CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU OJUKWU UNIVERSITY,ULI

P.O BOX 02

PROJECT REPORT

ON

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A CONVERSATONAL AI CHATBOT

BY

CALEB NWOSU EBERE

2019224029

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILEMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE

AWARD OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE ([Link]) DEGREE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

MR. PETER C. EZEANYEJI

JULY, 2023

1
 TITLE PAGE

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A CONVERSATONAL AI CHATBOT

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 CERTIFICATON PAGE

This is to certify that this research work was carried Out By Caleb Nwosu Ebere, with

Registration No: 2019224029 of Department under my close guidance and supervision.

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 DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to God for his enabling grace, and to all computer enthusiasts who

help to make life a pleasant experience.

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 APPROVAL PAGE

This is to certify that this project work, ―Design And Implementation Of A Conversatonal

AI Chatbot‖, was written by Caleb Nwosu Ebere with Registration number 2019224029

and has been read and approved for the award of (Degree) in the department of Computer

Science, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli

………………………………… ………………………….

Mr. Peter C. Ezeanyeji Date

(Project Supervisor)

………………………………… ………………………….

Prof. Ike Mgbeafulike Date

(Head of Department)

…………………………………

External Examiner

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I owe my indebtedness to my Supervisor Mr. Peter C. Ezeanyeji, The Head of Department

Prof. Ike Mgbeafulike, The Lecturers in the department of Computer Science, Book Authors

and Profound Scholars of existing/related research work for your moral support that

facilitated the successful completion of my 400Level. I am grateful to God Almighty and my

parent for their financial support in my career. I really appreciate you all for everything,

Thank you very much.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

CERTIFICATION

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

1.2 Statement of Problems

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

1.4 Significance of the Study

1.5 Scope of the Study

1.6 Limitations of the Study

1.7 Definitions of Terms

CHAPTER TWO:LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Theoretical Review

2.2 Review of related works

2.3Summary of Literature Review and Knowledge Gap

2.4 Historical Review of Chatbots

2.4.1 Theoretical Framework of Chatbot

2.4.2 Classification of Chatbots

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[Link] Overview of Chatbot User Registration

[Link] Online Chatbot User Registration

2.4.3 Usage of Online Chatbot Registration Forms

[Link] Chatbot Application Web Portal

2.4.4 Types of Web Portals

[Link] Database for Chatbot Application Web Portals

2.5 Merits of Integrating Databases in Web Applications

CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM ANALYSIS and METHODOLOGY

3.1 System Analysis

3.1.1 Analysis of the existing system

[Link] Weakness of the existing system

3.1.2 Analysis of the Proposed System

[Link] Advantages of the proposed system

[Link] High level model of the proposed system.

3.2 Methodology Adopted

CHAPTER FOUR: SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

4.1 Objectives of the Design

4.2 Control Center/Main Menu

4.3 The Submenus/Subsystems

4.4 System Specifications (choose specifications that are applicable to your work)

4.4.1 Database Development tool (if any)

4.4.2 Database Design and Structure (if any)

4.4.3 Math Specification (if any)

4.4.4 Program Module Specification (if any)

4.4.5 Input/output format

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4.4.6 Algorithm

4.4.7 Data Dictionary

4.5 System Flowchart (if any)

4.6 Object Diagrams (if any)

4.7 System Implementation

4.7.1 proposed System Requirements

[Link] Hardware Requirements

[Link] Software requirements

4.7.2 Program Development

[Link] Choice of programming Environment

4.7.3 System Testing

[Link] Test Plan

[Link] Test Data

[Link] Actual Test Result versus Expected Test Result

[Link] Performance evaluation

[Link] Limitations of the System

4.7.4 System Security

[Link] Password Protection (if any)

[Link] Authentication (if any)

[Link] Digital Signature (if any)

[Link] Cryptography (if any)

4.7.5 Training

4.7.6 Documentation

4.7.7System Conversion

[Link] Changeover Procedure

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[Link] Recommended Procedure

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Summary

5.2 Conclusion

5.3 Recommendation

REFERENCES

APPENDIX A - “SOURCE CODE”

APPENDIX B - “OBJECT PROGRAM”

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 ABSTRACT

A chatbot is an artificially intelligent software application used to conduct an online chat

conversation with a user in natural language via text or speech. The aim of the study is to

design and implementation of a conversatonal ai chatbot. In achieving this aim, the following

specific objectives were laid out to develop an application software that will analyze users‘

queries and understand users message and reply end-users using a responsive GUI similar to

a real person talking to the user. The motivation that led to the implementation of the

proposed system is that applicants are buzzing with a lot of questions and it‘s undoubtedly a

busy time for admissions departments responding to an influx of questions requiring fast

responses. Malicious chatbots are frequently used to fill chat rooms with spam and

advertisements, by mimicking human behaviour and conversations or to entice people into

revealing personal information, such as bank account numbers. The methodology adopted in

this study is the structured system analysis and design methodology (SSADM) which is a

technical approach for analyzing and designing an application or system by applying object

throughout the software development process. The programming language used is HTML,

CSS, JAVASCRIPT, PHP, SQL and JQUERY. The reason why web programming languages

was used is because, it is platform independent and it is a web based application. The

implementation of this proposed system will be beneficial to the academic field and the

society. Also, it provides a faster response time and provides round the clock (24/7) support.

The expected result is an computerized departmental chatbot application software that will

handles multiple requests simultaneously without compromising on the quality of

interactions, provide an answer to the query of the user efficiently and effectively and save

the time of the user in finding a specific academic task.

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The first chatbot was created by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966 and named as Eliza chatbot

which appeared as a psychotherapist who reacted to the client with essential inquiries. It gave

a deception of comprehension with scripted [Link] 1972 Kenneth Colby turned out with

a progressed chatbot Repel than Eliza which is a chatbot that could mimic an individual with

distrustful schizophrenia. Later on in 1988 an endeavor is made in making chatbots with AI

(Man-made consciousness) through human cooperation and named the chatbot as

Jabberwacky. Later on in 1992 Imaginative labs for MS-Dos makes a chatbot named

[Link] which is consolidated with AI and it is intended to exhibit a digitized voice.

In 1995 utilizing regular language preparing Counterfeit Phonetic Web PC Element

(A.L.I.C.E chatbot) chatbot is create where heuristic example is utilized for coordinating

tenets to human contribution to request to have discussion.

In 2001 a canny bot is made which is generally disseminated crosswise over sms systems

called smarterchild. Later on IBM's Watson was planned in 2006 where normal language

handling and machine learning is utilized to uncover inside and out information from

substantial measure of information. In 2010 an astute individual right hand chatbot named siri

appeared which utilizes common language UI to respond to questions and perform different

demands and is a piece of Apple's IOS

At the beginning of a new session, the university receives many applications and to convert

these applications into enrolments, swift communication is crucial. Students may have

questions ranging from courses, fees, scholarships, facilities, and the university environment

to accommodation and transportation system. Students come to the university from regions

with different time zones, cultures and environments and will need assistance to settle down

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in the campus. With so many applications and emails, universities can find it difficult to

respond to every student. Apart from prospective students, returning students need to get

certain information about recent development in the university environment.

A chatbot, also known as a dialogue system or a conversational agent, is a computer program

that can imitate a conversation with a user (Lexico, 2021). In the past decade, chatbot

technology has evolved tremendously, thanks to the growing popularity of artificial

intelligence and machine learning. Chatbots are proving themselves as a valuable tool in

many situations and are visible in almost every aspect of our daily lives.

Chatbots promise a range of potential benefits. Most notably, they provide responses and

solutions that are instant, consistent, and reliable (Klopfenstein et al., 2017). These

characteristics make chatbots a powerful tool in many different areas, and their use has

evolved rapidly in fields such as business, e-commerce, and healthcare (Adamopoulou et al.,

2020).

This proposed chatbot is developed using the Google Dialog flow framework. Dialog flow is

a natural language understanding platform that makes it easy to design and integrate a

conversational user interface into mobile app, web application, device, bot, and interactive

voice response system. The chatbot uses a GUI (Graphic User Interface) integrated into a

web app to provide answers to user‘s query.

1.2 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that, applicants are buzzing with a lot of questions and it‘s

undoubtedly a busy time for admissions departments responding to an influx of questions

requiring fast responses. In past years, students and parents had to visit the college to enquire

about details and other information about the college that is a lengthy and time-consuming

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process. This is also a hectic and resource wasting process for the admissions offices. To save

time, energy and resources this can now be done over the internet with chatbots.

Malicious chatbots are frequently used to fill chat rooms with spam and advertisements, by

mimicking human behaviour and conversations or to entice people into revealing personal

information, such as bank account numbers. They are commonly found on Yahoo!

Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and other instant messaging

protocols. There has also been a published report of a chatbot used in a fake personal ad on a

dating service‘s website.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to design and implementation of a conversatonal ai chatbot. In

achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an

application software that will:

1. Provide an answer to the query of the user efficiently and effectively;

2. Analyze users‘ queries and understand users message;

3. Save the time of the user in finding a specific academic task; and

4. Reply end-users using a responsive GUI similar to a real person talking to the user.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The implementation of this project has the potential to benefit the academic field and the

society. Chatbots can make the enrolment processes easier as it provides answers to the most

common questions applicants and students ask yearly.

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It provides a faster response time and provides round the clock (24/7) support. A chatbot can

handles multiple requests simultaneously without compromising on the quality of

interactions.

Students are often concerned about making the right career decisions, many of these courses

are offered in different universities. The university can leverage on chatbots to attract

students interested in the courses they offer.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this

study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This

study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The scope of the research is focused on the design and implementation of a conversatonal ai

chatbot.

1.6 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which

are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short

due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the

researcher not to implement some necessary features.

2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope

of the study.

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 3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to

ensure sustainable power.

4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the

researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the

process of data collection (internet).

1.7 Definition of Terms

Chatbot: also known as a smartbots, talkbot, chatterbot, Bot, IM bot, interactive agent,

Conversational interface or Artificial Conversational Entity) is a computer program or an

artificial intelligence which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods.

Natural Language Processing: is a subfield of computer science information engineering

and artificial intelligence concerned with the interations between computer and human

(natural) langauges, in particular how to program computers to process and analyze large

amounts of natural language data.

Html Code: HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a type of computer

language that is primarily used for files that are posted on the internet and viewed by web

browsers. HTML files can also be sent via email.

Markup language: A markup language is a combination of words and symbols which give

instructions on how a document should appear. For example, a tag may indicate that words

are written in italics or bold type.

Web browser: A Web browser is a software program that interprets the coding language of

the World Wide Web in graphic form, displaying the translation rather than the coding. This

allows anyone to ―browse the Web‖ by simple point and click navigation, bypassing the need

to know commands used in software languages.

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File extension: A file extension is the suffix at the end of a filename that tells a computer,

and the computer user, which program is needed to open the file. Also called a filename

extension, this suffix preceded by at least one period, is generally one to five characters long

but the norm is usually three characters in length.

Email: Email, also sometimes written as e-mail, is simply the shortened form of electronic

mail, a protocol for receiving, sending, and storing electronic messages. Email has gained

popularity with the spread of the Internet. In many cases, email has become the preferred

method of communication.

TCP/IP: This often used but little understood set of operations stands for Transmission

Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is the combination of the two and describes the

set of protocols that allows hosts to connect to the Internet.

Text File: – A text file is a computer file that stores a typed document as a series of

alphanumeric characters, usually without visual formatting information. The content may be

a personal note or list, a journal or newspaper article, a book, or any other text that can be

rendered accurately in typewritten form.

Hyper Link: A hyperlink is a graphic or a piece of text in an Internet document that can

connect readers to another webpage, or another portion of a document. Web users will

usually find at least one hyperlink on every webpage. The simplest form of these is called

embedded text or an embedded link.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Theoretical Review

2.2 Review of related works

In recent times, the design and implementation of chatbots have received great attention from

developers and researchers. Chatbots are Artificial Intelligence (AI) based conversational

systems which are able to process human language through various techniques including

Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Neural Network (NN). A chatbot is an exemplary

example of human-computer interaction. In recent years, there has been a significant

advancement in the development of chatbots, and they have evolved into one of the most

powerful and widely adopted applications. However, this is only the beginning of chatbots,

and to meet their full potential, it requires our attention and effort to understand how they

work and how they are developed. Chatbots promise a range of potential benefits. Most

notably, they provide responses and solutions that are instant, consistent, and reliable

(Klopfenstein et al., 2017). These characteristics make chatbots a powerful tool in many

different areas, and their use has evolved rapidly in fields such as business, e-commerce, and

healthcare (Adamopoulou et al., 2020).

2.3Summary of Literature Review and Knowledge Gap

2.4 Historical Review of Chatbots

The first chatbot was created by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966 and named as Eliza chatbot

which appeared as a psychotherapist who reacted to the client with essential inquiries. It gave

a deception of comprehension with scripted reactions. In 1972 Kenneth Colby turned out with

a progressed chatbot Repel than Eliza which is a chatbot that could mimic an individual with

distrustful schizophrenia. Later on in 1988 an endeavor is made in making chatbots with AI

(Man-made consciousness) through human cooperation and named the chatbot as

18
Jabberwacky. Later on in 1992 Imaginative labs for MS-Dos makes a chatbot named

[Link] which is consolidated with AI and it is intended to exhibit a digitized voice. In

1995 utilizing regular language preparing Counterfeit Phonetic Web PC Element (A.L.I.C.E

chatbot) chatbot is create where heuristic example is utilized for coordinating tenets to human

contribution to request to have discussion. In 2001 a canny bot is made which is generally

disseminated crosswise over sms systems called smarterchild. Later on IBM's Watson was

planned in 2006 where normal language handling and machine learning is utilized to uncover

inside and out information from substantial measure of information.

