Cyber Cafe Management System

Objective of the project
To develop an application project to manage the workings of a Cyber Café.

This project executed in Saint Mary’s Syrian College, Brahmavar.

Introduction:
Cyber Café Management is a complete package developed for management of systems in a cyber café. This project is intended to be used in a Cyber Café. All cyber cafes have some basic needs likeable to control the systems that are being rented to the customers and are charged on timely basis.

A Cyber café normally has some number of PC’s which the customers will for certain amount of time. Now days it may also require to save some details of the customers for security reasons. When a customer enters a cyber café he has to be allotted a PC and the start time is noted. At any time the cyber administrator should be able to see the status of any PC , When the customer wants to do some other activities like taking a print out or scan a copy etc. It should  be recorded. And finally all the details will be available to the Cyber administrator. And he can submit on the form to generate the bill. There should be displays of all the transactions taking place in the café.

Project category:
RDBMS

Languages to be used:
VB.Net and Visual Basic 2005 as Frontend.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as Backend.

Structure of the program:

This project basically contains two types of users: the server user and the client user.

• The Server user is the administrator of the Server machine who has the right to monitor each and every client or customer. He will have the rights to remotely login or logout the client user.He solely controls the Server machine.
• The Client user is the customer for the cyber. He can login to the client system and start browsing only if he is authenticated(by  username and password)otherwise the Admin user can log him in remotely.

There can be multiple clients interacting with the server,sending multiple requests at the same time.

Analysis:

Modern world is computer world where the things have to be done promptly that requires optimal resources and optimal methods. Due to this inevitable requirement, cmputerisation of each and every sector in the main stream is must. So that it can be held itself in the race.
In this context,our software replaces all the manual effort and the paper works done by the owner of the cyber to a completely electronical environment, be it bill generation or customer creation and fulfillment of their needs and customer satisfaction. Hence both the customer and the owner are at their ease.

Module Description:

1. Server Module:

1.1 Connection Module
This module is supposed to open a socket connection and keep the socket in wait mode until it receives some request from the client side. Once there is some request coming in from the client,it should receive the data and perform appropriate functions.

1.2 User Creation and Management
This module should implement the user creation and management. The users could be given a username and password and also they could be given a prepaid account by which they can browse until they finish the amount in their accounts.

This module comprises five sub modules:

• Add records: This module deals with adding or storing the customer details which includes his/her user name,password,timeplan etc,.
• Get customer log information: This module deals with retrieving the details about the current customer after his each or after he completes his session.
• Display all records: This module allows the admin to view or keep track of all the customer details either on basis of type of user, or on basis of weekly or monthly.
• Time plan: The customer here are offered two choices to make for the time plan that is Prepaid and Postpaid. The browsing charge for prepaid users will be deducted from his/her account while the postpaid users will hava to make the entire payment by cash in accordance  to his browsing time.
• Active users: This module gives the information about the logged in users and the comp that they are logged into.

1.3 Billing
This module should produce bills depending upon the user activity and hence generate a report comprising all the requesties, regarding the customers session. Here the postpaid customer makes full payment, comprising charges for his browsing time as well as other services seeked such as items purchased, refreshments, scanning, printing etc,. While the prepaid customer will pay for the extra services seeked other than browsing time as the due deduction for brosing will be done through his account.

2. Client Module:

2.1 Client Connection
This module will try to establish connection with the server. If the connection is successful then he will be able to use the client system. The connection request is made on the server that is available on the network, If the server is not running or if he is not authenticated then he will not be able to use the client system.

2.2 Client Requests
This module will allow the customer of the cyber café to make request’s for some of the items that are predefined and will be displayed on his screen. These requests will be shown up server screen and the admin provides the customer with the requested services to his place.

Future scope of the project:    

• The aim of our project is to replace the paper works & works done manually and to automate the existing trend in the cyber café. Be it user creation, their management or bill generation, everything is computerized.Since the admin job is done effortlessly and at the same time the customer can enjoy his browsing time entirely, hence both the user and the owner are at their ease.
• We have limited the server and the client into a single system. For realtime purposes we can extend the software by installing the server components into a single system and  have multiple clients by installing the client components into many systems. Here multiple clients can interact with the single server at the sametime sending in multiple requests simultaneously.
• Nowadays Cyber Crime has increased immensely. So inorder to avoid the risk of getting indulged in any scandals regarding cyber crime we can implement the FINGER PRINTING Mechanisms in the cyber for the authentication of the clients or customers of the cyber.
• The acceptance of CREDIT and DEBIT CARDS for the payments can make the software more versatile.Allowing the point of sale concept at the  cyber café can be another attractive feature of the software.

Snapshot of the Project: