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Hitech Buster Class Msdn Final Course Project

Hitech Buster is a full-featured video rental library management system inspired by Blockbuster, built as a final course project using ASP.NET Web Forms and C#.

Built in December 2009, it supports member subscriptions, movie browsing, rentals, reviews, and waiting lists, alongside a complete admin panel for inventory and reporting. The system demonstrates layered architecture with LINQ-to-SQL, SQL Server integration, session management, caching, and cart-based checkout, showcasing a realistic end-to-end enterprise web application from its 2009 development era.

Features

🎬 Member Features

  • 🔐 User registration and authentication
  • 📊 Personal dashboard with rental statistics
  • 🛒 Shopping cart for movie selection
  • 🎥 Browse movies by category and popularity
  • ⭐ View and submit movie reviews
  • 📝 View rental history and currently rented movies
  • ⏳ Join waiting lists for unavailable movies
  • 💳 Add subscription days to account
  • 🎯 Get personalized movie recommendations

👨‍💼 Administrative Features

  • ➕ Add new movies to the catalog
  • 📀 Manage movie copies and inventory
  • 🗑️ Remove movies from the system
  • 📈 View rental activity reports
  • ⚠️ Track past due rentals
  • 📊 Identify movies with long waiting lists
  • 💤 Monitor inactive movies and renters
  • 📅 Monthly rental statistics

Core Capabilities

  • Member Management: Registration, authentication, and subscription tracking
  • Movie Catalog: Browsing, searching, and detailed movie information
  • Rental System: Shopping cart, checkout, and rental history
  • Review System: Movie ratings and user comments
  • Waiting Lists: Queue management for unavailable movies
  • Admin Dashboard: Inventory management and reporting

Technical Excellence

  • Layered Architecture: Presentation, Business Logic, and Data Access Layers
  • LINQ-to-SQL: Object-relational mapping for database operations
  • Session Management: User authentication and state management
  • Data Caching: Performance optimization through in-memory caching
  • SQL Server Integration: Robust database backend

Developer Experience

  • Master Pages: Consistent UI/UX across all pages
  • User Controls: Reusable components like the review form
  • Code-Behind Pattern: Separation of concerns between UI and logic
  • App_Code Classes: Centralized business logic and utilities

Usage

Member Features

  1. Sign Up / Sign In: Register as a new member or log in to your existing account
  2. Browse Movies: View popular movies or browse by category
  3. Movie Details: Click on a movie to view details, reviews, and add to cart
  4. Shopping Cart: Manage your cart and proceed to checkout
  5. Profile: View your rental history, currently rented movies, and add subscription days
  6. Reviews: Submit reviews for movies you've watched
  7. Waiting Lists: Join waiting lists for movies that are currently unavailable

Administrative Features

  1. Add Movies: Add new movies to the catalog with details and copies
  2. Manage Inventory: Add or remove movie copies
  3. Remove Movies: Remove movies from the system
  4. Reports:
    • View past due rentals
    • Identify movies with long waiting lists
    • Monitor inactive movies
    • Track inactive renters
    • View monthly rental activity

Available Scripts

Building the Project

Build Data Access Layer First: Open the solution in Visual Studio, right-click the Dal project, and select "Build".

Build Main Application: Right-click the VideoLib project and select "Build".

Running the Application

  1. Set VideoLib as the startup project
  2. Press F5 or click "Start Debugging" to run

Architecture Principles

This project follows clean architecture principles:

  1. Separation of Concerns: Presentation, Business Logic, and Data Access Layers are clearly separated
  2. Reusability: Master pages and user controls promote code reuse
  3. Maintainability: Centralized business logic in App_Code classes
  4. Testability: Separated layers allow for easier unit testing
  5. Data Access: LINQ-to-SQL provides type-safe database operations
  6. State Management: Session and cookie-based state management for user and cart data

Architecture Overview

graph TD
    A[User Browser] -->|HTTP Requests| B[ASP.NET Web Forms]
    B -->|Page Events| C[Code-Behind .cs Files]
    C -->|Business Logic| D[App_Code Classes]
    D -->|LINQ-to-SQL| E[Data Access Layer]
    E -->|SQL Queries| F[SQL Server Database]

    D -->|Session Management| G[LoggedInUser]
    D -->|Cart Operations| H[Cart/CartItem]
    D -->|Caching| I[DataCache]

    B -->|Master Page| J[01VideoLib.master]
    J -->|Layout| K[User Pages 10-49]
    J -->|Layout| L[Admin Pages 50-59]

    F -->|Tables| M[Movies/Members/Rents/Reviews]
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Data Flow Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant ASPX as ASPX Page
    participant CodeBehind as Code-Behind
    participant Cart
    participant DataCache
    participant LINQ as LINQ-to-SQL
    participant DB as SQL Server

    User->>ASPX: Browse Movies
    ASPX->>CodeBehind: Page_Load Event
    CodeBehind->>DataCache: GetPopularMovies()
    DataCache->>LINQ: Query Movies
    LINQ->>DB: SELECT Statement
    DB-->>LINQ: Movie Records
    LINQ-->>DataCache: Movie Objects
    DataCache-->>CodeBehind: Cached Results
    CodeBehind->>ASPX: Bind Data
    ASPX-->>User: Display Movies