In 2010 an astute individual right hand chatbot named siri appeared which utilizes common

language UI to respond to questions and perform different demands and is a piece of Apple's

IOS which go about as the base for all later chatbots. Google propelled Google Now in 2012

which is cell phone based application. Presently it turned into the piece of updates and UI

alterations for portable pursuit. Later on in 2015 bots ended up well known with further

developed highlights like voice collaboration utilizing language preparing calculations in

Alexa bot and Cortana bot that is available in various dialects which perceives common voice

directions. These bots likewise performs web seeking. In 2016 Facebook propelled bots for

flag-bearer stage where creates can make chatbots and collaborate with Facebook clients.

The next advancement for conversational agents was made by a team at IBM through the

Watson AI project that has been in development since 2006. The agent was designed with the

sole purpose of winning the American TV show Jeopardy! which it did in 2011 when

competing against two of the show‘s former champions. Jeopardy! is interesting from an NLP

point of view since the questions involve a lot of play on words and require fast information

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retrieval in vast knowledge bases. Unfortunately this AI in its past form could only answer to

one-liner questions and was unable to carry on a proper conversation with someone else.

Finally in the early 2010‘s came the rise of virtual assistants such as Apple‘s Siri, Microsoft‘s

Cortana, Google‘s Google assistant, Amazon‘s Alexa and others. Those agents brought in the

field the concept of conversation as well as goal-oriented dia- log. Another major event in the

field of chatbots was the release of the Messenger Platform for Facebook Messenger in 2016

and allowed the creation of conversational agents for non-AI related companies.

2.4.1 Theoretical Framework of Chatbot

Artificial Intelligence Chat bot in Android System using Open Source Program-O: The

framework works in two modes, content and voice. At the point when client gives the

contribution to content configuration the principal mode is actuated. The client input is

passed to the middleware API for the reaction. On other hand when client gives the voice

input at that point second mode is initiated, In this voice mode we first proselyte the voice

into content before sending it to middleware API. Middleware is the model which interfaces

the AIML contents with our android application. At the point when client input is gotten at

the middleware, it is passed to the example coordinating calculation which keeps running

over the AIML contents. In this procedure, right off the bat the example coordinating

calculation is executed for coordinating of the substantial reaction from the available AIML

contents. At the point when design is coordinated, the comparing layout is come back to the

middleware. At that point Middleware encodes the layout into the JSON design and sends the

answer to the android application. Subsequent to accepting the reaction application interprets

the JSON and gives the reaction to the client.

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The response generation process is carried out with two phases:

A. Preparation of Pattern Matching

B. Pattern Matching Behavior Implementation: Detailed implementation of text based

chatbot and Detailed of the implementation of voice based chatbot..

1. An E-business Chatbot using AIML and LSA: For e-plans of action Web based

business is one of the for the most part used to work together over the web or web. One

of the real downside in this field is client administration quality which they are giving.

In every single e-plan of action, clients need to wait for the reaction for longer time

from the client administration agent or structure the partner side answer.

As an answer for this issue, another chatbot which can consequently offers reactions to

the clients within a matter of seconds (division of seconds) in view of the informational

collection given by the designer and the Every now and again Addressed

Questions(FAQs), utilizing AIML and LSA (Man-made reasoning Markup Language

and Dormant Semantic Examination ).

2. Web Navigation Prediction Using Multiple Evidence Combination and Domain

Knowledge: Fake neural networks (ANN's) system is utilized in this. This paper mainly

focuses on the web in which the client movement can be utilized as the information for

recommending the following site pages that the client is going to open. It utilizes

Counterfeit neural systems and markov models. At the point when the client asks for the

WWW (World Wide Web) the demand is handled and relying upon the past history of

the client the following site page that the client may open can be recognized so as to

stack it for quick access of the client.

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3. College Enquiry Chatbot Using A.L.I.C.E: A.L.I.C.E is a characteristic language

handling and man-made reasoning visit [Link] programming used to make is from

open source (which can be uninhibitedly utilized by everybody) called Alice bot

programming and AIML programming. Here a chatbot is tailored as an application

which encourages new understudies to take care of few of the issue they are confronting

and responds to inquiries for the understudies that are raised amid confirmation. AIML

is a mediator that takes the contribution from the client and applies design coordinating

calculation utilizing AIML contents and creates the ouput. It additionally helps while

infusing the recently formed information or learning into the information base.

4. Leveraging Question Answer technology to address terrorism inquiry: This paper

researches the potential utilization of discourse based ALICE bots in scattering fear

mongering data to the general [Link] the Psychological warfare Movement

Asset Application (TARA) framework, which depends on an adjusted adaptation of

ALICE Program D that can be unreservedly obtained from [Link]. Both

TARA and ALICE share a considerable lot of similar segments.

5. Android based Chat-Bot: This framework has been executed to incorporate with any

Inn The board Android Application to facilitate the procedure of lodging booking.

ALICE utilizes design coordinating and spares the data in Man-made reasoning

Increase Language (AIML) records. ELIZA is a visit bot that is utilized mainly to chat

with the client. It is mainly utilized for easygoing correspondence with [Link]-bot has

worked in information base, conversational capacities, constant help, and human visual

look. It can go about as an extraordinary remote helper for lodging booking and can

perform multi-dimensional assessment.

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2.4.2 Classification of Chatbots

Chatbots can be classified based on different parameters, including the service provided, the

knowledge domain, the response generation method, the goal, and the permission, and the

amount of human-aid.

Classification based on the service provided considers the sentimental proximity of the

chatbot to the user, the amount of intimate interaction that takes place, and the task the

chatbot is performing. Interpersonal chatbots provide services like booking services or

searches in FAQ without being a companion of the user. Intrapersonal chatbots live in the

personal domain of the user and are expected to understand the user like a human does. Inter-

agent chatbots communicate with other chatbots to accomplish a task (Nimavat et al., 2017).

The knowledge domain refers to the knowledge the chatbots access or the amount of the data

they are trained upon. Open domain chatbots can respond to questions from any domain,

whereas closed domain chatbots only has knowledge in a particular domain (Nimavat et al.,

2017).

Classification based on the response generation method takes into account the method of

generating responses. A chatbot can be classified as a rule-based, retrieval-based, or

generative- based chatbot, and we will discuss this in more detail later in the paper (Nimavat

et al., 2017).

Classification based on the goals considers the primary goal a chatbot aims to achieve.

Information chatbots provide the user with specific information stored in a fixed source.

Chat-based or conversational chatbots are designed to hold a natural conversation with the

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user like another human being would do. Task-based chatbots perform a task based on the

user‘s requests (Nimavat et al., 2017).

Chatbots can also be classified according to the permissions provided by the development

platforms. Open-source platforms make their code available so that developers have control

over most aspects of implementation. Closed platforms are of proprietary code and are

typically offered by large companies (Adamopoulou et al., 2020).

Finally, depending on the amount of human-aid, chatbots can be classified into human-

mediated or fully autonomous chatbots. A human-mediated chatbot uses human computation

in at least one component. Fully automated chatbots are fast in processing information while

human computation provides flexibility and can help fill the gaps caused by the limitations of

algorithms (Kucherbaev et al., 2018).

[Link] Overview of Chatbot User Registration

Registration, when carried out in an Institution is mostly handled by the Registrar. A registrar

is an official in an Organization who handles records. In the United Kingdom, the term

registrar is usually used for the head of the university's administration. The role is usually

combined with that of secretary of the university's governing bodies and in these cases, the

full title will often be "registrar and secretary" (or "secretary and registrar") to reflect these

dual roles. The University of Cambridge in England uses the archaic spelling of "Registrary"

for this office (Samuel, 2010).

In Canada, the registrar is an administrative position, usually responsible for admissions,

records and registration, academic scheduling, front line service and support, strategic

24
enrollment data management and analysis, academic policy, and graduation (sometimes

known as convocation).

Various grades of professional academic-related staff perform senior administrative and

managerial roles in such universities on behalf of the registrar or head of department and

head sub-sections of the administration. Titles afforded to such staff include academic

registrar, assistant registrar, senior assistant registrar and principal assistant registrar.

[Link] Online Chatbot User Registration

The creation and use of an online registration form, electronic registration form, online

registration process, online registration template or digital registration form completed by an

individual, group or organization to apply to register for an agency, funding, newsletter,

school, college, university, service or other types of necessary and vital services and

purposes.

E-registration processes or forms make registering for a newsletter, college, school,

university or agency easy and simple to do from a computer, laptop or other type of

electronic device that has online internet access.

2.4.3 Usage of Online Chatbot Registration Forms

Gone are the days of long registration queues and paper forms to sign up for an activity. An

increasing number of registrars from both large and small organizations are embracing online

registration services as an added-value for both them and their participants. Online

registration not only improves efficiencies and eliminates unnecessary paperwork; it also

maximizes participation and improves marketing capabilities while allowing participants to

sign up when and where it is most convenient for them from any Internet-enabled computer

(Sean, 2010).

25
The benefits of taking online registration for any activity are, in fact, so varied, that this

review will enumerate only the most significant for the registrars and participant alike.

[Link] Chatbot Application Web Portal

A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources,

like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each

information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displaying information (a portlet);

often, the user can configure which ones to display. Variants of portals include mashups and

intranet "dashboards" for executives and managers. The extent to which content is displayed

in a "uniform way" may depend on the intended user and the intended purpose, as well as the

diversity of the content. Very often design emphasis is on a certain "metaphor" for

configuring and customizing the presentation of the content (e.g., a dashboard or map) and

the chosen implementation framework or code libraries. In addition, the role of the user in an

organization may determine which content can be added to the portal or deleted from the

portal configuration (Seyle, 2014).

A portal may use a search engine's application programming interface (API) to permit users

to search intranet content as opposed to extranet content by restricting which domains may be

searched. Apart from this common search engines feature, web portals may offer other

services such as e-mail, news, stock quotes, information from databases and even

entertainment content. Portals provide a way for enterprises and organizations to provide a

consistent "look and feel" with access control and procedures for multiple applications and

databases, which otherwise would have been different web entities at various URLs. The

features available may be restricted by whether access is by an authorized and authenticated

user (employee, member) or an anonymous website visitor.

26
The main concept is to present the user with a single Web page that brings together or

aggregates content from a number of other systems or servers. The application server or

architecture performs most of the crucial functions of the application. This application server

is in turn connected to database servers, and may be part of a clustered server environment.

High-capacity portal configurations may include load balancing strategies. For portals that

present application functionality to the user, the portal server is in reality the front piece of a

server configuration that includes some connectivity to the application server. For early Web

browsers permitting HTML frameset and iframe elements, diverse information could be

presented without violating the browser same-source security policy (relied upon to prevent a

variety of cross-site security breaches). More recent client-side technologies rely on

JavaScript frameworks and libraries that rely on more recent Web functionality such as

WebSockets and asynchronous callbacks using XML Http Requests (Donna, 2019).

The server hosting the portal may only be a "pass through" for the user. By use of portlets,

application functionality can be presented in any number of portal pages. For the most part,

this architecture is transparent to the user. In such a design, security and concurrent user

capacity can be important issues, and security designers need to ensure that only

authenticated and authorized users can generate requests to the application server. If the

security design and administration does not ensure adequate authentication and authorization,

then the portal may inadvertently present vulnerabilities to various types of attacks.

Web portals are sometimes classified as horizontal or vertical. A horizontal portal is used as a

platform to several companies in the same economic sector or to the same type of

manufacturers or distributors. A vertical portal (also known as a "vortal") is a specialized

27
entry point to a specific market or industry niche, subject area, or interest. Some vertical

portals are known as "vertical information portals" (VIPs). VIPs provide news, editorial

content, digital publications, and e-commerce capabilities. In contrast to traditional vertical

portals, VIPs also provide dynamic multimedia applications including social networking,

video posting, and blogging.

2.4.4 Types of Web Portals

The following are the various types of web portals and they include;

1. Personal: A personal portal is a Web Page at a Web site on the World Wide Web or a

local HTML home page including JavaScript and perhaps running in a modified Web

browser. A personal portal typically provides personalized capabilities to its visitors

or its local user, providing a pathway to other content. It may be designed to use

distributed applications, different numbers and types of middleware and hardware to

provide services from a number of different sources and may run on a non-standard

local Web server (Susan, 2011). In addition, business portals can be designed for

sharing and collaboration in workplaces. A further business-driven requirement of

portals is that the content be presented on multiple platforms such as personal

computers, laptops, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones

and smartphones. Information, news, and updates are examples of content that could

be delivered through such a portal. Personal portals can be related to any specific

topic such as providing friends information on a social network or providing links to

outside content that may help others beyond your reach of services. Portals are not

limited to simply providing links. Outside of business intranet user, very often simpler

portals become replaced with richer mashup designs. Within enterprises, early portals

were often replaced by much more powerful "dashboard" designs. Some also have

28
 relied on newer protocols such as some version of RSS aggregation and may or may

not involve some degree of Web harvesting.

