design and implementation of sms based water billing
Post on 18-Dec-2021
4 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
1
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SMS BASED WATER BILLING SYSTEM
(A CASE STUDY OF BAGUDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT WATER BOARD, KEBBI
STATE)
BY
ZIYA’U BELLO
( 0911310049 )
A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO COMPUTER SCIENCE UNIT, DEPARTMENT OF
MATHEMATICS, FACULTY OF SCIENCE, USMANU DANFODIYO UNIVERSITY
SOKOTO, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD
OF DEGREE OF BARCHELOR OF SCIENCE, (B.Sc. HONS) COMPUTER SCIENCE.
SEPTEMBER, 2014
2
CERTIFICATION
This research work by ZIYA’U BELLO (0911310049) has met all the requirements for
the award of degree of Bachelor of Science in computer science of faculty of science, department
of mathematics computer science unit, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and is approved
for its contribution to knowledge.
Mal. Mansur Muhammad Date
(Project Supervisor)
Prof. I. J Uwanta Date
(Head of Department)
External Examiner Date
3
DEDICATION
To the entire Computer scientists around the world and to my beloved parents Dr. Bello
Usman Bagudo and Hajiya. Halimatu Bello Bagudo for their kindness, love and care.
4
ACKNOWLEGMENT
Much thanks and profound gratitude goes to almighty Allah for his kindness, infinite mercies
and patience he has given me throughout this work.
My special and sincere appreciation to my supervisor Mal. Mansur Muhammad, for his
support, patience and constructive criticisms throughout this work.
I also express my appreciation to the entire lecturers and staff of computer science unit
department of mathematics, Faculty of Science, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto.
My thanks and gratitude also to my beloved parents Dr. Bello Usman Bagudo and Hajiya.
Halimatu Bello Usman and my lovely brothers and sisters Mubarak, Faruk, Fatimah, Zinatu,
Hindatu, Sadiya, Abdulrasheed, Salmanu, and Ukhashatu for their love, care, moral support,
understanding, endurance, encouragement and sound advise towards my academic pursuits.
I so much appreciate you my friends Sadiq Aliyu Ahmad, Maniru Malami Umar Tambuwal,
Imrana Abdullahi Yari, Umar Muhammad Bello and Malami Ahmad Abdullahi. May almighty
Allah reward you.
My final appreciation goes to Mal. Aliyu Muhd of Bagudo Water Board and all those who
have contributed in one way or the other toward my academic goals. May Allah bless you.
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page ………………………………………………………………………………..………i
Certification page ………………………………………………………………………………..ii
Dedication ……………………………………………………………………………………….iii
Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………………………iv
Table of contents ……………………………………………………….……………..................v
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………….x
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………...1
1.2 Background of the study ……………………………………………………………………...1
1.3 Statement of the problem ……………………………………………………………………..2
1.4 Aims and Objectives…………………………………………………………………………..3
1.5 Significance of the study ……………………………………………………………………...3
1.6 Scope and Limitation ………………………………………………………………………....4
1.7 Definition of terms …………………………………………………………………………....4
1.7.1 Internet …………………………………………………………………………………....4
1.7.2 Web ……………………………………………………………………………………….4
1.7.3 Web browser ……………………………………………………………………………...4
6
1.7.4 Website …………………………………………………………………………………...5
1.7.5 Web page …………………………………………………………………………………5
1.7.6 Localhost ………………….……………………………………………………………...5
1.7.7 Web server ……………………………………………………………………………….5
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction to billing ……………………………………………………………………….7
2.2 Types of billing ……………………………………………………………………………...7
2.3 Classification of bills ………………………………………………………………………..8
2.4 Online billing systems (Electronic bills) ………………………………………………..…..10
2.4.1 Features of online bills ……………………………………………………………………10
2.4.2 Advantages of online billing systems ……………………………………………………..11
2.4.3 Disadvantages of online billing systems ………………………………………………….12
2.5 Short message service (SMS) …………………………………………………………….…12
2.5.1 Types of short message service (SMS) …………………………………………………...13
2.6 Water meter …………………………………………………………………………………14
2.6.1 Meter reading (MR) ……………………………………………………………………....14
2.7 Review of some existing water billing systems ………………………………………….....14
2.8 Software tools ……………………………………………………………………………....15
2.8.1 Hypertext markup language (HTML) ……………………………………………………15
7
2.8.2 Hypertext preprocessor (PHP) …………………………………………………………..16
2.8.3 Apache http server ……………………………………………………………………....18
2.8.4 Mysql …………………………………………………………………………………....19
2.8.5 Java script …………………………………………………………………………….....20
2.8.6 Wamp server ………………………………………………………………………….....21
CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM ANALYSIS
3.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………..23
3.2 Requirement analysis ……………………………………………………………………...23
3.2.1 Hardware requirements ……………………………………………………………….....24
3.2.2 Software requirements ………………………………………………………………..…24
3.2.3 Preferred requirements ……………………………………………………………..……24
3.3 Analysis of the current system ……………………………………………………..……...25
3.3.1 Analysis of the input …………………………………………………………….………26
3.3.2 Analysis of the output ………………………………………………………….………..26
3.3.3 Analysis of the existing system procedure ………………………………….…………...27
3.4 Files maintained ……………………………………………………………….…………..27
3.5 Web-design methodology …………………………………………………….…………...28
3.5.1 Mission statement ………………………………………………………….……………28
3.5.2 Audience modeling ………………………………………………………..…………….28
3.5.3 Conceptual modeling ……………………………………………………..……………..29
3.5.4 Implementation design phase ………………………………………….………………..29
3.5.5 Implementation phase ……………………………………………….…………………..31
8
3.6 Expectations of the new system …………………………………………………………..31
CHAPTER FOUR: SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
4.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………33
4.2 System design …………………………………………………….………………………33
4.3 Description of the proposed system …………………………..…………………………..34
4.3.1 Steps of design process ……………………………………..…………………………..35
4.3.2 System flow design ……………………………………..………………………………39
4.3.3 Data flow diagram ………………………………………..……………………………..43
4.3.4 Use case ………………………………………………..………………………………..44
4.3.5 Database design ………………………………………..………………………………..46
4.4 System implementation ………………………………..………………………………….50
4.4.1 Login page …………………………………………..…………………………………..50
4.4.2 Registration page …………………………………..……………………………………51
4.4.3 Consumer home page ……………………………..…………………………………….52
4.4.4 Password resetting page …………………………...…………………………………….52
4.4.5 Feedback page ………………………………...…………………………………………53
4.4.6 Cashiers page …………………………………..………………………………………..54
4.4.7 Administrator control panel …………………..…………………………………………54
4.5 System testing …………………………………...…………………………………………55
4.5.1 Testing method ………………………………...…………………………………………56
4.5.2 Test plan ……………………………………………………...…………………………..56
4.5.3 Types of testing ………………………………………………..…………………….……57
9
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Summary ……………………………………………………..……………………………59
5.2 Conclusion …………………………………………………..……………………………..61
5.3 Recommendation …………………………………………..………………………………62
5.4 Suggestions for further research …………………………...……………………………….62
5.5 References ………………………………………………....………………………………..64
10
ABSTRACT
Billing is a critical function of most Water Boards especially towards sending the bill to their
consumers. Most problems, currently seen, result from the manual processes followed.
Calculation errors, delays in system updating and bill sending, also report tracking issues are
the major problems that water boards find difficult to find answers for. This project work
provides a solution called an sms based water billing system to collect, process and notify
consumers about consumption. This system will be reliable, efficient and accurate to suit
the requirements of Bagudo local government water board. The proposed solution uses
evolving Mobile Technologies known as SMS and voguepay online payment technologies, over
a solution which uses web applications to handle the organization’s day to day transactions
which will allow the water board to send bills to their consumers via SMS and consumers to pay
their bills using ATM cards. The burden on the billing is lessened and other new features
have also been introduced. Consumer interaction with the organization is improved and
consumers can easily view their monthly water bills by login to the organization’s web site.
11
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
It is obvious that without technology there is no modernization, and modernization in turn
brings about improvement in the quality of our lives. The invention of computer and some other
related devices has no doubt brought improvement in the quality of life. With the introduction of
computer many software were invented and has made those things, which seem not to be
possible, a reality.
SMS Based Water Billing Software is a special program designed to store and manages
the records of all the billing activities of the Bagudo water board. It helps to save the record of
consumers, cashiers and monthly bills. It also helps to send consumers monthly bills via SMS.
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The importance of computer cannot be over emphasized since the ancient times, computer
has proven itself capable of accepting data, storing, processing and producing an accurate result
or output. Since computer has partially taken most of the responsibilities of human being, i
intend to embed the use of computer in the billing exercise.
Water Board is an organization that deals with several paper works and ledger cards in saving
records. These records increase every day as transaction is always going on in the organization.
As the record increases, information saving, retrieval and maintenance is becoming tedious every
day. There is lack of security because the data can be altered by any individual.
12
Another important thing with most of this water boards is that they deal with many of
consumers, the notification of consumers on their monthly bills which is very difficult using the
paper system of keeping records of billing, where the cashiers has to go round to distribute bills.
Monthly report is also very important in order to allow the organization to make further
decisions based on the success or failure recorded in a month.
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Proper record management is of very important to every organization or company. Most
organizations have poor record management which leads them to having many problems during
auditing.
Water Board is an organization that deals with every day transaction. The record of bills is
what is used to determine success or failure and is what will be used for further decision as to
continue with the present pattern of business or change to a new style.
The manual record keeping and billing is very slow and is error prone. No proper security is
usually provided to the record and so can be tempered with by any individual either intentional
or accidental. Another problem with the manual system of record keeping and billing is the
natural disaster. Disasters like fire outbreak etc can cause damages or even total vanish of all
records.
13
1.4 AIM and OBJECTIVES
Aim
To design and implement an SMS based Water Billing System
Project Objectives
1.4.1 To study and investigate on the current system
1.4.2 To conduct a literature review on SMS based Water Billing System
1.4.3 To investigate the most appropriate tool for the development of a web-based System
1.4.4 To design and implement a database for SMS based Water Billing System
1.4.5 To design and implement a front-end tool
1.4.6 To evaluate the tools, techniques and methods used to design and implement the
propose system.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This project work is of benefit to the management of Bagudo Water Board for simplicity of
their work and to help improve their activities more efficiently. The research also served as
academic bedrock upon which student and researchers would build their research on similar or
other academic work of their choice.
1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION
14
This project is useful for the Bagudo Water Board, Branch of Kebbi State Water Board, but
has extended capabilities to accommodate more additional Water Boards. It does not suffice for
Kebbi State Water Board as a whole.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
1.7.1 Internet
It is a “network of networks” that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic,
business, and government networks, etc. which together carry various information and services,
such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other
resources of the World Wide Web (www).
1.7.2 Web
The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked hypertext
document accessed via the internet.
1.7.3 Web browser
A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with
text, images, video, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on
the World Wide Web or a local area network.
1.7.4 Website
15
A website (alternatively, web site ) is a collection of web pages, images, video or other
digital assists that is hosted on one or more web servers, usually accessible via the internet.
1.7.5 Web page
A web page or webpage is a resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web
and can be accessed through a web browser. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML
format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext links.
1.7.6 Localhost
Localhost is a software program that facilitates access to peer-to-peer virtual file system via
Bit Torrent protocol.
Default name describing the local computer address also known as the loopback address. For
example, typing: ping localhost would ping the local IP address of 127.0.0.1 (the loopback
address). When setting up a web server or software on a web server, 127.0.0.1 is used to point
the software to the local machine.
This IP address is the local IP address and is not the IP address used by your computer to
communicate with other computers on your network or the Internet.
1.7.7 Web server
A web server is essentially a computer program which is responsible for handling HTTP
requests. A browser request to view a page the server then accepts the request and displays the
page. From a general point of view, we consider web servers as the storage area for files which
are available on the web. So in order for any page to be viewable on the web it must be loaded on
16
to the web server. A web server is usually a dedicated piece of hardware and software used to
allow a website to be displayed on the net.
CHAPTER TWO
17
LETRATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION TO BILLING
Bill is a written note of goods sold, services rendered, or work done, with the price or
charge, or an invoice. (http://wiktionary.org).
Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus defined Water Bill as “a regular
charge that is made to people for the use of their local water supply”.
Billing is the aggregation of all non-recurring, periodic, and chargeable events on an
account-by-account basis. It is also the calculation of all outstanding charges and available
discounts and bonuses. (http://www.tutorialspoint.com)
Webster's College Dictionary (2010), define billing as “Billing is the preparing or sending
out of bills or invoices. The amount of business done by a firm within a specified period of time
or a cost of goods or services billed to a customer”.
2.2 TYPES OF BILLING
There are two types of billing which are postpaid billing and prepaid billing. (Hatem, 2012)
1. Postpaid billing
In postpaid billing the customer may pay an insurance payment in advance, and
he may pay the installation or setup fees, and in each billing cycle he will be invoiced
(receive a bill) to pay for his usage of the service.
2. Prepaid billing
18
In prepaid billing the customer buys a given amount of credits (duration, volume, number
of events) and is then allowed to use the corresponding network resources as long as their
account is in credit. Billing system receives customer usage records from the network elements
and adjusts the customer credits. When their credit has been used up, network usage will be
restricted. Prepaid corresponds to a real-time process, because transactions are only allowed if
the user account is in credit, and this has to be checked in real-time.
2.3 CLASSIFICATION OF BILLS
Chris (2013) classified Bill into eight (8) common classifications as follows:
i. Initiation bill: Normally only requested as the first bill on an account. Includes
product charges and adjustments, but not event.
ii. Periodic bill: Produced at regular intervals. Includes all periodic charges, e
vents, and adjustments.
iii. Interim bill: An extra bill that contains charges due to events processed for
the account since the last bill. Includes all events and adjustments, but no
periodic charges.
iv. Suspension bill: Sent when an account has been suspended. Includes all
periodic charges, events, and adjustments.
19
v. Final bill: Sent when an account has been terminated to bill all outstanding
charges that are due. Includes all periodic charges, events, and adjustments,
along with any refunds; for example, the return of a deposit.
vi. Post-final bill: Sent when a terminated account has receivables outstanding
after the production of a final bill. Includes any post-termination events and
adjustments, but no periodic charges.
vii. Credit note: An extra bill that contains all adjustments in the customer's favor
generated since the last bill.
viii. Summary Statements: A summary statement can be produced for a
customer-driven billing hierarchy. It can summarize all bills produced by all
accounts below the customer it is associated with. Optionally, they can also
concatenate all the bills into a single statement.
