Chapter 6. Order Entry Abstract and Design

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Chapter 6. Order Entry Abstract and Design

This is the first of the real world implementation examples that will comprise the remainder of the book. In this case, the client is looking to do a proof of concept project in order to evaluate the viability of Linux and MySQL. The client, Specialty Electrical Supply, Inc. (SESI), has chosen an application that needs to be done: entering orders phoned in by customers. They are interested in the low price point of the Linux operating system and would consider converting to an all-Linux shop if they could be reasonably certain they would not have to hire an expensive server administrator.

The main goal of this chapter is to set out a basic design for a simple GTK+ and MySQL application. The project in question is entering orders for the client, SESI. Although this chapter does not attempt to outline a formal specification, it does set out to describe the problem in sufficient detail so you can understand what the application should do and why. Its purpose is to give you a big picture view of the application so that when the application is built (in Chapter 7, "Construction of the SESI Order Entry Application"), you will be able to understand how things work together, and you will have a point of reference to understand the coding process. There is an appendix in this book that goes along with this Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. It is Appendix A, Glade-Generated Files from the SESI Order Application.

Currently, SESI uses a system that s based on Excel spreadsheets and Word documents, and one of the managers, who has a strong technical background, manages the LAN as one of his part-time duties . Their customer and product master files are Excel spreadsheets, and they cut and paste orders to Word.They then send the order to the PC s printer for a quick walk down to the warehouse ”a very tedious process. The goal is to replace this with a GTK+ windowing interface that can then output each order to a separate text file. Then these text files can be sent to the individual(s) responsible for filling them by FTP, email, or whatever other mechanism may be chosen. Further, the next obvious step will be to create an application that the worker on the shop floor who is filling the order can use to record what was shipped and when and what had to go on backorder. For those of you more on the business end, this will be the bookings part of booking/billing/backlog.

only for RuBoard - do not distribute or recompile