School of Computer Science

COMP9120 Database Management Systems

Assignment 2: Database Application Development

Group assignment (16%)

Introduction

The objectives of this assignment are to gain practical experience in interacting with a relational
database management system using an Application Programming Interface (API) (Python DB-API).
This assignment additionally provides an opportunity to use more advanced features of a database
such as functions.

This is a group assignment for teams of 3 members. It is assumed that you will continue in your
Assignment 1 group. You should inform the unit coordinator as soon as possible if you wish to change
groups.

Please also keep an eye on your email and any announcements that may be made on Ed.

Submission Details

The final submission of your database application is due at 11:59pm on Sunday 20th October (Week
11). You should submit the items for submission (detailed below) via Canvas.

Items for submission

Please submit your solution to Assignment 2 in the ’Assignment’ section of the unit’s Canvas site by the
deadline, including EXACTLY THREE files:

• An assignment coversheet as a PDF document (.pdf file suffix) which is available for download
from this link on Canvas.

• A SQL file (CSHschema.sql) containing the SQL statements necessary to generate the
database schema and sample data. This must contain the original schema and insert SQL
statements, and any stored procedures (functions) you may have added.

• A Python file (database.py) containing the Python code you have written to access the
database.

Your code should be your own, except for the scaffold code provided. You are strictly prohibited from
using any generative AI tools, such as Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT to complete any part of this
assignment. Failure to comply with this policy may result in academic penalties as outlined in the
academic integrity guidelines.

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COMP9120 Assignment 2

Task 1: The Central Sydney Hospital (CSH) System

In this assignment, you will be working with a modified version of the CSH database as described in
Assignment 1. This assignment builds upon and partially use your work designing the CSH hospital
database. More specifically, your task is to implement an interface, referred to as CSH system, through
which a user interacts to access and manipulate the CSH database. Your main task in this assignment
is to handle requests for reads and writes to the database using your User Interface (UI). We first
describe the main features that the CSH system must include from a UI perspective, and then discuss
where your database code needs to be implemented.

Logging In

The user is defined as any authorized administrator at the CSH hospital. The first form a user is
presented with, when starting the CSH system, is the Login, as shown in Figure 1. This feature requires
that the administrator enters their username and password to be validated prior to being successfully
logged in to the system. Security features such as password encryption/hashing is out of scope for this
assignment. Once logged in, the user is taken to the admission list page to view their associated
admissions.

Figure 1 - Login
Viewing Admission List

Once a user is logged in, they are shown a list of all their associated admissions, as shown below in
Figure 2. This list must be ordered such that the most recently discharged admission appear at the top.
The list is also sorted by patient full name in ascending order, and admission type name in descending
order. Admissions without a discharge date should be at the bottom of the list. Each admission has a
type name, department, discharge date, fee, patient and condition. Each administrator is assigned a set
of admissions to administer and review.

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COMP9120 Assignment 2

Figure 2 - Viewing Admissions List

Finding Admissions

A user can search through all admissions by entering a word or phrase (a ‘keyword’) in the field next to
the Find button, as shown in Figure 3, and then clicking on Find. When such a keyword is specified,
then the retrieved admissions and shown on the list are those that include this word or phrase in the
admission type name, department name, patient’s full name or condition. The search is case
insensitive. For example, given the search keyword ‘st’, Find will return all admission that include the
keyword ‘st’ in the admission type name, department name, patient’s full name or condition. Searching
with a blank/empty keyword field will show all of the logged in user’s associated admissions. Any
search results returned must be ordered such that admissions without a discharge date at the top, then
by discharge date in ascending order and patient’s full name ascending. The search results must
exclude those admissions whose discharge dates are older than 2 years (from today’s date).

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COMP9120 Assignment 2

Figure 3 - Finding Admissions

Adding an Admission

Users may also add a new admission by clicking on the Add Admission tab in the title bar. They may
enter admission details such as admission type name, department name, discharge date, patient id and
condition, in the popup dialog. Once the popup dialog appears, click on Add Admission button, as
shown in Figure 4. A new admission will not be assigned a discharged date or fee.

Figure 4 - Adding an Admission

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COMP9120 Assignment 2

Updating an Admission

Users can also update an admission by modifying data in the admission details screen as shown in
Figure 5, by clicking on Update Admission button. You can access this update screen by clicking on an
admission from the list of admissions in the Admissions tab.

Figure 5 - Updating an Admission

Database Interaction Code

The files that are needed for the Python version of assignment are as follows:

1. CSHschema.sql: a file which contains SQL statements you need to run to create and initialise
the CSH database, before starting the application
https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/files/39291865/download?download_frd=1
2. Assignment2_PythonSkeleton.zip: a zip file encapsulating the Python project for the CSH
system
https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/files/39291881/download?download_frd=1

To inspect the CSH system code, you need to unzip the ZIP archive first, which will create a folder that
includes the name Assignment2_PythonSkeleton. If you experience any difficulties installing and
exploring the project, ask your tutor or lecturer for assistance.

