A WEB-BASED SCHOOL HOSTEL ROOM BOOKING SYSTEM

ACASE STUDY OF KAMPALA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (KIU)

BY

BWAMBALE RAYMOND

038-413

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF A BACHELOR OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY DEGREE OF CAVENDISH
UNIVERSITY UGANDA

JANUALY,2022
 DECLARATION
I, the undersigned hereby declare that the School Hostel Room Booking System is my own work,
that it has not been submitted for any degree or examination in any other university to my
knowledge, and that all sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by
complete references.

Name: BWAMBALE RAYMOND

Signature: .............................. Date…………………………

i
 APPROVAL
This is to confirm that the content of this dissertation is a representation of what BWAMBALE
RAYMOND established after conducting his independent study. This piece of work has been
read, closely monitored and approved by;

Signature…………………………………...Date………………………………

Mrs. NABBANJA TEDDY

Supervisor
School of Science and Technology.
Cavendish University Uganda

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 DEDICATION
This piece of work is dedicated to those who have extended their helping hands to make me
achieve this today and worked so hard and tirelessly to ensure that I attain this level of education.

Among all include my beloved parents and guardians, my cooperative supervisor Mrs.
NABBANJA TEDDY and other lecturers who have given me knowledge through my academic
period, beloved friends from whom I have always consulted and shared productive ideas and
above all to the Almighty God who has always blessed and given us wisdom.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I give glory to the almighty God for his blessings, unfailing love, protection, strength and
confidence He provided to me which enabled me to persevere and go through all the challenges
that came in my academic pursuit particularly the project work.

My sincere heartfelt appreciation goes to my supervisor for her resourceful guidance and highly
constructive ideas, the time and patience she extended to me in the process of this project.

I am grateful to my beloved parents for their struggle to provide finances for my entire course,
their love, care and encouragement. May God bless them abundantly.

I also wish to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all the lecturers at the school of computing and
informatics technology whose teachings gave me the road map for this project.

Finally, I extend my appreciation to all my friends who in one way or the other have helped me
expand my capacities in the preparation of this project which required tremendous amount of
time and support. I am really grateful my friends.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ..........................................................................................................................................
i
APPROVAL ................................................................................................................................................ ii
DECLARATION...............................................................................................................................................i
APPROVAL...................................................................................................................................................ii
DEDICATION...............................................................................................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES..........................................................................................................................................viii
LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................................................ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS..............................................................................................................................x
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................................x
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................1
1.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of Study.........................................................................................................................1
1.2 Problem Statement...........................................................................................................................2
1.3 Aims and Objectives..........................................................................................................................2
1.3.1 Main Objective...........................................................................................................................2
1.3.2 Specific Objective.......................................................................................................................2
1.4 Scope.................................................................................................................................................3
1.5 Significance........................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................4
2.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Review of Related Systems................................................................................................................4
2.2 Proposed System...............................................................................................................................6
2.3 Comparison of The Existing Systems with The Proposed System......................................................7
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................................8
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 3.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Requirements and Techniques..........................................................................................................8
3.1.0 Interviews...................................................................................................................................8
3.1.1 Questionnaires...........................................................................................................................8
3.1.2 Literature Review.......................................................................................................................9
3.2 System Analysis.................................................................................................................................9
3.3 System Design...................................................................................................................................9
3.3.1 Data Modelling...........................................................................................................................9
3.3.2 Process Modelling....................................................................................................................10
3.4 System Implementation..................................................................................................................10
3.5 System Testing and Validation.........................................................................................................10
Validation:.........................................................................................................................................11
CHAPTER FOUR: STSYTEM STUDY, ANALYSIS AND DESIGN.......................................................................12
4.0 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................12
4.1 System Study...................................................................................................................................12
4.2 System Analysis...............................................................................................................................13
4.2.1 Requirement Analysis...............................................................................................................13
4.2.2 Requirement Specification.......................................................................................................15
4.2.3 Software Specification..............................................................................................................16
4.3 System Design.................................................................................................................................17
4.3.1 Architecture Design..................................................................................................................17
4.3.2 Context Diagram.......................................................................................................................18
4.3.3 Data Flow Diagram...................................................................................................................19
4.3.4 The Flow Chart..........................................................................................................................22
4.3.5 Data Dictionary.........................................................................................................................23
4.3.6 Data Modelling.........................................................................................................................26
CHAPTER FIVE: SYTEM IMPLEMENTATION, TESTING AND VALIDATION....................................................37
5.0 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................37
5.1 Implementation...............................................................................................................................37
5.1.1 Tools and Programming Languages Used.................................................................................37
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 5.1.2 Results......................................................................................................................................38
5.2 System Testing.................................................................................................................................43
5.2.1 User Testing..............................................................................................................................43
5.2.2 Modelling /Unit Testing............................................................................................................43
5.2.3 Integration Testing...................................................................................................................43
5.2.4 Security Testing........................................................................................................................43
5.3 System Validation............................................................................................................................44
5.3.1Validation Results..........................................................................................................................44
CHAPTER SIX: LIMITATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS..................................................45
6.0 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................45
6.1 Reflections on The Project...............................................................................................................45
6.2 Achievements..................................................................................................................................46
6.3 Limitations.......................................................................................................................................46
6.5 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................47
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................................48

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 2 1Comparison of the School Hostel Room Booking Management System and closely
related systems.................................................................................................................................7

Table 4 1Shows Software Requirement for the system................................................................16