Bills are produced either automatically or on request from a customer.
2.4 ONLINE BILLING SYSTEMS (ELECTRONIC BILLS)
Online bill pay is an American mainstream practice. Three out of four U.S. online
households have paid at least one monthly bill online, according to a 2007 survey titled,
20
Consumer Billing and Payment Trends 2002-2007; The Volume of Electronic Bill Payments
Exceeds Check Bill Payments for the First Time, conducted by Harris Interactive for Check Free
Research Services. The same study indicated that the percentage of electronic bill payments has
surpassed the percentage of check bill payments among online households. But as paperless bill
payment has briskly moved through the stages of consumer adoption, its counterpart, paperless
bill presentment, has been slower to gain mainstream momentum.
An electronic bill (e-bill) is defined as an electronic version of a company’s bill that is
delivered to a consumer through the website of the company that issued the bill (a “biller”), a
financial institution internet site or a web portal. An e-bill contains the same information as a
paper bill and has the same due date. Paperless billing occurs when consumers replace a paper
bill with an e-bill. Today, many firms require customers to “shut off” their paper bill, either
immediately, or after some period of time, in order to receive an e-bill.
2.4.1 FEATURES OF ONLINE BILLS
An efficient billing system is extremely essential for taxes levied by the municipal
corporations and their collection from consumers. An efficient system of billing can only
ensure timely serving of demand notice and collection of dues from customers, thereby
enabling efficient cash recycling and serve the following objectives:
i. Timely rising of bills for the water dues;
ii. Establishing clear cut time schedules between the raising of bills, sending it to the
consumers and payment by them;
21
iii. Collection from the consumers of the right amount and on due date;
iv. Make it easy for willing consumers to pay at convenient collection centers, most
ideally at the door step;
v. Accounting for daily collections and their remittances
vi. Clear accounting of dues of consumers;
vii. Elimination of avoidable delays;
viii. Minimizing the cost of collection;
ix. Paying adequate attention to disputed cases and defaulters;
x. Rigorous follow-up of defaulters;
xi. Incentive mechanism for workers involved in dues collection from consumers.
2.4.2 ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE BILLING SYSTEMS
1. Real-time IVR interface with CIS database
2. 24/7 customer self-service access
3. Hear account balances and payment history
4. Pay bills by credit card or eCheck
5. System-Wide Messages
6. Update Customer Phone Numbers
2.4.3 DISADVANTAGES OF ONLINE BILLING SYSTEMS
22
Some of the disadvantages of online bills are:
1. The slowness of the Internet and power outrages is one of the major disadvantages of
online billings
2. Lack of accessibility to online bills for those who do not have access to the
Internet or any other kind of electronic service
2.5 SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS)
Is a text messaging service component of phone, Web, or mobile communication systems. It
uses standardized communications protocols to allow fixed line or mobile phone devices to
exchange short text messages (Heather, 2012).
The term "SMS" was used for both the user activity and all types of short text messaging in
many parts of the world. SMS is also employed in direct marketing also known as SMS
Marketing.
2.5.1 TYPES OF SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS)
i. Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS
23
While SMS reached its popularity as a person-to-person messaging, another type of
SMS is growing fast: application-to-person (A2P) messaging. A2P is a type of SMS
sent from a subscriber to an application or sent from an application to a subscriber. It
is commonly used by financial institutions, airlines, hotel booking sites, social
networks, and other organizations sending SMS from their systems to their
customers. According to research in 2011 by clickSUMO , A2P traffic is growing
faster than P2P messaging traffic.
ii. Flash SMS
FLASH SMS is a type of SMS that appears directly on the main screen without user
interaction and is not automatically stored in the inbox. It can be useful in
emergencies, such as a fire alarm or cases of confidentiality, as in delivering one-
time passwords”. (SMS types, 2014).
iii. Silent SMS
Silent messages, also known as “silent TMS”, “stealth SMS” or “stealth ping”, are
employed nowadays to locate a person and thus to create a complete movement
profile. They do not show up on a display, nor trigger any acoustical signal when
received. Their primary purpose was to deliver special services of the network
operator to any cell phone. The mobile provider, often at the behest of the police, will
capture data such as subscriber identification IMSI. In Germany in 2010 almost half a
million "silent SMS" messages were sent by the federal police, customs and the secret
service "Verfassungsschutz" (offices for protection of the constitution).
(Verfassungsschutz, 2010).
24
2.6 A WATER METER
Is a device that measures how much water you used. It is similar to your gas or electricity
meter. Your supplier uses readings from the meter to calculate how much to charge you for your
water and sewerage services (post-consumer waste paper, 2013).
2.6.1 METER READING,
Is the technology of automatically collecting consumption, diagnostic, and status data
from water meter or energy metering devices (gas, electric).
2.7 REVIEW OF SOME EXISTING WATER BILLING SYSTEMS
Abuja Water Board (2012) deploys a water billing system for their consumers. Cashiers are
prompted to inter the details of consumer such as name, address and the meter readings (previous
and current reading) as well as price which the system will use to generate the bill.
The limitations of this system are the cashiers cannot retrieve the record of the customer
after printing, the bills has to be distributed to the consumers from one resident to another.
Similarly, Edo State Urban Water Board (2011) deploys a billing system which stores the
details of each consumer and calculates the bill rate of the consumer when the meter readings are
provided to the system, and the bill of each consumer can be retrieved.
One of the limitations of this system is that it is standalone system. In which only one user can
use it at a time.
Other limitations are monthly bill report cannot be generated and payment of monthly bills can
only be done at the water board or by collection.
25
2.8 SOFTWARE TOOLS
Some of the software tools reviewed in this research work is: HTML, PHP, HTTP SERVER,
JAVASCRIPT, MYSQL and WAMP SERVER.
2.8.1 HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE (HTML)
According to Brooks (2007), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the basic language and
foundation that makes the World Wide Web function accurately. It is the major language used in
web designing and it is understood by most computers and the compliance for creating static web
pages. He also argued that HTML is not only a programming language in the traditional sense,
but rather a set of instructions about how to display content and the application that translates the
instructions is called the web browser. Some of the features of HTML include:
i. An HTML document provides an I/O interface, JavaScript and other scripting
languages handles the calculations. An advantage of HTML is that it provides a
wealth of interface that far surpass those of text-based language such as C
ii. HTML displays a running text on the web page, a feature called a marquee
behavior.
iii. Using HTML, pages can be linked together to form a continuous interactive
session.
iv. The benefits of HTML in this research work is that, it enables us to markup the
structure of the interfaces for this project such as interface for online registration,
and login form.
26
2.8.2 HYPERTEXT PREPROCESSOR (PHP)
Tim Converse and Joyce Park (2012) in there book PHP5 and MySQL Bible stated that,
“PHP was invented by Rasmus Lerdorf, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans. The language enables
developers to produce dynamic web application by including complex function calls or database
queries within the HTML code.
