Shipment Tracking Simulator

Status: Fully functional simulation; designed for demonstration and learning.

A Kotlin Compose-based client-server application demonstrating modular shipment lifecycle management.

Uses object-oriented design patterns (Factory, Observer, Strategy, State) to model ship,ent states, handle real-time updates, and provide an extensible architecture.

Technical Focus

• Object-oriented design with Factory, Observer, Strategy, and State patterns
• Event-driven client-server communication
• Kotlin Compose GUI for real-time simulation
• Modular design for easy extension and experimentation
• Shipment lifecycle modeling and update parsing

Features

• Shipment Lifecycle Management: Models complete shipment journey from creation to delivery
• Real-time Simulation: Event-driven updates allow live tracking of shipment states created, shipped, delayed, lost, cancelled, location, noteAdded, and delivered
• Client-Server Architecture: Demonstrates networked communication and UI synchronization using the Observer pattern
• Compose UI: Minimal GUI to interact with shipments and view update history

Constraints & Limitations

• Single-threaded simulation for simplicity and clarity
• Minimal UI to focus on architecture and design patterns
• Local client-server communication only (no external network integration)
• Designed for demonstration and learning, not production deployment

Quick Start

Requirements

• JDK 17+
• Gradle (wrapper included)

Build and run

1. Clone repository:

git clone https://github.com/SearParsley/shipment-tracking-server.git
cd shipment-tracking-server

2. Build and run using Gradle wrapper:

./gradlew build
./gradlew run

Windows users: use .\gradlew.bat instead of ./gradlew.

Usage

Shipment updates follow this format:

updateType,shipmentId,timestampOfUpdate,otherInfo (optional)

• UpdateType: {created, delivered, delayed, lost, cancelled, location, shipped, noteAdded}
• shipmentId: unique string
• timestampOfUpdate: Unix epoch (ms since 01/01/1970)
• otherInfo:
  • delayed: timestamp of expected delivery (Unix epoch)
  • location: current shipment location
  • noteAdded: note text

Example Inputs

created,SHP100,1675852800000
location,SHP100,1675856400000,Denver
delayed,SHP100,1675857000000,1676336400000

Example Workflow

1. Open both client and server GUI windows
2. In the client window, enter a properly formatted shipment update and click Send Update to Server
3. In the server window, enter a shipment ID:
   • Click Track to start observing updates
   • Click Stop Tracking to stop observing
4. Repeat as needed to simulate shipment progress and view update history

Example Output

Architecture

• State Pattern: Encapsulates shipment states and transitions
• Observer Pattern: Notifies UI of state changes in real-time
• Strategy Pattern: Supports different handling approaches for updates
• Factory Pattern: Simplifies creation of shipment objects with varied initial states

Diagrams

Version 2 UML

Focus: improved modularity, State and Obverser integration

Version 1 UML

Focus: initial architecture and object relationships