    User->>ASPX: Add to Cart
    ASPX->>Cart: AddMovie()
    Cart->>Cart: Store in Cookie
    Cart-->>User: Confirmation

    User->>ASPX: Checkout
    ASPX->>Cart: RentCart()
    Cart->>DataCache: Rent() / AddToWaitingList()
    DataCache->>LINQ: Insert Rental Records
    LINQ->>DB: INSERT Statements
    DB-->>User: Rental Complete
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Component Architecture

graph LR
    A[Presentation Layer] --> B[Business Logic Layer]
    B --> C[Data Access Layer]
    C --> D[Database]

    A1[ASPX Pages] --> A
    A2[Master Pages] --> A
    A3[User Controls] --> A

    B1[Cart Logic] --> B
    B2[User Session] --> B
    B3[Data Cache] --> B

    C1[LINQ-to-SQL] --> C
    C2[Entity Classes] --> C

    D1[Movies Table] --> D
    D2[Members Table] --> D
    D3[Rents Table] --> D
    D4[Reviews Table] --> D
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Design Patterns

  • Layered Architecture: Separation of presentation, business logic, and data access
  • Repository Pattern: Data access abstracted through LINQ-to-SQL
  • Factory Pattern: Page and control instantiation through ASP.NET runtime
  • Singleton Pattern: DataCache for centralized caching
  • Session Façade: LoggedInUser for simplified session management

Directory Structure

hitech-buster-class-msdn-final-course-project/
├── Dal/                          # Data Access Layer
│   ├── VideoLib.cs              # Entity classes
│   ├── VideoLibDB.designer.cs   # LINQ-to-SQL generated code
│   ├── VideoLibDB.dbml          # LINQ-to-SQL mapping file
│   └── Dal.csproj               # DAL project file
├── VideoLib/                     # Web Application
│   ├── App_Code/                # Business logic classes
│   │   ├── Cart.cs              # Shopping cart implementation
│   │   ├── CartItem.cs          # Cart item model
│   │   ├── DataCache.cs         # Data caching wrapper
│   │   ├── LoggedInUser.cs      # Session management
│   │   └── CurrentTime.cs       # Time utilities
│   ├── App_Themes/              # Theme files
│   │   └── HitechBuster/        # Application theme
│   ├── Bin/                     # Compiled binaries
│   ├── Images/                  # Image assets
│   ├── MoviesPics/              # Movie poster images
│   ├── 01VideoLib.master        # Master page template
│   ├── 10Default.aspx           # Home page
│   ├── 20Sign-In.aspx           # Authentication
│   ├── 30-39*.aspx              # Member profile pages
│   ├── 40-49*.aspx              # Movie details & cart
│   ├── 50-59*.aspx              # Admin pages
│   └── web.config               # Application configuration
├── Film/                        # Movie images and assets
├── README.md                    # This file
├── CONTRIBUTING.md              # Contribution guidelines
├── INSTRUCTIONS.md              # Detailed setup instructions
└── LICENSE                      # MIT License

Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio 2013 or higher (2019/2022 recommended)
  • .NET Framework 4.0+
  • SQL Server 2008+ (or SQL Server Express)
  • IIS or IIS Express (included with Visual Studio)

Installation

  1. Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/orassayag/hitech-buster-class-msdn-final-course-project.git
cd hitech-buster-class-msdn-final-course-project

  1. Open the solution:

    • Navigate to VideoLib/ folder
    • Open VideoLib.sln in Visual Studio

  2. Configure the database:

    • Create a database named VideoLibDB in SQL Server
    • Update connection string in VideoLib/web.config
    • Update connection string in Dal/app.config

  3. Build the solution:

    • Build Dal project first (Data Access Layer)
    • Build VideoLib project (Main Application)

  4. Run the application:

    • Press F5 or click "Start Debugging"
    • The application will open in your default browser

Configuration

Update the connection string in VideoLib/web.config:

<connectionStrings>
  <add name="VideoLibDBConnectionString"
       connectionString="Data Source=YOUR_SERVER;Initial Catalog=VideoLibDB;Integrated Security=True"
       providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

Project Structure

hitech-buster-class-msdn-final-course-project/
├── Dal/                          # Data Access Layer
│   ├── VideoLib.cs              # Entity classes
│   ├── VideoLibDB.designer.cs   # LINQ-to-SQL generated code
│   ├── VideoLibDB.dbml          # LINQ-to-SQL mapping file
│   └── Dal.csproj               # DAL project file
├── VideoLib/                     # Web Application
│   ├── App_Code/                # Business logic classes
│   │   ├── Cart.cs              # Shopping cart implementation
│   │   ├── CartItem.cs          # Cart item model
│   │   ├── DataCache.cs         # Data caching wrapper
│   │   ├── LoggedInUser.cs      # Session management
│   │   └── CurrentTime.cs       # Time utilities
│   ├── 01VideoLib.master        # Master page template
│   ├── 10Default.aspx           # Home page
│   ├── 20Sign-In.aspx           # Authentication
│   ├── 30-39*.aspx              # Member profile pages
│   ├── 40-49*.aspx              # Movie details & cart
│   ├── 50-59*.aspx              # Admin pages
│   └── web.config               # Application configuration
├── Film/                        # Movie images and assets
├── README.md                    # This file
├── CONTRIBUTING.md              # Contribution guidelines
├── INSTRUCTIONS.md              # Detailed setup instructions
└── LICENSE                      # MIT License