2. Government: At the end of the dot-com boom in the 1990s, many governments had

already committed to creating government web portal sites for their citizens. These

included primary portals to the governments as well as portals developed for specific

branches (e.g., a particular government ministry, department or agency), or for

specific sub-audiences (e.g., senior citizens, parents, post-secondary students, etc.).

Notable government web portals include:

 [Link] for Australia.

 [Link] for citizens with disabilities in the United States.

 [Link] for the United States.

3. Cultural: Cultural portals aggregate digitized cultural collections of galleries,

libraries (see: library portal), archives and museums. This type of portal provides a

point of access to invisible Web cultural content that may not be indexed by standard

search engines. Digitized collections can include scans or digital photos of books,

artworks, photography, journals, newspapers, maps, diaries and letters and digital files

of music, sound recordings, films, and archived websites as well as the descriptive

metadata associated with each type of cultural work (e.g., metadata provides

information about the author, publisher, etc.). These portals are often based around a

specific national or regional grouping of institutions (Michael, 2010). Notable cultural

portals include:

DigitalNZ – A cultural portal led by the National Library of New Zealand focused on

New Zealand digital content.

Europeana – A cultural portal for the European Union based in the National Library

of the Netherlands and overseen by the Europeana Foundation.

29
 [Link] - A commercial cultural portal focused on Belarusian digital content.

4. Corporate: Corporate intranets became common during the 1990s. As intranets grew

in size and complexity, organization webmasters were faced with increasing content

and user management challenges. A consolidated view of company information was

judged insufficient; users wanted personalization and customization. Webmasters, if

skilled enough, were able to offer some capabilities, but for the most part ended up

driving users away from using the intranet. Many companies began to offer tools to

help webmasters manage their data, applications and information more easily, and by

providing different users with personalized views. Portal solutions can also include

workflow management, collaboration between work groups or branches, and policy-

managed content publication. Most can allow internal and external access to specific

corporate information using secure authentication or single sign-on (Cohn, 2014).

With the increase in user-generated content (blog posts, comments, photos), disparate

data silos, and file formats, information architects and taxonomists will be required to

allow users the ability to tag (classify) the data or content. For example, if a vice-

president makes a blog post, this post could be tagged with her/his name, title, and the

subject of the post. Tagging makes it easier for users of the intranet to find the content

they are interested in. This will ultimately cause a ripple effect where users will also

be generating ad hoc navigation and information flows. Corporate portals also offer

customers and employees self-service opportunities.

5. Stock: Also known as stock-share portals, stock market portals or stock exchange

portals are Web-based applications that facilitates the process of informing the share-

holders with substantial online data such as the latest price, ask/bids, the latest News,

reports and announcements. Some stock portals use online gateways through a central

30
 depository system (CDS) for the visitors (ram) to buy or sell their shares or manage

their portfolio.

6. Search: Search portals aggregate results from several search engines into one page.

You can find search portals specialized in a product, for example property search

portals. Library search portals are also known as discovery interfaces.

7. Property Search: Property search portals aggregate data about properties for sale by

real estate agents. Notable property search portals in the UK include Nestoria, Nuroa,

OnTheMarket, Rightmove and Zoopla.

8. TENDER: A tender portal is a gateway for government suppliers to bid on providing

goods and services. Tender portals allow users to search, modify, submit, review and

archive data in order to provide a complete online tendering process. Using online

tendering, bidders can do any of the following:

 Receive notification of the tenders.

 Receive tender documents online.

 Fill out the forms online.

 Submit proposals and documents.

 Submit bids online.

9. Hosted: Hosted Web portals gained popularity and a number of companies began

offering them as a hosted service. The hosted portal market fundamentally changed

the composition of portals. In many ways they served simply as a tool for publishing

information instead of the loftier goals of integrating legacy applications or presenting

correlated data from distributed databases. The early hosted portal companies such as

[Link] or the now defunct [Link] focused on collaboration and

scheduling in addition to the distribution of corporate data. As hosted Web portals

have risen in popularity their feature set has grown to include hosted databases,

31
 document management, email, discussion forums and more. Hosted portals

automatically personalize the content generated from their modules to provide a

personalized experience to their users. In this regard they have remained true to the

original goals of the earlier corporate Web portals. Emerging new classes of Internet

portals called Cloud Portals are showcasing the power of API (Application

Programming Interface) rich software systems leveraging SOA (service-oriented

architecture, Web services, and custom data exchange) to accommodate machine to

machine interaction creating a more fluid user experience for connecting users

spanning multiple domains during a given "session". Cloud portals like Nubifer Cloud

Portal show what is possible using Enterprise Mashup and Web Service integration

approaches to building cloud portals (Susan, 2011).

10. Domain-Specific: A number of portals have come about which are specific to a

particular domain, offering access to related companies and services; a prime example

of this trend would be the growth in property portals that give access to services such

as estate agents, removal firm, and solicitors that offer conveyancing. Along the same

lines, industry-specific news and information portals have appeared, such as the

clinical trials-specific portal.

[Link] Database for Chatbot Application Web Portals

Using database technology to gather, store and process information about your customers,

suppliers and even competitors can give your business a distinct advantage. A sophisticated

relational database management system can help you store a vast amount of data which, as it

builds up over time, can become increasingly useful and valuable. For example:

 Historical data can show you business trends

 Sales records can identify valuable customers

32
A good database design is important in ensuring consistent data, elimination of data

redundancy, efficient execution of queries and high performance application. The outline of

the table allows data to be consistent. Implementation of primary keys and unique constraints

ensures consistency in the stored data (Seyle, 2014).

Your gathering, storage and processing of customers' personal data must comply with data

protection legislation, including the requirement not to collect or process excessive or

unnecessary personal data. Under the GDPR, you must ensure the personal data you are

processing is:

 Adequate - sufficient to properly fulfil your stated purpose

 Relevant - has a rational link to that purpose

 Limited to what is necessary - you do not hold more than you need for that purpose.

Managing information means taking care of it so that it works for us and is useful for the

tasks we perform. By using a DBMS, the information we collect and add to its database is no

longer subject to accidental disorganization. It becomes more accessible and integrated with

the rest of our work. Managing information using a database allows us to become strategic

users of the data we have. We often need to access and re-sort data for various uses. These

may include:

 Creating mailing lists

 Writing management reports

 Generating lists of selected news stories

 Identifying various client needs

The processing power of a database allows it to manipulate the data it houses, so it can: Sort,

Match, Link, Aggregate, Skip fields, Calculate, Arrange, etc.