Table 4 2 Shows the Hardware Requirements of the system........................................................16
Table 4 3 Shows a data dictionary that describes all processes involved in the data flow diagram.
.......................................................................................................................................................24
Table 4 4 Shows a data dictionary that describes all data stores used in the data flow diagram..24
Table 4 5 Shows a data dictionary that describes all entities used in the data flow diagram.......25
Table 4 6 Logical database design................................................................................................29
Table 4 7 Physical database design for Administrator (admin)....................................................30
Table 4 8 Physical database design for Hostels (tblHostels)........................................................31
Table 4 9 Physical database design for booking a hostel (tblbooking).........................................32
Table 4 10 Physical database design for employees (tblemployees)............................................33
Table 4 11 Physical database design for employees who are users (tblempusers).......................34
Table 4 12 Physical database design for managers (tblmanagers)...............................................35
Table 4 13 Physical database design for students (tblstudents)....................................................36

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4 5 Architecture design.......................................................................................................17

Figure 4 6 Context diagrams..........................................................................................................18
Figure 4 7 The flow chart of a student booking a hostel...............................................................22

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CSS - Cascading Style Sheet

DFD - Data Flow Diagram

ERD - Entity Relationship Diagram

GB - Giga Byte

GH - Giga Hertz

HTML -Hypertext Mark-up Language

MB - Mega Byte

PHP - Hypertext Processor

RAM - Random Access Memory

ROM - Read Only Memory

SQL - Structured Query Language

KIU -Kampala International University

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 ABSTRACT
The higher prices charged on students by brokers and some hostels owners, the tiresome and
timewasting process of looking for hostels in addition to the difficulties hostel owners find when
it comes to handling students’ information, and employee details necessitated the development of
the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System.

The Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System helps students to identify
and locate hostels based on their own preferences and also help hostel owners to manage
students and employee information thereby acting as one of the possible ways how the above
problems would best be solved. The project was an important Endeavor since its aim was to
develop a Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System to help students and
hostel owners overcome the above problems.

The project involved the process of gathering data through interaction with the students and
hostel owners and the review of literature of the related systems. Information for the system was
gathered using tools such as interviews, and questionnaires. I used Entity Relationship and
Context diagrams to analyse and design the system. The technologies used in implementation of
the objectives of this study included MYSQL server database, PHP for server connections, and
HTML for user interfaces. The result of the project was the Web-based School Hostel Room
Booking Management System capable of allowing students to view, select and book hostel and
also allow hostel owners to register students and also manage their records. The application was
finally run on the computer and was verified to be running sufficiently well and produced the
expected results.

Basing on the results produced by the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management
System, I am very sure that once the system is adopted and put into practice, the problems that
students and hostel owners are currently facing will eventually be diminished.

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 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
Kampala International University (KIU) is a private institution based in Uganda. It was
established in 2001 and assumed chattered status in 2009.

Kampala International University has two hostels around it where most of its students do reside.
According to campus’s two hostels housing the Kampala International University students
include; Boys Hostel, Girls Hostel, Elite Hostel, Kirumanjaro Hostel.

However, students living in the hostels and those who wish to join hostels find it hard when it
comes to booking a hostel/hostel room and finding the hostel of own preference respectively.

Hostel owners on the other hand find hardships when it comes to managing their hostels for
example, handling student’s information, and employee information.

The aim of this project therefore, is to design and develop a Web-based School Hostel Room
Booking Management System to help hostel owners properly manage their hostels and also
provide students with all the necessary information about the hostels they would prefer living in.

1.1 Background of Study

A couple of years, many joining and continuing students from various regions in Uganda, and
outside countries rely more on hostels as their places of residence while studying at different
universities.

It is always hard for students to attain information about the various hostels such as, distance of
hostels from the university facilities, the available conditions around the hostels, satisfaction with
transport, hostel security, room size, and safety.

“It is hypothesized that there should be a more efficient way to help students find hostels more
easily with the exact characteristics they want and hostels information should be availed to the
students by the hostel owners. (Khozaei, Ayub, Hassan&Zahra,2010)

The influence of the environment and accommodation on the satisfaction level of all students has
been a popular area of study and of compelling interest to universities. In relation to this, such

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studies indicate that good hostel condition and facilities in university campuses have a positive
influence on the overall student enrolment.
Challenges arise when both new and some continuing students at Kampala International
University (KIU) have to look for and identify hostels for residing in but within their own
preferences of price ranges, accommodation facilities/services offered, and nature of the
environment. In most cases, students end up joining hostels they wouldn’t have wished to join.
This is due to the fact that there is no proper means of enabling students access hostels and
acquire detailed information about the available hostels.

1.2 Problem Statement

Students admitted to Kampala International University (KIU) face a lot of problems when
looking for hostel and booking a hostel room for residing in. These include; higher prices
charged by brokers and some hostels owners, tiresome and time-wasting process of looking for
hostels. In addition, hostel owners find it difficult to handle students’ and employee’s
information.

1.3 Aims and Objectives

1.3.1 Main Objective
To develop a Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System to enable students
at Kampala International University (KIU) easily get hostels based on personal preferences and
improve information handling at hostels by hostel owners.

1.3.2 Specific Objective.

• To identify requirements for the development of the Web-based School Hostel Room
Booking Management System.
• To design the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System.
• To implement a Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System.
• To test and validate the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System.

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1.4 Scope
The system will involve students at Kampala International University (KIU) and hostel owners
around it.

1.5 Significance.
The system will provide detailed information to the students about the hostels to enable them
easily identify and access hostels of their own preferences.

The system will enable hostel owners to easily manage hostel information about students, rooms,
and fee payments.

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 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
Hostel Management system is the system that manages the student data, staff data, students’
admission process and create receipt for the fees paid by the student who stay in the hostel.

A hostel can be defined as an establishment which provides accommodation to a group of people

such as students, workers or travellers. Hostel rooms can be mixed or single-sex and private
rooms may also be available.

