Car Dealership Inventory System Workshop

Overview

This workshop project is designed to create a car dealership inventory management system in Java. The system allows users to manage a collection of vehicles, providing functionalities such as adding new cars, viewing the inventory, and managing dealership information. The project emphasizes object-oriented design principles, focusing on class relationships and clean code practices.

Components

1. Dealership Class

• Purpose: Represents the dealership entity, encapsulating its details and the vehicle inventory.
• Attributes:
  • name: The name of the dealership.
  • address: The address of the dealership.
  • phone: The contact number of the dealership.
  • inventory: An instance of the VehicleInventory class that holds all vehicles available for sale.
• Methods:
  • addVehicle(Car car): Adds a vehicle to the inventory.
  • removeVehicle(Car car): Removes a vehicle from the inventory.
  • viewInventory(): Displays all vehicles in the inventory.

2. VehicleInventory Class

• Purpose: Manages a collection of vehicles available at the dealership.
• Attributes:
  • vehicles: A list or collection that stores Car objects.
• Methods:
  • addCar(Car car): Adds a car to the inventory.
  • removeCar(Car car): Removes a car from the inventory.
  • listCars(): Lists all cars currently in the inventory.

3. Car Class

• Purpose: Represents individual car objects, encapsulating attributes specific to each vehicle.
• Attributes:
  • make: The manufacturer of the car.
  • model: The model of the car.
  • year: The manufacturing year of the car.
  • price: The selling price of the car.
• Methods:
  • getDetails(): Returns a string containing details about the car.

4. InputOutput Class

• Purpose: Handles user input and output operations, facilitating interaction with the system.
• Methods:
  • getUserInput(): Prompts the user for input.
  • displayMessage(String message): Displays messages to the user.

5. CommandLineInterface Class

• Purpose: Provides a command-line interface for users to interact with the dealership system.
• Methods:
  • showMenu(): Displays the main menu of options.
  • executeCommand(int command): Executes the selected command based on user input.

Relationships Between Classes

• Dealership and VehicleInventory:

  • The Dealership class contains an instance of the VehicleInventory class, establishing a has-a relationship. The dealership relies on the inventory to manage its vehicles.

• Dealership and Car:

  • The Dealership class interacts with the Car class through the VehicleInventory. It uses Car objects to represent the vehicles available in the inventory.

• VehicleInventory and Car:

  • The VehicleInventory class contains a collection of Car objects, indicating a contains relationship. This class manages the lifecycle of cars within the inventory.

Interesting Code Features

1. Header and Footer Formatting

• Implementing a consistent header and footer format across the application enhances the user interface. This can be achieved using methods in the CommandLineInterface class that print decorative lines and the application title.

 public static void header() {
    System.out.println();
    System.out.printf("%-10s %-6s %-15s %-15s %-12s %-10s %-15s %-10s%n",
            "VIN", "Year", "Make", "Model", "Type", "Color", "Odometer", "Price");
    System.out.println("----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");

}


public static void footer(List<Car> carList) {
    double totalValue = carList.stream().mapToDouble(Car::getPrice).sum();
    System.out.println("----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
    System.out.printf("Total Cars: %-10d Total Inventory Value: $%,.2f%n", carList.size(), totalValue);

}

2. Loading Animation

• A simple loading animation can improve user experience while waiting for operations to complete. This can be implemented using a separate thread to display animated dots or a spinner during long-running tasks.

    public static void loadingAnimation() {

    try {
        System.out.print("Loading.");
        System.out.print(".");
        Thread.sleep(1000);
        System.out.print(".");
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    System.out.println();
}

Conclusion

This car dealership inventory system project provides a solid foundation for understanding object-oriented design in Java. By structuring classes effectively and implementing user-friendly features, this workshop demonstrates how to build a practical application while emphasizing clean code and maintainability.