Because of the versatility of databases, we find them powering all sorts of projects. A

database can be linked to:

33
  A website that is capturing registered users

 A client-tracking application for social service organizations

 A medical record system for a health care facility

 Your personal address book in your email client

 A collection of word-processed documents

 A system that issues airline reservations

2.5 Merits of Integrating Databases in Web Applications

Developing a database for any system can help you:

1. Reduce the amount of time you spend managing data.

2. Analyze data in a variety of ways.

3. Promote a disciplined approach to data management.

4. Turn disparate information into a valuable resource.

5. Improve the quality and consistency of information.

Many businesses do not have the time or resources available to gather and process large

quantities of information. This may lead to a lack of information about:

How their business is performing, how profitable their product lines are, if customers are

making repeat purchases, etc (Samuel, 2010).

However, the following key benefits can be identified when using databases for web

applications and they include;

1. Self-Describing Nature Of A Database System: A database system is referred to as

self-describing because it not only contains the database itself, but also metadata which

defines and describes the data and relationships between tables in the database. This

information is used by the DBMS software or database users if needed. This separation of

data and information about the data makes a database system totally different from the

34
 traditional file-based system in which the data definition is part of the application

programs.

2. Insulation between Program and Data: In the file-based system, the structure of the

data files is defined in the application programs so if a user wants to change the structure

of a file, all the programs that access that file might need to be changed as well. On the

other hand, in the database approach, the data structure is stored in the system catalogue

and not in the programs. Therefore, one change is all that is needed to change the

structure of a file. This insulation between the programs and data is also called program-

data independence (Rodrigue, 2018).

3. Support for Multiple Views of Data: A database supports multiple views of data. A

view is a subset of the database, which is defined and dedicated for particular users of the

system. Multiple users in the system might have different views of the system. Each view

might contain only the data of interest to a user or group of users.

4. Sharing of Data and Multiuser System: Current database systems are designed for

multiple users. That is, they allow many users to access the same database at the same

time. This access is achieved through features called concurrency control strategies.

These strategies ensure that the data accessed are always correct and that data integrity is

maintained. The design of modern multiuser database systems is a great improvement

from those in the past which restricted usage to one person at a time.

5. Control Of Data Redundancy: In the database approach, ideally, each data item is

stored in only one place in the database. In some cases, data redundancy still exists to

improve system performance, but such redundancy is controlled by application

programming and kept to minimum by introducing as little redundancy as possible when

designing the database (Sean, 2010).

35
6. Data Sharing: The integration of all the data, for an organization, within a database

system has many advantages. First, it allows for data sharing among employees and

others who have access to the system. Second, it gives users the ability to generate more

information from a given amount of data than would be possible without the integration.

7. Enforcement Of Integrity Constraints: Database management systems must provide

the ability to define and enforce certain constraints to ensure that users enter valid

information and maintain data integrity. A database constraint is a restriction or rule that

dictates what can be entered or edited in a table such as a postal code using a certain

format or adding a valid city in the City field. There are many types of database

constraints. Data type, for example, determines the sort of data permitted in a field, for

example numbers only. Data uniqueness such as the primary key ensures that no

duplicates are entered. Constraints can be simple (field based) or complex

(programming).

8. Restriction Of Unauthorized Access: Not all users of a database system will have the

same accessing privileges. For example, one user might have read-only access (i.e., the

ability to read a file but not make changes), while another might have read and write

privileges, which is the ability to both read and modify a file. For this reason, a database

management system should provide a security subsystem to create and control different

types of user accounts and restrict unauthorized access (Donna, 2019).

9. Data Independence: Another advantage of a database management system is how it

allows for data independence. In other words, the system data descriptions or data

describing data (metadata) are separated from the application programs. This is possible

because changes to the data structure are handled by the database management system

and are not embedded in the program itself.

36
10. Transaction Processing: A database management system must include concurrency

control subsystems. This feature ensures that data remains consistent and valid during

transaction processing even if several users update the same information.

11. Provision for Multiple Views Of Data: By its very nature, a DBMS permits many users

to have access to its database either individually or simultaneously. It is not important for

users to be aware of how and where the data they access is stored

12. Backup And Recovery Facilities: Backup and recovery are methods that allow you to

protect your data from loss. The database system provides a separate process, from that of

a network backup, for backing up and recovering data. If a hard drive fails and the

database stored on the hard drive is not accessible, the only way to recover the database is

from a backup.

If a computer system fails in the middle of a complex update process, the recovery

subsystem is responsible for making sure that the database is restored to its original state.

These are two more benefits of a database management system (Michael, 2010).

37
 CHAPTER THREE

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND METHODOLOGY

3.1 System Analysis

3.1.1 Analysis of the existing system

The operations of the departmental chatbot application were analyzed, and some drawbacks

were detected which led to the initiation of the new departmental chatbot application. In the

old system, applicants are buzzing with a lot of questions and it‘s undoubtedly a busy time

for admissions departments responding to an influx of questions requiring fast responses.

[Link] Weakness of the existing system

The following are the weakness of the existing system;

a. Applicants are buzzing with a lot of questions and it‘s undoubtedly a busy time for

admissions departments responding to an influx of questions requiring fast responses.

b. Malicious chatbots are frequently used to fill chat rooms with spam and

advertisements, by mimicking human behaviour and conversations or to entice people

into revealing personal information, such as bank account numbers.

3.1.2 Analysis of the Proposed System

An overview of the proposed system flow chat has a relationship between an object to

another just like the entity. Relationship diagram, the object relationship pair can be

graphically represented by a diagram called entity relationship diagram (Entity Relationship

Diagram). It is mainly used in database applications but now it is more commonly used in

data design. The primary purpose of ERD is to represent the relationship between data object.

38
[Link] Advantages of the proposed system

The following are the advantages of the proposed design and implementation of a

departmental chatbot application;

a) Analyze users‘ queries and understand users message.

b) Provide an answer to the query of the user efficiently and effectively.

c) Save the time of the user in finding a specific academic task.

d) Reply end-users using a responsive GUI similar to a real person talking to the user.

[Link] High level model of the proposed system.

The high level model of the proposed system is illustrated below

CONVERSATIONAL AI CHATBOT

HOME Admin END-USER (Client)

Update Record
Open Account
Insert/Delete Record

Input Bio-Data
Activate Chatbot

Ensure Auto-Respond Input Username

Input Password

Give Feedback to
Chatbot

Figure 3.1: High Level Model of the Proposed System

39
3.2 Methodology Adopted

The structured system analysis and design methodology (SSADM) was adopted for the

analysis, design and implementation of this system. Structured systems analysis and design

methodology (SSADM) is a set of standards for systems analysis and application design. It

uses a formal methodical approach to the analysis and design of information systems.

SSADM follows the waterfall life cycle model starting from the feasibility study to the

physical design stage of development. One of the main features of SSADM is the intensive

user involvement in the requirements analysis stage. The users are made to sign off each

stage as they are completed assuring that requirements are met. The users are provided with

clear, easily understandable documentation consisting of various diagrammatic

representations of the system. SSADM breaks up a development project into stages, modules,

steps and tasks. The first and foremost model developed in SSADM is the data model. It is a

part of requirements gathering and consists of well defined stages, steps and products. The

techniques used in SSADM are logical data modeling, data flow modeling and entity

behavior modeling.

a) Logical Data Modeling: This involves the process of identifying, modeling and

documenting data as a part of system requirements gathering. The data are classified

further into entities and relationships.

b) Data Flow Modeling: This involves tracking the data flow in an information system.

