Home > Articles > Programming > Java

This chapter is from the book

Doing Business with SkatesTown

When Al Rosen of Silver Bullet Consulting first began his engagement with SkatesTown, he focused on understanding the e-commerce practices of the company and its customers. After a series of conversations with SkatesTown's CTO Dean Caroll, he concluded the following:

  • SkatesTown's manufacturing, inventory management, and supply chain automation systems are in good order. These systems are easily accessible by SkatesTown's Web-centric applications.

  • SkatesTown has solid consumer-oriented online presence. Product and inventory information is fed into the online catalog that is accessible to both direct consumers and SkatesTown's reseller partners via two different sites.

  • Although SkatesTown's order processing system is sophisticated, it is poorly connected to online applications. This is a pain point for the company because SkatesTown's partners are demanding better integration with their supply chain automation systems.

  • SkatesTown's purchase order system is solid. It accepts purchase orders in XML format and uses XML Schema-based validation to guarantee their correctness. Purchase order item stock keeping units (SKUs) and quantities are checked against the inventory management system. If all items are available, an invoice is created. SkatesTown charges a uniform 5% tax on purchases and the highest of 5% of the total purchase or $20 for shipping and handling.

Digging deeper into the order processing part of the business, Al discovered that it uses a low-tech approach that has a high labor cost and is not suitable for automation. He noticed one area that badly needed automation: the process of purchase order submission. Purchase orders are sent to SkatesTown by e-mail. All e-mails arrive in a single manager's account in operations. The manager manually distributes the orders to several subordinates. They have to open the e-mail, copy only the XML over to the purchase order system, and enter the order there. The system writes an invoice file in XML format. This file must be opened, and the XML must be copied and pasted into a reply e-mail message. Simple misspellings of e-mail addresses and cut-and-paste errors are common. They cost SkatesTown and its partners both money and time.

Another area that needs automation is the inventory checking process. SkatesTown's partners used to submit purchase orders without having a clear idea whether all the items were in stock. This often caused delayed order processing. Further, purchasing personnel from the partner companies would engage in long e-mail dialogs with operations people at SkatesTown. This situation was not very efficient. To improve it, SkatesTown built a simple online application that communicates with the company's inventory management system. Partners could log in, browse SkatesTown's products, and check whether certain items were in stock. The application interface is shown in Figure 3.1. (You can access this application as Example 1 under Chapter 3 in the example application on this book's Web site.) This application was a good start, but now SkatesTown's partners are demanding the ability to have their purchasing applications directly inquire about order availability.

Figure 3.1 SkatesTown's online inventory check application.

Looking at the two areas that most needed to be improved, Al Rosen chose to focus on the inventory checking process because the business logic was already present. He just had to enable better automation. To do this, he had to better understand how the application worked.

Interacting with the Inventory System

The logic for interacting with the inventory system is very simple. Looking through the Java Server Pages (JSPs) that made up the online application, Al easily extracted the key business logic operations from /ch3/ex1/inventoryCheck.jsp. Here is the process for checking SkatesTown's inventory:

import bws.BookUtil;
import com.skatestown.data.Product;
import com.skatestown.backend.ProductDB;

String sku = ...;
int quantity = ...;

ProductDB db = BookUtil.getProductDB(...);
Product   p = db.getBySKU(sku);

boolean isInStock = (p != null && p.getNumInStock() >= quantity);

Given a SKU and a desired product quantity, an application needs to get an instance of the SkatesTown product database and locate a product with a matching SKU. If such a product is available and if the number of items in stock is greater than or equal to the desired quantity, the inventory check succeeds. Because most of the examples in this chapter talk to the inventory system, it is good to take a deeper look at its implementation.

NOTE

A note of caution: this book's sample applications demonstrate realistic uses of Java technology and Web services to solve real business problems while, at the same time, remaining simple enough to fit in the book's scope and size limitations. Further, all the examples are directly accessible in many environments and on all platforms that have a JSP and servlet engine without any sophisticated installation. To meet these somewhat conflicting criteria, something has to give. For example:

  • To keep the code simple, we do as little data validation and error checking as possible without allowing applications to break. You won't find us defining custom exception types or producing long, readable error messages.

  • To get away from the complexities of external system access, we use simple XML files to store data.

  • To make deployment easier, we use the BookUtil class as a place to go for all operations that depend on file locations or URLs. You can tune the deployment options for the example applications by modifying some of the constants defined in BookUtil.

  • All file paths are relative to the installation directory of the example application.

SkatesTown's inventory is represented by a simple XML file stored in /resources/products.xml (see Listing 3.1). By modifying this file, you can change the behavior of many examples. The Java representation of products in SkatesTown's systems is the com.skatestown.data.Product class. It is a simple bean that has one property for every element under product.

Listing 3.1  SkatesTown Inventory Database

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<products>
   <product>
      <sku>947-TI</sku>
      <name>Titanium Glider</name>
      <type>skateboard</type>
      <desc>Street-style titanium skateboard.</desc>
      <price>129.00</price>
      <inStock>36</inStock>
   </product>
   ...
</products>

SkatesTown's inventory system is accessible via the ProductDB (for product database) class in package com.skatestown.backend. Listing 3.2 shows the key operations it supports. To construct an instance of the class, you pass an XML DOM Document object representation of products.xml. (BookUtil.getProductDB() does this automatically.) After that, you can get a listing of all products or you can search for a product by its SKU.

Listing 3.2  SkatesTown's Product Database Class

public class ProductDB
{
    private Product[] products;
    
    public ProductDB(Document doc) throws Exception
    {
        // Load product information
    }
    
    public Product getBySKU(String sku)
    {
        Product[] list = getProducts();
        for ( int i = 0 ; i < list.length ; i++ )
            if ( sku.equals( list[i].getSKU() ) ) return( list[i] );
        return( null );
    }
    
    public Product[] getProducts()
    {
        return  products;
    }
}

This was all Al Rosen needed to know to move forward with the task of automating the inventory checking process.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020