Enhancements over Initial MVP

Feature Enrichment:

• Advanced Book Categorization & Search: Implemented granular book classification with multi-criteria search (title, author, ISBN) for improved user discovery.
• Borrowing History: Added a history feature for users to review their borrowing activity, and for administrators to track book circulation.
• User Permissions: Refined user roles (admin vs. regular user) with differentiated functionality for each role.

Performance Optimization:

• Database Indexing: Applied indexes to key fields (title, ISBN) to significantly speed up queries and enhance user experience.
• Frontend Caching: Leveraged browser caching to reduce unnecessary network requests, accelerating page load times.
• User Feedback Integration:
• Based on user input, refined how book information is displayed, adding cover images and summaries for a richer browsing experience.

Project Scalability

Architectural Design:

• Flask Blueprints: Modularized project structure using Flask blueprints, facilitating future feature additions.
• RESTful API: Designed RESTful API endpoints for potential integration with other systems and data sharing.

Resource Utilization:

• SQLite Lightweight Advantage: Chose SQLite for its minimal resource footprint, well-suited for a smaller-scale library system, with easy deployment and maintenance.
• Flask WSGI Server: Deployed the Flask app using a WSGI server (e.g., Gunicorn, uWSGI) to boost concurrent request handling.

Horizontal Scaling (Future Consideration):

• Load Balancing: Planned for future implementation of a load balancer (e.g., Nginx) to distribute traffic across multiple servers, enhancing throughput and availability.

Throughput & Stress Testing

Throughput Metrics:

• Queries per Second: Measured the number of book search queries the system can process per unit time.
• Concurrent Users: Tested the maximum number of simultaneous users the system can support, assessing its concurrency handling.

Stress Testing Methodology:

• Locust: Used the Locust load testing tool to simulate numerous users concurrently accessing the system, evaluating performance under varying loads.
• JMeter: Employed JMeter to stress test key API endpoints, analyzing response times, throughput, and other metrics.

Load Balancing (Pending):

• Currently not implemented, but planned for future deployment with Nginx to improve performance and reliability.

Introduction

To our best knowledge, This Python-based university library management system is the first book management system integrates a SQLite database (back-end) with a LayUI web interface (front-end). The database design strictly follows third normal form (3NF) principles to ensure data normalization and minimize redundancy (refer to data.sqlite for the schema).

Prerequisites

Before running, please ensure the following requirements are met:

• Conda (Python 3.9)
• Other packages are listed in requirements.txt.

Usage

Reproduce the system

1. Create a new conda environment:

  conda create --name bms python=3.9
  activate bms       # Windows
  conda activate bms # Linux

2. Clone this repo:

git clone [https://github.com/tony8888lrz/SWU-BMS](https://github.com/tony8888lrz/SWU-BMS/)
cd SWU-BMS

3. Install required packages by typing

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run book_management_sys.py to reproduce the management system.

python book_management_sys.py runserver

5. Go to http://127.0.0.1:5000/ or enter the localhost in the browser

Demo

You can work with the test, which will help you run smoothly with this software. Login Page: Account：201803 Password：123456，Subsequent pages will include route protection functionality. Below is a demonstration of the login page:

In the main menu bar, click on "Query Book Information," select the query method (Title, ISBN, Author, Category), and enter the search content for a fuzzy search. The results will be displayed in a table. If no results are found, a no results message will be displayed:

In the main menu bar, click on "Query Student Information," enter the student's library card number, and the basic information of the student along with their borrowing records will be displayed in a table:

In the main menu bar, click on "Book Management" to expand the secondary menu, then click "New Book Entry." This function is divided into two sub-functions. If the purchased book is not already in the library, first click "New Book Registration" to fill in the book's information, then assign a number to the book. In the "Stock Replenishment" sub-function, fill in the book's number, location, etc.:

Under "Book Management," click "Student Borrowing." Enter the student's library card number, search for books by title, display the list of available books, and click search. The results will be rendered in a table. Select a row to perform the borrowing operation. After confirmation, the table will reload, allowing continuous borrowing operations. (If the card has overdue fees, is expired, or reported lost, an appropriate message will be displayed):

Click on "Information Settings" in the side main menu to modify the currently logged-in administrator's information. In the top navigation bar, hover over the administrator's name or avatar to select "View Personal Information" or "Change Password":

In the top navigation bar of the login page, select "Query Book Information" or "Query Student Information." The pages and usage are the same as those for administrators: