Easy Booking System For Karnali Airline Company

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

ABSTRACT

The following project report was undertaken by the candidate solely under the supervision and guidance of the project authenticator. This project report reflects the content of the project which was carried out for the karnali airline company during the last few months. It involves different stages/phases of the project from the initial Requirement phase up to the final Implementation phase. The following project report describes how the project was created and how it fits the expectation of the stakeholder and the general public. The general problem which occurred during the project is listed out along with the necessary steps done to resolve it.

The project was to create an online booking system for the newly established karnali airline company, which will allow their customers to book their flights online. The need for the project was to create such a system which can keep up with other competitive airline company in financial and social term. The facility for customer to choose flights from various date, destinations and seat preference were involved.

The produced good/product from the project is going to be software based/computer based and will mainly perform operation over the internet between the system server and the client’s computer.

The project report is accompanied by a disc were the necessary coding are kept in form of HTML, PHP and CSS files.

The soft copy of this report is also appended in the report in form of a document file.

The project was candidate’s own work, the ideas for the coding were chosen from text book and internet, especially from http://www.w3schools.com/

But it is ensured that all the work and codes were of the candidate, and were not copied from any legitimate source, if the content of following report reflects any work that have been done earlier then it will merely be a co-incidence. 3

Table of Contents: -

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………2

Table of contents……………………………………………………………………3

1. Problem definition…………………………………………………………………4-5

2. Methodology……………………………………………………………………….6-7

3. Requirement analysis and specification……………………………………....8-14

i. Introduction

ii. Hardware and software requirements from stakeholders

4. Feasibility………………………………………………………………………15-18

i. Feasibility of the requirements

ii. Final proposed requirement

5. Design…………………………………………………………………………19-24

i. ERM and Data Flow Diagram

ii. Algorithm and Flowchart

iii. User Interface Diagram

6. Development………………………………………………………….………25-35

i. Choices of packages and tools

ii. Development of the system

7. Testing………………………………………………………………………..36-39

i. White box testing

ii. Black box testing

8. Implementation……………………………………………………….……..40-41

9. Review………………………………………………………………….………42

Appendix……………………………………………………………………..43-46 4

1. Problem definition: -

This phase of the project explains the problems which were identified in the similar system in the past. As the system which will be produced from this project will be a new piece of software for Karnali Airline company, therefore it had be created in such a way which can tackle all the problem which occurred with the similar kind of system in the past. When a new system is developed, the user of the system expects it to be more useful and more functional than the similar one which is already in existence, also because of the current development trends products are introduced in an all-new version each and every day. As a result, the system which can’t cope with the increasing demand will be left behind.

Numbers of problem were identified with other airline booking system previously. Out of which some of them are listed below:

Problem 1: customers details being contravened

In one of the airline system, a customer details were stolen from the database which had all their personal information. As a result, the customer took a legal action against the company. In an online system which maintains a database to store all the data and information regarding the service they provide, enough security measure should be made. If not, this can create a conflict between the customer and the airline company and can even lead to any legal action issued by the customer.

Problem 2: Same seat being booked for two customers

Once in an airline system, one seat was being booked for two different customers on the same flight. Two customers having same seat number on the same flight will face problem during the flight. It is completely wrong to mix one user’s information with others. Database has to be maintained which can ensure system integration.

Problem 3: Server being flooded with requests

The inability and inefficiency of server to handle number of requests from the user have leaded to some airline company to lose lots of finance and also had an adverse impact on the name and reputation of the company. As a result, the customer had to move onto other airline company. 5

Problem 4: paying close attention to the legislative rules

The legislative rules should be followed on most of the organisation. Failing to apply with corresponding legislative rules laid down by the empowering bodies have led them to perform legal issues against companies throughout the globe. 6

2. Methodologies: -

The software went through a typical system development lifecycle of waterfall approach.

In a Waterfall model, after each phase is completed it moves onto another one. Each phase on completion is review and analysed to make sure that the required phase has indeed been done correctly and there is no any problem occurring with it. As in this method we have to move from one phase to another, it would be unnecessary to come back to previous phase for checking. This inflexibility in the waterfall method has been a major issue regarding the process among its users and other competitive software processes. But since we want our system to be developed in a linear way, waterfall system is most suitable for it and it also fits within the intended purpose of the system. Waterfall method is linear in nature and is simple and realistic to the system environment whereas other methods like agile system includes a complex hierarchy of phases that have to completed for making a system robust. Similarly spiral model can be time consuming as it expects the user to go through the same phase again and again which can result in more time been consumed.

Both methods could have been chosen, in certain case scenario. For instance, if the requirement of the system were to be changed regularly then agile method would have been used instead. Spiral method has been used when there was enough time left.

The way the system is going to be developed is: -

The first stage of the report will be to give a brief introduction into the insight of the project.

After that it will follow the problem definition phase, where the issues that occurred with the previous system will be discussed.

Once the problems are identified, requirements will be setup and analysed to identify its feasibility.

After the requirements are fully and clearly identified, it will move onto design phase where the designing of the system will be planned and designed. 7

Once the designing phase is completed, we will move onto develop the system according to the boundary and framework laid down within design phase.

The system will be tested thoroughly after it have been developed and will be ready for installation.

At last, the project will be reviewed to identify if the system have been developed properly.

As the waterfall approach is linear, so it had to be made sure that a phase is completed properly before moving onto the other one because once the phase is completed we cannot come back onto the previous phase. 8

3. Requirement analysis and specification: -

i. Introduction

ii. Hardware and software requirements

I. Introduction: -As it is stated in most of the project development manners, that when a project is undertaken then it has to be built within certain time, budget and function. The project is said to be successful if the system is functioning as agreed in the early phase of the system development and finishes within certain time and within certain budget. The following project makes a system for which requirements are to be introduced and analysed to see the feasibility of proposed system and to identify if it can be built that way. When a software project is to be developed requirements and analysis have to be set forth in advance of project development, if they don’t a system is likely to be a non-functional system not satisfying the need of the project stakeholders, and can be very costly. Most of the time all the requirements which are laid forth from the project stakeholders are not very flexible for the system environment, so some consideration have to be done to make sure that all the requirement are within the capability of the system environment, if they are not some alternative method have to be chosen.

During the requirement and specification phase stakeholder has to be involved to collect the information about the system that they want. The first stakeholder in the list is going to be the employees of the system. A discussion will be made with the employees of the system asking them about the kind of the system that they require. Requirements will be collected with the lower level staffs and as well as with top level managers. Everyone will have their own requirement according to the work they perform; hence one can have a different requirement than others. The staffs of the airline company will submit their requirement in written form and also in a form of questionnaire and interview (verbal) during the project requirement phase. Each employees of the company involving both top and lower level will be introduced to one another concept so there won’t be any feeling of partiality among the staffs. They will be given feedback on the requirement they pointed out describing if it is flexible to the business working environment or not.

Visits to the site, where the system is going to be operational also have to be done to understand how the system can be implemented and used in the realistic 9

environment. This formal visit will inspect the aspect of the company like office space, wiring condition, hardware items and other issues.

The second and the most important stakeholder of the system are going to be the customers who will be using the airline booking system once it is operational. This requirement can be collected by general public or the potential clients of the company in the form of questionnaire, interviews etc. The public will give its opinion and views that it would have towards the desired system. Again it might be quiet impossible to involve all the points raised by the customers so we have to choose the best of the best. Mostly customers are very picky on what they want, if a certain system is not created according to their criteria then they even might think that the system is useless. An example for solving the conflict on the requirement laid down by the customer is written ahead. For example, if 20 customers wants the system to be developed within ‘x’ condition and 30 other customers wants the system to be develop within ‘y’ condition then it is likely that the condition ‘y’ is to be chosen among this two, but it doesn’t mean that the condition ‘x’ is to be completely forgotten because another 20 customers depends on it. So to avoid this kind of situation, condition ‘y’ has to be made in such a way in which some aspects of ‘x’ is also included.

In the above example, it might as well be that condition ‘x’ is realistic according to the environment of the system where it is going to be implemented whereas condition ‘y’ isn’t. Conflict arise is such a situation and is best solved by carrying out the feasible study about the system. No matter if a person usually travels by airplane or not, requirements are still to be collected from all the general public involving everyone.

As, mentioned the system will be acting as a first operating part of the organisation, so it will be created in such a way as to cater the problem issued with similar system previously.

The following requirements laid down for the newly system will be collected by various resources namely customers and employees of the organisation and as well as from public in a form of survey. Different hardware and software platforms are going to be acquired for the system depending upon its feasibility for the environment where it is going to be implemented. 10

The main reason or desire for collecting system requirement is to setup a boundary or framework, within which a system have to be developed. Following steps and Procedures will identify the requirements of the system written down by the stakeholders, and will finally produce a comprehensive set of agreed requirements which can be undertaken by company’s current position.

This introduction comprises of different phases each being followed by another process.

II. Hardware and Software requirement from the stakeholders: -

When a system is to be developed, then obviously some hardware and software issues are to be addressed in advance prior to its development. The study of hardware and software requirements along with its feasibility tells us what kind of environment the system is going to be implemented over. This stage involves finding out the potential software and hardware that can be acquired for the system and find out the best one of all which is flexible and functional against the criteria of the system.

The system is mostly focused on providing its services to the general public over the internet in a form of website with its own database. So, we will be addressing mainly software requirement along with hardware in some extent. General public views and ideas have to be considered as a must during the requirement phase.

The requirements are collected in following ways:

ï‚· Requirements for the employees: The employee of the Airline Company will be responsible for providing services to their clients and customers and will also be designated to take care of the system in terms of support and maintenance. It is a must that employees of the company are involved during the requirement phase. All the requirements that are pointed out during the interview with the employees of the company will undergo feasible study.

A meeting was conducted as a method of extracting information from the employees for the basis of requirements. During the meeting with newly 11

recruited employees following points were mainly discussed and focused onto: -

a) A user friendly look and navigational feature for the system, this will not only help the customer who will be booking sits online but will also help the employees when they are visiting the website.

b) The need for the staffs and employees to update and modify information when needed as sometime the data stored from the customers in the process of submission/booking can be wrong or sometimes the data can even be no longer valid and should be deleted from the system.

c) The employees of the company should be connected with one another inside the company by the means of local area network (LAN); this will provide function of file sharing with one another and will also save time for information exchange.

d) The system should be up and running for most of the time (uptime); if the user logs on to the website and finds out that it is under maintenance, which will create bad image/reputation towards the company.

e) Employees should be able to connect via Internet through website so it can be accessed remotely, so the employees can update their customer’s details when they want and where they want instead of only doing it if they are inside the office room.

f) The employees of the company should have a direct access to the system when they want and where they want.

g) The system should have flexibility of running in most of the Operating System, as within the company itself people can be working on different kinds of operating system completely different from one another’s.

ï‚· Requirements for clients: Customers and Clients are the most important stakeholder for the system as they are the one who will be using the services provided by the company over the internet. Similarly general public who can

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be a potential client of the company are another valuable asset for the company.

Customers and clients can help to identify Basic requirements that were not been considered by the system developer. Requirement was collected from the clients in the form of questionnaire and interview.

During a survey of questionnaire and interview with few public opinions and potential clients of karnali airlines, following points were listed out as the priorities: -

a) The system should be capable of working in most of the Operating systems, some software system encounter problem while running in alternative environment then the one in which they were produced.

b) User friendly look and navigational feature for the system; It is an essential part of the system because apart from the function of the system what it does, it is very important to have understandable and clear content on the page. The page should be neat and clean, there shouldn’t be too much colour combination.

c) Website should be easily available, when searching over the internet. It may as well be that you are searching for the airline company in Google or Bing and it is displaying you number of other irrelevant airline company website.

d) Since the bandwidth allocation for the internet connection in Nepal is low comparison to other developed countries, so it is essential not to put too many multimedia contents which can increase its loading time considerably.

e) Easy to understand by most of the geographical areas, people living in completely two different part of the country may have different lifestyle and the way of communication.

f) Flight destinations and fares along with sorting facilities, which will help the customer to find the seat that they need.

g) Various travel destinations should be displayed out with the corresponding fares, which will have them to manage their flight. This will give the users the benefit of checking flight fares of Karnali airline against other airline company.

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h) The foreground and background colour of the webpage should be colourful and vibrant, but should not distract visitors from the main content.

i) Similarly the font size, colour combination and other aspects of the Webpages have to be taken into account.

ï‚· Few extracts from the interviews and questionnaire which were conducted out during the project:

An extraction of conversation between employees of the company and requirement analyst panel: -

Panel: What functionalities would you like to have on the new system?