Hostels provide budget-oriented, sociable accommodation where students/guests can rent a bed,
usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen.

According to Shiva.P (2017), hostel management system is the system that manages the details
of the students staying in the hostel, admission details, staff details, visitor’s messages and the
receipt of the fees paid by the students. The hostel management system will be one of the
important projects that will simplify the work of the institutions in getting the seats booked in the
hostels with great ease.

Hostels are the part of the Educational institutions which houses students who are coming from
far places. Hostels provide students with rooms for accommodation and include other things like
bathrooms, kitchen, and water, reading rooms and sometimes entertainment rooms where
students spend their leisure time.

2.1 Review of Related Systems

Hostel Management System

According to Muhammed (2009), as the name specifies “Hostel Management System” is a

software developed for managing various activities in the hostel. This system deals with the
problems on managing a hostel and avoids the problems which occur when carried manually. It
is more user friendly and more GUI oriented.

The system was designed to do the following;

• Reduce the strength and strain of manual at the hostel

• Provide high security
4
 • Avoid data redundancy
• Enable easy data updating and easy record keeping

• And finally generate easy data backups.

However, the system was designed in favour of only the hostel owners to handle and manage the
delivery of the hostel services yet a better hostel management system should not only favour the
hostel owners but also enable students to take part. For example, those who need a hostel can
easily get online to search and view the hostel, get information about the services provided, the
hostel fee, distance from the university and also be able to book a room in case one is interested.

According to Ayanlowo.S (2014), the hostel management system was designed to provide a
solution to the problems of traditional method of managing hostel facilities. The system attempts
to improve institutions’ hostel services for stakeholders - administrator, management and
students of the hostel. It automates the administrative processes and reduces the stress associated
with searching for information on a student/a facility in a bundle of registers.

It was specifically designed to;

• Centrally allocate and manage accommodation spaces in a typical student’s hostel.

• The system user can store the data of those students who had left the hostel, and check the
personal profile (retrieves from the database) of all the current students within few
minutes.
• The system also automatically calculates all the bills and issues notifications to those
students.
• Keeps records and generates letters to sanction some students who contravene rules and
regulations.

Though the system has most of the functionalities that I also propose to come up with, it does not
enable online search and view of the hostel in order to get information about the services
provided, the hostel fee, distance from the university and also be able to book a room in case one
is interested.

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 Online Hostel Management System

According to Reshmi.R, Rinsha.P, Roopasree.R (2014), online hostel management system is a

web-based software used to provide accommodation to large number of university students. It is
headed by Warden who acts as the administrator.

This Online Hostel Management system does the following;

• Keeps details of the students staying in the hostel and those who have applied.
• Minimizes human works and make hostel identification an easier job for students by
providing online application for hostel. Upon completion of the application, students get
approval notification in their mails.
• Students can view notice board, hostel fee, and mess menu by login into the online
system.

While reviewing this system, I realized that an interested student can only apply for a given
hostel but there is no provision for viewing the services provided and the distance of the hostel
from the university.

2.2 Proposed System

Our proposed system will favour both the hostel owners and the students. Students will search
and view information about the available hostels such as location, hostel fee structures and the
room type. They will also be able to book hostels online and pay hostel dues.

The hostel owners will be able to keep details of the students staying in the hostel, issues
notifications to students, advertise their hostels and also receive applications from the students.

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2.3 Comparison of The Existing Systems with The Proposed System
Table 2.1 below shows the functionalities/features that a typical Web-based School Hostel Room
Booking Management System should at least provide/poses, indicating those that are provided by
the reviewed current systems versus the ones provided by my proposed system.

Features of the Online hostel Hostel Hostel Management my

System management Management by Muhammed Proposed
system
system by Reshmi system by Kola Shaheer.K. A
Radhakrishnan, Ayanlowo, O. S.
Rinsha P.A,
Roopasree R

Online booking 
of hostel rooms

Search and view    

of information
about Hostels

Management of    
students’ records

Online 
advertisements

Notifications and    
updates

Table 2 1Comparison of the School Hostel Room Booking Management System and closely related systems

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 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This section aims at exploring the methods, activities and technologies that were used to help in
achieving the project objectives. The major method for data collection was interviews which
were carried out in order to maintain accurate account of information given by the hostel
administrators and the students.

Visual paradigm was used as a data analysis tool. It was also focused on system design which
were done in MYSQL server for the database. A case study was used in my research since I did
an in-depth study of how hostels around Kampala International University (KIU) operate and
manage students’ records, and how students find hostels of their own preferences.

3.1 Requirements and Techniques

3.1.0 Interviews
Open-ended semi-structured interviews were conducted with both the hostel owners and
students.
A total number of hostel owners were interviewed.

The reasons why I used interviews were as follows.

• The need to acquire detailed information from intended users about their personal
feelings, perceptions, and opinions of the existing system.
• Its eligibility to ask more detailed questions hence exhaustive research.
• Respondents own words are recorded hence first-hand information obtained.
• Ambiguous response can be clarified and complete answers are recorded.
• Precise wording can be tolerated to respondents and concise meaning of questions can be
classified.

3.1.1 Questionnaires
Open ended and closed types of questions were used to elicit the appropriate responses from the
targeted population. They were used because of their low cost in terms of time and money,
reliability when getting a lot of information from many people very quickly and respondents
complete the questionnaires at a convenient time.

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3.1.2 Literature Review
This involved reading books, journals, magazines and the internet (online materials) so as to get
secondary data relevant to my area of study. This secondary data provided larger and higher
quality data, saved time that would otherwise be spent collecting data in the field.

3.2 System Analysis

This process of analysis involved looking at the data collected from all stakeholders of the
system and then transforming it into more meaningful and useful information so as to help in the
development of my system.

