CPSC 4392 Capstone Project
Spring 2011
Software Design Description
EZ Inventory Management System (EZIMS)
Sean Cox
501-249-1250
srcox@ualr.edu
Advisor: Dr. Chia-Chu Chiang
Department of Computer Science
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas 72204-1099, USA
501-569-8142
cxchiang@ualr.edu
EZ Inventory Management System
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
1.2 Scope
1.3 Definitions, acronyms, and abbreviations
1.4 References
1.5 Overview
2. High-Level Design
2.1 Class Descriptions
2.2 Method Descriptions
2.3 Function Call Diagram
3. Detailed Design
3.1 Detailed Method/Variable Descriptions
3.2 Database Entity-Relationship Diagram
3.3 Database Schema
3.4 Database Creation Script
3.5 Database Population Script
3.6 User Interface
4. Appendices
4.1 Screenshots
4.2 Tools Used
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
The purpose of this software design document is to provide a written description of the software to be
produced. The document describes how the various aspects of the software will be implemented. This
document will provide enough details and guidance to further develop and implement the EZ Inventory
Management System.
1.2 Scope
The software to be produced is an inventory management system. The application will reside on the
client-side of the client-server configuration and will communicate with the database server to provide
information to the user and perform database modification as necessary. This software is designed with
simplicity in mind. The average user should be able to use the software in order to add, search, and
remove items from inventory as required. The application must be able to provide information
accurately and in a timely manner. The application must be able to modify the database as required by
the user (adding/removing inventory).
1.3 Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreiviations
DBMS – Database Management System
EZIMS – EZ Inventory Management System
GUI – Graphical User Interface
IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
OS – Operating System
SDD – Software Design Document
SQL – Server Query Language
1.4 References
IEEE Recommended Practice for SRS, IEEE Std 1016-1998, IEEE Computer Society, 1998.
Database Systems: Models, Languages, Design and Application Programming, Elmasri R., 2011.
1.5 Overview
Section 2 of this document will address the aspects of high-level design. It will provide a list of the
methods to be developed and their functionality. It will also describe how the various methods will call
each other. Section 3 of this document will address the aspects of detailed design. It will provide a
detailed list of the methods to be developed and the pseudo-code for their functionality. It will also
describe the design and implementation of the database used with the software. The last section will be
an appendix containing any other relevant information to the development of the software.
2. High-Level Design
2.1 Class Descriptions
2.1.1 Server Class – Will provide methods to connect to, disconnect to, initialize, and send commands
to the database server.
2.1.2 Database Class – Will provide methods to insert/remove items from the database, search through
the database, and modify items in the database.
2.1.3 Item Class – Will provide methods related to individual item objects. Item objects will be able to
store information about individual items. A method will be provided to validate objects to ensure that
they meet specific format requirements before adding items to the database.
2.2 Method Descriptions
2.2.1 Connect
The connect method is used to open a connection to the database server. The user will specify the server
which needs to be connected to through the user interface and this method will create the connection.
The user must also specify the username and password to login to the server. This method must be able
to determine whether the connection was successful and generate appropriate errors on failure.
2.2.2 Disconnect
The disconnect method is used to close the connection to the database server. The user will be able to
click on a disconnect button which will disconnect them from the server. If the user does not click the
button then the connection will be terminated upon exiting the application.
2.2.3 Send
The send method will be used to send a command to the server. This will be important because the
application must be able to produce the correct SQL queries based on user input. The SQL queries then
need to be sent to and executed on the database server.
2.2.4 AddItem
The AddItem method will be used to add new items to the database. The user will enter required
information into the user interface (from the add item screen) and then submit the information in order
to create a new item. The item must be checked to ensure that it meets certain criteria before it can be
added to the database. If the new item meets the criteria then the AddItem will invoke the Send method
which will be used to create the new item on the database server.
2.2.5 SearchItem
The SearchItem method will be used to search for a specified item in the database. The user will be able
to enter a set of criteria and values to search for. This method will then retrieve the criteria from the user
interface (from the search item screen) and search throughout the database to check for matches.
2.2.6 DeleteItem
The DeleteItem method will be used to delete a specified item from the database. The user will be able
to select items through the user interface (from the delete item screen) and request to delete them. An
important part of this method is to verify that the user wants to delete the specified item. This will help
to prevent the accidental deletion of data.