Employee: Well, I personally think that the system has to be real-time as a must, so data’s can be updated frequently.

Employee: Is it possible to make it multilingual? Our client can be of various ethnic origins. Also how long would it take to get a system up and running?

Panel: There can be a solution for creating a system handling few languages, the time needed for a system to be fully developed depends upon it complexity but should take no more than few months in this case.

Panel: Any other things you might want to add?

Employee: Also, I wonder if photographs can be uploaded to the site for customers.

Panel: It can be done manually, but let me think before I can give any decision.

An extraction of questionnaire given out and collected back from the public: -

Q. What feature would you think is mostly important for a website?

-Navigation and control

-Look and design

-Quick access

-Regular update

Q. What language do you prefer while using website? 14

-Nepalese (regional)

-English (International)

Q. How often do you book flights online?

-Regularly

-Quite often

-Sometimes

-Never

Q. What bandwidth allocation have you got in your living area?

-up to 2 Mbps

-up to 1 Mbps

-up to 512 Kbps 15

4. Feasibility: -

It is important to know how feasible the requirements of the system are before giving any decisions to the project stakeholder. Requirements should be analysed before taking any further steps, so system will be free from unnecessary time consumption and money wastages. Analysing the requirements helps to point out the ones which are feasible in terms of company’s desire and run time environment (current situation). Feasibility study can be done by listing out the requirements which were pointed out during the collection phase of the requirements against the company’s current position and environment to handle such a system. Feasibility for the system in a broad context can be further sub-divided into individual part. Feasibility of the system can be related to finance, function, operation etc. Feasibility of the requirements can be categorised into different aspects of the system, such as:

Technical: - As far it comes to technical feasibility, all the software and programmes needed for the development of the system are easily available and are capable of carrying out and execute required tasks. The software tools used for creating the software helps to implements it on other platforms as well. The software used are free available and are easy to use. When a person is stuck half way through their program, it can provide the required help and support to overcome the problem. The development tools are loaded with functions like syntax highlighting and error finding etc.

Economic: - The value of assets required to make the system operational is currently available with the project stakeholder. Firstly, an office room have to be setup before making the system operational. And then different tools, machinery and furniture have to be purchased. All the Assets that were spend on the system will be covered by the productive income that it will incur later in the future.

The first few weeks will have low productivity rate but will be overcome during holiday seasons when people have to travel places quickly and as always seats on other airline companies are going to be booked in advance. Particularly during the holiday seasons, people have to travel far off to their relatives or visit new places with their family and friends. These can give Karnali Airline the opportunity to attract customers towards it. And once 16

flying with KA (karnali airlines), people might be willing to travel with the same airline again and again.

Operational: - Operational feasibility can be carried out by the reliability of the system. Depending upon how reliable a system is, people can identify if the system is fit for use or not. Reliability can corresponds to the functioning of the system, things like ‘ is the system going to be able to handle the query done by the user?’, ‘is the system going to be online or running up most of the time?’ etc.

The number of flights and corresponding seats handled by the company can be easily supported by the system as well as the information. Most of the function of the system is automatic. Since the company is in its early stage, it was advised not to include too many information as it can hamper the working of the system. Later in the future, extra feature and functionality will be added on the system as demanded. If a server is unable to handle too may request and information from the user, then it will be stopped and another backup server will come to live containing all the information from the main database.

In case if the database is filled with enormous amount of data and information, another new database will be replaced on its place and the older database will be moved to an achieved section, where system can still have an access to it.

I. Feasibility of issued requirements from clients and employees: -

1. Multilingual interface: - This requirement can be fulfilled by creating webpages in different languages and interconnecting them and making the system to display them in alternative languages. Since majority of customer will be focusing either in two languages i.e., English or Nepalese. Making the system to be displayed on more than these two languages can be time consuming. Pages can be written in alternate Nepalese language by allowing the keyboard to perform typing in Nepalese language.