In my system, requirements were analyzed and categorized as either user or system requirements.
System analysis is an iterative process that continues until a preferred and acceptable solution to
the negative views of the system stakeholders about the current system emerges.

Analysis was then followed by the design phase.

3.3 System Design

Based on the user requirements and detailed analysis of the existing system, the Web-based
School Hostel Room Booking Management System was designed. This phase involved both data
modelling and process modelling. Context diagrams were used in data definition to define the
entities of the system and how they interact with each other.

3.3.1 Data Modelling

3.3.1.0 The Conceptual Design
This involved drawing entity relationship diagrams to describe the data and the relationships
among the entities.

3.3.1.1The Logical Design

This involved mapping of the conceptual design into normalized relations and establishing links
between the relations by use of foreign keys. This was independent of a particular database
management system and other physical considerations.

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3.3.1.2 The Physical Design
This involved creating the database structures, producing a description of the implementation of
the database. And since the database was the central repository of the system, it described the
base tables, indexes used to achieve the efficient access to data, and any associated integrity and
security restrictions.

3.3.2 Process Modelling

3.3.2.0 Data Flow Diagrams
A DFD is a graphical representation of the data through an information system, modelling its
process aspects. A Data Flow Diagram was used to describe the design of the system as well as
showing processes and external entities in the system and the end product was a detailed
description of process models.

3.4 System Implementation

The tools I employed in the designing of a Web-based School Hostel Room Booking
Management System included the following:

PHP: This was used for creating client pages and server script that holds the script when requests
are made by students. This enabled me to connect the client to server (apache), and allow SQL
queries. I chose PHP because it is compatible with MySQL, it’s a fat search engine and easy in
manipulating functions and algorithms.

MySQL: This was used for designing the database system that stores the information of the
system because of its efficiency in developing database driven web sites.

3.5 System Testing and Validation

Testing: Various tests were conducted on the system to ensure system accuracy and consistency
through following a well-planned set of procedures. Then the faults identified were corrected and
normalized accordingly. Testing was done at every stage of development to limit the design and
implementation errors when the system becomes fully complete.

This was achieved through:

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 • System performance testing thus disk space utilization, CPU efficiency and expected
output.
• System compatibility checking with various application programs or software such as
windows operating system, Linux and with hardware or devices such as smartphones
computers.
• Security tests were conducted to ensure that the system and its users are safe and secure
from attacks. It provided proper authentication, access procedures such as login
properties and interface sessions.

Validation:
I ensured that the system is running error-free, I engaged the hostel owner and students on a real
scenario with their own actual data so that the system can be shown functioning as per their
requirements.

This involved ascertaining compliance to the system development life cycle, user and system
requirements as well as compliance to functional and non-functional requirements. Test cases
were used in validating the functionality of the system.

A test case is a set of test inputs, execution conditions, and expected results developed for a
particular objective, to run a particular program path or to verify compliance with a specific
requirement, this was done to come up with user-friendly system with appropriate components
that satisfied user requirements.

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 CHAPTER FOUR: STSYTEM STUDY, ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
4.0 Introduction
This chapter covers the system study, system analysis (user requirements, functional
requirements, and non-functional requirements) and the design of the system.

System design strains to give a more detailed and clearer picture of the process modelling phase
of the system using tools such as the context diagrams, data flow diagrams, and data dictionaries
as well as the modelling phase while deploying tools such as the conceptual data model, and the
entity relationship diagram.

4.1 System Study

During my research, I went to both the students who currently and previously stayed in hostels
and hostel owners gathering information about the approach students use to find and locate
hostels of their own preferences and how hostel owners advertise and manage their hostel
operations. Information obtained from the hostel owners was gathered using interviews while
that obtained from the students was gathered using questionnaires.

By doing so, I came up with the various loopholes within the existing approach and how it has
affected its better performance and efficiency.

Weakness of The Existing Approach

After collecting, studying and analysing the information concerning the current system, the
following were observed;

The current system involves too much labour for example tracking records for each individual
student for specific period which involves checking file per file, coming up with income and
expenditure report, filling duplicated data in case of many copies are needed.

The system was found to be more time consuming since it requires storage of papers which needs
a lot of proper organization and labelling basing on dates, compiling, stamping, stapling and
binding.

The current system is prone to loss of data since papers can easily be affected by insects,
misplacement is possible, access to unauthorized people due to less security.

12
The system is costly since it requires different man power to perform different task.

Records kept in papers; files limit storage space due to large volume. Updating and deleting a
record is limited.

This system is too tiresome and time consuming to the students and many of them end up being
overcharged prices for the hostels.

Therefore, basing on all the above weakness I realized the need of a Web-based School Hostel
Room Booking Management System to help curb down the above problems.

Strength of The Existing Approach

To some students, it is very easy to find and locate the hostel since they are directed by the
friends who give very clear information to fellow students about the hostel.

4.2 System Analysis

This section contains findings from the research that was carried out. It also presents a
discussion of user requirements, functional requirements, non-functional requirements and
system requirements which covers both software and hardware requirements.
This section describes how the collected data was analyzed, interpreting facts using the data,
identifying the problems, and decomposition of a system into its components. Therefore, it
is conducted for the purpose of analyzing, interpreting of data from the field and
presentation of results.

4.2.1 Requirement Analysis

This section includes the requirements of the system that are categorized into user requirements,
functional requirements and non-functional requirements.

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4.2.1.1 User requirements
These are the users’ expectations from the system as well as the characteristics it possesses in
order to fully, effectively and efficiently interact with the system. These requirements are as
follows;

o The system should be user friendly because it provides interfaces made out of HTML and
PHP which are useful for making beautiful interfaces.
o The system should be supported by the computer and accessed via a browser anywhere at
any time.
o The system should allow administrators to authenticate themselves provided correct
credentials are supplied through comparing the credentials the user has provided and what
is existing in the database.
o The system should capture students detailed information including the student’s photo.
o The system should be reliable and fast performing.

o The system should capture the aspects of payments.

o The system should be secured by passwords.

