OrderNow – Android based Restaurant Management System

By Omkar Hande

Contents

Application Design

User Interfaces & Key features

Customer’s UI

Waiter’s UI

Manager’s Web UI

Database design

Technologies Used

Project metrics

Application Design

Application Design - Layers

There are 3 layers to this application

1. Application layer – Android UI & Manager’s Web layout This layer stores majority of the application logic.

2. Service Layer or Data Access Layer – PHP Scripts that facilitate communication between Android and MySQL (or any other database). This layer stores some logic, for instance, if say a user tries to add an item to the cart when there is no open order against his name, this layer will go ahead and create one automatically

3. Database Layer – Where all the data is stored. This layer has little or no logic stored in it. Most of the operational steps are carried out by the service layer

Application Design – Schematic View

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4. Runs query, sends

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1. Asks for Today’s

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6. Loads the view

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Specials

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User Interface & Key features

Customer Android UI – Key Features

Consists of swipe-able tabs

There are 5 tabs in customer’s interface: Today’s Specials – Consists of Today’s special menu items

Menu – Complete Menu

Cart – Items added to cart before placing order

Feedback – To submit feedback on the service/food

About Us – About the restaurant

Customer Android UI – App Screenshots

Today’s Special Tab – Enlists today’s recommendations

Menu Tab – Categorized group wise

Item Popup - Description with picture pops-up on clicking a menu item

Customer Android UI – App Screenshots

Cart – Stores all the items added to cart. Items can be deleted by swiping the item to left/right. A refresh button is also included

Feedback– Customers can send feedback regarding service

Customer Android UI – App Screenshots

App is designed to work in landscape mode as well

Waiter Android UI - Key Features

Consists of 3 swipe-able tabs Update Approvals – To approve addition/deletion requests of customes

Order Approvals – Orders waiting to be placed

Billing Approvals – Orders pending for billing

Waiter Android UI – App Screenshots

Update Requests – List of all the addition/deletion requests

New Orders – List of all orders pending to be placed

Order Approval – Enlist order items prior to approval

Waiter Android UI – App Screenshots

Unbilled – Orders pending for billing.

Approval Confirmation – Once waiter approves this, the bill is processed

Manager’s Web UI (link)

Manager’s Web UI

Manager UI does the following tasks: Set specials menu

Add new user (customer, waiter or admin)

Add new items

Send messages to GCM registered devices

Database Design

Database Design

There are 8 tables in total

Each table as its own Auto-Increment ID that is used as a primary key

There are no foreign key constraints as of now

No form of logic such as triggers or events are stored in database – All actions are performed by the data access layer (PHP Scripts)

Database Design - Tables

Items – stores details of all items such as its name, price, category

Users – stores details of all the users – customers, waiters and administrators

Order – stores name of the order along with a timestamp and id of the linked customer

Order_details – stores the items corresponding to each order

Requests – stores all the Add/Delete update requests

Pairs – stores which waiter is assigned to which table (customer)

Feedback – stores feedbacks corresponding to orders

Groups – stores the categories of items (starters, main course etc.)

Database Design – EER Diagram

Technologies Used

Android SDK

Android is an open source mobile operating system by Google. The controllers here are written in Java while the UI components are written in XML

Most popular mobile platform today with over 900 Million smartphone activations

Android comes with a highly detailed and exhaustive documentation and also has a large developer base

This app is compatible with latest version of Android (API Level 19) – KitKat 4.4.2

Requires minimum API Level 14 - Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0

Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)

Free messaging service from Google

Allows sending messages from server to any Android powered device

Cloud recognizes devices using a unique GCM Registration ID that is assigned by Google to the device as it establishes connection with the cloud

Once registration IDs are in place, we can send messages between devices. This app uses GCM to send notifications between customers and waiters

MySQL Server

Great for Web Applications (even Facebook uses MySQL)

Easy to learn & use

Very fast reads (faster than Oracle)

Less restrictive on syntax unlike Enterprise DBMS like Oracle

Recommended DBMS for PHP

Scalability can be a caveat

JQuery plugins

Chosen library – custom select and multi select boxes

JQuery Form library – makes form handling easier

Project Metrics

Total Lines of code JAVA Code – 6713 lines

PHP Code – 21100 lines

Calculated using

git ls-files | xargs wc –l

On Git repository

Possible Improvements

Caching data

Use Sync Adapters

Compatibality with lower versions of android (currently works for 4.0 and above)

Thank You!

Omkar Hande