ASSET MANAGEMENT USING RFID

Transcription

1 ASSET MANAGEMENT USING RFID The Project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY By SRAVANI P DEEPTI B SRUTHI B 07241A12A A A12A3 Under the Esteemed Guidance of Dr. T. V. RAJINIKANTH DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GOKARAJU RANGARAJU INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY HYDERABAD 2011

2 CERTIFICATE This is to certify that it is a bonafide record of Project work entitled ASSET MANAGEMENT USING RFID done by SRAVANI P (07241A12A7), DEEPTI B (07241A1262) and SRUTHI B (07241A12A3), students of B.Tech(IT) in the Department of Information Technology, Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology during the period in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of B.Tech in Information Technology. This work is not submitted to any other university for the award of any Degree/Diploma. Internal Guide Dr. T.V.Rajini Kanth Professor & Head Department of IT GRIET, HYDERABAD

3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We wish to express our deep gratitude to our guide Dr. T. V. RAJINIKANTH, Professor and Head, Department of Information Technology, for all the advice, encouragement and constant support he has given us through out our project work. This work would not have been possible without his support and valuable suggestions. We are grateful to Dr. T.V.Rajini Kanth, Head of the Department of Information Technology and the Members of Project Review Committee for their valuable suggestions. We are also grateful to Dr. Jandhyala N.Murty, Principal and Prof P.S.Raju, Director of GRIET for giving us the necessary facilities to carry out our project work successfully. project work. We would like to thank all our friends for their help and constructive criticism during our SRAVANI P DEEPTI B SRUTHI B 07241A12A A A12A3

4 ABSTRACT Objective : Our main objective is to acquire an asset tracking system. This keeps track of all the assets you have, where they are, who has them. Technology used : RFID RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. About RFID: Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses communication via radio waves to exchange data between a reader and an electronic tag attached to an object, for the purpose of identification and tracking. RFID in asset tracking : RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a groundbreaking technology for tracking valuable assets. Now there is no need to store whole history and full description about them every time. RFID tags are the simpler way to track them. Every tagged asset can be tracked by interpreting the upcoming radio signals from each tag. Working : Design an Excel Sheet with the Required Fields: The first step is to design an excel sheet which contains the custom fields, like, cost of the asset, its owner, and serial number. This systematic sheet helps in the easy updation of records and retrieval of information when required. Tag the Assets: After the excel sheet has been made, the next step is to properly tag the owned assets. It is important to figure out the required types of RFID tags, as different assets need different tags. Place Records on the Desired Asset Tracking System: There are many brands of RFID asset tracking systems in the market, so one should be sure about his requirements and budget before deciding upon a particular brand. The speed of these systems is measured in tags per second. A greater speed ensures higher efficiency,which in turn is bound to be more expensive than others. The excel sheet is updated after every scan and it stores the last scan date and time. Missing data can be easily found out by sorting the excel sheet. Asset Tracking with RFID provides an efficient way of asset management and is a very useful tool for people who find it difficult to keep track of their own assets. Uses:

5 Asset tracking can help businesses by: Reducing the loss of equipment and size of equipment inventory Improving customer service by making it possible to locate the closest clerk when needed Accelerating reaction time for an event needing a quick response Enhancing patient care by helping staff quickly find the required device. Requirements : Platform used : Java Kit used : RFID Engineering kit Components in the kit :- i. RFID Tag ii. RFID Scanner/Reader iii. RFID Middleware

6 CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1 2. Literature Survey Introduction Present Scenario Disadvantages of Existing System Project Description Proposed System Scope of project Assumption 7 3. Project Analysis Functional Requirements Performance Requirements Module Design SDLC Methodologies Hardware and Software Requirements Technology Overview About RFID Features of the language used The JDBC Connection Project Design Introduction UML Diagrams Implementation System Usage Testing and Validation Introduction Testing Methodologies Testing Levels 57

7 8.4 Final Testing Test Cases Conclusions Conclusion Bibliography 63

8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page No Fig 2.1 Asset management 4 Fig 3.1 Waterfall Model 16 Fig 4.1 Components of RFID 20 Fig 4.2 Java Virtual Machine (JVM) 26 Fig 4.3 Two-tier model 28 Fig 4.4 Three-tier model 29 Fig 5.1 Data Flow 33 Fig 5.2 Process 33 Fig 5.3 Source 34 LIST OF UML DIAGRAMS Diagram Page No Fig 5.4 Class Diagram 35 Fig 5.5 Use Case Diagram 36 Fig 5.6 Sequence Diagram 37 Fig 5.7 State Chart Diagram 39

9 LIST OF SCREENS Screen Page No Fig 7.1 GUI when the reader is connected 47 Fig 7.2 GUI of the main page 48 Fig 7.3 New Asset page 49 Fig 7.4 Issue asset page 50 Fig 7.5 Details of the student who took the asset 51 Fig 7.6 Remove asset from database 52 Fig 7.7 After deletion 53 Fig 7.8 Total number of the assets at the end of the day 54 Fig 7.9 Details of the student who did not return the asset 55

10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED Abbreviation Full form RFID SDLC AKA RAM JDBC ODBC BAP JVM API GUI SQL UML Radio Frequency Identification Software Development Life Cycle Also Known As Random Access Memeory Java Database Connectivity Open Database Connectivity Battery Assisted Passive Java Virtual Machine Application Programming Interface Graphical User Interface Structured Query Language Unified Modeling Language

11 1. INTRODUCTION Asset management is nothing but A systematic process of maintaining, upgrading operating physical assets. and Asset management, broadly defined, refers to any system whereby things that are of value to an entity or group are monitored and maintained. 1.1 Main Objective : Our main objective is to acquire an asset tracking system. This keeps track of all the assets you have, where they are, who has them. 1.2 Streams in asset management: The main streams in asset management are: identification of need for the asset, in the light of community requirements provision of the asset, including its ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation to suit continuing needs operation of the asset disposal of the asset when the need no longer exists or it is no longer appropriate for the asset to be retained.

12 2. LITERATURE SURVEY 2.1 Introduction Asset management Asset identification has always been a major headache for corporations, especially during audit time, when the auditor would ike to physically verify the presence of an asset. Usually in the older days, aaset numbers were either stenciled on the asset are painted on it, large assets like plant equipment had bold on steel plate type tage on them, which contained details of when the asset was manufactured, when installed, capacity and so on. Since the assets typically had long lives, they almost put lived the life of a tag. This posed a problem as mis-identification, duplicate asset counting and asset vanishing took place. Asset identification and tracking therefore is a major issue, especially between a company s management and its independent auditors. The management may be genuinely overwhelmed by the number, type and sheer numbers of the various assets under its control, but the auditors always look on these matters suspiciously, especially after earlier debacles like Enron. They can never be too sure Purpose of asset management: Fixed asset tracking software programs are expanding its sales market globally. Studies indicate that this market is increasing by billions of dollars each year. Since the software makes it possible for businesses to more effectively monitor assets, it will save a large amount of funds by minimizing loss, theft, and damages. The fiscal and organizational benefits of such systems are imperative to any size business. The purposes for this is to prevent theft, maintain an exact inventory, and effectively deal with assets.

13 Assets tracked comprise, but aren t restricted to, buildings, equipment, fixtures, IT equipment, furniture, vehicles, tools, boxes and art. If an employee borrows something, it has to be returned to the company. Asset tracking using software significantly reduces loss as well as theft simply because labels having attached barcodes permit the business to know who has, who has had, and who returned the equipment. Asset maintenance, expense, and devaluation of objects will be more properly tracked, thereby its value is definitely simply assessed. Utilizing today s technology, fixed asset tracking has evolved and improved the way companies calculate taxes on depreciation schedules, create inventory reports, and handle employee assigned materials and equipment. In the past, companies used bar codes and tags to read and track inventory. Having innovative technology, tracking is conducted by asset tracking software. Nowadays, many businesses, large and small, use this fixed asset tracking program coupled with computerized scanners, bar codes and radio-frequency identification (aka RFID) tags, which attach to the actual assets Uses: Asset management can help businesses by: Reducing the loss of equipment and size of equipment inventory Improving customer service by making it possible to locate the closest clerk when needed Accelerating reaction time for an event needing a quick response Enhancing patient care by helping staff quickly find the required device

14 Fig. 2.1 Asset management 2.2 Existing system Presently many assets are still tagged by labels, steel plates or have numbers painted onto them but the confusion prevails. In the recent past may progressive companies have some sort of automatic identification systems like barcodes in space, but they may not cover all the assets, or the paste-on tags themselves get lost, dirty or otherwise damaged. They cannot be read in most of these cases, leaving behind open questions from auditors and a red-faced management trying to explain, convince and cajole the auditors into not mentioning these slips ups in the annual reports. 2.3 Disadvantages of existing system The total value of these assets is a huge figure on the balance sheets. Even if the present value of the assets is not shown to be high, the actual replacement cost of these assets is substantial. It is therefore an essential task of all the company managements to have a better asset identification and tracking system in place. 2.4 Project description

15 2.4.1 RFID in asset management : RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a groundbreaking technology for tracking valuable assets. Now there is no need to store whole history and full description about them every time. RFID tags are the simpler way to track them. Every tagged asset can be tracked by interpreting the upcoming radio signals from each tag. Many companies are becoming interested in simple asset tracking solutions that can help track critical or valuable assets within a specific physical area or process under the company's control. Asset tracking enables organizations to know exactly what assets they own, lease, or control, as well as how those assets are being used throughout their life cycles, from acquisition all the way through disposal. 2.5 Proposed system THE RFID SOLUTION RFID tags need not be physically present only on the exterior of an asset. They can be mounted safely in place where they may not be visible easily to the eye, but re none the less, easily visible to an RFID reader. Therefore a company can easily tag all its assets with RFID tags. The tags need not always be pasted on, they can be located on a place from which they cannot be easily damaged. Since a physical line of sight is not required, even in case of dirtying, they are still visible to the reader. For tagging assts in a manufacturing plant, industrial grade tags are available. Typically they can be attached to metal surfaces without problems. If required, they also come with safety certifications allowing them to be used in hazardous areas. The system works like this. An asset is tagged at the time when it is dues for its next physical verification. The tag need not be the same for each asset. One can have different types of tags

16 depending on the physical nature of the asset, its mobility, its replacement value and other such factors. For example a steel reactor which is fixed at one location would have a different type of tag than a laptop, which is a mobile asset. Also the vulnerability of the asset to the theft or malicious vanishing may be more than that of the steel reactor, even though its replacement cost is low. After analyzing different classes of these assets, one can come up with a tag type list for each asset. After this is done, the tags are physically fixed in locations on the assets which is necessarily visible to the naked eye, but are nevertheless visible to an RFID reader. The tag numbers are unique and each tag number corresponds to a unique asset in the company s asset register or asset database, which may be a database in its ERP system. The unique number of the RFID tag thus points to the corresponding asset to the database. An external independent auditor can easily roam about the plants and offices, armed with an RFID reader to query each asset. This system gives a remarkable amount of transparency to, what has been till date, a pretty much opaque system. This increases the confidence of auditors in the company s management manifold and leads to lesser legal hassles of compliance. 2.6 Scope of the project 1. Identification of need for the asset, in the light of community requirements

17 2. Provision of the asset, including its ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation to suit continuing needs 3. Operation of the asset 4. Disposal of the asset when the need no longer exists or it is no longer appropriate for the asset to be retained. 2.7 Assumption Implementation of Asset management using RFID can be achieved by using JAVA as it provides a wide variety of facilities for achieving various functionalities. With the modularity support in JAVA all the functionalities of protocol can be implemented.

18 3. PROJECT ANALYSIS 3.1 Functional Requirements Output Design Outputs from computer systems are required primarily to communicate the results of processing to users. They are also used to provide a permanent copy of the results for later consultation. The various types of outputs in general are: External Outputs, whose destination is outside the organization. Internal Outputs whose destination is within organisation and they are the User s main interface with the computer. Operational outputs whose use is purely within the computer department. Interface outputs, which involve the user in communicating directly with Output Definition The outputs should be defined in terms of the following points: Type of the output Content of the output Format of the output Location of the output Frequency of the output Volume of the output Sequence of the output It is not always desirable to print or display data as it is held on a computer. It should be decided as which form of the output is the most suitable. For Example:

19 Will decimal points need to be inserted? Should leading zeros be suppressed? Output Media In the next stage it is to be decided that which medium is the most appropriate for the output. The main considerations when deciding about the output media are: The suitability for the device to the particular application. The need for a hard copy. The response time required. The location of the users The software and hardware available. The cost. Keeping in view the above description the project is to have outputs mainly coming under the category of internal outputs. The main outputs desired according to the requirement specification are: The outputs were needed to be generated as a hot copy and as well as queries to be viewed on the screen. Keeping in view these outputs, the format for the output is taken from the outputs, which are currently being obtained after manual processing. The standard printer is to be used as output media for hard copies Input Design Input design is a part of overall system design. The main objective during the input designing is as given below: To ensure that the input is acceptable and understood by the user. To produce a cost-effective method of input. To achieve the highest possible level of accuracy Input Stages

20 The main input stages can be listed as below: Data recording Data transcription Data conversion Data verification Data control Data transmission Data validation Data correction Input Types It is necessary to determine the various types of inputs. Inputs can be categorized as follows: External inputs, which are prime inputs for the system. Internal inputs, which are user communications with the system. Operational, which are computer department s communications to the system? Interactive, which are inputs entered during a dialogue Input Media At this stage choice has to be made about the input media. To conclude about the input media consideration has to be given to: Type of input Flexibility of format Speed Accuracy Verification methods Rejection rates

21 Ease of correction Storage and handling requirements Security Easy to use Portable Keeping in view the above description of the input types and input media, it can be said that most of the inputs are of the form of internal and interactive. As Input data is to be the directly keyed in by the user, the keyboard can be considered to be the most suitable input device Error Avoidance At this stage care is to be taken to ensure that input data remains accurate form the stage at which it is recorded up to the stage in which the data is accepted by the system. This can be achieved only by means of careful control each time the data is handled Error Detection Even though every effort is make to avoid the occurrence of errors, still a small proportion of errors is always likely to occur, these types of errors can be discovered by using validations to check the input data Data Validation Procedures are designed to detect errors in data at a lower level of detail. Data validations have been included in the system in almost every area where there is a possibility for the user to commit errors. The system will not accept invalid data. Whenever an invalid data is keyed in, the system immediately prompts the user and the user has to again key in the data and the system will accept the data only if the data is correct. Validations have been included where necessary. The system is designed to be a user friendly one. In other words the system has been designed to communicate effectively with the user. The system has been designed with pop up menus.

22 interface: It is essential to consult the system users and discuss their needs while designing the user User interfaces can be broadly classified as 1. User initiated interface In the user initiated interface the user is in charge, controlling the progress of the user/computer dialogue. In the computer-initiated interface, the computer selects the next stage in the interaction. 2. Computer initiated interfaces In the computer initiated interfaces the computer guides the progress of the user/computer dialogue. Information is displayed and the user response of the computer takes action or displays further information. User initiated interface: User initiated interfaces fall into two approximate classes: 1. Command driven interfaces: In this type of interface the user inputs commands or queries which are interpreted by the computer. 2. Forms oriented interface: The user calls up an image of the form to his/her screen and fills in the form. The forms oriented interface is chosen because it is the best choice. Computer initiated interface: The following computer initiated interfaces were used: The menu system for the user is presented with a list of alternatives and the user chooses one; of alternatives. Questions answer type dialog system where the computer asks question and takes action based on the basis of the users reply. Right from the start the system is going to be menu driven, the opening menu displays the available options. Choosing one option gives another popup menu with more options. In this way every option leads the users to data entry form where the user can key in the data Error Message Design

23 The design of error messages is an important part of the user interface design. As user is bound to commit some errors or other while designing a system the system should be designed to be helpful by providing the user with information regarding the error he/she has committed. This application must be able to produce output at different modules for different inputs. 3.2 Performance Requirements Performance is measured in terms of the output provided by the application. Requirement specification plays an important part in the analysis of a system. Only when the requirement specifications are properly given, it is possible to design a system, which will fit into required environment. It rests largely in the part of the users of the existing system to give the requirement specifications because they are the people who finally use the system. This is because the requirements have to be known during the initial stages so that the system can be designed according to those requirements. It is very difficult to change the system once it has been designed and on the other hand designing a system, which does not cater to the requirements of the user, is of no use. The requirement specification for any system can be broadly stated as given below: The system should be able to interface with the existing system The system should be accurate The system should be better than the existing system 3.3 Module Design In asset management, we have three modules. They are: Module 1 : Design a table with the Required Fields: The first step is to design a table in a database which contains the custom fields, like, cost of the asset, its owner, and serial number. This helps in the

24 easy updation of records and retrieval of information when required. Module 2 : Tag the Assets: After the excel sheet has been made, the next step is to properly tag the owned assets. It is important to figure out the required types of RFID tags, as different assets need different tags. Module 3 : Place Records on the Desired Asset Management System: There are many brands of RFID asset management systems in the market, so one should be sure about his requirements and budget before deciding upon a particular brand. The speed of these systems is measured in tags per second. A greater speed ensures higher efficiency, which in turn is bound to be more expensive than others. The table in the database is updated after every operation. Missing data can be easily found out. Asset Tracking with RFID provides an efficient way of asset management and is a very useful tool for people who find it difficult to keep track of their own assets. 3.4 SDLC Methodologies This document play a vital role in the development of life cycle (SDLC) as it describes the complete requirement of the system. It means for use by developers and will be the basic during testing phase. Any changes made to the requirements in the future will have to go through formal change approval process. The waterfall model is a popular version of the systems development life cycle model for software engineering. Often considered the classic approach to the systems development life cycle, the waterfall model describes a development method that is linear and sequential.

25 Waterfall development has distinct goals for each phase of development. Imagine a waterfall on the cliff of a steep mountain. Once the water has flowed over the edge of the cliff and has begun its journey down the side of the mountain, it cannot turn back. It is the same with waterfall development. Once a phase of development is completed, the development proceeds to the next phase and there is no turning back. The advantage of waterfall development is that it allows for departmentalization and managerial control. A schedule can be set with deadlines for each stage of development and a product can proceed through the development process like a car in a carwash, and theoretically, be delivered on time. Development moves from concept, through design, implementation, testing, installation, troubleshooting, and ends up at operation and maintenance. Each phase of development proceeds in strict order, without any overlapping or iterative steps. In Royce's original waterfall model, the following phases are followed in order: 1. Requirements specification 2. Design 3. Construction (AKA implementation or coding) 4. Integration 5. Testing and debugging (AKA Validation) 6. Installation 7. Maintenance

26 Fig. 3.1 Waterfall Model Thus the waterfall model maintains that one should move to a phase only when its preceding phase is completed and perfected. However, there are various modified waterfall models (including Royce's final model) that may include slight or major variations upon this process. 3.5 Hardware and Software Requirements Hardware Requirements: Processor: Main Memory: Free Space on Hard Disk: P-III 800 MHz and above 256 MB RAM space 50 MB free hard disk space

27 3.5.2 Software Requirements: Operating systems: Application Logic: Database: Language used: Packages extension: Windows JDBC MS Access Java java.net and JDBC

28 4. TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 4.1 About RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses communication via radio waves to exchange data between a reader and an electronic tag attached to an object, for the purpose of identification and tracking. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. The application of bulk reading enables an almost parallel reading of tags. Radio-frequency identification involves interrogators (also known as readers), and tags (also known as labels). Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags have emerged as a key technology for real-time asset tracking. It is an automated identification technology that allows for non-contact reading of data making it attractive. RFID systems are foreseen as replacement to the legacy bar code system of identifying an item. One of the major advantages of RFIDs over bar codes is that it is a non-line-of-sight technology - thus every item need not be handled manually for reading. In addition, RFID readers can read tags even when they are hidden. Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. They are : 1. Integrated circuit 2. Antenna One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating radio-frequency (RF) signal, and other specialized functions.

29 The other is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal Types of RFID tags There are three types of RFID tags: 1. passive RFID tags 2. active RFID tags a. (BAP) RFID tags Passive RFID tags These tags are those which have no power source and require an external electromagnetic field to initiate a signal transmission Active RFID tags These tags are those which contain a battery and can transmit signals once an external source ('Interrogator') has been successfully identified Battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID tags These tags are those which require an external source to wake up but have significant higher forward link capability providing greater range Components A basic RFID system consists of three components: An antenna or coil A transceiver (with decoder) A transponder (RF tag) electronically programmed with unique information.