It clearly analyzes the processes, data stores, external entities and data movement.

c) Entity Behavior Modeling: This involves identifying and documenting the events

influencing each entity and the sequence in which these events happen.

40
 CHAPTER FOUR

SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

4.1 Objectives of the Design

The following are the objectives of the proposed departmental chatbot application design

will;

1. Analyze users‘ queries and understand users message.

2. Provide an answer to the query of the user efficiently and effectively.

3. Save the time of the user in finding a specific academic task.

4. Reply end-users using a responsive GUI similar to a real person talking to the user.

4.2 Control Center/Main Menu

Description: This is a control center / overall dataflow diagram

CONVERSATIONAL
AI CHATBOT

Input from
keyboard

Process

Result to
Disk Report (output) screen
storage

Figure 4.1: Control Center / Overall Dataflow Diagram

41
4.3 The Submenus/Subsystems

4.4 System Specifications

Description: The diagram below entails the Input and Output Specification of the proposed

system.

CONVERSATIONAL AI CHATBOT

User ID:

Enter Phone Number

Password:

Enter Password

Sign In Register Here

Figure 4.2: Input Specification for Login System

Login Successful
Or
Login Unsuccessful

Figure 4.3: Output Specification for Login System

42
4.4.1 Database Development tool

4.4.2 Database Design and Structure

The conversational ai chatbot System Database Contains Four (4) Tables Which Are

Country Table And Register Table:

Table 4.4: Country table structure

S/N Field Name Data type Size

1. Id Integer 30

2. Country Varchar 100

3. Location Varchar 100

Table 4.5: Register table structure

S/N Field Name Data type Size

1. Id Integer 30

2. Fname Varchar 100

3. Gender Varchar 10

4. Address Varchar 1000

5. Photo Varchar 255

6. Pn Varchar 30

7. Status Varchar 10

8. Autoresponse Varchar 200

9. Pass Varchar 100

10. Datereg timestamp

43
4.4.3 Math Specification

4.4.4 Program Module Specification

Programming module specification follows successful implementation and incorporates also

evaluation of the system in order to give the desired or necessary improvement. It includes

monitoring the process of the other stages of system development to ensure that the

development plan and objective are being accomplished. There are three types of system

maintenance which include;

a) Corrective Maintenance: This covers maintenance, which is needed to put right

coding errors and other faults, which may be introduced into the software. It include,

the routine ―debugging‖ of newly produced or recently amended code and emergency

error correction in response to report faults.

b) Adaptive Maintenance: This covers the changes which are made to the software to

meet new or changed circumstances, such as restructuring of a database, alternatives in

operating procedures and changes to hardware or software versions.

c) Preventive Maintenance: This covers attempts to make the software perform more

effectively. It includes user requests for enhancement, improvement due to experience,

changes to make the software more easy to use and rewrite the code to make the

maintenance that is specifically used for the new system to reduce its chances of

breakages.

44
4.4.5 Input/output format

Input Specification

Input specifications describe the types of records within the file, the sequence of the types of

records, the fields within a record, the data within the field, indicators based on the contents

of the fields, control fields, fields used for matching records, and fields used for sequence

checking. For an externally described file, input specifications are optional and can be used to

add functions to the external description.

Output Specification

The output from the system designed is generated from the system inputs. These reports can

also be presented as hard copy.

4.4.6 Algorithm

4.4.7 Data Dictionary

The data dictionary table contains the list of field and their description used in the database

table structure designation.

Table 4.6: Chatbot Data Dictionary

S/N Field Name Description

1. Id This field signifies the unique identification of the

table and it‘s a primary key.

2. Pn It contains the phone number of the End-user

3. Country It consist of the list of countries

45
 4. It consist of the list of states within a specific
Location
country

5. Fname It signifies the full name of the End-user

6. Gender It signifies the gender of the End-user

7. Address It signifies the address of the End-user

8. Pass It contains the end-user‘s password / pin

9. Datereg Date of registration

4.5 System Flowchart

Description: The diagram below entails the proposed system operation flowchart

Star
t

Input Username
and Password

No
Is username
Display ―Invalid
and password Username/password‖
valid?

Yes

Figure A: Login flowchart

46
 Star
t

INPUT REGISTRATION
DETAILS

SAVE TO
DATABASE

YES
CONTINUE?

NO

En
d
Figure B: Registration Flowchart

47
 Star
t

INPUT STAFF
REGISTRATION DETAILS

SAVE TO
DATABASE

YES
CONTINUE?

NO

En
d
Figure C: Staff Registration Flowchart

48
 Start

Enter User
ID

Validate User ID

Input Phone
Number

Interact with
Chatbox

Answer security
question B

NO Display
Are answers Error
correct? message
YES
Send Request

Save

Stop

Figure 4.7: Proposed System Operation Flowchart

49
4.6 Object Diagrams

4.7 System Implementation

4.7.1 proposed System Requirements

The software designed needed the following hardware for an effective operation of the newly

designed system.

a) A system running on AMD, Pentium 2 or higher processor

b) The random access memory (ram) should be at least 512mb.

c) Enhanced keyboard.

d) At least 20 GB hard disk.

e) V.G.A or a colored monitor.

[Link] Hardware Requirements

[Link] Software requirements

The software requirements include:

a) A Windows XP operating system or higher version for faster processing

b) MySQL database

c) Apache webserver

d) PHP 5.6+ runtime environment

50
4.7.2 Program Development

The main purpose of program development is to describe the design of your program. The

documentation also provides the framework in which to place the code. As coding

progresses, the code is inserted into the framework already created by the program

documentation. The following was documented for the successful implementation of the

software;

a) README file which contains a brief description of the project, installation

instructions, a short example/tutorial,

b) Document your code which comprises application of coding conventions, such as file

organization, comments, naming conventions, programming practices, etc.

c) Version of the files along with the major edits you did in each version

[Link] Choice of programming Environment

To ensure a standardized object oriented program in its entire ramification, HTML, CSS,

JAVASCRIPT, PHP and MYSQL Database was used in the development of departmental

chatbot application. These entire programs are used to ensure effective program. The motive

behind the use of the language is its compatibility with several Operating Systems. It is object

oriented and combines the feature of hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) and JavaScript platform

thereby making it to run on any Operating System. It is secured in that it does not cause harm

to user‘s system and access to information is restricted. The language is simple and easy to

learn.

Below is a brief explanation of the programming languages used;

HTML: HTML is a markup language for describing web documents (web pages).

1. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language

51
 2. A markup language is a set of markup tags

3. HTML documents are described by HTML tags

4. Each HTML tag describes different document content

CSS: stands for Cascading Style Sheet, it describes how HTML elements are to be displayed

on screen, paper, or in other media. CSS saves a lot of work. It can control the layout of

multiple web pages all at once and External style sheets are stored in CSS files

JAVASCRIPT: JavaScript is the programming language of HTML and the Web.

Programming makes computers do what you want them to do. JavaScript is easy to learn.

Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP): PHP is a server scripting language, and a powerful tool for

making dynamic and interactive Web pages. PHP is a widely-used, free, and efficient

alternative to competitors such as Microsoft's ASP.

MYSQL: SQL is a standard language for accessing and manipulating databases. SQL stands

for Structured Query Language, SQL lets you access and manipulate databases, and SQL is

an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard. SQL can perform the following

task;

1. SQL can execute queries against a database

2. SQL can retrieve data from a database

3. SQL can insert records in a database

4. SQL can update records in a database

5. SQL can delete records from a database

6. SQL can create new databases

7. SQL can create new tables in a database

8. SQL can create stored procedures in a database

9. SQL can create views in a database

10. SQL can set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

52
4.7.3System Testing

Installation/Setup

1. Open your XAMPP/WAMP's Control Panel and start

the "Apache" and "MySQL".
2. Extract the downloaded source code file.
3. If you are using XAMPP, copy the extracted source code folder and paste it into
the XAMPP's "htdocs" directory. And If you are using WAMP, paste it into
the "www" directory.
4. Browse the PHPMyAdmin in a browser. i.e. [Link]
5. Create a new database naming "chatbot_db".
6. Import the provided SQL file. The file is known as "chatbot_db.sql" located inside
the "db" folder.
7. Browse the Simple ChatBot System in a browser.
i.e. [Link] and [Link] for the admin panel.

Admin Access Information

Username: admin
Password: admin123

[Link] Test Plan

[Link] Test Data

[Link] Actual Test Result versus Expected Test Result

[Link] Performance evaluation

[Link] Limitations of the System

4.7.4System Security

The security design specification is an authentication system that required a valid password to

be input before using the proposed system. Below is a diagram of the Security Design

Specification:

53
 Start

Input Login Details

Is
Yes No
Login = Valid

?
DISPLAY MAIN
MENU

Stop

Figure 4.7: Security Design Specification

[Link] Password Protection

[Link] Authentication

[Link] Digital Signature

[Link] Cryptography

4.7.5 Training

Before the user can use the software, it is necessary to give a thorough training on how to use

the software. It is also important to note that the users of the software are the operators.

Training involves the tutorials, lectures or other methods used to make the users to

understand how to use and maintain the software program. The following steps would help

train and guide the users on how to use the program effectively:

54
 a) Follow the instruction as in the software installation above

b) Right click on the Chatbot Application Software and copy to the installed WAMP

server

c) If successful, click on your browser Enter the security password and click on login

d) Enter the main menu, select any of the submenus you want and continue

e) After performing necessary actions on the submenu, exit the program from the browser

close button

4.7.6 Documentation

4.7.7System Conversion

System Conversion is a transformation process stage in system implementation at which the

newly designed system is put in place of the old system by the organization after been tested

and documented to prove that it is working. It is a significant milestone after which the

ownership of the system if been officially transferred from the researcher (analyst) and the

programmer to the end user.

The under listed are various system conversion briefly described to enable the

implementation process.

a) Parallel System of Conversion: This takes place simultaneously at the same time, runs

between the old and new system until probably the new system is completely put in

place and the old system discarded.

b) Direct System of Conversion: This takes place automatically at a time over a short

period of time. It saves cost, manages time and enhances fast operation but finds to a

high risk of failure without new system comparability.

55
[Link] Changeover Procedure

This is the process of changing from the former or previous system to the new system. In a

changeover procedure, the organization change from the existing system to new system. This

can be done in one of the following ways:

a) Parallel Changeover: This is the process of running the two systems simultaneously

and comparing their results until the new system proves satisfactory; after which the

use of the new system would be commenced.

b) Direct Changeover: This is the case whereby the new system replaced the old system

immediately after development and when it must have proved successful. This

procedure may be drastic if the new system fails.

c) Phased Changeover: In phased changeover method, the system usually starts with one

unit or department of the organization. The advantage is that the organization would

avoid losses in case it (the new system) fails.

[Link] Recommended Procedure

56
 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Summary

A chatbot is an artificially intelligent software application used to conduct an online chat

conversation with a user in natural language (human language such as English or French) via

text or speech. Chatbot recognize the user input as well as by using pattern matching, access

information to provide a predefined acknowledgment. It is implemented using pattern

comparing, in which the order of the sentence is recognized and a saved response pattern is

acclimatize to the exclusive variables of the sentence. They cannot register and respond to

complex questions, and are unable to perform compound activities. (M. Dahiya, 2017). Over

duration of interactions, chatbots gather enormous data that provides helpful information

about common concerns students face to make significant changes to its operation. Chatbots

provides solution to this problem by providing all the important information they need to get

comfy on campus.

The motivation that led to the implementation of the proposed system is that applicants are

buzzing with a lot of questions and it‘s undoubtedly a busy time for admissions departments

responding to an influx of questions requiring fast responses. Malicious chatbots are

frequently used to fill chat rooms with spam and advertisements, by mimicking human

behaviour and conversations or to entice people into revealing personal information, such as

bank account numbers.

The methodology adopted in this study is the structured system analysis and design

methodology (SSADM) which is a technical approach for analyzing and designing an

application or system by applying object throughout the software development process. The

programming language used is HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, PHP, SQL and JQUERY. The

reason why web programming languages was used is because, it is platform independent and

57
it is a web based application. The implementation of this proposed system will be beneficial

to the academic field and the society. Also, it provides a faster response time and provides

round the clock (24/7) support. The expected result is an computerized departmental chatbot

application software that will handles multiple requests simultaneously without

compromising on the quality of interactions, provide an answer to the query of the user

efficiently and effectively and save the time of the user in finding a specific academic task.

5.2 Conclusion

In essence, the research work was successfully researched to meet the objectives set at the

beginning of the project work. While one cannot completely rule out one form of limitation

or the other, it was a success to a greater extent. On the whole, the research has been a

worthwhile exercise. It has afforded the researcher the opportunity to really appraise the

situation on the ground and allow one to bring out areas that might need attention for the

improvement of the research work.

5.3 Recommendation

Based on the findings, the following recommendations are hereby suggested only few across

the counter information were provided for in the research work, it is strongly recommended

for subsequent researcher to expand the scope of the research work.

58
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 APPENDIX A

“SOURCE CODE”

APPENDIX B

“OBJECT PROGRAM”

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