Lerdorf (1994) proposed the meaning of PHP to be personal Home Page, but was later
known to be its existing meaning (i.e. PHP Hypertext Preprocessor). It is one of the most popular
Web-development languages in the world. PHP is a server-side scripting language and it is
propose in the web-server before sending the information to web browser (Jason 2004).
According to Brawley and Fuller (2010) PHP was invented in 1995 as Personal Home
Page/Forms Interpreter or PHP/FI. They further highlighted that this language can now be
interpreted as a recursive acronym which stands for “PHP Hypertext Preprocessor”.
However, Rasmus (1994) consider PHP as a server-side, HTML-embedded, cross-platform
script language, in which terms; PHP provides a way for putting instruction in HTML files to
create a dynamic page”.
PHP CAPABILITIES
PHP would create dynamic web pages like a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) application.
It provides equal functionalities as the ASP does. PHP also provides database connectivity and
strong security measure. PHP can also deploy cookies and manage session. The database
management systems that provide connectivity through PHP are Adabas D, Dbase, Emress,
27
FilePro, Informix, Hyperwave, InterBase Solid, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, ODBC, Microsoft
Access, Sybase, Velocis, Unix dbm, MS SQL Server, etc.
THE STRENGTH OF PHP
Among other scripting languages such as APS, Perl, Python, JPS and JavaScript, PHP is
preferred due to the following:
i. Price
ii. Open source
iii. Platform agnostic
iv. Cost
v. Ease of maintenance
vi. Maturity
vii. Database compatibility
The greatest strength of PHP is its faithful legion of open source supporters.
FEATURES OF PHP
1. PHP can be used to create customized HTTP- based authentication mechanisms for
the Apache web server. PHP also supports all common regular expression operations.
2. PHP can support variables and arrays.
3. PHP also supports embedding of SQL queries directly in HTML files.
28
2.8.3 APACHE HTTP SERVER
According to Apache-PHP-MySQL.com, “Apache HTTP Server is an open source, robust,
featured, rock solid and free server application. It is available for UNIX, Linux and Windows
Operating Systems.
1. The following are the features of apache:
2. Common language interference support for Perl, python, Tcl, PHP, etc.
3. DBMS-based authentication database with different popular authentication modules
4. Configurable error messages
5. Custom log files
6. Proxing and
7. URL rewriter
Apache has the following benefits, which made it preferable over other savers:
1. It is free and stable
2. Easy to configure, use and update
3. Lots of good documentation available
4. Supports security features
5. Robust enough to handle major traffic
6. Allow virtual host and other special service
7. It runs on virtually any hardware platform
29
2.8.4 MySQL
The Database Management System (DBMS) is a collection of programs that enables
users to create and maintain databases. The DBMS is hence general purpose software that
facilitates the purpose of defining, constructing and manipulating database for various
applications. The DBMS used for handling the data in this research work is MySQL.
MySQL is a fast easy-to-use DBMS used on many websites. The main focus of the
developers was speed from the beginning. In the interest of the speed, they made the decision to
offer fewer features than their major competitors such as Oracle and Sybase.
However even though MySQL is less full-featured than its commercial competitors, it has all
the features needed by majority of database developers. It’s easier to install and use than its
commercial competitors, and the difference in price is strongly in Missal’s favor.
Some of the benefits and Advantages of MYSQL are:
1. Cost Effective: MySQL database is an open source system and from everyone to anyone
can use it as it is under General Public License. This gives developers the opportunity to
create Free MySQL Database. At the same time, you can make changes to the code and
customize the same as per your requirement and with the features that are available
anyone would love to opt for MySQL database. However there are some limitations
though for people planning to use MySQL database for commercial use as they might
have to purchase standard edition of SQL server for a very nominal charge.
2. Cross Platform Operability: One of the biggest factors which make MySQL the most
opted form of database is Cross Platform Operability. It has proved itself in getting
30
installed in all the major platforms such as Linux, Windows, Solaris and so on and at the
same time performance has not been affected. Apart from that, the presence of APIs
makes its integration with C, C++, Perl, Java and Python etc. pretty easy.
3. Security: Databases setup on MySQL are very, very secure as all the passwords that are
stored are in encrypted form, hence restricting unauthorized access to the database.
This project research is going to use MySQL Database as the back-end storage for all records.
All data saved from the registration of consumers, adding of cashiers, billing and payment
processes and feedback will be saved on the SQL Database.
2.8.5 JAVA SCRIPT
According to Mora (2010), JavaScript’s original name was Live Script created by Brendan
Eich at Netscape in 1995. JavaScript is an object-based scripting language modeled after C++.
JavaScript is a client-side scripting language in which it performs all necessary actions within
the browser without consulting any server before it can perform any function. It also supports
event handling and validation of inputs. JavaScript code can make sure that user enters valid
information and when the submit button is pressed; the script checks the values of all necessary
fields; and as a result prevent the request from happening. It also supports regular expression
pattern. Button can be associated with JavaScript events.
The JavaScript language is a Web-enhancing technology. When employed on client
computer, the language can help turn a static page of content into an engaging, interactive, and
31
intelligent experience. Applications can be as subtle as welcoming a site’s visitor with the
greeting “Good morning!” when it is morning in the client computer’s time zone – even though
it is dinnertime where the server is located.
JavaScript Capabilities
1. Add content to a web page dynamically
2. Alter a web in response to user actions
3. Reacts to user events
4. Interact with frames
5. Manipulates HTTP cookies
6. Limited network programming.
2.8.6 WAMP SERVER
WAMP Server is a package of independently created programs installed on a computer
that use Microsoft Windows Operating system. The Linux version of this is LAMP Server which
runs on Linux Operating systems. The full meaning of WAMP is Windows, Apache, MySQL
and PHP. Apache is a web server, MySQL is an open source database and PHP is a scripting
language that can manipulate information held in database and generate web pages dynamically
each time content is requested by a browser. Other programs are also included in the package
such as PhpMyAdmin which provides a graphical user interface of MySQL database manager or
the alternative scripting languages Python and Perl.
WAMP Server will be used in this project as a testing server i.e. after the source code has
been created, WAMP Server will be used to test the output of the project.
32
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM ANALYSIS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Systems are created to solve problems. One can think of the systems approach as an
organized way of dealing with a problem. In this dynamic world, the subject System Analysis
and Design (SAD) mainly deals with the software development activities.
33
System analysis is a process of collecting factual data, understand the processes involved,
identifying problems and recommending feasible suggestions for improving the system
functioning. This involves studying the business processes, gathering operational data,
understand the information flow, finding out bottlenecks and evolving solutions for overcoming
the weaknesses of the system so as to achieve the organizational goals. System Analysis also
includes subdividing of complex process involving the entire system, identification of data store
and manual processes. (National Institute of Open Schooling, 2014)
3.2 REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS
Requirement means different things to different people depending on the context in which it
is used, to some people it means careful elicitation and specification of the users need towards
the development of any application such that the content, navigation and structure of any
application focus on the users, while some viewed it as just system requirements without
considering the user as the main target.
Basically requirements are categorized into software, hardware and user requirements.