30 Fig. 4.1 Components of RFID The reader : It emits radio waves in ranges of anywhere from one inch to 100 feet or more, depending upon its power output and the radio frequency used. When an RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated circuit (silicon chip) and the data is passed to the host computer for processing. The purpose of an RFID system is to enable data to be transmitted by a portable device, called a tag, which is read by an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a particular application. The data transmitted by the tag may provide identification or location information, or specifics about the product tagged, such as price, color, date of purchase, etc. RFID technology has been used by thousands of companies for a decade or more.. RFID quickly gained attention because of its ability to track moving objects. As the technology is refined, more pervasive - and invasive - uses for RFID tags are in the works.

31 A typical RFID tag consists of a microchip attached to a radio antenna mounted on a substrate. The chip can store as much as 2 kilobytes of data. To retrieve the data stored on an RFID tag, you need a reader. A typical reader is a device that has one or more antennas that emit radio waves and receive signals back from the tag. The reader then passes the information in digital form to a computer system Is this the automatic identification technology? Certainly not. The most obiquitous identification technol0ogy that all of us know, is the barcode. This is the set of funny thick and thin lines that you see on all items, be they computer parts or shampoo bottls. What do they do? They help identify what the itm is, Who made it and such kind of information. At a supermarket, the chech out clerck has a barcode scanner that reads this info and uses it to generate your bill. This also makes it faster to take inventory, when a shop assistant moves about with a handheld barcode reader and checks the items present on the shelves. There is no need to write down an items name, brand, description & other information. All this information is stored as a number. The barcode scanner reads off this code & hence the number. This number acts like a pointer to other relevant information. A database correlates this number with all the necessary other information. A database correlates the number with al the necessary other information like manufacturer, item and descrption. As a corollary consider your ID number at your workplace or your social security number. Once an ID number is ascertained, it points to the rest of the information which includes name of the person, date of birth, residential address, etc. But, you must be thinking, even a barcode reader can do the function as an RFID scanner. So what s the point? Well, a barcode reader can read a barcode, one at a time. This means however fast barcode scanners you may have, however sophisticated your barcode software is, you will always be physically constrained by the one at a time rule.

32 4.1.4 RFID Works Better Than Barcodes : A significant advantage of RFID devices over the others mentioned above is that the RFID devices does not need to be positioned precisely relative to the scanner. We re all familiar with the difficulty that store checkout clerks sometimes have in making sure that a barcode can be read. And obviously, credit cards and ATM cards must be swiped through a special reader. In contrast, the RFID devices will work within a few feet (up to 20 feet for highfrequency devices) of the scanner. For example, you could just put all of your groceries or purchases in a bag, and set the bag on the scanner.it would be able to query all of the RFID devices and total your purchase immediately. RFID technology has been available for more than fifty years. It has been recently that the ability to manufacture the RFID devices has fallen to the point where they can be used as a throwaway inventory or control device. Alien Technologies recently sold 500 million RFID tags to Gillette at a cost of about ten cents per tag. One reason that it has taken so long for RFID to come into common use is the lack of standards in the industry. Most companies invested in RFID technology only use the tags to track items within their control; many of the benefits of RFID come when items are tracked from company to company or from country to country. 4.2 Features of the language used About java

33 Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which is now a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun MicroSystems Java Platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities. Java applications are typically compiled to byte code (class file) that can run on any Java Virtual Machine(JVM) regardless of computer architecture. Java is a general-purpose, concurrent, class-based, objectoriented language that is specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is intended to let application developers write once, run anywhere. Java is currently one of the most popular programming languages in use, and is widely used from application software to web applications Principles There were five primary goals in the creation of he Java language : It should be simple, object-oriented, and familiar. It should be robust and secure. It should have an architecture-neutral and portable environment. It should execute with high performance. It should be interpreted, threaded, and dynamic Features Platform Independent

34 The concept of Write-once-run-anywhere (known as the Platform independent) is one of the important key feature of java language that makes java as the most powerful language. Not even a single language is idle to this feature but java is more closer to this feature. The programs written on one platform can run on any platform provided the platform must have the JVM Simple There are various features that makes the java as a simple language. Programs are easy to write and debug because java does not use the pointers explicitly. It is much harder to write the java programs that can crash the system but we can not say about the other programming languages. Java provides the bug free system due to the strong memory management. It also has the automatic memory allocation and deallocation system Robust Java has the strong memory allocation and automatic garbage collection mechanism. It provides the powerful exception handling and type checking mechanism as compare to other programming languages. Compiler checks the program whether there any error and interpreter checks any run time error and makes the system secure from crash. All of the above features makes the java language robust Distributed The widely used protocols like HTTP and FTP are developed in java. Internet programmers can call functions on these protocols and can get access the files from any remote machine on the internet rather than writing codes on their local system Portable The feature Write-once-run-anywhere makes the java language portable provided that the system must have interpreter for the JVM. Java also have the standard data size irrespective of operating system or the processor. These features makes the java as a portable language Dynamic While executing the java program the user can get the required files dynamically from a local drive or from a computer thousands of miles away from the user just by connecting with the Internet.

35 Secure Java does not use memory pointers explicitly. All the programs in java are run under an area known as the sand box. Security manager determines the accessibility options of a class like reading and writing a file to the local disk. Java uses the public key encryption system to allow the java applications to transmit over the internet in the secure encrypted form. The bytecode Verifier checks the classes after loading Performance Java uses native code usage, and lightweight process called threads. In the beginning interpretation of bytecode resulted the performance slow but the advance version of JVM uses the adaptive and just in time compilation technique that improves the performance Multithreaded As we all know several features of Java like Secure, Robust, Portable, dynamic etc; you will be more delighted to know another feature of Java which is Multithreaded. Java is also a Multithreaded programming language. Multithreading means a single program having different threads executing independently at the same time. Multiple threads execute instructions according to the program code in a process or a program. Multithreading works the similar way as multiple processes run on one computer. Multithreading programming is a very interesting concept in Java. In multithreaded programs not even a single thread disturbs the execution of other thread. Threads are obtained from the pool of available ready to run threads and they run on the system CPUs. This is how Multithreading works in Java Interpreted We all know that Java is an interpreted language as well. With an interpreted language such as Java, programs run directly from the source code. The interpreter program reads the source code and translates it on the fly into computations. Thus, Java as an interpreted language depends on an interpreter program. The versatility of being platform independent makes Java to outshine from other languages. The source code to be written and distributed is platform independent. Another advantage of Java as an interpreted language is its error debugging quality. Due to this any error occurring in the program gets traced. This is how it is different to work with Java.

36 Fig. 4.2 Java Virtual Machine (JVM) Architecture Neutral The term architectural neutral seems to be weird, but yes Java is an architectural neutral language as well. The growing popularity of networks makes developers think distributed. In the world of network it is essential that the applications must be able to migrate easily to different computer systems. Not only to computer systems but to a wide variety of hardware architecture and Operating system architectures as well. The Java compiler does this by generating byte code instructions, to be easily interpreted on any machine and to be easily translated into native machine code on the fly. The compiler generates an architecture-neutral object file format to enable a Java application to execute anywhere on the network and then the compiled code is executed on many processors, given the presence of the Java runtime system. Hence Java was designed to support applications on network. This feature of Java has thrived the programming language.

37 4.3 The JDBC Connection JDBC stands for Java Database Connectivity. It is a specification and application programming interface (API) of the JavaSoft division of Sun Microsystems Inc. and was implemented to allow developers to program applets or applications in the Java language, without having to worry about database-specific code. It was released in May 1996, and helped to standardize the growing selection of a very important class of Java tools that allow database access from Java applications The need of JDBC Java has been called "the vehicle by which developers will be able to bring dynamic application behavior to the Web". Users can download applets from either local or remote Web servers for execution inside popular Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator. Applets run disconnected from the server, just like native applications. Java however, has fallen short of its widely ability to connect to outside resources via a build-in API. The first release of the Java Developers Kit (JDK) in early 1995 had no integrated support for accessing databases. The functionality of Java made it easy to build tools for accessing databases, but there was no prescription about how such drivers ought to function. Several vendors produced good tools for database access but there were no general guidelines for how database access tools should be written JDBC Architecture The JDBC Architecture consists of two layers: the JDBC API, which provides the application-to- JDBC Manager connection, and the JDBC Driver API, which supports the JDBC Manager-to- Driver Connection.

38 The two-tier model In the two-tier model, a Java applet or application talks directly to the database. This requires a JDBC driver that can communicate with the particular database management system (DBMS) being accessed. SQL statements are delivered to the database, and the results are sent back to the user. Fig. 4.3 Two-tier model This is referred to as a client/server configuration, in which the users machine is the client and the machine housing the database is the server. The database may be located on another machine to which the user is connected via a network The three-tier model In the three-tier model, commands are sent to a middle tier of services, which then send SQL statements to the database. The database processes the SQL statements and sends the results back to the middle tier, which then sends them to the user.

39 Fig. 4.4 Three tier model This model makes it possible to maintain control over access and the kinds of updates that can be made to corporate data. Another advantage of the middle tier model is that the user can employ an easy-to-use higher-level API which is translated by the middle tier into the appropriate lowlevel calls. The middle-tier architecture can provide performance advantages. Database vendors support JDBC through the JDBC driver interface or through the ODBC connection. Each driver must provide implementations of java.sql.connection, java.sql.statement, java.sql.preparedstatement, java.sql.callablestatement, and java.sql.re sultset. They must also implement the java.sql.driver interface for use by the generic java.sql.drivermanager interface.

40 4.3.3 How JDBC works JDBC uses a simple class hierarchy for database objects. The classes are contained in the java.sql.* package, which will be included in JDK 1.1. The java.sql.* classes are descriptions of classes and methods that must be written in order to produce a J DBC driver, as mentioned earlier. Three classes relate to opening a connection to the DBMC: java.sql.drivermanager, java.sql.connection, and java.sql.databasemetadata. For accessing a database, a java.sql.connection object has to be obtained directly from the JDBC management layer and the java.sql.drivermanager. The following is an example of the code to obtain a connection: Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection ("jdbc:odbc:wombat", "login", "password"); The DriverManager uses the URL string as an argument, and the JDBC management layer locates and loads the appropriate driver for the target database to which the applet is attempting to link. The DriverManager does this by querying each driver, locatin g the one that can connect to the URL. The drivers look at the URL to determine if it requires a sub-protocol that the driver supports. Then, the driver connects to the remote database, returning the correct java.sql connection object that is the way by w hich the applet accesses services on the database. The JDBC management layer must know the location of each and every database driver available to it. Each driver must register with the DriverManager using the DriverManager.RegisterDrive method so that th e DriverManager knows that the driver exists and where to find it. The DatabaseMetaData returns information about the client s connection and interesting information about the database to which the client has connected. The java.sql.statement class is used to compose and execute SQL queries on the DBMS. A query of some sort, either a select statement, or an insert, update or delete statement could be performed after connecting. The results of a query are used to create a java.sql.resultset. Using