2. Reliability of the system: - Reliability relies on the ability of the system to handle the request, query and the workload. As the system is implemented for the first time, it should only perform few functions as opposed to very intense and complicated functions. The number of services provided by the company should be able to cope with the request made by the users. 17

3. Photographs upload: - Photographs are to be uploaded by the administrators of the system, so as to attract the customers for different travel destinations. Since, we are targeting to minimize the total volume of webpages, so adding multimedia content might slow it down. Therefore, only limited numbers of photographs are to be uploaded only by the administrators. If it is allowed for the customers to upload the photographs by them, it might occupy lots of space.

4. Administrative privilege to employees: - The employees of the system should be able to update details stored in database through a separate link in website, which of course can only be accessed by some method of authentication. It has to be done, because the developer of the system won’t always be around to handle the request. The administrative privilege will be given to the employees of the system and to the head department of the system, including handing out the source code to identify potential conflict if it ever does occur.

5. LAN connection: - having a LAN connection within a system can be beneficial as it helps to share information among fellow employees, a simple LAN connection can be used within the working of the organisation using a star topology by which each node can have access to every other node on the same network, also some security measures should be applied in some sort of encryption just to ensure that data and information are going anywhere apart from the system.

6. Regular update: - Also we have to make sure that the information that are updated by the employees are correct or if they forget or miss to update it in time someone have to do it on a regular basis. This can be achieved by setting up a team where each individual will be responsible to make sure that everything on the database is up to date during certain time intervals. Each individual can be deployed onto each section of the database ensuring the integration of the system.

7. Operating system requirement: - A system can be made to run on different operating system based on the language used to create the system. Since we will be creating a website as a major part of the system, so most of the operating system shouldn’t have any problem recognizing the language used. Currently mobile devices aren’t taken as a part of the research because it is unlikely that people will be booking flights online through mobile devices like cell phones, PDAs and tablets in the regional context. 18

II. FINAL REQUIREMENTS AGREED UPON: -

Finally, after a detailed research into the requirements phase and the feasibility of each following requirements are listed out which can be achieved by the project and can be undertake: -

1. The system should support two different languages i.e., English and Nepalese.

2. User should be allowed to enquire about the flights easily.

3. Regular update as a need and a part of the system.

4. A small clock displaying the current time, should be included at the top section of the header.

5. Uses of colour to display and enhance the contents of the webpage.

6. Pages containing hyperlinks, which can jump from one file to another when needed.

7. A contact form from which the user can be in touch with the airline company regarding personal queries.

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5. DESIGN: -

The design phase of the system will deal with the basic framework and layout of the system, comprising of different ER diagrams, Data flow diagrams, Algorithms etc. The system will therefore be developed according to the specification laid down on the design phase and will be the base for the overall structure of the system to be developed. It consists of following parts.

i. Entity relation model and data flow diagram

ii. Algorithm and flowchart

iii. User Interface Diagrams

I. Entity relation model and data flow diagram: -

The ER model depicts the relationship between entities and the task and how they are processed. In the following diagram it will show the ER model of the desired Airline Company.

In contrast, Data flow diagram identifies the flow of data between entities which can be external too (customer in this case). It shows the overall scenario of data flows and dependency between tasks.

Name Address ID number payment details

Flight information

Customer/Client

Airline Company

Fares Database Departments Flights

Fig 1: - ERM diagram (page above) 20

ERM: As you all can see from the diagram that the two important entities in our case are going to be Customer/clients and Airline Company, each having its own attributes. Customers/clients can have their name, address, ID number, payment details and flight information and in the same way Airline Company can have its own list of flight fares, database, departments and flights.

Customer 1.0

Enters the

Website

Booking

2.0

Searches for flight D1 Flight Search

Booking

3.0

Confirms it

Booking

D2 Airline finance Dept.

4.0

Enters Details D3 Bank verification

Booking

5.0

Order Details D4 Booking Database

Booking

Fig2: - Data flow diagram (page above)

DFD: The above DFD model shows the flow of data in the system for the customer from the user entering the website and up to booking it. 21

II. Algorithm and Flowchart: -

Algorithm describes the way of procedure carried out by the system. It is a stepwise execution of a program built on the system in a written form. It tells you how a certain program is to work and executed in a written form. Algorithm consists of operations like storing data, taking user input, performing Boolean operation etc. which will give allow user to write programme in plain written form.

Similarly, flowchart is the construction of an algorithm in a diagrammatic way. It represents the contents of the algorithm in a diagram making it more interesting to understand. Sometime flowchart can be much more meaningful and understanding than its corresponding algorithm. User can quickly identify the processing of data by just looking at the flowchart.