Software requirement is a sub-field of software engineering that deals with the elicitation,
analysis, specification, and validation of requirements for software. The software requirement
specification document enlists all necessary requirements for project development. Hardware
requirement involve elicitation and specification of all the equipment needed to design the
project while user requirement specifies what the users are in need of with regard to the new
system. Below are the software, hardware and user requirements for the new system:
3.2.1 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
34
The following are the minimum hardware requirements for the system
i. Minimum of 128MB of RAM.
ii. Minimum of 5GB HARD DISK.
iii. V.G.A color screen monitor.
iv. A keyboard.
v. A mouse.
vi. An uninterruptible power supply.
vii. P-III processor or equivalent.
3.2.2 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
The following are the minimum software requirement for the system to work:
i. Operating System: Microsoft Windows98/2000/XP/VISTA/SEVEN.
ii. Web browser: Opera, Google chrome, Mozilla, Firefox.
3.2.3 PREFERRED REQUIREMENTS
Based on the recent data collected the result indicates the following as the requirement for
the new system:
As the front end, the system should provide an interface called login page that can allow
consumers to register with the system, such that information of the end user will be tracked.
1. The login interface also should provide a password reset link which allows registered
users to reset their password.
2. After registration the system should welcome an existing user if the username and
password match and give the privilege to view and pay monthly charges of water
35
consumption using ATM card. Else the system should prompt the user that the username
or the password is wrong.
3. Also a specialized user known as administrator should also login where he can pass in his
details to get logged in to the system if the username and password matches and, logged
in administrator should have the right to manage users; change his password, manage
price; generate monthly report; manage system and logout to the system.
4. In addition it should be created according to the access levels and some security
parameters should be endorse to prevent unregistered users from modifying the details of
other users.
3.3 ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM.
The analysis of the current system at the Bagudo Local Government Water Board, of Kebbi
State was conducted by document sapling and interviewing the users of the existing system
(Billing Officer, Cashiers and Consumers) for clearer understanding of the current system. All
the steps currently for registering of consumers, billing of consumers, distribution of bills,
collection of monthly charges and generation of monthly report is completely manual and offline
system.
The problems of the current system are: There is no efficient means of registering and
managing of consumer information. Also distribution of bills to consumers is another problem
because the consumers may not receive their bills in time or even not received at all or it can be
delayed by the bill officials. In the current manual system consumers can only pay their monthly
charges at specific bank or the water board hence causing long queue every month and time
36
consuming. Another problem of the manual system is that some cashier use fake receipt to
collect monthly charges from consumers hence causing great lost to the organization.
3.3.1 ANALYSIS OF THE INPUT
The input requirements include information that must be presented to the system by the user
to enable it performs its operations properly. The input requirements for the current system
include:
1. Name of the Consumer(s).
2. Address of the Consumer(s).
3. Email Address of the Consumer(s).
4. Phone Number of the Consumer(s).
5. Ledger number (used to identify every Consumer).
6. Meter Reading(s)
3.3.2 ANALYSIS OF THE OUTPUT
Output is what the system gives back to you or the result of your process when the right
inputs are in place. The output of the current system is through the Registration and billing of
consumer monthly as well as distribution of those bills. Other output includes payment of the
monthly charges and monthly report generation.
3.3.3 ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM PROCEDURE
37
Procedures are concerned with the processes or steps taken while working with the system to
obtain maximum benefit. In the current system, all the processes of registering consumers,
billing, distribution of bills, and payment of monthly charges are done following the below
procedures:
1. Registering of consumers on ledger cards.
2. Recording of monthly meter readings.
3. Billing of consumer(s) using the meter reading (i.e. Current reading Minus Previous
reading multiplied by price per liter).
4. Distribution of consumer monthly bills from one residence to another.
5. Payment of consumer monthly charges and collection of receipt.
6. Writing of monthly report to find out the number of consumers that pay their bills and
those that did not as well as amount generated for that month.
The above procedures are followed to ensure successful management, billing, distribution and
payments of monthly bills.
3.4 FILES MAINTAINED
The files maintained takes care of records that requires some information about the consumers
and bills which include consumer name, address, meter reading, monthly charges and phone
number etc. on Ledger cards. The essence of file maintenance is to enable easy retrieval of
information when needed. In the current system, all bills generated in a particular month are
recorded on ledger card which has ledger number for easy identification.
3.5 WEB-DESIGN METHODOLOGY
38
The new system to be developed for this research project is a web-based system.
Achebe (2002) stated that there are five phases in web-based design methodology which are:
1. Mission Statement
2. Audience Modeling
3. Conceptual Modeling
4. Implementation design
5. Actual Implementation
3.5.1 MISSION STATEMENT
The Mission statement also known as the “Mission Statement specification” is the first phase
in web-based design methodology. It attempts to provide answer to the questions; what is the
purpose of the web application, what is its subject and who are the target audience? Once the
above questions are answered, it implies the mission statement phase is completed.
3.5.2 AUDIENCE MODELING
This phase comprises of two sub-phases which are audience classification and audience
characterization; At Audience classification, Audience classes are identified by considering only
the activities of the organization related to the purpose of the project and identifying the people
involved; these people can now be grouped into audience classes by looking at those information
and functional requirements that are similar to them. Lastly, at the Audience characterization, the
characteristics of the various audience classes are given. The audience in this project work are
billing officer (admin), Cashier and Consumer where each of them has his characteristics such as
39
management of the overall system for billing officer, billing of consumers for cashier and
payment of monthly charges for consumer.
3.5.3 CONCEPTUAL MODELING
This is also known as the conceptual design phase. It consist of three parts that can be
performed simultaneously; Information modeling, functional modeling and navigational design.
Information modeling is mainly intended for data intensive web sites; it deals with the
“conceptual what” i.e. the type of information and how it is structured. Functional modeling
consists of the interaction between the users and the system. For the purpose of the interaction,
the functional requirements are listed according to the various audience classes based on how
they are related to the system. Lastly, Navigational Design addresses how to navigate through
the information. Each audience class is considered and the various information components
external that are related to it are considered. The integration of Information, functional modeling
and navigational model is known as Conceptual Modeling.
3.5.4 IMPLEMENTATION DESIGN PHASE
The Implementation Design Phase is a three-phase model that comprises Page structure
design, Presentation design and Logical Database design. Page structure design entails
packaging information in form of chunks in the right proportions. Presentation Design deals
with the ‘look and feel’ of the web site. And may constitute a lot of literature, Lastly, Logical
Database Design is the design of the underlying database that may be used to maintain the data
in case of data intensive web applications. The output of the implementation design is an
implementation model.
40
3.5.5 IMPLEMENTATION PHASE
The implementation phase is concerned with realizing the web applications by using the
design made in the previous phases.
This project research is going to use the above methodology for the design of the online
system for Bagudo Local Government Water Board. The diagram in figure 3.1 shows all the
phases discussed in the methodology above.
Figure 3.1: Web-based design method phase
41
3.6 EXPECTATIONS OF THE NEW SYSTEM
Retrieving and Sending Bills electronically tend to overcome all these weakness present in the
current manual system of Bagudo Local Government Water Board.
This could be seen in terms of:
1. Speed
2. Cost reduction
3. Accuracy
4. Provision of Information from databank.
Billing using an automated system means that all information management, Billing and
payment processes will be done online, which will make it faster instead of the present manual
system.
Accuracy refers to the state of being exact. This is the ability to calculate and retrieve
particular monthly bill and consumer information that is needed by either a consumer or cashier
without mistakes. For instance it is possible to search for bill history of a particular consumer,
but retrieving it manually will be time consuming.