41 the connection obtained in the example above, an example of the code for a Select statement could be: Statement stmt = con.createstatement(); ResultSet rs = stmt.executequery("select a, b, c FROM Table1"); while ( rs.next() ) { int x = getint("a"); String s = getstring("b"); float f = getfloat("c"); } Stored procedures on a database can also be executed with two subclasses of java.sql.statement: java.sql.preparedstatement, and java.sql.callablestatement. Finally other JDBC classes are supplied for utility purposes. For example java.sql.types encapsulates Java types for database use; java.sql.date, java.sql.time, and java.sql.timestamp; java.sql.exception, and java.sql.warning provide for exception hand ling Final Notes Java, being robust, secure, easy to use, easy to understand, and automatically downloadable on a network, is an excellent language basis for database applications. What was needed was a way for Java applications to talk to a variety of different databa ses. JDBC is the mechanism for doing this. Clearly, JDBC will enable Java applets to communicate with popular relational databases and thus make Java practical for client/server development. JDBC must still address other complex issues, including handling database security on a public network, database recovery from dropped connections, and performance through a translation layer. JDBC makes it possible to: establish a connection with a database send SQL statements

42 process the results 5. PROJECT DESIGN 5.1 Introduction

43 5.1.1 Data Flow Diagrams A graphical tool used to describe and analyze the moment of data through a system manual or automated including the process, stores of data, and delays in the system. Data Flow Diagrams are the central tool and the basis from which other components are developed. 1. Dataflow: Data move in a specific direction from an origin to a destination. Fig. 5.1 Dataflow 2. Process: People, procedures, or devices that use or produce (Transform) Data. The physical component is not identified. Fig. 5.2 Process 3. Source: External sources or destination of data, which may be People, programs, organizations or other entities. Fig. 5.3 Source

44 4. Data Store: Here data are stored or referenced by a process in the System. 5.2 UML Diagrams The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is an open method used to specify, visualize, modify, construct and document the artifacts of an object-oriented software intensive system under development. UML offers a standard way to write a system's blueprints, including conceptual components such as: actors, business processes and system components and activities As well as concrete things such as: programming language statements, database schemas, and Reusable software components Class Diagram:

45 5.2.2 Use case Description: Fig. 5.4 Class Diagram

46 In software engineering, a use case diagram in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a type of behavioural diagram defined by and created from a Use-case analysis. Its purpose is to present a graphical overview of the functionality provided by a system in terms of actors, their goals (represented as use cases), and any dependencies between cases. The main purpose of a use case diagram is to show what system functions are performed for which actor. Roles of the actors in the system can be depicted. Use Case diagrams are formally included in two modelling languages defined by the OMG. Both the UML and SysML standards define a graphical notation for modelling use cases with diagrams. One complaint about the standards has been that they do not define a format for describing these use cases. Generally, both graphical notation and descriptions are important as they document the use case, showing the purpose for which an actor uses a system. Fig. 5.5 Use case diagram Sequence Diagram:

47 A sequence diagram in Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a kind of interaction diagram that shows how processes operate with one another and in what order. It is a construct of a Message Sequence Chart. Fig. 5.5 Sequence diagram Collaboration Diagram: A Communication diagram models the interactions between objects or parts in terms of sequenced messages. Communication diagrams represent a combination of information taken

48 from Class, Sequence, and Use Case Diagrams describing both the static structure and dynamic behavior of a system Activity Diagram: Activity diagrams are a loosely defined diagram technique for showing workflows of stepwise activities and actions, with support for choice, iteration and concurrency Component Diagram: A component diagram in the Unified Modeling Language, depicts how components are wired together to form larger components and or software systems. Components are wired together by using an assembly connector to connect the required interface of one component with the provided interface of another component. This illustrates the service consumer - service provider relationship between the two components Deployment Diagram: A deployment diagram in the Unified Modeling Language serves to model the physical deployment of artifacts on deployment targets. Deployment diagrams show "the allocation of Artifacts to Nodes according to the Deployments defined between them." State Chart Diagram:

49 Fig. 5.6 State chart diagram

50 6. IMPLEMENTATION Storing the asset details into the database: Initially, connect the reader and take the input, that is the asset details from the reader. The new asset details are stored in the RFID tag. These are the attributes of an asset which are stored in the tag and these are declared like this. string a_nam = "", branch = "", m_comp = ""; int a_id = 0, y_o_man = 0, b_no = 0, a_price = 0, loc_asset = 0; bool b_a_nam = false, b_branch = false, b_m_comp = false, b_a_id = false, b_y_o_man = false, b_b_no = false, b_a_price = false, b_loc_asset = false; Once the read button is clicked, the following operation is done private void buttonread_click(object sender, EventArgs e) { try { if (listboxdisplay.selectedindex!= -1) { string tag = (string)listboxdisplay.items[listboxdisplay.selectedindex]; tagid = new byte[tag.length / 2]; for (int i = 0; i < tag.length; i += 2) tagid[(int)(i / 2)] = System.Byte.Parse(tag.Substring(i, 2), System.Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber); int status = 0;

