Anthony Zeater

Use of Stubs and Flags

Drivers

Due to the bottom-up method of development I have employed in the creation of my software solution,
stubs are not used very much if at all, as they simulate the lower level modules to test higher modules,
whilst I am creating lower level modules and need the higher level modules to be simulated. As such I
have extensively used drivers to allow access to the lower level modules.

This first driver I have used simulates the user inputting a new
entry in the database for equipment or rooms. The user
selects the type as well as inputs the name of the
equipment/room and submits it. It is used in order to allow
access to the module which inserts new entries for equipment
and rooms into the database.

Figure 1 Addition of Items to the Booking Database

The other drivers I have used have been to allow the

execution of actually booking a room and a piece of equipment, with a driver dedicated to each. These
allow for the lower modules of actually inputting a session in the database as well as checking that items
have not been double booked.

Figure 2 Booking of Equipment Figure 3 Booking of Rooms

Anthony Zeater

Flags

Flags are variables (usually Boolean) which show that a certain condition has been met. Throughout my
software design major work, I have used flags in critical points in order to determine certain events
within the project as initiated by the user. For example, a key flag used within the booking system is the
“$loggedin” flag. This variable is set to true or false depending on whether the user is logged in or not.

Figure 4 Highlighted code is the $loggedin flag within header.php

This variable is used throughout the system to determine what pages are shown when the website is
accessed. If $loggedin is false, the user cannot access the bookings features of the website.

I have also used flags within the bookings system itself in order to check whether or not a user has
picked up, as well as returned a piece of equipment that they have booked.

Figure 5 Mysql database showing the use of pickupCheck and returnCheck flags
Anthony Zeater

The names of the flags are pickupCheck and returnCheck, storing a 1 if the item has been picked up and
returned respectively and a 0 if not. If an item has been picked up and not returned, the user cannot
delete their booking as this would allow them to get away with stealing the piece of equipment.