Research and Design of Online Auction System Based on the Campus

Network Using UML

Chuancheng Ren
Department of Computer Science and Technology, Dezhou University, Dezhou, China
E-mail:[email protected]

Abstract individuals with a place to converse, exchange and

interact with other people [2]. Nowadays, the online
As campus network and shopping online have auction system especially develops rapidly and most
grown up, the development of online auction system students depend on it day by day. The reasons why
becomes integrity. The online auction system based on students like to use the online auction system more
the campus network provides a trading platform for than traditional auction are discussed in [3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
university students, and does not deal with the trading Up to now, the campus network is also dedicated to
process. So the online auction system must increase its play the role of auctioneer to supply a platform for
quality of service to attract students. In this paper, we trading among buyers and sellers. This auctioneer
present a scheme for the online auction system using attempts to attract many potential students to
the unified modeling language (UML) technique. We participate in the online auction system.
adopt the two steps to design the scheme, and the In this paper, we propose to use the UML technique
design scheme of the system is made up of use case to analyze and design the online auction system based
diagrams, activity diagrams, class diagrams, sequence on the campus network. This paper is organized as
diagrams, deployment diagrams. In addition, the follows. In the following section we expound the
scheme can provide certain reference values for overview of the online auction system. This is
constructing the campus electronic commerce and followed with a section introducing the analytical
realizing the digital campus. method of this system, including the characteristics of
object oriented analysis and design, the advantage of
1. Introduction UML, the overall process of the system using UML
technique. Next, we present the design scheme of this
It is an important construction content of digital system in detail, mainly including use case diagrams,
campus to build and manage campus network in the activity diagrams, class diagrams, sequence diagrams
newly-built local undergraduate university of China at and component diagrams [8]. And, finally, conclusions
present. The scale, network performance, application are presented.
level and universal degree of campus network have
already become one of the important marks that 2. Overview of the system
measure the factors of the digital campus. The campus
network is an interconnected system that mainly bases The online auction system based on the campus
on network servers, computers, network equipments network is a platform for exchange the goods
and network software. The campus network not only information among students in the local undergraduate
offers a network platform for information exchange university. Particularly, it offers the trade platform to
and resource sharing [1], but also provides a necessary buyers and sellers together with the campus network.
condition for the electronic commerce application in The buyers like to do the trading on the online auction
the campus. So, there is a hardware and software system, because the system brings out the advantages,
environment for design and application of a new online for example, on the one hand the system employs
auction system based on the campus network. computer technology to accelerate results of bidding
The online auction system based on the campus activities in force and economize human resources, on
network is a type of customers to customer (C2C) this side, it does not restrict the number of students
business model that facilitates interaction among who want to participate in; on the other hand the
university students. C2C business model provides system offers a large amount of goods information, and
makes students firmly believe that they can buy the Step 1: recognize and ensure use cases and actors of
cheap goods through the online auction system [9]. the online auction system. Firstly, we carry out the
The system mainly includes the functions that are requirement survey to the original system, and then
divided into user management, goods management, recognize use cases and actors of the system; secondly,
auction management, inquiry management, etc. The we analyze the relationship among the actors and use
details are as followed: cases as well as the relationship between the use case
• User management: System users are divided and actors; finally we describe the system’s function
into registered users and anonymous users. Different models with the use case diagram.
users have different systematic authorities. The Step 2: build the static model and dynamic model of
registered users participate in bidding, release goods the online auction system. Adopting the use case as the
information and so on, but the anonymous users only driving, we use the activity diagram to indicate the
browse the goods message. workflow of the specific use case internal and among
• Goods management: The registered users such the use cases, next, we abstract various kinds objects
as the sellers can upload their goods information to the and their attributes and operations from the function
system. Once the information is uploaded successfully, models, and draw the relationship among various sorts
the goods enter the state of auction business. The of classes by the way of using class diagram; finally
system reads automatically the goods information from we describe the conduct characteristics expressed by
the database, and displays it on the web page that can
the use case of those classes in the given circumstances
be browsed by users.
with sequence diagram and describe the system
• Auction management: The registered users
component model with component diagram.
browse the goods information, and the registered users
such as the bidders bid for the goods that they are
interested in. If it is successful to auction, the seller’s 4. The online auction system model
contact information is displayed to the bidder.
• Inquiry management: The users can search for 4.1. Use case diagram of the system
the goods according to the classification of the goods in
the system. A use case diagram is a type of behavioral diagram
defined by the UML and created from a Use-case
3. Summary of the UML modeling analysis. Its purpose is to present a graphical overview
of the functionality provided by a system in terms of
Currently we often develop the management actors, use cases, and any dependencies between those
information system mainly using object-oriented use cases [13]. This system mainly includes the actors
analysis and design method. As UML is a mature such as the system administrator, the registered users
object-oriented modeling language that includes a and the anonymous users. The system administrator is
graphical notation used to create an abstract model of a a network administrator of the university. The
system, it has been widely used in the analysis and administrator is not only responsible for identifying
design of the information system [8, 10, 11, 12]. The and authenticating the bidders, but also for issuing the
UML can define behavior diagrams that include the bidding rights and maintaining the bidding order
use case diagram and activity diagrams, structure during the auction. The anonymous users are not login
diagrams that include the class diagram and component users. They only browse the goods information. The
diagram, and interaction diagrams that include the registered users who are enrolled students are divided
sequence diagram. So we select the online auction into the buyers and the sellers. The buyers can search
system based on the campus network as main research for the needed goods, and participate in online auction
object, and introduce the process of applying the UML and comment on the online goods. The sellers can
technology to describe the functions and business accomplish operation procedure as following: they can
process of the system in detail. release and revise the goods information; secondly
We describe all kinds of objects with graphical they choose the types of auction; finally they configure
symbols using the UML technology in the online the type of payment and the term of delivery.
auction system, and the UML technology is applied to The use cases of the online auction system mainly
the overall process of the system requirement include register case, add goods case, comment case,
description, system summary design and detail design. search case, auction case, transact case, settle case, etc.
The UML modeling process of the system adopts the • Register case: a user becomes a registered user
use case as the driving and uses iteration. The detailed after registering; the registered user can perfect the
steps as follows: personal information such as photos, sex, ID card
number, telephone number, E-mail, address, etc. After
setting up a table of the registered user information, the Post-conditions: if carrying out this use case, the
table can provide basic data for the auction in the later. bidders can comment on the transaction.
• Add goods case: The sellers can add the goods
information that includes the name, price, descriptions 4.2. Activity diagram of the system
and so on.
• Comment case: This case finishes commenting Although the use case diagram describes all kinds
the trust of the sellers. of functions offered by the system, the workflow could
• Search case: The buyers hope to inquire about be described with characters in each use case. It is hard
the goods that they are interested in. This case offers the to read them under the condition of the workflow
functions, for instance, searching for the goods having the complicated logical control, while the UML
according to the classification or name.
provides the activity diagram to describe the use case
internal work process or the interaction process among
the use cases [12, 14]. An activity diagram could
intuitively and clearly illustrate what kinds of
continued activity are needed to accomplish the
function requirement that the use case expressed.

Figure 1. The use case diagram.

Figure 1 is the use case diagram of the online

auction system. This use case diagram mainly
describes the functions of the online auction system. Figure 2. The auction activity diagram.
We introduce the “auction case” specification
document that should cover the following areas: Figure 2 depicts an activity diagram for the auction
Actors: the registered user(the bidder, the seller)。 use case. The control nodes at the beginning and end of
Type: primary, fundamental. the flow in Figure 2 are initial and final nodes
Pre-conditions: The bidders must be registered respectively. When the auction activity is invoked, the
users. The activity of auction must be within the control token flows from the initial node to the login
certain range of time that each type of auction has its action. The bidders flow from the system to the
specific time required for preparing and conducting the invocation action for the goods information, which
auction. must wait for the sellers to provide the goods
Basic Flow: The system displays the types of information. When the goods information is retrieved,
auction; the bidders choose one type of auction; the the bidders can choose the types of auction (English
system retrieves all the goods information to satisfy auction, Dutch auction, Sealed first-price auction [15])
this type of auction; the bidders choose the goods, and begin to call out a bid. For instance, when the
participate in auctioning and bidding price; when the bidders select the type of English auction, one of them
auction is over, the system would notify the successful may announce price, other bidders may call out their
bidder about the bid information. bids themselves (or have a proxy call out a bid on their
behalf), or bids may be submitted electronically with
the highest current bid publicly displayed. The auction the system was executed. We combine the system flow
is over when no participant is willing to bid further, at defined by the use cases and the classes involved in the
which point the highest bidders pay their bid [5]. When use cases together to express the different flows in the
the auction is over, a control is passed to the final node online auction system. As an example, we introduce
and the activity terminates. the auction flow using a sequence diagram. Figure 4
presents a portion of the basic auction flow for the
4.3. Class diagram of the system auction use case, and it shows how objects interact
during the auction situation. The boxes across the top
A class diagram describes the types of objects in the of the diagram represent classifiers or their instances,
system and the various kinds of static relationships that such as the bidder, the login screen, searching the
exist among them [8]. It describes all kinds of the goods screen, auction screen, and transaction screen.
classes in the system and the relationship model of The sequences of step that are carried out in the
association, generalization and aggregation etc. In the auction flow are:
process of system analysis, class diagram not only • A bidder who is a registered user invokes the
helps the analysts understand the relationship among login functionality.
the system function objects further, but also enables • The login functionality of the system invokes
them make communication with users with the terms the searching the goods functionality.
used in domain. Generally, a system includes a certain • After the goods information is given, the
amount of class diagrams, and a class could be added auction functionality of the bidder call out a bid.
into other class diagrams. In the online auction system, • Finally, the bidder invokes the transaction
we mainly divide the classes into common class, screen to display the seller’s contact information.
interface class, control class and entity class. Figure 3
shows the entities of the online auction system, such as
administrator, user, goods information, goods, etc.

Figure 4. The auction sequence diagram.

Figure 3. The entity class diagram.

Figure 5. The deployment diagram.

4.4. Sequence diagram of the system

4.5. Deployment diagram of the system
A sequence diagram is one of the UML dynamic
models, and it underlines the time priority of the A deployment diagram depicts the deployable units
information sending among objects, and describes the of the system, that is, applications, components, data
interaction scene among the objects at some time that stores, processes, and devices that make up the system.
Figure 5 displays a deployment diagram for the online
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