4.2.1.2 Functional Requirements.

Functional requirements capture the intended services, functions or tasks that the system
provides and they include the following;

o The system should authenticate users of the system by allowing only user with the correct
user name and passwords to access the system.
o The system should enable the system user to register students with detailed information
and creates accounts for students.
o With this system, the user should be able to view available hostels, the kinds of rooms
and their prices per semester.
o The system should be able to show the total numbers of students who have booked for
hostels, number of students who have registered and finally the number of hostels which
are registered within the system.

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4.2.1.3 Non-Functional Requirements
These are requirements that are not directly concerned with the specific behaviour of the system
but rather the criteria that can be used to judge the operation of the system these include;

o The system is customizable in case the user needs additional functionality.

o Maintainability of the system is easy and cheap to maintain and work with.
o Accessibility of the system is guaranteed to only authorized users by use of passwords
and user name.
o The system should operate on all windows platforms.
o The system’s portability and lightweight does not use large storage space as well having
no impact on the platform performance.
o The system should allow manual and automatic backup of data which is very important in
case of disaster.
o The system should operate very faster during entry, retrieval and search of required data.
o The system interface makes its usability simple and interaction with the system easy
because it uses familiar PHP and HTML interfaces.

o The system should allow editions and deletion in case of wrong transactions.

4.2.2 Requirement Specification.

Requirement specification describes the software and hardware requirements that the system
should poses.

4.2.2.1 Software Requirement

Table 4.1 below shows the software specifications that a machine running the Web-based School
Hostel Room Booking Management System should poses.

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 Software Minimum system requirements

Operating system Windows 7, 8, 10

Database management System MySQL

Server Wamp, Xamp

Web browser Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera

Table 4 1Shows Software Requirement for the system

4.2.2.2 Hardware Requirements

The table below describes the hardware requirements that a machine running the Web-based
School Hostel Room Booking Management System should poses.

Hardware Minimum System Requirements

Processor 2.4 Ghz processor speed

Memory 512 mb Ram (1 Gb Recommended)

Disk space 500GB (including 80gb for database management system)

Display 800*60 colors (1024*768high color – 16 bits recommended)

Table 4 2 Shows the Hardware Requirements of the system

4.2.3 Software Specification

This includes the software package that I used in the development of the Web-based School
Hostel Room Booking Management System.

Microsoft visual code: This is the text editor that I used for developing the new system using the
programming languages especially HTML and PHP.

16
4.3 System Design
This section describes the system design in relation to the structural topology, how different
processes interact with each other, and the relationships between different entities. In this section
the following tools were used; architectural design, context diagram and data flow diagram, flow
chart and entity relationship diagram.

4.3.1 Architecture Design

sArchitectural design involves decomposing the system into various subsystems. It shows how
database system and the graphical user interface communicate with each other.

STUDENT MANAGER ADMINISTRATOR

Information Access
Information Access

Information feeds

Information feeds

Information Access Information Access

INTERNET
http response
http request

Web Server

Information feeds Information retrivval

Database Server

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Figure 4 5 Architecture design
Symbols Used in The Context Diagram

Represents a source or destination object.

Represents a process that transforms incoming data into outgoing flow.

Indicates dataflow.

4.3.2 Context Diagram

Figure 4.6 below shows the level 0 context diagram which is the starting model for the structure
analysis of the system. It shows the scope of the study.

18
s

School Hostel Room

Management System

Figure 4 1 Context diagrams

Symbols Used in The Data Flow Diagram

Process

Entity

Data store

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 Data flow

4.3.3 Data Flow Diagram

This is a detailed description of the process that occur in the system while it relates with the
external entity. It shows how data flows in the system.

20
Figure 4. 7 Data Flow Diagram

21
Shapes Used in a Flow Chart Blow are Briefly Described in The Key Below

Start/stop

Represents the processes on the system

Represents queries that form relationships

Represents flow of processes

22
4.3.4 The Flow Chart
Figure 4.8 below is a flow chart representing a systematic flow of how system users interact with
the system.
START

VIEW AND
SELECT HOSTELS

MAKE BOOKING

NO IS BOOKING
CONFIRMED?

YES

REGISTER

MAKE
PAYMENT

STOP

Figure 4 2 The flow chart of a student booking a hostel

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4.3.5 Data Dictionary
A data dictionary provides an explanation of the system processes, data flows, data stores and the
external entities that are included in the system.

PROCESS DESCRIPTION

Login/Create account Capture information about the users of the

system (including the administrator, manager
and some employees) and stores it in the user
details in the database.

View/Select hostel Allows a student to view a list of the available

hostels and allows him/her to select the hostel
of his/her own interest.

Booking Hostel Provides an interface where a student is

required to fill some details in order to book a
room in a chosen hostel.

Register Student Allows the hostel owner to capture all the

required information about a student who has
qualified to join a given hostel.

Register Hostel Provides a form like interface which captures

all the details about a given hostel.

View/Update student details Allows you to make changes about the

student’s information.

Register Employee Allows the hostel owner to capture employee

details and store them in the database

Update Employee details Allows the hostel owner to make changes

about the employee information.

Table 4 3 Shows a data dictionary that describes all processes involved in the data flow diagram.

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 DATA STORE DESCRIPTION

D1 Login details Contains user login details

D2 Hostel details Contains all information about registered

hostels

D3 Hostel room details Has clear details about various rooms in

different hostels

D4 Student Information Stores and holds information about registered

students

D5 Employee Details Stores and holds information about employees

Table 4 4 Shows a data dictionary that describes all data stores used in the data flow diagram.