The skeleton code uses a number of Python modules to implement a simple browser-based GUI for the
CSH system. The main modules are the Flask framework for the GUI and the psycopg2 module for the
PostgreSQL database access. Similar to tutorial 7, you will need to install the Psycopg2 module
and the Flask module.

The skeleton code follows the structure described below:

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COMP9120 Assignment 2

• The main program starts in the main.py file. You need to use the correct username/password
details as specified in tutorial 7, and then implement the missing database access functions –
including any necessary SQL code statements required – in the data layer database.py.
• The presentation layer is done via a simple HTML interface that can be accessed from a web
browser. The corresponding page templates are located in the templates/ subdirectory, their
CSS style file in static/css.
• The transition between the different GUI pages and the initialisation of the Flask framework is
done in the routes.py file. It currently just invokes the pages, but there is no further business
logic implemented yet.

You can run the code by running “python main.py”. This starts a local web server and prints out
some debug messages in the terminal; the GUI can then be accessed with any web browser on the
same computer via the local URL http://127.0.0.1:5001/ (If that doesn’t work you can also try
http://0.0.0.0:5001/). Please note that, to terminate the application, you will need to stop the local web
server which is running in the background.

Task 2: Functions Implementation

Core Functionality

In this assignment, you are provided with a Python skeleton project that must serve as the starting point
for your assignment. Your task is to provide a complete implementation for the file database.py, as
well as make any modifications necessary to the database schema (i.e., CSHschema.sql).
Specifically, you need to modify and complete these five functions:

1. checkLogin (for login)

2. findAdmissionsByAdmin (for viewing admission list)
3. findAdmissionsByCriteria (for finding admissions)
4. addAdmission (for adding an admission)
5. updateAdmission (for updating an admission)

Note that, for each function, the corresponding action and outcome should be implemented by issuing
SQL queries to the database management system. If you directly output the result set, pre-process,
manipulate and/or make changes to the input or output datasets using Python code or additional
modules (libraries) i.e. without issuing SQL queries, you are considered as cheating, and you will get
penalised heavily and most likely get zero point for the assignment.

No additional Python modules or libraries should be imported.

Marking

This assignment is worth 16% of your final grade for the unit of study. Your group’s submission will be
marked according to the attached rubric.

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COMP9120 Assignment 2

Group member participation

If members of your group do not contribute sufficiently, you should alert the unit coordinator as
soon as possible. The course instructor has the discretion to scale the group’s mark for each member
as follows:

Percentage of contribution Proportion of final grade received

< 5% contribution 0%
5 - 10% contribution 20%
11 - 15% contribution 40%
16 - 20% contribution 50%
21 - 24% contribution 60%
25 - 28% contribution 80%
29 - 30% contribution 90%
> 30% contribution 100%

Note: The above table assumes that each group will have 3 members, so, on average, around 33%
contribution is expected from each member of the group. In special case, if a group has less than 3
members then the contribution percentage will be adjusted accordingly. You must justify your
contribution percentage by providing a detailed explanation of your individual contribution on the
assignment coversheet mentioned before. You must also regularly record and maintain a diary of your
group meetings and discussions on Canvas. Furthermore, we may run random face-to-face interviews
to understand and justify your contribution, if needed.

Marking Rubric

Your submissions will be marked according to the following rubric, with a maximum possible score of 16
points.

Part Marks (0 – 1.5 pts) Full Marks (2 – 2.5 pts)

Login Can correctly login the user ‘JDOE’ All valid users can be logged in
and validate his username and successfully, and unsuccessful user
password. logins should be rejected.
View Correctly list all admissions Correctly list all admissions associated
Admission List associated with user ‘jdoe’ in the with a logging user, in the correct order,
correct order (see Figure 2) for all possible username input from
Figure 1.
Find Correctly list admissions for keyword Correctly list admissions for all possible
Admissions “st” (see Figure 3) keywords.
Add Can correctly add an admission to Can correctly add all valid admissions to
Admission the database. the database. Admissions entered with
invalid details should be rejected.
Update Can correctly update the status of an Can correctly update details of all
Admission admission. admissions, ensuring the updated details
for an admission are valid.

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COMP9120 Assignment 2

Stored A couple of stored procedures A couple of stored procedures (functions)

Procedure (functions) are correctly created in are correctly created in the submitted
(Function) the submitted SQL file. SQL file, and correctly called in two of
the five specified functions.

No Marks (0 pt) Full Marks (1 pt)

Record One or more issues reported or No issue reported or found with group
Keeping of found with group member member contribution. All group members
Group contribution, or with maintaining participate and regularly maintain a diary
Discussions records of group meetings and of group meetings and discussions on
discussions regularly on Canvas. Canvas.