Exploring the World of Car Rental Management: Building a Python Application

Article 7: Designing the Database Schema

Welcome back to our series on building a Python-based car rental management system. In Part 6, we discussed the importance of system design and architecture, which is the foundation of any software project. Now, in Part 7, we will delve into the crucial aspect of designing the database schema for our car rental management system.

Planning the Database Structure

A well-designed database is essential for efficiently storing and managing the data that our car rental system relies on. We'll start by considering the key entities and their relationships within the system. Here are the main entities:

Customers: Information about customers, including their IDs, names, contact details, and reservation history.
Cars: Details about the cars available for rent, such as their IDs, makes, models, status, and rental prices.
Reservations: Records of customer reservations, including reservation IDs, customer IDs, car IDs, reservation dates, and payment details.
Staff: Information about staff members who manage car maintenance and customer issues.
User Interface (UI): The user interface or frontend is not part of the database but interacts with it to display data and receive user inputs.

Now, let's translate these entities and their attributes into a structured database schema. We'll be using MySQL for our database, but you can choose another database management system if you prefer. Here's a simplified schema:

CREATE TABLE customer (
    c_id VARCHAR(10) PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(255),
    mobile_1 INT,
    mobile_2 INT,
    email VARCHAR(255),
    address VARCHAR(255),
    reservation_count INT,
    status CHAR(1)
);

CREATE TABLE cars (
    car_id VARCHAR(15) PRIMARY KEY,
    company VARCHAR(255),
    model VARCHAR(255),
    year INT,
    engine CHAR(1),
    rear_ac CHAR(1),
    no_of_seats INT,
    infotainment_system CHAR(1),
    cost_per_day DECIMAL(10, 2),
    status CHAR(1)
);

CREATE TABLE reservations (
    r_id VARCHAR(10) PRIMARY KEY,
    car_id VARCHAR(10),
    c_id VARCHAR(10),
    reservation_start_date DATE,
    reservation_end_date DATE,
    duration INT,
    total_amount DECIMAL(10, 2)
);

CREATE TABLE staff (
    staff_id VARCHAR(10) PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(255),
    role VARCHAR(255)
);

In this schema:

Each table corresponds to an entity.
We use primary keys to uniquely identify records in each table.
We define data types for each attribute (e.g., VARCHAR for strings, INT for integers, DATE for dates, DECIMAL for decimal numbers).

This schema serves as the backbone of our database and guides how data is stored and retrieved. A well-structured database schema ensures data integrity and makes it easier to implement and maintain the system.

Conclusion

In Part 7, we've focused on designing the database schema for our car rental management system. We've outlined the key entities and their attributes, translating them into a structured MySQL schema. The database will play a central role in our application, storing customer information, car details, reservations, and more.

In Part 8, we'll begin with Database Implementation where we'll be setting up a MySQL database using Python; Creating tables for cars, customers, and reservations.

The Link to my code -> [github.com/bryanspacex/Rentals] (constantly updated)

Exploring the World of Car Rental Management: Building a Python Application - Part 7