Distributed Information Systems - Assignment Example

Detailed Technical Proposal for Car-Free Motel Information System Table of Contents: Introduction Body of Report Logical System Design Analysis Technical Details Naming Conventions & Definition Design Class Diagram Design Class & Functionality Model And Documentation Sequence Diagram Statement of Assumptions Interface Definition Language Code Testing Pseudo Code Critical Evaluation Conclusion Reference Appendix Introduction: The Customer: Car-free Motel Company with 47 branches. Care-free would like to replace a mixture of legacy of non-integrated systems presently causing of inefficiency and errors in bookings, payments in the company operation. It wants the Information Technology consultant to devise ways to improve online booking and reservation, a centralised and well-coordinated interface between clients, local branch administrator, and the head office allowing direct communication between client, client bank or money service provider, Car-free local branch and the central administration. The requirement of car-free Motels that need to be addressed include possibility of allowing clients to book online using their log-in, access data that would include nearest Car-free Motels on the present or existing location of client, available rooms, room type, price and available promotions. With the aim to ease up information system within the local administration motel and the head office administration as well as to the on-line clients, the system allows access to all stored data in a uniform way regardless of where the user is located. All existing data about customer, branch, and headquarters will be preserved in the new system and accessed uniformly despite its different physical storage locations and formats. Body of Report Physical Design of the Network: Customer (Web access thru internet) Mobile Administrator (Local Client) Company Administrator The Application Server & Database Under the design stage, it is understood that: Car-free Motel Customers may log-in using their username and password for security. New customers may register their own username and password. Car-free website has its own domain and URL available worldwide online. Local Branch Administrator and users may access their branch data in order to update customer bookings, room availability, room type and price of room. They may also check record of customer as well as credit card validity. The Headquarters can access all data regarding all customers and all branches including bookings, room availability and rates, and promotions. They may delete or add a motel branch on the listing as they wish. History and credit card validity can also be accessed by the Headquarters. Analysis: To enable the Information Technology consultant to facilitate the above mentioned goals, it is necessary that all client requirements and needs are presented. Likewise, the local administrators of each Car-free Motel branch not only meet skills and knowledge but also their exact needs from client and motel operations so that a smooth, lesser hassle operation is guaranteed. Foremost, the central administration or headquarters must be thoroughly or highly reliable, updated in the system to enable changes, update, deletion, addition of information. It is not enough that the IT consultant can provide the necessary client requirement. A three way interface allowing full access of information by the central administration is necessary, but must be clearly coordinated with all users. While local administration branches may access limited data such as present or existing client data, motel room availability, deletion of motel listing, update of price, room available and room type, promotional update, among others necessary in order to address need of client as well as ease of data facilitation between client and branch administration, and local branch administration to the headquarters, the headquarters must always be on top of every situation to delay or avoid impending problems. With the use of the internet, customers are guaranteed ease of booking. This is facilitated in a way that first-time login requires client to input e-mail address, bank details, and contact numbers. Stored data in the central administration or headquarters data base is both accessible to the central office administration and the local branch administration. Payment history of client will then build up to include frequency of service usage, date of bookings, payment preference, and preferred room, among others. This allows both the local and central administrations to monitor good and negative payment history. It will be a good basis for future offer of promotional packages, deals, among others with the end aim to maximise client loyalty, efficiency and ease of use. Technical Details Naming Conventions and Definitions Definitions IDL Integrated Development Language WSDL Web Services Description Language XML Extension Manipulation Language ISO International Standards Organization IEC International Engineering Consortium The program Visual Paradigm is used in the processing adhering to the Unified Modelling Language. In this instance, details from Customer are encoded in the centralised system and information includes the Customer's login, full name, e-mail, and bank account details. All customers with signed or unsigned account may access promotions, discounts, availability of rooms, room type, location and price as well as online booking or reservation anywhere else where motel may be accessible. Each customer's transaction history is also recorded in data base. These data are accessible through the central administration as well as to local motel administration in order to facilitate services for every customer that places reservation or booking online. Each branch or local administrator can access data about customer from the central administration using their login account in order to check on history, payment details, among others. Likewise, the main administration coordinates with banks and other monetary service providers for payment, collection, etc. with regards to the motel account of each customer. The local or branch motel facilitates for the services and coordinates through e-mail with the central administration in order to properly serve client Use Case Diagram Documentation The customer