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 ENTITY DESCRIPTION

Student He is a visitor to the system. Accesses a

system through any browser, views, selects
and books any hostel

A student also receives a notification after

booking and finally visits the hostel in order
to be registered.

Administrator Manages the whole system. Registers hostel,

manages accounts and confirms/cancels
bookings

Views details about students, employees, and

manager. He also updates hostel and manager
information

Manager Provides hostel information to the

administrator of the system. Registers
students who book for his hostel and manages
employee information

Employee Provides his information to the manager to be

captured in the system

Table 4 5 Shows a data dictionary that describes all entities used in the data flow diagram.

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4.3.6 Data Modelling
Data modelling was achieved by identifying the data requirements, entities and their respective
attributes that make up the system and modelling the relationship between the entities.

4.3.6.1 Data Requirements System

Users

This refers to people who use the system. Their data is obtained and stored in database. The users
include students, administrator, manager, and employee. All their data and information are
captured and stored in the database.

Hostel Information.

All information about the hostels is captured and stored into the database and then displayed on
the system interface for viewing by the users. The data include the Hostel names, Location, room
services, room categories and their prices, services attached to the hostel accommodation, and
the number of rooms available for booking.

4.3.6.2 Modelling Relationships Between Entities

The illustrations below show the description of the various relationships between the entities
using ERDs.

Entity Relationship Diagram for School Hostel Room Booking Management System.
27
Figure 4. 20 Entity Relationship Diagram

28
4.3.6.3 Logical Database Design
The logical design of a system is an abstract representation of the data flows, inputs and outputs
of the system. It is a graphical representation of a system showing the system’s processes and the
flows of data into and out of the processes. This is often conducted via modelling using an
overabstract (and sometimes graphical) model of the actual system.

Table name Logical Design of the table in the Database

Admin CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS hostel.admin(id int(2)
auto_increment primary key,UserName char(150) not null,HostelId
char(5) not null,phone char(50) null, full_name char(250) not
null,Photo char(250) null, Password char(250) not null);

tblHostels CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS hostel.tblHostels(id int(4)

auto_increment primary key,HostelName char(150) not
null,HostelKind char(50) null, Location char(250) not null, Contact
char(250) not null,Rooms char(50) not null,HostelDetails text(1500)
not null,HostelServices char(250) not null, RoomServices char(250)
not null, Images text(400) not null);

Tblbooking CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS hostel.tblbooking(id int(7)

auto_increment primary key,UserName char(150) not null,UserEmail
char(150) not null,UserPhone char(16) not null,HostelId char(10) null,
FromDate char(12) not null, Today char(12) not null,RoomCategory
char(50) null,AmountPaid char(10) null,Balance char(10) null, Status
char(5) not null);

Tblstudents CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS hostel.tblstudents(id int(7)

auto_increment primary key,EmailId char(150) not null,HostelId
char(10) not null,FullName char(150) null,Gender char(10)
null,StudentId char(50) null, ContactNo char(50) not null,dob char(15)

29
 not null, Address char(150) not null, City char(150) not null, Country
char(150) not null, StudentNo char(15) not null, Photo char(250) not
null, RegDate char(15) not null, Link char(15) not null, Status char(5)
not null);

Tblemployees CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS hostel.tblemployees(id int(7)

auto_increment primary key,Photo char(250) not null,FullName
char(150) not null,Gender char(7) not null, nin char(20) not
null,PhoneNumber char(15) not null,Email char(70) null, Address
char(70) not null, Designation char(50) not null, Salary char(10) not
null,HostelId char(5) not null, RegDate char(12) not null,Status
char(5) null);

Tblmanagers CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS hostel.tblmanagers(id int(7)

auto_increment primary key,Photo char(250) not null,FullName
char(150) not null,Gender char(7) not null, nin char(20) not
null,PhoneNumber char(15) not null,Email char(70) null, Address
char(70) not null,HostelId char(5) not null,Password char(150) not
null, RegDate char(12) not null,Status char(5) null);

Tblempusers CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS hostel.tblempusers(id int(7)

auto_increment primary key,HostelId char(5) not null,Email char(70)
not null,Password char(150) not null,FullName char(150) not
null,Photo char(250) not null,Status char(5) not null);

Table 4 6 Logical database design

30
4.3.6.4 Physical Database Design
The physical design is a kind of system design. It is a graphical illustration of the system,
representing external and internal entities of the system with to and from data flow. It is also
related to the concrete input and output of the system. This deals with how the input data is
provided, processed, and how the output is displayed. In the physical design, one looks at the
most effective way of storing and retrieving information.

Field Type Null Key Default Extra

Id int(2) NO PRI NULL auto-

increment
UserName char(150) No NULL

HostelId char(5) No NULL

Phone char(50) YES NULL

full_name char(250) NO NULL

Photo char(250) NO NULL

Password char(250) NO NULL

Table 4 7 Physical database design for Administrator (admin)

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 Field Type Null Key Default Extra

Id int(4) NO PRI NULL auto_increment

HostelName char(150) NO NULL

HostelKind char(50) YES NULL

Location char(250) NO NULL

Contact char(250) NO NULL

Rooms char(50) NO NULL

HostelDetails Text NO NULL

HostelServices char(250) NO NULL

RoomServices char(250) NO NULL

Images Text NO NUL

Table 4 8 Physical database design for Hostels (tblHostels)

