LibraryManager

About

LibraryManager is a desktop application that helps users manage their personal book collections and share them with a community. It allows users to register books and journals, track their physical locations on bookshelves, and manage borrowing and lending activities with other users in the system.

Key features of the application include:

• Book and journal registration with physical location tracking.
• User-to-user lending with borrow/return registration.
• Global collection search and reservation system across the user community.
• A built-in assistant ("Clippy") that offers context-sensitive help when pressing F1.

Technologies Used

• .NET with WPF for the desktop user interface.
• Entity Framework Core (Database First approach) for ORM and database handling.
• MySQL cloud-hosted on Aiven as the primary database.
• C# as the main programming language.

The application performs standard CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) on the database entities using Entity Framework Core.

Architectural Notes

The project follows the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) design pattern for clear separation of concerns:

• Model – Entity classes and database context (via Entity Framework Core).
• View – WPF UI components (XAML files).
• ViewModels – Logic and data-binding between the UI and model.
• Services – Helper classes and business logic (e.g., Clippy assistant behavior).

This modular architecture improves testability, maintainability, and scalability.

Installation

To install and run the LibraryManager application:

1. Download the setup file from the Installer folder of this repository:
   [Installer/LibraryManagerSetup.msi]

2. Double-click LibraryManagerSetup.msi to launch the installer.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

4. Once installed, you can launch LibraryManager from the Start Menu.

Getting Started (Developers)

To run the project locally:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/AS-Systems/2025_DSA_S8_POTEREJKO
   cd LibraryManager

Restore NuGet packages and build the solution in Visual Studio.

Usage

Once started, the user can:

• Register or log in.

• Add books and assign them to shelves.

• Browse their collection or search the global catalog.

• Reserve, borrow, and return books.

• Use Clippy (F1) for help throughout the app.