must register in order to open an account. This will allow the company to trace their customer when they make or cancel their booking. The registration includes their customer's ID, password, other contact and personal information associated with their banking details. The costumer may check the room updates including availability, room type and price of the room. In placing bookings, the user should log in and when he is finished updating his booking, all activities will be added to his history of booking. The history of the customer may be checked by the main HQ or the local Administration and they can base any booking discounts from this customer's history. And the costumer can avail this discount inform via his email account. Also, the main HQ and local admin can send to the costumer's email the latest offers if there is. The main HQ administrator has the access in controlling the system, the HQ can either add or remove motel. Both of the main HQ and the local Administration can update the room type, availability and pricing of their rooms. Class Diagram Documentation The Main flow: Customer 1. The personal information of the customer includes his ID, name, address, contact information, age and other personal detail with his email address. The customer can access through web, he can check the availability, type and pricing of the room. Also he can check seasonal offers of the company. 2. With his personal email address he can send his messages and other inquires about his booking. He can receive special the other offer, be informed for special discount and other newsletter from the company. And also he can be informed if ever the payment and booking transactions is successful or not. 3. When customers make their booking the booking number, date, time, and the details of payments will be a part of the customer's history. 4. Costumer's history includes with the customer's booking number, the total of booking the customer made the other details of his booking from this the company will base their decision if they will give a special discount of not. The Main flow: Payment 1. Payment transactions must include the customer's ID, the date and amount he paid off. The payment of the customer may be in the form of check or card payments. 2. If the transaction was done by check then the transaction must include the payment number, check no., sort code, account number and other banking information. 3. IF the transaction was done by card payments the detailed information must include the card number, the date when it is issued and the expiration date. 4. All the payment transaction between the customer and the company. The company and the customer must be informed by the electronic banking system if the card or check is accepted or rejected. The Main flow: Motel 1. Both the main HQ motel administration and other local administrations can check their customer's history. 2. The HQ and other local administrations can update the rooms' availability, type, and pricing. Only the Main administrator can add or delete rooms. 3. The main HQ administrator can add and remove their local motel branches. Also they can remove, add or transfer their staffs. Sequence Diagram Documentation Generally there are three main transactions; these are the booking, payment and messaging. The first part is the booking that includes the creation and cancellation of booking. The second part is the payment; payments are done through electronic banking system as apart of the system. The third transaction to complete the first and second part is the confirmation; any details from booking and payment are part of the report transaction. Statement of Assumptions The proposed system should be quick in operation (response time) and have a common pleasant user interface for all the end users such as customer, administrators and company staff. Since the customer can login to the system at any location and at any point in time, web based transactions have to be seamless and quick in response to avoid customer dissatisfaction. Open Issues: The cost and budget details of the project are not discussed. The proposed system will include provisions for creating fresh motels or completely deleting records of an existing motel. Further the transactions of the system will include enquiries for rooms, booking / cancellations, payment transactions and report generation for all the information that is sought by the respective users. The reports can be viewed either on the screen or printed out to an online printer or on to offline storage files. The system will also have access control mechanism with a suitable login facility for maintaining the security issues raised by the customer. The product will also address besides the above functionality the non-functional requirements as specified by the client in consistency with the outlined functional requirements. Interface Definition Language (IDL) code. Definition: The IDL code produces the Customer Log In Booking Form. The Name, Address, e-mail, phone and Fax will be required to be filled up. A Type of Response shall be asked, and choices include via e-mail, phone or fax. Total Number of party shall be encoded, for adults and children. Type of accommodation shall be picked with choices from single room, double room, family room, spa suite single, spa suite double, business suite single and business suite double. Check-in and Check-out dates are also asked. A Message box for additional questions, concerns or requirements, with a "reset" and "submit query" button are found below. Payment button is also included. In the page, Car-free Branch is indicated. Others are room type, availability, Prices or Rate, and ongoing or applicable promotions. In each information required, a "submit query" button is placed. Web PageMaker V2 was used to create the client form interface (Please refer to Appendix Client Interface) using IDL code. Testing White Box Testing. Also called glass box or clear box testing, this uses internal perspective of the system that design test cases based on internal structure (Wikipedia, 2006) based on actual implementation such as updates in component values also applicable in integration and system levels (Wikipedia, 2006). This tests paths within a unit, between units during integration where old and new systems of Car-free are merged, and between subsystems