32
Field Type Null Key Default Extra

Id int(7) NO PRI NULL auto_increment

UserName char(150) NO NULL

UserEmail char(150) NO NULL

UserPhone char(16) NO NULL

HostelId char(10) YES NULL

FromDate char(12 NO NULL

Today char(12) NO NULL

RoomCategory char(50) YES NULL

AmountPaid char(10) YES NULL

Balance char(10) YES NULL

Status char(5) NO NULL

Table 4 9 Physical database design for booking a hostel (tblbooking)

33
 Field Type Null Key Default Extra

Id int(7) NO PRI NULL auto_increment

Photo char(250) NO NULL

FullName char(150) NO NULL

Gender char(7) NO NULL

Nin char(20) NO NULL

PhoneNumber char(15) NO NULL

Email char(70) YES NULL

Address char(70) NO NULL

Designation char(50) NO NULL

Salary char(10) NO NULL

HostelId char(5) NO NULL

RegDate char(12) NO NULL

Status char(5) YES NULL

Table 4 10 Physical database design for employees (tblemployees)

34
 Field Type Null Key Default Extra

Id int(7) NO PRI NULL auto_increment

HostelId char(5) NO NULL

Email char(70) NO NULL

Password char(150) NO NULL

FullName char(150) NO NULL

Photo char(250) NO NULL

Status char(5) NO NULL

Table 4 11 Physical database design for employees who are users (tblempusers)

35
 Field Type Null Key Default Extra

Id int(7) NO PRI NULL auto_increment

Photo char(250) NO NULL

FullName char(150) NO NULL

Gender char(7) NO NULL

Nin char(20) NO NULL

PhoneNumber char(15) NO NULL

Email char(70) NO NULL

Address char(70) NO NULL

HostelId char(5) NO NULL

Password char(150) NO NULL

RegDate char(12) NO NULL

Status char(5) NO NULL

Table 4 12 Physical database design for managers (tblmanagers)

36
 Field Type Null Key Default Extra

Id int(7) NO PRI NULL auto_increment

EmailId char(150) NO NULL

HostelId char(10) NO NULL

FullName char(150) YES NULL

Gender char(10) YES NULL

StudentId char(50) YES NULL

ContactNo char(50) NO NULL

Dob char(15) NO NULL

Address char(150) NO NULL

City char(150) NO NULL

Country char(150) NO NULL

StudentNo char(15) NO NULL

Photo char(250) NO NULL

RegDate char(15) NO NULL

Link char(15) NO NULL

Status char(5) NO NULL

Table 4 13 Physical database design for students (tblstudents)

37
 CHAPTER FIVE: SYTEM IMPLEMENTATION, TESTING AND
VALIDATION
5.0 Introduction
This chapter looks at the project research findings and presentation of the final project outputs. it
shows the detailed description of the findings transforming raw data into a form that is suitable
for presentation and statistical analysis.

It also shows the various user interfaces that were linked to one another and used to input data in
the system and process data using intelligent buttons. It shows hows the objectives of the study
were realized and achieved.

5.1 Implementation
5.1.1 Tools and Programming Languages Used
Interfaces from a combination of different languages such as JAVASCRIPT, PHP, HTML, and
SQL were used during the implementation of this project to come up with appropriate user-
friendly system that would address the user requirements.

In order to design the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System, data flow
diagrams, entity relationship modelling were used, where dataflow diagrams were used to
examine data inputs, outputs and processes while showing how data moves though the system. I
used Entity relationship diagram to find entities, their attributes and relationship between those
entities and it is from these relations or table that the system database was formed.

MYSQL: Is a standard language for accessing and manipulating databases. We used MYSQL to
store, update, delete about students and hostel details.

PHP: The Hypertext Processor (PHP) is a scripting language that allows processing at the server
side. I created dynamic content that is executed on the web server and later returns the results in
an echo to the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System interface to the
client device.

HTML: This formed the core of what the users are able to view in a web browser following
rules of web development. All the beautiful web pages are interpreted in a browser and viewed
by the users are coded using HTML.
38
CSS: This provided the look for the system and formatting of all the documents in terms of
presentation, and colours. This allows easy representation and readability for users.

Bootstrap: This is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JavaScript framework for developing
responsive website hence allowing users to access the website from devices ranging from
smartphones to computers. We used bootstrap to manipulate CSS and HTML hence forming the
beautiful pages that are viewed by the users.

5.1.2 Results
5.1.2.1 User Interfaces
The Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System has been designed to ensure
that access to the various functionalities can only be granted to authenticated users.

The user is required to enter a valid user name and password before access can be granted. Upon
entering the right credentials, the user is directed to relevant sections and can start navigating
through various system components.

The Home Page Interface

The home page interface is mainly designed for students in order to navigate through the system,
there is no need for the students to login. However, other users of the system such as
administrator, manager and employee must use the home page to enter in their login details so
that they can access their respective user interfaces. The home page interface is as shown in
figure 5.1 below

39
Figure 5. 1 Shows the Home page interface

Administrator Login Interface.

Figure 5.2 below is the administrator login panel which allows the administrator to log in into the
system in order to post hostels into the system, register manager, view bookings, view registered
students.

40
Figure 5. 2 Shows Administrator login interface

The Administrator Panel for Posting A Hostel.

Figure 5.3 below shows the administrator login panel for posting a hostel. It allows the
administrator of the system to register and post a hostel on the system’s interface.

Figure 5. 3 Shows administrator panel for posting a hostel.

41
Administrator Panel for Registering/Posting A Hostel into The System

Figure 5. 4 Shows Administrator panel for registering/posting a hostel into the system

Manager login panel.

Figure 5.5 below shows the manager login panel. Manager only logs in after being registered by
the administrator into the system. He/she can register students, confirm students’ bookings,
register employees.

42
Figure 5. 5 Shows Manager login panel.

Manager Panel for Registering and Viewing an Employee.