Algorithm for the system depicting the way in which the client can make a query and book his/her flight online is written below: -

ALGORITHM

1. A person enters the user interface of the website.

2. A person enquires about the flight by entering data about particular date and place.

3. If found then GOTO 5 else Go back to 4.

4. Search for alternative by entering data about different date And GOTO 3.

5. Confirm that the dates and other field correspond to the one that you entered.

6. If everything OK then click the link which will take you to the Payment and Information section.

6. Customer enters details like name, address, date of birth etc. for Personal information and other details like card number, card expiry date, card security number etc. for the Payment information.

8. After entering all the details press to submit.

9. If details correctly inserted then submit returns true AND GOTO 9 else if details left unfilled then submit returns false AND Go back to 6

10. The submit form is then verified, and directed to order details page where the whole page can be either printed or emailed to the customer.

11. After choosing an option the required action is done and the process comes to an end. 22

12. Now the user can either Go back to 1 or start booking another flight ticket or exit.

FLOWCHART

Enter

Enter data for Search for alternative

Date and flight

Searching if available

No

Found?

Yes

Confirm the order

No

Confirm?

Yes

Enter details

Verification

No

Verified?

Yes

Order details page 23

Choose to either print or e-mail

END

III. User interface diagram: -

Some of the snapshots, which were taken while creating the system, can be seen below

The above picture shows the homepage of karnali Airline Company. This is the default page when customers enter the website of Karnali Airline. The page uses the combination of CSS, HTML and PHP (all of which are going to be discussed later on). The clock which shows the current time is attached at the top of the main homepage and is written in JavaScript. 24

The above picture shows the Booking section of the website, where customer can enquire about flights.

The customer will enter the desired input inside the form and will click on the button to check if the seat is available.

After enquiring, if the customer can get a seat in a flight which they want than they are directed to the form page where they will enter their personal information along with payment details. Here the customer have to input all the fields entering details like their name, address, card payment details etc. 25

6. DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION: -

The online booking system for the airline company is going to be developed by software vendors under a legitimate contract with the organisation. After the system is developed, all the contents and rights involving the project will be transferred to the airline company. Hence the airline company will be the holder of all the source codes and database.

The system will have its own database residing on its own server which will fetch request and extract information from the customers over the World Wide Web. So in spite of being a program, the company will provide its services over to the customers as a website through the World Wide Web. The product was created by combinations of different open source platforms such as, WAMP server was used to handle MySQL, PHP request and maintaining database for the company. Eclipse PDT which is open source software was used to check and debug the HTML and PHP codes to ensure that the following codes were written and as well as works correctly. Mark-up languages especially PHP, HTML and MySQL were used for server side scripting.

Before making the system operational, it has to be firstly implemented on a standalone system to ensure that all the level of functionality and usability was achieved which was ought to be. The system will work on Microsoft windows environment before trying it out on apple or Linux systems. All the software and programming languages required for the system was downloaded over from the internet. Open platform software like WAMP server, Eclipse-PDT and notepad were used for implementing the system.

Since the webpages require the user’s interaction with the system. So, apart from the static content of webpages which won’t be changed overtime, some dynamic contents are also ought to be used. HTML and mainly PHP will serve as a scripting language which will be designed according to the MySQL database model.

The airline system which is needed to be developed for karnali airline will involve the customers to interact through the website and book their flight online with karnali air. Real time updating of information are allowed to make sure that the database is 26

populated with the latest information. As soon as a customer books his/her flight online an entry will be made in the database, ensuring that the same seats are not booked for two persons. Codes were written both in plain HTML and PHP alongside involving PHP MySQL to enhance the system by providing Dynamic web based pages. All the files including the HTML, PHP and CSS were kept in a single folder from where they can be connected to one another. WAMP server helped to display the PHP contents and allowed to perform the MySQL query in the local browser.

