librarian

This is a Java 8 module that can be used to manage a library with a lending system. It provides a set of classes and methods that can be used by a client application.

Requirements

• Java 8+
• Maven (build)

Building

To build the module and run all its tests just clone this repository to your local file system, change to the librarian directory and run Maven package task.

> mvn package

To make sure everything went well, run the generated jar. It will show a sample usage scenario.

> java -jar target/librarian-0.1.jar

To run only the tests use Maven test task:

> mvn test

Quick start

Import all classes from the core package class into your application and create an instance of Library.

import com.adri0.librarian.core.*;

Library library = new Library();

Start adding books by using the addBook method by providing a title, author and year of publication. Each book added returns a Book object that contains an id uniquely representing that copy of the book in the library.

Book book = library.addBook("Anna Karenina", "Leo Tolstoy", 1984);
int bookId = book.getId();

You can use this id to lend a book from the library to a user or return it to the library. A user can be represented by the User class, it's constructor only accepts a name as parameter. Use Library's lendBook(int bookId, User user) method to lend a book to that user.

User user = new User("Cecil");
Lending lending = library.lendBook(bookId, user);

This method lendBook returns a Lending object with details from the lending of that book. A Lending serves as a receipt of the lending process of a book copy to a user. It contains also information regarding when the book has been lend.

Lending{
  bookId=1,
  Title{'Anna Karenina', by Leo Tolstoy, 1984},
  user=Cecil,
  lentAt=2019-12-09T16:57:04.641,
  returnedAt=null
}

To return a book to the library use Library.returnBook(int bookId) method:

library.returnBook(bookId);

Main public classes and methods

Library

The Library class is the main interface of with the package. It provides methods for lending and returning, listing all the books in the library and keeping a track of the titles in the catalog.

The main methods are the following:

• addBook: Adds a book to the library. Generates a unique ID and return Book object with information about the book. It also adds unique book titles to the catalog.
• removeBook: Remove a book from the library. It is not possible to remove books that are currently lent to an user. Doing so will raise an IllegalStateException.
• containsBook: Check whther the library contains a book of a given id.
• getBook: Returns a Book object of a previously added book.
• getCurrentLendings: Returns a list of all active lendings in the library. It returns a list of Lending objects.
• lendBook: Lends a book to an user and returns a Lending instance. It is not possible to lend a book that is being currently lent. Doing so will raise an IllegalStateException.
• returnBook: Given an id of a previously lent book, finish a lending process, and make it available for future lendings.
• listAllTitles: Returns a list of overviews of all unique book titles in the library. The return type is a List<TitleOverview>.
• search: Starts a search query over all books in the library. The method returns a Query object that builds a search query. It is possible to chain clauses with the methods such as byAuthor(String author), byTitle(String title), etc.

Book

Book represents a unique book copy in the library. A Book is composed by an id (integer) and an instance of a Title object. Book doesn't have public constructors since it can only be instantiated by the Library. The Title object represents a book title that can be shared by many book copies.

Besides id, title, author and year getters, we have the following public method:

• isAvaliable: Tells whether the book copy is available for lending.

Title

Represents a unique book title in the library. A book title is composed by title, author and year of publication.

Lending

Stores all information regarding a lending process. Think of it as receipt or record. It shows which book copy is being lent to whom. Besides user and book getters it has the following method:

• getLentAt: Returns a timestamp of when the book was lent.
• getReturnedAt: Returns a timestamp for when the book has been returned to the library. It will return null if it hasn't been returned yet.

TitleOverview

A TitleOverview are generated when Library.listAllTitles is called. It shows for a given Title how many copies of the title exist in the library, from those which are being lend to whom, and which are available for lending. It's worth noting that TitleOverview objects are snapshots of the overview of a title at the time the instance has been generated.

• totalCopies: Number of total copies of a given title.
• availableCopies: Number of copies of the given title that are available for lending.
• getAvailableBooks: List of the available Book copies of the given title.
• getCurrentLendings: List of the active Lendings for the title.

Query

A query object is instantiated whenLibrary.search() method is used. The actual search performs only when the method execute is called. It has the following chainable clauses methods:

• byAuthor: Adds a clause that will filter authors with a given parameter. It is sufficient that the parameter matches with a substring of an author. So a user can query by only its first name or last name.
• byTitle: Adds a title filter clause. Analogous to author, it is case sensitive and searches for substrings.
• byYear: Only match books of a given year.
• byAvailability: Only matches book that are available, or not available, depending on the boolean parameter (true for available).
• by: Accepts a Predicate function as parameter that will match whatever book that the predicate returns true.

Limitations and further improvements

• Currently, the module only supports in-memory storage. All the information is lost when the application process finishes.
• Queries performed by search loop over all titles in the library. It is ok if the library size is small, but it can get slow if we add hundreds of thousands of books. In the latter case, a way to improve search speed is to implement search via binary search, or text-based indexes to limit search space of titles and authors, and number based index for year.
• It doesn't support books with multiple authors.
• No ISBN or genre classification.
• No history of users past lendings.