BookNest – Console Library Management System (C++17)

BookNest is a text-based library management system that combines learning objectives from OOP, binary persistence, dates/deadlines, search, reporting, CSV import, and simple role management (Admin/Staff).

Demo

Run it yourself in seconds — no build required:

docker run -it --rm ghcr.io/domisko/booknest:latest

Default login: admin / admin

Features

• Media Model: Book with author list, publisher, edition, location, genre, price, MediaType, maxLoanPeriodDays, createdAt, createdBy/lastModifiedBy.
• Physical Copies: Unique inventoryID per copy; multiple copies per ISBN are possible.
• Members (Borrower): Name, Email, Address, registrationDate, status (Active/Blocked).
• History: Loan stores loan, due date, and return – including performedBy (the employee who performed the action).
• Employee Management: Roles Admin/Staff, login/logout, create/deactivate/reactivate, reset password (demo hash).
• Search: Books (Title/ISBN/Author) and members (ID/Email/Name) – both with paginated output (increments of 10, "m/+" for more).
• Reporting: Daily report (loans/returns, sorted, including totals per MediaType), due report.
• CSV Import: Books and members via import/books.csv or import/members.csv.
• Persistence & Autosave: Binary file library.bin (Version 5). Data is automatically saved after every mutating action.
• UI: Pure console menu with "pinned" screen (clear screen between actions).
• Benchmark Mode: Optional UI timer that shows the duration after actions (in ms). Toggleable in the "Settings" menu.

Build & Tests (CLion / CMake)

• Profile: Debug (local toolchain). Targets: BookNest (App), unit_tests (Catch2-based tests).
• Build & Tests (Example):

  cmake --build cmake-build-debug --target unit_tests && ./cmake-build-debug/unit_tests

• Run the App:

  cmake --build cmake-build-debug --target BookNest && ./cmake-build-debug/BookNest

Getting Started

1. Start the App → Login: Default admin admin/admin.
2. Optional: Create further accounts under "Employee (Admin)".
3. Import: As admin, select [5] Import (Admin) in the main menu and import books.csv/members.csv from import/.
4. Then try out search/loan/return/reports.

Menu Overview (Simplified)

• Main Menu:

  • [1] Books
  • [2] Members
  • [3] Reports
  • [4] Employee (Admin)
  • [5] Import (Admin)
  • [0] Logout

  All menus display a consistent footer with [0] Back or [0] Logout.

Note: In some IDE run consoles, the scroll history remains visible. For a "clean" pinned display, please use the system terminal (macOS Terminal, iTerm2, Windows Terminal).

Data Model & Rules

• Book: maxLoanPeriodDays controls the due date upon loan. isAvailable indicates the status of the copy.
• Borrower: status == Active is a prerequisite for borrowing. registrationDate is set upon creation.
• Loan: Contains loanDate, dueDate, returnDate (0 = open) and performedBy.
• Employee: Role::Admin vs. Role::Staff. Only admins manage employees.

CSV Import – Schemas

Location of files (default): import/books.csv and import/members.csv (in project root). Fallback: ../import/....

Books (books.csv)

• Required: ISBN; Title
• Optional: Authors (separated by |), Publisher, Edition, Location, Genre, Price, MaxLoanDays, MediaType (Book/Buch, Magazine/Magazin/Zeitschrift, DVD, EBook/E-Book/E_Buch, Other/Sonstiges), CreatedBy

Example:

ISBN;Title;Authors;Publisher;Edition;Location;Genre;Price;MaxLoanDays;MediaType;CreatedBy
978-3-16-148410-0;Clean Code;Robert C. Martin;Prentice Hall;;REG-A12;Programming;39.90;14;Book;domi

Members (members.csv)

• Required: Name; Email; Address
• Optional: RegistrationDate (YYYY-MM-DD), Status (Active/Blocked)
  • If these fields are missing, they are automatically set (Registration Date = now, Status = Active).
  • Invalid values are ignored; default values remain.

Example:

Name;Email;Address
Max Mustermann;max@test.de;Musterweg 1

Reporting

• Daily Report (Library::showDailyReport):
  • Lists loans and returns of a day (time, medium, borrower, performedBy, due date).
  • Additional totals per MediaType and grand totals.
• Due Report (Library::getDueReport):
  • Open loans, sorted by remaining time (overdue first), limitable.

Persistence Format (library.bin)

Header:

• Magic: BNES (4 bytes)
• Version: uint32_t (currently 5)

Sections (in order):

1. Books (count, then fields per book including authors vector)
2. Borrowers (count, then fields including registrationDate and status)
3. Employees (count, then fields including role, active flag)
4. Loans (count, then fields including performedBy)
5. Counters (next IDs)

All strings/vectors are prefixed with a length field, as implemented in Utils::writeString.

Security (Note)

• Passwords are saved with a very simple hash for demo purposes (Utils::simpleHash). For production systems, definitely use a real password hashing library (e.g., bcrypt, argon2).
• During development, the library.bin file can be deleted in case of schema changes (no backward compatibility required).

Tests

• Catch2-based unit tests cover, among others: loan/return flow, due date calculation, search, persistence roundtrip, employee auth/RBAC, performedBy.

Docker

With Docker, you can quickly test BookNest – including persistent data and CSV import via volume.

Prerequisites

• Docker and optionally Docker Compose v2

Build Image

docker build -t booknest:latest .

Start via Docker Compose (Recommended)

For the best interactive experience (clean terminal), use:

# Create folders and run the app
mkdir -p data import
docker compose run --rm booknest

The --rm flag ensures that the container is removed after you exit, keeping your system clean.

If you prefer the standard way:

docker compose up --build

Note: docker compose up might prefix lines with booknest-1 |. Use run for a native feel.

Volumes:

• ./data → /app/data (contains library.bin)
• ./import → /app/import (place books.csv/members.csv here)

Log in as admin in the program (admin/admin) → Main Menu [5] Import (Admin).

Resetting the Application (Delete Data)

To reset the database (delete all imported books and members):

1. Stop any running container.
2. Delete the binary file: rm data/library.bin
3. Restart the app: docker compose run --rm booknest

Benchmark Mode

• Activation: Main Menu → [6] Settings → "Toggle Benchmark". Status is displayed (ON/OFF).
• Output format: After relevant actions, a line like (Books-Search in 12.3 ms) appears.
• Measured actions include: loading/saving, book/member search, loan/return, reports, CSV import.

User Documentation

• See docs/UserGuide.md for a step-by-step guide.

License / Note

This project is part of a study portfolio (DLBMINPAPCC01). The code serves demonstration and learning purposes.

Scaling & System Limits

• Standard operation uses linear searches over vectors with paginated output. In this configuration, 50k–100k books and a comparable number of members are well usable on typical hardware.
• For larger datasets, optional in-memory indices can be added (e.g., unordered_map for ID/ISBN/Email), allowing exact lookups in O(1). Startup time then increases once due to index construction (O(n)).
• Memory and I/O scale largely linearly with the number of records. For reliable tests, the Benchmark Mode (Settings) and CSV import of large amounts of data are recommended.