2.2.7 ValidateItem
The ValidateItem method will be used to determine whether an item meets specified requirements. This
method will be invoked by the AddItem method prior to adding a new item to the database to ensure that
the format of each field is correct. If certain fields are not in the correct format then the user will be
informed and be requested to correct the required information.
2.2.8 SellItem
The SellItem method will be used to indicate that an item is sold. The user will be able to mark an item
as sold from the SellItem screen. The user will enter information about the sale such as inventory id,
employee id, sale date, and sale amount. The sale will be reflected in the database.
2.3 Function Call Diagram
Figure 2.3 shows the various functions used by the application and how they call on each other. The
diagram shows the flow of data between different forms and functions of the application. The results of
the AddItem, SearchItem, and DeleteItem methods are displayed in the AddItemForm, SearchItemForm,
and DelItemForm. The application starts by displaying the Main form. The user then uses the menuinterface to maneuver around the program.
Figure 2.3: Function call diagram.
3. Detailed Design
3.1 Detailed Method/Variables Descriptions
3.1 Server Class
3.1.1.1 Server(string server_address)
Function: Default constructor for the server class.
Requires: Address of the server to connect to.
Returns: Nothing.
3.1.1.2 bool Connect(string username, string password)
Function: This method connects to the database server. This action must
happen prior to any other function because the program requires
information from the database to operate.
Requires: username - the username to login to the database server.
password - the password to login to the database server.
Returns: Boolean value dependent on success of connection. true for
successful, false for unsuccessful.
3.1.1.3 bool Disconnect()
Function: This method disconnects from the database server. This should be the last
method executed by the program. If the user does not invoke this method by pressing the disconnect
button then it should be automatically performed prior to exiting the program.
Requires: Nothing
Returns: True if the disconnect operation was successful. False if the operation was
unsuccessful.
3.1.1.4 void Send(string Command)
Function: This method sends a command to the SQL server. It will be used to provide an
interface between the Items class and the database server.
Requires: The command to be sent to the server.
Returns: Nothing.
3.1.1.5 string username
Description: Used to store the username for the database server. Once the Connect
method is called with an initial username/password it is stored so that future connections do not require
the user to enter login information.
3.1.1.6 string password
Description: Used to store the password for the database server.
3.1.1.7 string hostname
Description: Stores the hostname to be connected to. The hostname is specified upon the
creation of the Server object. The hostname will be stored in the format “tcp://servername:3306”.
3.1.2 Data class
3.1.2.1 bool AddItem(Item myItem)
Function: This method adds a new item to the database. It will take all of the information
from the application which the user has filled out and store it in the database.
Requires: The item object to be added.
Returns: A boolean-value based on operation success. If item is successfully added then
the method will return true. If the item could not be added then it will return false.
3.1.2.2 bool DeleteItem(int item_id)
Function: This method deletes an item from the database. It will allow the user to specify
an item by its unique item id and remove it from the database.
Requires: The item id to be deleted.
Returns: A boolean-value based on the success of the operation.
3.1.2.3 myItem SearchItem(string CriteriaList[], string ValueList[])
Function: This method searches the database for items matching a specified criteria. The
method will get search criteria from the user and return the results.
Requires: An array of criteria. An array of values for the specified criteria.
Returns: An item object.
3.1.2.4 void SellItem(int item_id, int emp_id, int date, int amount)
Function: This method is used when an item is sold. It creates a new item in the sales
table of the database to indicate that the item has been sold.
Requires: The unique item id, the id of the employee who sold the item, the sale date,
and the amount the item was sold for.
Returns: Nothing.
3.1.3 Item class
3.1.3.1 bool ValidateItem(Item myItem)
Function: This method validates the item passed to it. It ensures that all values belonging
to the item meet the required format.
Requires: The item to be validated.
Returns: A Boolean-value based on whether the validation was a successful or not. If the
item meets required format then a value of true is returned.
3.1.3.2 int item_id
Description: Stores the unique item identifier for the item object.
3.1.3.3 string make
Description: Stores the manufacturer of the item.
3.1.3.4 string model
Description: Stores the model of the item.
3.1.3.5 string description
Description: Stores a description of the item.
3.1.3.6 int cost
Description: Stores the amount spent on the item.
3.1.3.7 int price
Description: Stores the price of the item.
3.2 Entity-Relationship Diagram
Figure 3-2 shows the entity-relationship diagram for the database.
Figure 3-2: E-R Diagram for the inventory database.
3.3 Database Schema
As displayed by the database schema below, the database will consist of four tables.
The items table will contain information about each individual item in the inventory. Each item
will be referenced by a unique identifier, known as inv_num. The items table will have a foreign key
attribute, category, from the category table. This will be used so that a user must select an item’s
category from a list of predefined categories. This reduces the complexity of the program because a user
will not have to think of and create a category for each item. They will be able to select one from the
drop-down list.
The employee table will contain information about employees of the company. Each employee
will be referenced by a unique eid. Other information which will be available will be their name and the
commission which they receive from each item sold.
The category table will consist of a category name and then a description for the category. The
name will be the unique identifier for each category as two categories should never have the same name.
The category description will be able to assist users in making decisions on which category to place an
item.
The sales table will consist of the inventory number of the item sold, the id of the employee that
sold it, the date it was sold, and the price it was sold for. Although the price for an item is listed under
the items table, the employee may reduce the price prior to selling the item. This reduction in price will
be reflected in the sales table.
Figure 3-3: Database schema for the inventory database.
3.4 Database Creation Script
CREATE TABLE ITEM
(
inv_num INT NOT NULL,
category VARCHAR(30),
make VARCHAR(30),
model VARCHAR(30),
description VARCHAR(200),
cost INT,
price INT,
PRIMARY KEY (inv_num)
);
CREATE TABLE CATEGORY
(
cat_name VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
cat_desc VARCHAR(200),
PRIMARY KEY(cat_name)
);
CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE
(
eid VARCHAR(5) NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(30),
commission INT,
PRIMARY KEY(eid)
);
CREATE TABLE SALES
(
sold_by VARCHAR(5) NOT NULL,
item_num INT NOT NULL,
sale_date DATE,
sale_price INT,
PRIMARY KEY (item_num, sold_by),
FOREIGN KEY (item_num) REFERENCES ITEM(inv_num),
FOREIGN KEY (sold_by) REFERENCES EMPLOYEE(eid)
);
3.5 Database Population Script
LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'categories.csv' INTO TABLE category
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n';
LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'employees.csv' INTO TABLE employee
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n';
LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'items.csv' INTO TABLE item
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n';
LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'sales.csv' INTO TABLE sales
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n';
3.6 User Interface
This section will describe the user interface which will be used for the program. The user interface will
be developed using the Windows Forms applications in Visual Studio. The user interface will use a
variety of input devices such as text boxes, buttons, and menus to retrieve input from the user.
3.6.1 Main Form
The main form will be the initial screen of the program. All other screens will be generated from this
form. The screen will display the options of Connect/Disconnect, Add Item, Search Item, Sell Item, and
Delete Item. The user will be able to exit the program by clicking the close button.
3.6.2 AddItem Form
The AddItem form will be used to add new items to the database. The form will display fields based on
the item attributes from the database. There will be a cancel button so that the user can go back to the
main menu if it is decided that an item is not to be added. Each item must have an inventory id,
category, make, model, cost, and price, but other fields are not required. The category field will be a
drop-down text box which will be generated by obtaining categories from the database. Once the user
has entered the required information they will be able to click the add button. Once the add button is
clicked a new item object is created from the information retrieved from the form. The information is
validated by the ValidateItem method and then added to the database by the AddItem method.
3.6.3 SearchItem Form
The SearchItem form will be used to search for items in the database. The form will display a list of
fields which can be used as search criteria and then text-boxes which can be used to specify values of
the criteria. Once the search criteria are entered the user can click the Search button which calls the
SearchItem method. Items which match the criteria are displayed on screen via a text box.
3.6.4 DeleteItem Form
The DeleteItem form will be used to delete items from the database. The user will be able to enter an
inventory number and then delete the item from the inventory. If the item cannot be found then an error
message is displayed. A pop-up box will verify that the user is sure they want to delete the item before
deletion takes place.
4. Appendix
4.1 Screenshots
The below screen shots give an idea of the look of the user interface. The interface is a form-based
environment in which users fill in textboxes and click buttons to perform their actions.
Screenshot 1 – Adding new merchandize
Screenshot 2 – Logging on to database server.
Screenshot 3 – Searching for an item.
4.2 Tools Used
Microsoft Office was used to produce this document. The database creation/load script was extracted
from a SQL script produced in Notepad. All graphics in this document were produced by OpenOffice
Draw, with an exception of screenshots which were produced by Microsoft Paint.