All information saved on an online system are stored in a database, therefore it will be kept
for as long as it is needed.
Time sharing is also another advantage of an online system for managing and searching of
document. In a network environment, more than one person could read the information about a
particular consumer or bill at the same time but it varies in current manual system.
The aim of any information system is to improve the efficiency of already existing system
irrespective of the system type (i.e. manual or automated). This efficiency can be achieved by
proper planning. SMS Based Water Billing system may be complex to design and program
42
because it is like training a computer to behave like human being, so the process of designing an
SMS based Water Billing System is a complex task that requires its own expertise.
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
4.1 INTRODUCTION:
System design and implementation are the most crucial phase in the development of any
system, based on the user demands and the detail analysis of the existing system, the new system
need to be designed using the two stages involved that is preliminary or general design and
structure or detail design therefore, in designing any system, it is necessary to guarantee that the
end product will display neither functional nor performance failure. (Přibyl, 2011).
It is then necessary to predict the performance of systems when they are under design
and development, as well as to predict the impact of changes in configurations of existing
systems, as such before actually implementing the system designed into operations, a test plan
should be developed and run on a giving set of test data where the output of the test should
match the expected output after the test and having the user acceptance of the new system
developed, the implementation phase begins; during this phase new system will be turned in to
practice.
43
4.2 SYSTEM DESIGN
System design is the most important phase in the development of any information system,
system design is undertaken based on the user demands and the analysis of the new system, in
this phase the design proceeds into two stages, the preliminary or general design and structural or
detail design.
In preliminary design, the features of the new system are specified, cost of implementing
these features and benefit to be derived are estimated while Structural design is a blue print of a
computer system solution to the problem, in structural design the database where input, output
and processing take place are drawn up in detail. (Přibyl, 2011). The whole system was also
designed using flowchart in order to indicate how data flow within the system.
4.3 DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED SYSTEM
The proposed system is the “design and implementation of an SMS based water billing
system” with web based frontend and script based database backend. It allows consumers to
register to the system which authorized a consumer to login using the username and password
specified during registration, where user can view and pay his monthly bill. It provide a
password reset module where users reset their password when necessary using their email and
mobile number used during registration. There is an administration section where the
administrator can login and make some modifications on stored data such as manage cashier,
manage consumer, set price; generate monthly report (paid or unpaid bills), change his password,
view feedbacks and logout. Another section is cashier login where the cashier login and bill
consumers. In the backend, the system stores all the records entered for future references. The
44
web based frontend consists of interpreted web pages that allow user accessibility to the
documents on the web. These documents are linked to each other using CSS by providing well
leveled links which direct the user to the appropriate web page when clicked.
4.3.1 STEPS OF DESIGN PROCESS
1. Logical design
In the logical design, the inputs, outputs (result), Databases (data stores), procedures
(Data Flow) and boundaries of the system are described, which needs the user requirement. It
specifies the user need at a level of detail that virtually determines the information flow in
and out of the system along with the required data resources.
2. Physical design (Database design)
This process is concerned with the design of the physical database. A key is to
determine how the access paths are to be implemented. A physical path is derived from the
logical path. The relationships existing among the entities like one-to-one, one-to-many,
many-to-many are considered while designing the database. Relational structured database is
used in this system.
3. Program Design
In conjunction with database design is a decision on the programming language to be
used and choice of coding. In this design, PHP is used as server side script while JavaScript
45
and HTML are used as client side script, which are supported by most browsers such as
Internet Explorer 5, safari, Mozilla Firefox, Google chrome, and opera etc.
4. E-R (Entity Relationship) Model
An entity relationship (ER) diagram is a database model that describes the attributes of
entities and the relationships among them. An entity-relationship (ER) diagram is a specialized
graphic that illustrates the interrelationships between entities in a database (Nembhard, 2013). To
avoid insertion, updating, or deletion anomalies, entity relationship diagrams must be normalized
(Peck, 2003). Hence, the database of this system is normalized to third normal form by
eliminating fields that do not depend on the primary key.
46
Figure 4.1 Entity relation diagram
The above diagram shows the database design for the SMS based water billing system.
47
1. Conceptual Class Diagram
A Class diagram is a visual representation of an application showing its classes and the
relationships between those classes. It is used to describe the static structure of the elements in
the application. The classes are arranged in hierarchies that share common structure and behavior
and are associated with other classes. It is a diagram that shows interactions organized around
instances and their links to each other.
Figure 4.2 Conceptual class diagram
48
The above diagram shows the object model and the interaction between them and the
sequence in which the information flow within the system.
4.3.2 SYSTEM FLOW DESIGN
Sequential diagram employed in this design is flowchart in order to show the stepwise
procedures used in performing a task within the application. A flowchart consists of special
geometric symbols connected by arrows. Within each symbol is a phrase representing the
activity at that step. The shape of the symbol indicates the type of operation that is to occur. For
instance, the parallelogram denotes input or output. The arrows connecting the symbols, called
flow lines, show the progression in which the steps take place. Flowcharts should “flow” from
the top of the page to the bottom. Although the symbols used in flowcharts are standardized, no
standards exist for the amount of detail required within each symbol.
The main advantage of using a flowchart to plan a task is that it provides a pictorial
representation of the task, which makes the logic easier to follow. The steps and how each step is
connected to the next are showed.
This project consists of three sections administrator part, cashier part and consumer’s
section, the way data will flow in each part will be shown in the subsequent flowcharts.
49
Figure 4.3 Flow-chart show Admin login
The admin login by providing his username and password in which if valid can have access to
the system where he/she can manage the whole system.
50
Figure 4.4 Flow-chart show Cashier login
The cashier login by providing his username and password in which if valid can have access to
the system where he/she can bill consumers.
51
Figure 4.5 Flow-chart for Consumer Registration and Payment
The Admin, Cashier or Consumer will start his module by entering the address of the site in
the address bar of the browser, by writing “http://localhost/bagudo_water_bill/” without the
double quot. Clicking at “Create a new account”. The link in the system will prompt the
consumer with a registration form for him/her to fill in order to get registered with the system,
52
and access the component of the system made for him, which is viewing and payment of his
monthly bill online. Then after will logout.
4.3.3 DATA FLOW DIAGRAM
Much in Object Oriented development, data flow diagrams were essential parts of pre-
Object oriented software development. Data flow diagrams (DFDs) still have an important role
in the specification of many systems. The importance of data flow diagrams is in specifying what
data is available to a component. Knowing the data available often helps in the understanding of
what a component is expected to do and how it will accomplish the task.
Figure 4.6 Data flow diagram.
The above diagram show how data flows within the system.
53
4.3.4 USE CASE
Use Case is a formal way to capture and to express the interaction and dialogue between
system users (actors) and the system itself. The Use Case diagram creates tracks of various
functions and those who interact with the functions within a theoretical application. This will
help to show the key concepts, their properties and their relationships as classes, attributes and
associations respectively (Bennett Simon et al, 2006).
With the use case model, the key actors in the domain can be easily identified such as admin,
cashier and consumer whom are related to the system. A Use Case diagram is useful for
describing requirements of a system in the analysis, design, implementation and documentation
stages. The below diagram show the Use Case of this project work. The administrator is the only
user that performs the administrative job, starting from Adding cashier, manage cashier, manage
consumer, set price, view feedback and monthly report generation. The cashier bill consumer and
the consumer can register with the system, view and pay monthly charges as show in the use case
diagram below.
54
Figure 4.7 Use case Diagram
The diagram above show the use case model of the system and the activities carry by each
actor in the system.
55
Actor Description
System Administrator The system administrator adds cashier, set price, bills consumer, view
feedback and generate monthly report (Paid and Unpaid bills).
Cashier The Cashier is expected to bill consumers (system send the bill to the
consumer’s mobile phone every month).
Consumer The Consumer is expect to update his password, receive his monthly
charges via mobile phone, view and Pay his monthly bill.
Table 4.1 use case description
4.3.5 DATABASE DESIGN
The database is the core of any information system. The nature of data stored in the
database as well as the organization of the data has wide effect on the performance of the system.
A good database design should hold all the data, which may be required by the users of the
system, but at the same time, avoid any harmful or unnecessary redundancy. The database should
also be flexible so that any future change in requirements can be incorporated with minimum
changes.
The data in this system is organized in the form of 2-Dimension relational tables.
Organization of data into tables allows easy categorization, retrieval and storage of data.
Different tables have been created for different type of information. The rules of normalization
have also been applied while designing the tables.
56
Since the system requirement some manipulation of data, some of the tables used are almost
static in nature and are already available with the standard data for the selection of the parameter
values. Other tables are used with bi-directional role of data i.e. for both input and output.
During database design six (6) tables were designed among which is:
Name Type Status
Uid Int(11) not null
Username varchar(30) not null
Email varchar(150) not null
Password varchar(200) not null
access_level varchar(1) not null
Table 4.2: User table
Name Type Status
Id int(11) not null
Uid int(11) not null
Fname varchar(50) not null
Lname varchar(50) not null
Dob varchar(100) not null
57
phone_number varchar(11) not null
Table 4.3: Cashiers_bio table
Name Type Status
Id int(11) not null
Uid int(11) not null
Fname varchar(30) not null
Lname varchar(30) not null
phone_number varchar(11) not null
Dob varchar(15) not null
Address varchar(200) not null
Table 4.4: Consumers_table
Name Type Status
Bid int(5) unsigned zerofill not null
Id int(10) not null
Reading varchar(20) not null
Period varchar(20) not null
Status int(11) not null
58
bill_timestamp int(19) not null
default_msg_stat int(11) not null
Table 4.5: Bill_table
Name Type Status
price_id int(11) not null
price_value float(6,2) not null
Table 4.6: Price_table
Name Type Status
Id int(11) not null
Fname varchar(30) not null
Lname varchar(30) not null
Phone_number varchar(11) not null
Email varchar(100) not null
Address varchar(200) not null
Comments varchar(200) not null
Table 4.7: Feed_Back table
59
4.4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation phase is the main phase where the new system must be carefully
implemented in order to ascertain its functionality; it is a phase during which the theory is turned
into practice. During this phase, all the programs of the system are loaded onto the user’s
computer. In this project all the steps indicated were designed practically .
4.4.1 LOGIN PAGE
Figure 4.8
This provides an interface through which both existing and new consumers can login and
register respectively. What was required using Mozilla Firefox as the browser or any other
browser, which is available in Microsoft windows operating system. The web directory is log on
to by typing http://localhost/bagudo_water_bill/index.php in the address bar and click go on the
menu bar or press enter on the keyboard. On connecting successfully to the host server the
60
“Home page” is loaded first on the browser. All other pages can be viewed when user login
successfully by clicking their respective links.
The registered consumers can login with their login detail and have access to the system
while unregistered consumers can register by click “Create a new account” after which the
registration form is displayed to the consumer to submit the registration details.
4.4.2 REGISTRATION PAGE
Figure 4.9
After filling the form the user will click on the submit button to register where the system
will automatically send an email to his email address containing his/her login details or click on
home button at the top to cancel the registration and go back to the login page.
61
4.4.3 CONSUMER HOME PAGE
Figure 4.10
The figure above is the initial page of the consumer interface after complete registration and
login. It is there the consumer will decide to edit his account, view or pay his monthly bill using
his ATM Card.
4.4.4 PASSWORD RESETING PAGE
Figure 4.11
62
This is where the registered users whom forget their password can reset their passwords by
providing the phone number and email address they used during registration, if they are correct
the system will send an SMS to the user which contains reset code that he/she will use to login to
the system.
4.4.5 FEEDBACK PAGE
Figure 4.12
Above is also an interface were registered or not registered consumer and other people can
send their suggestion, complains or comments.
4.4.6 CASHIERS PAGE
63
Figure 4.13
The cashier as a special type of user who can only be added or deleted by the system
admin, login to the system by passing in his username and password, necessary authentications
are carried out to ensure that the username and password matches, if it matches then the login
was successful and allow the cashier to bill consumer and the system will automatically send the
bill details to the consumer via SMS else the page will prompt an error message to notify the
cashier that the user name and password are not correct.
4.4.7 ADMINISTRATOR CONTROL PANEL
The administrator as a special type of user, login to the system by passing in his
username and password, necessary authentications are carried out to ensure that the username
and password matches, if it matches then the login was successful else the page will prompt an
error message to notify the administrator that the user name and password are not correct, an
administrator should try re-login.
64
Figure 4.12
If the login was successful the above page will be displayed with different function for the
administrator to perform.
4.5 SYSTEM TESTING
System testing is the process used to help identify the correctness, completeness, security and
quality of developed computer software. With that in mind, testing can by no means totally
establish the correctness of arbitrary computer software. In computability theory, a field of
computer science, a well-designed mathematical proof concludes that it is not possible to solve
the halting problem, the issues of whether an arbitrary computer program will enter an infinite
loop, or halt and produce output. In other words, testing is disapproval or comparison, which is
comparing the actual value with an expected one.
65
4.5.1 Testing Method
One of the strategies used to develop a successful system is to fulfill the system requirement
specification and ensure the system is bug free. In order to ensure the system is developed under
requirement specification and error free, the author has designed an appropriate test method to
test the system.
System testing is to examine the system performance, especially in the system function
process.
Such as the system input (data) and output (information), this process is to ensure the input are
validated and output are matched with the expected output.
In order to overcome the problem and verify the system, the author has studied various type of
testing method. To have an efficient test on the system, more than one testing method are used to
test the system or a combination of more than one test method.
4.5.2 Test Plan
A test plan has been designed by the author in order to test the system properly. There are
three main categories to be tested, which are the Consumer site, Cashier site and the
Administration site. The author used unit testing, integrated testing and system testing to test the
system.
Unit testing is the first tested on the proposed system. It focuses on each unit of the system
and checks for the source code of the particular unit and checks whether it is operated according
to the requirement. Next, Integrated testing which basically concentrates on the testing of the
combined parts of the system and checks whether all the parts combined together, would work
66
properly. Lastly, system testing used to test the overall proposed system with all the subsystem
integrated together into a working system.
4.5.3 Types of Testing
There are lots of testing available, such as unit testing, integration testing, system testing,
black box testing, white box testing, acceptance testing, stress testing, alpha testing, beta testing
and so on. These entire testing types have their own area of applicability. Normally, the testing is
used by the developer to test for the performances, functionality, and reliability of the system. It
will always be easy to find out the error in small area and fix it before going to the large area.
1. Unit Testing: Unit testing involves single isolated module. Ideally, a programmer unit
tests each module before trying to integrate that module with other. Testing low-level
modules requires drivers to provide input and output while testing-high level module
requires subs for missing lower-level modules. The entire purpose of unit testing is to
reduce the effort of integration testing. Although the programmer might not unit test all
modules, but they must plan a module test for each module. The plan is simply what data
to provide to the module and what result to expect. This type of testing is sometimes
called black box testing
2. Integration Testing: The integration test combines all the modules together and is
tested. First the programmer would add one or two other subordinates from the same
level. Once the program has been tested with the co-ordination module and all of it
immediate subordinate modules, the analyst would add modules from the next level and
then test the program. This procedure would be repeated until all the modules have been
tested.
67
3. System Testing: System testing are designed to verify if the finished system meets its
requirement. There are three kinds of system testing. Alpha testing is a system testing
performed within the development organization. Beta testing is the system testing
performed by a selected group of volunteers. Acceptance testing is system testing
performed by user to determine whether to accept the delivery of the system.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION
68
This is the final chapter of this project and will briefly summarized the whole that was
written right from chapter one to chapter five taking into consideration the most important points
and concluded by stating what was achieved, there by recommending what needs to be achieved
in the future.
5.1 SUMMARY
The system for SMS Based Water Billing system (A case study of Bagudo Local
Government Water Board) has been successfully designed. This project research work consists
of five chapters which will be summarized below:
In chapter one, background of the study, statement of the problem, aims and objectives,
significance of the study, scope and limitations of the study and definition of some terms were
discussed.
In chapter two, relevant literatures were discussed; definition of bills, type of bills,
classifications of bills, online (electronic bills), features of online bills, advantages of online
bills, disadvantages of online bills, review of some existing billing systems and software tools
that were used in the development of the system such as HTML, PHP, JavaScript, MySQL etc.
In chapter three, analysis was carried out in terms of; analysis of the current manual
system, analysis of the input, analysis of the output, analysis of the existing system procedure,
files maintained, web-design methodology and the expectations of the new system were
discussed.
In chapter four, a detailed explanation of the proposed system was given in a general term
which include; new input requirements, new system procedure, new output requirements, new
69
files maintained, new system requirement (both hardware and software), use case modeling,
database design(modeling), system implementation which include all user interface
implementations and testing were all discussed.
Finally, chapter five gives us a brief summary of all the previous chapters. Also in this
chapter, all necessary documents used in the course of carrying out this research work will be
well referenced in the reference list. The chapter will also contain conclusion, recommendation
and suggestions for further research. Some part of the program code used for the implementation
of the system will be specified.
5.2 CONCLUSION
In every organization there must be a method set up to perform transactions between the
organization and their customers, such methods must encounter some limitations and restriction
70
which may hindered the performance, and reliability of the method used to some certain
standard.
The application designed was meant to aid the administrator, cashier and consumer to
carry out their respective functions effectively and also to carter for the problems of the existing
system, the application designed was successfully validated in terms of its performance and
functionality and it was proved to be reliable, consistent, ease the means of sending of bills,
payment of bills using ATM cards and most of all monthly report generation (Paid and Unpaid
bills).
5.3 RECOMMENDATION
After undergoing a critical analysis of the existing system and compared it with the
application designed, it is recommended for the Bagudo Local Government Water Board to
71
deploy the system as a means of managing and sending of bills to their consumers, since the
execution and implementation of this application was implemented and tested in an online
environment.
5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The system at its current state can be implemented and will function effectively. But for the
sake of other interested students that will like to extend this project in the near future, I have the
below suggestions for them:
1. The result shows that billing method used by this system is not sufficient therefore I will
suggest and improvement in the method of billing such as Unmetered billing for
consumers with no meter.
2. Also payments option used by this system is not sufficient therefore I will suggest and
improvement in the payment options (the system should offer various payment options
for consumer). For example by breaking down your bill into affordable amounts (part
payment).
3. Also third party deduction schemes (also called ‘Water Direct’) should be added,
meaning that if you are working with a particular organization or government it may be
possible for payments to be made directly to the water board from your benefits.
4. A mobile version (application) for the system that can run on Windows, androids and
Black-berry mobile phones since the world is now moving to a mobile world.
72
5. Finally, I will suggest an interested student that wants to continue with this project to see
the possibility of integrating the system with the consumer’s meter so that the system can
be able to get the meter reading from the meters, without officials going to residence to
take meter reading.
REFERENCES
Achebe. I. D. (2002): Comparative Studies on Web Design Methodologies: [online] Accessed
from: http://www.dsic.upv.es/~west2001/iwwost01/. Retrieved on 3rd March, 2014
73
ClickSUMO (2011) SMS is still king article by clickSUMO. Available at
http://www.clicksumo.com/sms-is-still-king/
Check Free Research Services. (August 2007). Consumer Billing and Payment Trends 2002-
2007; the Volume of Electronic Bill Payments Exceeds Check Bill Payments for the First
Time.
Chris Wease (Feb 27, 2013). Billing and Collection System. Seminar Presentation Lead by
TWI.Chris Wease, National Sales. Trends in Billing & Payment Technology Sponsor:
NCAWWA.
Department Audit Commission Hong Kong (25 March 2008). Customer Care and Billing
System of the Water Supplies Report No. 50, available on the website at
http://www.aud.gov.hk.
David R. Brooks (2007), Guide to HTML, JavaScript and PHP For Scientists and Engineers,
doc. Ing. Ondřej Přibyl, (2011). System Analysis and Design of ITS, Available at
http://zolotarev.fd.cvut.cz/sni/. Retrieved 2014-07-2.
Electronic bill presentment and payment (In English). Available at
http://www.webopedia.com/term/e/. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
74
Hatem Mostapa, (2012) Introduction to billing, Available at
https://workspaces.codeproject.com/hatem-mostafa/billing-system-introduction/article/#types
Heather Kelly (December, 3, 2012) The Text Message Turns 20, Available at
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/03/tech/mobile/sms-text-message-20/
Monahan, M., Van Dyke., J. (February 2007). Electronic Bill Presentment: Product and
Marketing Strategies to Drive Adoption. Javelin Strategy & Research.
Mora Sergio Lujan (2010), Cookies Uso en JavaScript.
National Institute of Open Schooling, (2014). Phases of System Development Life Cycle.
Available at http://oer.nios.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Phases_of_System_Development_Life_Cycle
. Retrieved 2014-07-2.
Post-consumer waste paper (December 2013) ISBN 1-904655-73-4 Printed on 75% minimum
de-inked Available at http://www.ofwat.gov.uk. Retrieved 2014-07-2.
(nd) SMS types available at http://www.routomessaging.com
Tim Converse and Joyce Park (2012), PHP5 and MySQL Bible. 4th Edition
Vaswani, V (2008), PHP: A Beginners’ Guide, McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
75
Verfassungsschutz verschickten und Zoll, BKA (2010) über 440.000 "stille SMS" | heise
online". Available at http://heise.de/newsticker/meldung/
Webster's College Dictionary, (2010) Definition of Billing, K Dictionaries Ltd, by Random
House,
top related