatically within the respective textboxes depending on the room number, meal types and drink chosen by the client. Once all the text boxes are filled up, a click event to the command button update will save the details to the database, Delete will permanently remove the current entries. Cancel button will be used to do away with the current entry before the update command is clicked. The Exit button will allow the user to close the interface window.
The update command button also play the role of sending the entered details through the internet as long as the information is saved within the database. This implies that the details will not be sent through the internet if there is failure by the update button to save the details to the database of clients will

References

Nelson, J. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 20,140,354,576. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Gass, S. M. (2013). Input interaction and the second language learner. Routledge.
Baird, P. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,689,139. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Sengupta, S., & Dasgupta, R. (2013). Integration of functional and interface requirements of an web based software: a VDM based formal approach. In Proceeding of IASTED International Conference on Software Engineering (pp. 2013-796).
Patel, R. K., & Jain, M. (2012). NGS QC Toolkit: a toolkit for quality control of next generation sequencing data. PloS one, 7(2), e30619