Overview

As part of a programming module project, I built salon management functionality around a basic provided GUI, allowing customers and stylists to register, book chairs and schedule appointments of different lengths

The Project

The project required using the same front-end style with minimal big changes, and focussing changes on functionality. Although the UX side of this project was limited, it was really useful for understanding and applying the encapsulation of business logic from interface code and applying the DRY principle.

Tools Used

• The application is written in C#
• The interface is in Windows Forms (due to legacy module requirements)

Outcome

Although I was disappointed I couldn’t write the front-end in React or even ASP.Net Core, I was happy with the things I learned in-principle in the code.

As all the functionality was encapsulated in a DLL, it meant an alternative or web interface can be provided without a significant amount of change to the codebase as all the creation, user management and booking calls are already implemented so it would just be providing a new interface to interact with it.

Through working on the project I’ve gained a better understanding of creating more reusable code in C# including using regions to ensure that code is easier to refer back to in future and it’s organised well, using summary comments to allow methods to be clear when using the DLL elsewhere (all methods are clearly explained to allow a web interface to be built with the same business logic).

I’ve learned how to make my methods and classes abstract, creating virtual objects to fill gaps in my projects while I was still building functionality, if working in a group project this would’ve been even more helpful as it would mean I could build around functionality without it already being programmed.

Applying what I’ve learned working as a tester at SIS at the University of Hull, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected and to test again again and again. I both self tested and user acceptance tested the end product with computer scientists and non-computer scientists, even finding bugs like emojis crashing the application.