Page Reference

Page Description
10Default.aspx Home page with popular movies
20Sign-In.aspx User authentication and registration
30MemberDetails.aspx Member profile and statistics
31AddSubscriptions.aspx Add rental days to subscription
32RentalHistory.aspx View past rentals
33CurrentlyRented.aspx View active rentals
34Reviews.aspx View movie reviews
35RecommendedForYou.aspx Personalized recommendations
36WaitingList.aspx View and manage waiting list entries
38RentStatus.aspx Check rental status
40MovieDetails.aspx Detailed movie information
41AddToCart.aspx Add movie to cart
42ShowCart.aspx # View shopping cart
43AddReview.ascx # Submit movie review (user control)
50AddMovie.aspx # Admin: Add new movie
51AddMovieCopies.aspx # Admin: Add movie copies
52RemoveMovie.aspx # Admin: Remove movie
53PastDueDate.aspx # Admin: View overdue rentals
54MoviesWithLongWaitingList.aspx # Admin: Popular movies report
55DeadMovies.aspx # Admin: Inactive movies report
56InactiveRenters.aspx # Admin: Inactive members report
57RentActivityPerMonth.aspx # Admin: Monthly rental statistics

Technologies Used

Backend

  • ASP.NET Web Forms - Server-side web application framework
  • C# - Primary programming language
  • LINQ-to-SQL - Object-relational mapping
  • SQL Server - Relational database management
  • .NET Framework - Application runtime

Frontend

  • HTML/CSS - Structure and styling
  • JavaScript (ES5) - Client-side interactivity
  • AJAX (if applicable) - Asynchronous operations

Development Tools

  • Visual Studio - Integrated development environment
  • SQL Server Management Studio - Database administration
  • Git - Version control

Key Features Implementation

Shopping Cart System

  • Cookie-based cart persistence
  • Add/remove movies
  • Update rental duration
  • Automatic waiting list handling

Rental Management

  • Subscription day tracking
  • Automatic due date calculation
  • Waiting list queue system
  • Return processing

Caching Strategy

  • In-memory data caching via DataCache class
  • Reduces database round-trips
  • Improves application performance

Session Management

  • User authentication state
  • Role-based access control
  • Logged-in user tracking

Best Practices

Development Best Practices

  1. Layered Architecture: Maintain clear separation between layers
  2. Reuse Components: Use master pages and user controls for consistency
  3. Centralize Logic: Keep business logic in App_Code classes
  4. Type Safety: Leverage LINQ-to-SQL for type-safe database operations
  5. Caching: Use DataCache to improve performance

Security Best Practices

Note: This application was built in 2009 as an educational project. Modern security standards should be implemented before production use.

Recommended updates:

  • Implement password hashing (bcrypt/Argon2)
  • Add CSRF protection
  • Use parameterized queries (already implemented via LINQ)
  • Implement HTTPS
  • Add input validation and output encoding
  • Update authentication to ASP.NET Identity

Operational Best Practices

  1. Database Backups: Regularly back up the SQL Server database
  2. Monitoring: Monitor application performance and error logs
  3. Updates: Keep .NET Framework and Visual Studio updated
  4. Testing: Test all features before deploying changes

Security Considerations

Note: This application was built in 2009 as an educational project. Modern security standards should be implemented before production use.

Recommended updates:

  • Implement password hashing (bcrypt/Argon2)
  • Add CSRF protection
  • Use parameterized queries (already implemented via LINQ)
  • Implement HTTPS
  • Add input validation and output encoding
  • Update authentication to ASP.NET Identity

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines on:

  • Reporting issues
  • Submitting pull requests
  • Code style guidelines
  • Development workflow

Support

For questions, issues, or contributions:

Author

License

This application has an MIT license - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

  • Built for educational and research purposes
  • Respects robots.txt and implements rate limiting
  • Uses user-agent rotation to avoid detection
  • Implements polite crawling practices

About

A video rental library management system built as a final course project, similar to Blockbuster. Built in December 2009, this ASP.NET Web Forms app manages rentals, subscriptions, waiting lists, reviews, with admin tools. Demonstrates full-stack development with database integration, authentication, shopping cart features, and core business logic.

linkedin.com/in/orassayag

Topics

sql-server database shopping-cart csharp aspnet webforms legacy-application library-management linq-to-sql video-rental educational-project blockbuster subscription-management rental-system movie-rentals

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