Figure 5.6 below shows an interface from which the manager can view the registered Student
into the system.

43
Figure 5. 6 Shows Manager Panel for registration and viewing an employee.

Manager Panel for Registration A Student.

Figure 5.7 below shows the manager panel for registering students. It allows the manager to
register a student into the system while at the hostel.

44
Figure 5. 7 Shows Manager panel for registration a student.

5.2 System Testing

This was done through deployment of the developed Web-based School Hostel Room Booking
Management System, with an intention of discovering its weaknesses and strengths, thereby
concluding about its compliances with its intended specification and functionality.

The following testing strategies were deployed.

5.2.1 User Testing

A group of target users were selected to examine the systems functionality and make any feasible
recommendations.

5.2.2 Modelling /Unit Testing

System testing was done after the system was duly coded. Individual modules of the system were
checked to ensure they are fully functional units before merging them.

This was done by examine each unit, each script was checked to ensure that it functions as
required and that it performed exactly as intended.

5.2.3 Integration Testing

The success of each individual unit gave us the go a head to carryout integration testing.
Different system modules were put together to make a complete system.

Integration testing ensured modules were compatible to be integrated to form a complete

working Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System.

5.2.4 Security Testing

This was a process that was intended to reveal flaws in the security mechanisms of my system to
protect data and maintain functionality as intended. For example, authentication of the system
could only allow registered users access to the system information.

In-case the user tries to log into the system using a wrong user credentials, the system shows an
error message telling the user that you have input a wrong username or password and should try
again or create a new account.

45
5.3 System Validation
The system was presented to the users and feedback was got in regards to the performance of the
system and to determine whether the system met user’s needs. Most of the users were satisfied
with the system and concluded the satisfies their needs and it is easy to use. The system was
found to be effective in helping students identify and locate hostels, and also enabling students
get detailed information about various hostels.

CHAPTER SIX: LIMITATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND

CONCLUSIONS
6.0 Introduction
This chapter shows how the objectives of the study in chapter one was achieved with respect to
the objectives of the system.

Through data collection, for example studying different information sources, system analysis and
design, and the implementation of the designed system, I was able to reflect the requirements of
the objectives of the study.

It gives a summary of what was done in all the chapters, outcomes, limitations, lessons learnt
and recommendations made.

46
This chapter also examines how the objectives of the study were addressed through the design
and the implementation.

6.1 Reflections on The Project

During the development of the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System, a
number of activities were carried out and these included;

System design and analysis which involved use of data collection techniques like questionnaires,
interviews and literature to collect data about the current system used by both the students to
find, identify and locate hostels and hostel managers to manage their hostels.

These data collection techniques were used to obtain detailed information about the current
systems and other related information.

In system design, the entity relationship diagrams and data flow diagrams were used to identify
entities, relationships, attributes in the system.

6.2 Achievements
I managed to implement the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System. The
project exposed us to new practical challenges, team work, and enhanced application of the
knowledge in solving real-world problems.

6.3 Limitations
One of the greatest limitations of the study were difficulty in balancing the time for effective and
detailed investigation of the problem due to constant interruptions such as abandoning the project
for a while in preparation of tests and exams, some students would deny us time to interact with
them due to exam/test pressure, even some managers were so fixed to provide clear information
about their hostels and some were scared to reveal some of their information to us claiming that
many people have always done that for their own reasons which put them into troubles with
organizations like URA.

Unavailability of literature and other reading materials relating to my system also slowed down
the progress of the report since there are few or limited resource of such information.
47
Biased responses from some of interviewees, for example, some hostel owners were not willing
to disclose some information such as prices for their rooms due to undisclosed confidential
reasons.

6.4 Recommendations

Students and hostel owners are advised to use the Web-based School Hostel Room Booking
Management System for efficiency and effectiveness.

Students looking for hostels, and in need of identifying or locating where those hostels are found,
are advised to use this Web-based School Hostel Room Booking Management System because it
provides all the necessary information about the hostels such as hostel name, available rooms,
prices for the rooms, location, mentioned but a few. Hence this will reduce the higher prices
charged by brokers and some hostel owners, and time-wasting process of looking for hostels will
be reduced.

I also recommend hostel owners to buy the idea of using this system to help them efficiently
handle students’ details, employee information, visitors’ information and keeping track of
routine activities at the hostels.

Hostel owners or managers are advised to consider computerizing some specific processes or
activities that are included in the system in order to have more efficient management processes.

6.5 Conclusion
In this study, I evaluated the existing different activities that are conducted during the finding,
identification and location of hostels by students and I analyzed the strength and weaknesses that
exist in the whole process.

48
 REFERENCES
Bentley, W. &. (2007). System Analysis and Design Methods. Mexico: Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, ©2007.

Kola Ayanlowo, O. S. (2014). Development of an Automated Hostel Facility Management System. Journal
of Science and Engineering, 2-10.

Mugisha, T. (2015, 8 2). Top ten hostels in Kampala International University (KIU) kikoni. Retrieved from
campus eye: https://www.campuseye.ug/top-10-hostels-in-makerere-kikoni/#

Muhammed Shaheer.K.A, M. S. (2009). HOSTEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Mumbay: MUHAMMED

SHAHEER.K. A, MUHAMMED SHIRAS.A, VINOD RAJ.R, PRASOBH.G.V.

Nadia Ayub, A. S. (2010, July 2). Asian Culture and History. The Factors Predicting Students’ Satisfaction
with University Hostels, 148-158.

Prasad, S. (2017, September 16). Student Projects. Retrieved from Student Projects Web site:
http://www.studentprojectguide.com

RESHMI RADHAKRISHNAN, R. P. (2014, APRIL). ONLINE HOSTEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Kochi, Kerala.

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