during a system level test. The white box test may uncover an overwhelming number of test cases but cannot detect unimplemented or missing parts of the specification. To be able to test the system, the designed program must be run. Black Box Testing. It is the output (please refer to Appendix Outcome) has been run and tested under White Box. With this test, it can be found out what were missed and not implemented (Wikipedia, 2006). The outcome produces Customer Booking form for Car-free Motel Company containing relevant data such as mailing address, e-mail address, contact numbers, reply type, number of party in adult and child/children, type of accommodation, date of check-in and check-out, as well as message box for query and other concerns in order to facilitate customer response and comments. Reset and Query buttons are set for submission. Payment button follows. On same or following page, room type, availability and price are all indicated, followed by available promotions, of which are also set for automated e-mail sending to all registered customers (Please refer to Appendix for Internet Document Output). Pseudo Code Print "Car Fee's Motel Company" Print "Costumer Log in" Print "Booking Form" FOR Your Name=Char input [20] FOR Address=Strng input [50] FOR Email=Strng input [20] FOR Phone=Int input [20] For Fax=Int input [20] PRINT "Type of Response Please respond via:" FOR Response=(1,2,3):1=email,2=phone,3=fax FOR adults=Int input[1-100] FOR children=Int input[1-100] Type of accommodation=Char input[15] FOR CIDATE=Int input[1-31] FOR CIMonth=Int Input[12] FOR CIYear=Int Input[2006-2010] FOR CODATE=Int input[1-31] FOR COMonth=Int Input[12] FOR COYear=Int Input[2006-2010] PRINT "Additional questions, concerns or requirements:" FOR Add=Strng Input[1-1000] Datacopy (Name,Address,email,phone,fax,response,adults,children, accomodation,CIdate,CImonth,CIyear,COdate,COmonth,COyear,Add) Data send to (mailto:carfree@motel.com) IF room is not available print "unavailable" ELSE print "available" IF Branch has 15 available rooms print "all rooms are available" else if the branch has 2-14 available rooms print "a lot of rooms are still available" else if the branch has 1 available room print "Our motel has last one room available" else print "the motel is not available, please check other car free motel branches" HQ control IF the Branch is not available Remove branch Else print" Welcome to our Car free motel branch, We love to serve you feel at home, thank you" Critical Evaluation: The proposed system will be a web based client server system with the business layer and the database lying in the server at the head office. The front end will be in the form of clients at the head office for the company administrators, then clients at the local motel administrator's offices. The other front end will be the web access by customers from any location via the internet. The figure below depicts a logical design of the proposed system for easy reference and understanding. Source: Miller & Mukerji, 2003. In this age when data storage, access and connection is in the speed of light, where bugs, viruses and hacking proliferate, it is necessary to secure the information system. Financial information is of utmost consideration especially for the customers. It is necessary that financial data must be held in highly secured manner but with leeway to staff to check on the credit background of customer. Non-functional requirements to be met include: Scalability - the system must be able to accommodate future expansion. Current programs available can accommodate new systems and integration shall not be a problem at all. Fault-tolerance - system down-time is undesirable. Availability - the system must provide fast access to data and operate on a 24/7 basis. Outside of office hours there will be lower levels of activity (fewer database accesses and less network traffic) so these will be ideal times to perform backups and any bulk-data transfers needed. During the system-changeover period disruption to motel operations must be kept to a minimum. Transparency - The various forms of transparency that are appropriate to this system must be provided. At each stage of the design, all relevant transparency issues should be considered. For example, in providing fault-tolerance and high availability, some data might be replicated and stored at several locations. This replication must be hidden from users. All these requirements are achieved in the design process. The design is made for online customers. The system only allows the transaction for booking and messaging between the customer and the admin. The other system (not a part of the car free system) is the banking system the transaction includes the payment and confirmation of it. The system can accommodate expansion for motel updates and web updates. The availability of the system may depend on the mechanical (hardware) stability of the system and the banking system that are used for any transaction. The transparency of the system from the design was shown from the customers 'log in'- this limits the ability of the customer to modify other bookings, he is only allowed to changed and modify his own booking. Any money transaction depend on the other system or banking system. Conclusion: It has always been the aim of every company to update its system and operations to facilitate fast costumer and service provider interaction, processing, and transaction. But with every introduction of a new information management system, companies are left to choose what is at present deliverable, and previously, update and integration has become such a burden so that although ease of transaction was attained, the high cost of system update and information integration caught up and levels old operations cost, if not more. Integrating a business information system with different settings has always posed challenge to most programmers or designers. But they are always one or two steps ahead. The above proposal for Car-free Motel information system may in the near future require update, or even modification Car-free Motel Company client, branch and central administration needs, information dissemination, data, among others increase or change. But with the IDL, modification would come in handy as basis or platform has been set with the ability to understand other languages that a different programmer may use. Editing and design are supported by easily accessible software, while MS FrontPage, Adobe Photoshop, among others used in the lay-out and design integrates well with various operations and programming languages.. The proposed information system may encounter change now and then but the platform has been set to support these changes as the following diagrams in Appendix illustrates. Ease of use and integrated approach as well as suitability of user from headquarter to local or main branch administrators, and to target clients lessen burden of information dissemination for data access, marketing and promotions, as well as customer entry and will signify less cost on marketing, operating and maintenance expenses. The end goal, as always, of customer service value delivery is targeted. Reference: Bitpipe. "Interface Definition Language." October 7, 2006. From http://www.bitpipe.com/tlist/Interface-Definition-Language.html Miller, J. and Mukerji, J. (2003). MDA Guide Version 1.0.1. OMG/2003-06-01. Jun 12, 2003. Robertson, Suzanne; Robertson, James; 2000 Mastering the Requirements Process, Pearson Education Asia Pte. Ltd. Sellers, D. (2004). Maximum Migration Kit. Hotel/motel/be-be software." Oct. 8. From http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/macsimum_migration_kit_hotel_motel_bb_software Wikipedia. "White box Testing" "Black Box Testing." Accessed October 2006. From www.wikipedia.org Appendix: An illustration on updating of information system from old to new: Source: Miller & Mukerji, 2003 Car-free Motel Location Sample (Customer): Following is the Outcome after running the code: Client Interface IDL Code: .ws6 { FONT-SIZE: 8px } .ws7 { FONT-SIZE: 9px } .ws8 { FONT-SIZE: 11px } .ws9 { FONT-SIZE: 12px } .ws10 { FONT-SIZE: 13px } .ws11 { FONT-SIZE: 15px } .ws12 { FONT-SIZE: 16px } .ws14 { FONT-SIZE: 19px } .ws16 { FONT-SIZE: 21px } .ws18 { FONT-SIZE: 24px } .ws20 { FONT-SIZE: 27px } .ws22 { FONT-SIZE: 29px } .ws24 { FONT-SIZE: 32px } .ws26 { FONT-SIZE: 35px } .ws28 { FONT-SIZE: 37px } .ws36 { FONT-SIZE: 48px } .ws48 { FONT-SIZE: 64px } .ws72 { FONT-SIZE: 96px } .wpmd { FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial' } DIV { MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px } UL { MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px } OL { MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px } Car Free's Motel Company Costumer Log in Booking Form Your Name    Address 
email  
Phone  
Fax  
Type of Response Please respond via:            email              phone                fax 
Number in party adults                          children   
Type of accommodation    Check-in Date Day                                              Month                              Year    
Check-out Date Day                                           Month                              Year 
Additional questions, concerns or requirements:
  
choose below 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 choose below 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 choose below January February March April May June July August September October November December choose below January February March April May June July August September October November December PAY HERE Choose below 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Choose below 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Choose below single room double room twin room family room spa suite-single spa suite-double business suite-single business suite-double ROOMS                                    CAR-FREE MOTEL BRANCH 1 CALIFORNIA
ROOM TYPE:                          ROOM  AVAILABILITY:                        Room Price:          Single Room     1                         available               not available                                                              2                         available               not available                                   Double Room   1                         available               not available                                                              2                         available               not available                                   Twin Room        1                         available               not available                                                              2                         available               not available                                   Family Room    1                         available               not available                                                              2                        available               not available                          PROMO Low Season Discount                2%per head                        Long Satay discaount       5%per head                 *Email this promo to all costumers Report of all Branches

Branch                       no. of  room(s) occupied              no. of room(s) empty                  add /remove
Branch 1                                        10                                                    5                                              Branch 2                                         2                                                    13 Branch 3                                         5                                                    10     Branch  1                     no. of  room(s) occupied       10       no. of room(s) empty       5          *submit this report to HQ office Customer and Car-free Motel (Booking Interface) //IDL module BookingTransaction { // booking represent bookingform. typedef float booking; // Forward declaration of interface Account. interface customerAccount; interface carfreeMotel { ... }; interface customerAccount { // The account owner and other datas. readonly attribute string name; readonly attribute string address; readonly attribute string email; readonly attribute integer phone; readonly attribute integer fax; readonly attribute string resvia; readonly attribute integer numberparty; readonly attribute string accomodationtype; readonly attribute string bookingINdate; readonly attribute string bookingOUTdate; readonly attribute booking date; // Operations available on the account. void createbooking (in booking amount); void cancelbooking (in booking amount); void updatebooking (in booking amount); }; }; Read More