System design

This chapter deals with the detailed design of the proposed system which includes
database modeling, class modeling, use case modeling and the relationship
diagram of the proposed system.

Unified modeling language

One of the main purposes of UML was to provide the development community with
a stable and common design language that could be used to develop and build
compute applications. UML brought forth a unified standard modeling notation that
IT professionals had been wanting for years. Using UML, IT professionals could now
read and disseminate system structure ad design plans just as construction workers
have been doing for years with blueprints of buildings.

It is due to the following reasons that UML has become a standard modeling
language.

• It is a programming language independent (UML modeling tools from IBM

Rational are used extensively in J2EE shops as well as in .NET shops.)
• UML notation set is a language – not a methodology. This is important,
because a language, as opposed to a methodology, can easily fit into any
company’s way of conducting business without requiring change.
• It provides several types of diagrams that, when used within a given
methodology, increase the ease of understanding an application under
development.

It is simply a standardized and general-purpose specification language for object

modeling. It includes a graphical notation used to specify, visualize, construct and
create an abstract model of a system, referred to as a UML model.

Other areas where it can be applied are business process modeling, systems
engineering modeling and representation organizational structures. By establishing
an industry consensus on a graphic notation to represent common concepts like
classes, components, generalization, aggregation and behaviours, UML has allowed
software developers to concentrate more on design and architecture.

The most useful, standard UML diagrams are:

• Use case diagram

• Class diagram
• Sequence diagram
• Activity diagram
• Component diagram
• Deployment diagram
A use case illustrates a unit of functionality provided by the system. Its main
purpose is to help development teams visualize the functional requirements of a
system, including the relationship of “actors” (human beings who will interact with
the system) to essential processes, as well as the relationships among different use
cases.

A class diagram is a type of static structure diagram that describes the structure
of a system by showing the system’s classes, their attributes, and the relationships
between the classes. It is simply used to show how the different entities (people,
things, and data) relate to each other.

Sequence Diagram describes interactions among classes in terms of an exchange of

messages over time.

Activity diagrams show the procedural flow of control between two or more class
objects while processing an activity. It can be used to model higher-level business
process at the business unit level, or to model low-level internal class actions.

Below is an example of an activity diagram.

Component diagrams provide a physical view of the system and show the
dependencies that the software has on the other software components (e.g.,
software libraries) in the system.

An example of a component diagram is shown below

Deployment diagrams show howa system will be physically deployed in the

hardware environment. Its purpose is to show where the different components of
the system will physically run and how they will communicate with each other.

THE ADMINISTRATOR

The functions of the administrators are as follows:

 He/she sets up and manages the users on the system, i.e. determines who
can and cannot use the system.
 He/she is also responsible for managing the database, i.e. adding, removing,
or updating user account information, resetting passwords.
 He/she can suspend and reactivate user accounts
  He/ she has access to reports related to each user of system. This includes
the number of customers or wholesalers, number of items uploaded in a
given period, the number of items sold and the others.
 He/she ensures that services or packages are provided to customers and
users by the system. These include:
i. An online payment package
ii. Customer service package
iii. Easy design customer interface
iv. He/she supervises the day to day operations or activities of the
users ensuring efficient and effective delivery of service.

The system in providing Brokerage services (bringing buyers and sellers together
and facilitating transactions) identifies the following users;

The business enterprise

The end user

The payment system

The delivery system

THE company

The business enterprise as one of the recipients and end users of the system are
responsible for the following:

• Register and input required business details.

• Market and advertize their products and services
• Provide appropriate responses to online customers
• View reports of transactions made by customers.
• Update system after delivery or provision of product or serice.

The customer

• Register, select and order for products and services online.

• Input validity code awarded by banks after payment is made
• View reports on the state of order transactions.
• Send complains directly to the respective business enterprise.
• Opt for delivery or store pick-up
• Perform searches for products or services from different wholesale
enterprises.
The payment system
Receive payment for products and services and provide validity code to
customer.
Inputs for order payment are updated into the payment component of the
system
View details of respective shops before performing the above stated
functions.
Provide secure storage and access to transaction fees for the shops.

The delivery system

Provide delivery or store pick-up functions
Reserve for pick up
Give a directorate for purchased items to be sent to customers houses or
vantage points.

HIPO
The HIPO (Hierarchy plus Input-Process-Output) technique is a tool for
planning and/or documenting a computer program. Below are the various
HIPO charts for the major entities in the proposed system.

HIPO chart of the Administrator

HIPO chart of customer

HIPO chart of payment system

HIPO chart of delivery system

IPO chart
DATABASE MODELING
It is simply the construction of various data scheme that models the database
capacity to meet the requirements of a business process in an enterprise.
These various data schemes or models are often the first step in database
design and object-oriented programming as the designers first create a
conceptual model of how data items relate to each other. Data modeling
involves a progression from conceptual model to logical model to physical
schema and is the process of creasting a data model instance by applyting a
data model tyheory. This is typically done to solve some business enterprise
requirement. Business requirements are normally captured by a semantic
logical data model. This is transformed into a physical data model instance
(stated above) from which a physical database is generated. A typical
example is the use of a dta modeler used as a data modeling tool to create
an Entity Relationship Model or Design (ERD) of the corporate data repository
of some business enterprise. This model is transformed into a relational
model, which in turn generates a relational database.

Due to the enormity of data and number of connections to be stored and

established respectively, the relational database chosen for the proposed
system is MY SQL SERVER 2000.
Below are the tables with their description and occurrence respectively.

Below are the tables with their associated fields and data types.

CONCLUSION
This chapter dealt with system design with the use of use case modeling,
HIPO charts, IPO charts, relationship diagrams and database modeling. The
next chapter will deal with System Implementation involving system
installation, modular functionality, testing, and deployment.
CHAPTER 7
This chapter provides an informational guide or operational manual for the
proposed system. It also contains information on some key features of the
proposed system and how it can be used to provide and the respective
stakeholders.