51 byte[] data = null; if (null!= reader && tagid!= null) //status=reader.iso15693_readsingleblock(tagid, (byte)numericupdownaddress.value, out data); status=reader.iso15693_readsingleblock(tagid, byte.parse(listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring()), out data); if (data == null) { Display(string.Format("{0,-50}{1,-20}{2}","ReadSingleBlock", (MIS_Status)status, "-")); } else { string dt = BitConverter.ToString(data).Replace("-", ""); Display(string.Format("{0,-50}{1,-20}{2}","ReadSingleBlock", (MIS_Status)status, dt)); textboxwritedata.text = dt; if (listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring() == "0") { b_a_id = true; a_id=convert.toint32(asciiencoding.ascii.getstring(hexstringtobytearray(dt))); } if (listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring() == "1") { b_a_nam = true; a_nam=(asciiencoding.ascii.getstring(hexstringtobytearray(dt))); } if (listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring() == "2") { b_branch = true;

52 branch=(asciiencoding.ascii.getstring(hexstringtobytearray(dt))); } if (listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring() == "3") { b_y_o_man = true; y_o_man=convert.toint32(asciiencoding.ascii.getstring(hexstringtobytearray(dt))); } if (listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring() == "4") { b_b_no = true; b_no=convert.toint32(asciiencoding.ascii.getstring(hexstringtobytearray(dt))); } if (listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring() == "5") { b_m_comp = true; m_comp=(asciiencoding.ascii.getstring(hexstringtobytearray(dt))); } if (listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring() == "6") { b_a_price = true; a_price=convert.toint32(asciiencoding.ascii.getstring(hexstringtobytearray(dt))); } if (listboxblocknumber.selecteditem.tostring() == "7") { b_loc_asset = true; loc_asset=convert.toint32(asciiencoding.ascii.getstring(hexstringtobytearray(dt))); } if (b_a_id == true && b_a_nam == true && b_branch == true && b_y_o_man == true && b_b_no == true && b_m_comp == true && b_a_price == true && b_loc_asset == true)

53 { button1.enabled = true; } } } else Display(string.Format("{0,-50}{1,-20}{2}","ReadSingleBlock", "Select the tag", "-")); } catch (Exception ex) { MessageBox.Show("No data to be read."); } } Later, these hex values needs to be converted. The logic involved is for (int i = 0; i < Data.Length; i += 2) ReturnBytes[i / 2] = (byte)system.convert.touint32(data.substring(i, 2), 16); The particulars of an asset are stored into one table of a database in the following manner: string s = "insert into assets values('" + textbox1.text + "','" + textbox2.text + "','" + textbox3.text + "','" + textbox4.text + "','" + textbox5.text + "','" + textbox6.text + "','" + textbox7.text + "','" + textbox8.text + "','yes')"; OleDbConnection con = new OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Ace.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\\Program Files\\Apache Software Foundation\\Tomcat 5.5\\webapps\\proj\\asset.mdb;"); OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(s, con); //cmd.commandtype = CommandType.Text;

54 con.open(); cmd.executenonquery(); con.close(); MessageBox.Show("Data ADDED"); } catch (Exception e1) { MessageBox.Show(e1.ToString()); } //OleDbDataAdapter adp = new OleDbDataAdapter(sqlQuery, con); After storing into the database, odbc connection is to be done and then accessing the tables in the database To obtain a connection: Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection ("jdbc:odbc:wombat", "login", "password"); The java.sql.statement class is used to compose and execute SQL queries on the DBMS. A query of some sort, either a select statement, or an insert, update or delete statement could be performed after connecting. The results of a query are used to create a java.sql.resultset. Using the connection obtained in the example above, an example of the code for a Select statement could be: Statement stmt = con.createstatement(); ResultSet rs = stmt.executequery("select a, b, c FROM Table1"); while ( rs.next() ) { int x = getint("a");

55 String s = getstring("b"); float f = getfloat("c"); } Stored procedures on a database can also be executed with two subclasses of java.sql.statement: java.sql.preparedstatement, and java.sql.callablestatement. For example, to issue an asset : <%@ page import="java.sql.*"%> <html> try{ Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver"); String url="jdbc:odbc:asset"; Connection con=drivermanager.getconnection(url,"",""); String str="select * from assets where AVAILABLE='yes'"; Statement st=con.createstatement(); ResultSet rs=st.executequery(str); out.println("these are the available assets ); while(rs.next()) { for(int i=1;i<=8;i++) { out.print("&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"+rs.g etstring(i)+"&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"); } out.println("<br/>"); } con.close();

56 7. SYSTEM USAGE Fig 7.1 GUI when the reader is connected

57 Fig 7.2 GUI of the main page

58 Fig 7.3 New Asset page

59 Fig 7.4 Issue asset page

60 Fig 7.5 Details of student who took the asset.

61 Fig 7.6 Remove asset from database

62 Fig 7.7 After deletion

63 Fig 7.8 Total number of assets at the end of the day