1. Store Manager FX - Manage Stock/Prices/Budgets
The Store-Manager FX project was born out of the necessity of a local business that needed software to manage stock, prices (accounting for Argentina’s volatile USD/ARS exchange rate), and client budgets, while storing all this information locally on the front desk computer.
For this project, I delved deeper into JavaFX for desktop applications, as it provided a well-established MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern. I also utilized Java threading (concurrent programming) to handle queries and computation-intensive tasks. This ensured the UI remained responsive, delivering a smoother user experience.
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2. Solution/Development Process
During the development, the project initially seemed like a small task to handle minor responsibilities, but over time, the requirements became increasingly complex.
At first, I visited local businesses to observe their workflows—how they operated, the processes involved in selling, the calculations they performed, and the questions they asked their clients. This helped me gain insight into the domain for which the program was intended.
After some initial research and conversations with the business owners, I gained a broad understanding of what was needed: a centralized system to manage everything in one place, including tracking orders, budgets, and stock. Additionally, there was a unique requirement to manage the dollar exchange rate, which is highly volatile in Argentina.
One of the most challenging yet amusing issues was generating PDFs using PDFBox, a Java library. I had to manage “collisions”—ensuring that text would not overflow onto the next page unintentionally. This required generating a new A4 page when the content exceeded the current page and ensuring the header was consistently present on every new page.
For the database, I used H2 since it supports JDBC. Initially, the requirement was to run everything locally on a single computer, though this changed over time.
To validate the design of the UI and features, I created an initial prototype to confirm whether it met the business’s expectations. This turned out to be a great decision, as each iteration brought the application closer to fulfilling their needs. The key, in my opinion, was immersing myself in the business’s environment to thoroughly understand the domain. I focused on what the business needed to sell, the information they required from clients, and how the communication and workflow with clients could be as seamless as possible. The goal was to create a smooth experience for both parties, automating the complex aspects of managing budgets, stock, and other business processes.
3. Manual for Store Manager FX
At the end of the first release, I created a series of videos explaining each feature and how to use the program. These videos provided new business members with real use cases and step-by-step guidance, ensuring they could easily learn how to use the software.