I. Choices of the software packages, tools and languages: -

The system was created by the help of various open source programmes and platforms. Notepad and Eclipse PDT were used for writing and creating webpages on HTML and PHP, which in turn were used for writing codes. Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) was also used to give the interface a friendly look and feel. Similarly, the system had its database stored on its server and was written in MySQL. WAMP server was another helpful open source software tool, which provided three different functions of Apache server, MySQL and PHP. A brief description on each is given below:

Notepad: -Notepad is a free source code editor which runs in the Microsoft Windows environment. Notepad is written in C++

Notepad is freely available and is easy to use. The disadvantage of using notepad is that it only allows you to edit the source code but doesn’t allow debugging or provides corresponding syntax for your code.

An alternative solution for Notepad can be Adobe Dreamweaver, but as we know it is not an open source product. Acquiring it can be costly.

Eclipse PDT: -Eclipse PDT (PHP Development Tool) is another open source code editor which allows you to edit your source code and also overcomes the limitations of Notepad. As comparison to Notepad, Eclipse PDT have the function of syntax highlighting, function highlighting etc. It has most of the tools necessary to develop PHP based software.

HTML: -HTML stands for Hyper Text Mark-up Language, a basis for writing web based pages. HTML consists of mark-up tags. Each Tag consists of opening and 27

closing tags. The value or attributes inside the tags can be various things such as heading, paragraph, title etc.

Uses of metatags within the head section of html increase the chances of the website to be displayed on the browser when a person searches for it online.

PHP: -PHP stands for Hyper Text Pre-processor. It is a server side scripting language which is rendered on the server end. PHP is usually used for webpages which expects the webpage to be dynamic i.e., constantly changing are involving user interaction with the system. PHP codes initiate with "<?" tag (without double inverted commas) and terminates with "?>" tag, everything that needs to be written goes between this two tags.

CSS: -Cascading Style Sheet helps to enrich the layout and interface of the website by adding the functionaries like colour, theme and sizes.

JavaScript: -JavaScript is a client-side scripting language, which is rendered on User end. Information that we request from the user-end had to travel all the way to the server and return back to the user. It can be time consuming for us to wait till the information is fetched from the server. So to avoid this sort of situation with an online system, JavaScript comes in play. JavaScript can be very helpful when submitting data to the server like forms.

Instead of submitting the form into the server and server returning an error message if something is wrong, JavaScript can save time by checking if the form is filled properly in the user-end.

II. Development of the system: -

The required system was developed in a standalone system before going over to the public through internet. WAMP server was installed on the system so the functionality of database and MySQL query can be executed within the same computer system. The system were developed to adequate level and quality assuring that all the functionalities required for the system are fully functioning. Clients and employees of the system were introduced within the early stages of the system including the requirement phase. After the completion of each new step until 28

the system is fully functional, clients were asked to try out the system to ensure that the system was working according to the wants and need of the customers.

The system went through a typical development lifecycle of a software system consisting of different phases.

Creation of Basic HTML webpages according to customer’s expectation: -

Even though the system will be dependent on PHP to execute the function and for MySQL queries, all the other aspects of the webpages have to be handled by HTML. As we all know HTML is the basic building block of a webpage, so we have also inserted some HTML in our webpage. The following codes below are the extraction from the actual project code:

<html>

<head>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="css_file.css"/>

</head>

<body onload="startTime()" topmargin="0">

<table width="100%">

<tr>

<td id="txt" colspan="5" align="center">

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td align="center" width="20%">

<font size="5">

<a href="HOME.php">HOME</a>

</font>

</td>

<td align="center" width="20%">

<font size="5">

<a href="DESTINATION_INFO.php">DESTINATIONS</a>

</font>

</td>

<td align="center" width="20%">

<font size="5"> 29

<a href="FLIGHT_FARES.php">FLIGHT FARES</a>

</font>

</td>

<td align="center" width="20%">

<font size="5">

<a href="BOOK_FLIGHT.php">BOOK FLIGHTS</a>

</font>

</td>

<td align="center" width="20%">

<font size="5">

<a href="CONTACT.php">CONTACT</a>

</font>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

The code above represents the standard header part of the website which will be used in all webpages. The body part of the header will call a JavaScript function "startTime()" on load which have to be embedded within the head tag. The JavaScript function "startTime()" is written below:

<script>

function startTime()

{

var today=new Date();

var h=today.getHours();

var m=today.getMinutes();

var s=today.getSeconds();

// add a zero in front of numbers<10

m=checkTime(m);

s=checkTime(s);

document.getElementById("txt").innerHTML=" CURRENT TIME IS "+h+":"+m+":"+s; 30

t=setTimeout(function(){startTime()},500);

}

function checkTime(i)

{

if (i<10)

{

i="0" + i;

}

return i;

}

</script>

COMPLETE INFORMATION ABOUT WEBPAGES

HOMEPAGE

It will be served as a default page of the website, consisting of the basic information about the airline company. As we have to make sure that the colour combination in the website isn’t too strong, Cascading style sheets were used to ensure that the page layout were readable and identifiable. The aforementioned Header was used at the top of the page and the footer at the bottom. Each and every page of the website share the same header and footer, only the contents are different. The middle body part of all the pages serves as the main function part of the page. Each link has its link to an alternate language page and each page displays the current time at the header section.

The home page will have a summary of all the contents of the pages. Firstly, the visitor will be welcomed with a message along with a quick look at the picture of the destinations where karnali airline provides its air services. It will also have a table of fares to and from the major city (Kathmandu).

DESTINATION INFO

This page will display the brief information about the destination where Karnali Airlines operates its flights. The information will describe the important aspects of destinations in terms of geographical and cultural context. 31

FLIGHT FARES

This page will help to display the information related to fares among adult, couple and child.

The information will be displayed in a form of table separating each one from another.

CONTACT

The form in this page will help to enquire about the system by sending an email to either the administrator or to the company. After filling all the fields on the form, by pressing the button the user will submit the content to an email id.

BOOK FLIGHT

This page will be the centre of attention as the customers will be inquiring about the flight in this section. Users who want to get information on the flight will enquire by submitting a form to the database on the server, which will reply back with the result. Say if a person searches for a flight from ‘a’ to ‘b’ on a date ‘xyz’, the system will respond with a message saying a seat is available according to the search criteria if it is available else it will say that there is no any sit available and to search for other alternative days.

Database model for the system: -

The system will consist of a database from where customer can retrieve information about the flight and book it. The database will be used to store information about the airline company itself and as well as about the customers.

The database consists of six tables in total. Four of them being assigned for the airline company related information like flight number and seat on various destinations on various days alongside maintaining information about their employees. Whereas the other two being assigned for the customers, if a customer books a flight online then all the information related to the customer like name ,address, payment card detail etc. will be stored on the database.

*The code for creating a database and its table is written below in PHP code: -

<?php 32

//initialize the connection with local server

$connect=mysql_connect("localhost","root");

//return a message if it could not be connected

If(!connect)

{

die(‘could not connect:’ . mysql_error());

//creating a database with a name ‘air_sys’

mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE air_sys",$connect);

//The above mysql query will create a database named ‘air_sys’

//Current database is selected before doing any sql queries

mysql_select_db("air_sys",$connect);

//local variable ‘$table1’ holds the contents for table ‘air_check1’

$table1= "CREATE TABLE air_check1

(Date int(2);

Month int(2);

Departing char(20);

Arriving char(20);

Flight_number varchar(15);

ID_no int(2) PRIMARY;

)";

//As soon as the following command is called, table is created

mysql_query($table1,$connect);

//similarly we create 5 other tables in the same way

$table2= "CREATE TABLE air_check2

(Flight_number varchar(15);

Seat_number varchar(3);

Seat_type varchar(20);

Seat_class varchar(20);

ID_no int(2) PRIMARY; 33

)";

mysql_query($table2,$connect);

$table3= "CREATE TABLE air_cust_det1

(Cust_name varchar(30);

Cust_add varchar(40);

Cust_DOB varchar(30);

Cust_sex char(10);

Cust_email varchar(30);

Flight_number varchar(15) FOREIGN;

Seat_number varchar(3) FOREIGN;

)";

mysql_query($table3,$connect);

$table4= "CREATE TABLE air_cust_det2

(Cust_email varchar(30) FOREIGN;

Cust_card_no int(16);

Cust_card_exp int(4);

Cust_card_sec int(3);

)";

mysql_query($table4,$connect);

DATABASE ‘air_sys’

Table 1 for air_check1 Column name

type

index

null

Date

Int(2)

-

Not null

Month

Int(2)

-

Not null

Departing

Char(20)

-

Not null

Arriving

Char(20)

-

Not null

Flight_number

Varchar(15)

-

Not null

ID_no

Int(2)

Primary

Not null