ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY

ALIGARH (INDIA)
Session 2009-2010

THE TIME TABLE

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
SUBMITTED TO:

MR. AASIM ZAFAR

MRS. SAJIDA KHATOON
SUBMITTED BY:
MUHAMMAD JISHAN

08-MCA-43

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our first experience of project has been successfully, thanks to the

support staff of many friends & colleagues with gratitude. We wish to
acknowledge all of them. However, we wish to make special mention of the
following.
First of all we are thankful of our project guide Mr. AASIM ZAFAR
under whose guidance we were able to complete our project. We are
wholeheartedly thankful to him for giving us his value able time & attention
& for providing us a systematic way for completing our project in time.
We must make special mention of MRS. SAJIDA KHATOON and
MR. SUNIL KUMAR SHARMA, our project in charge for their cooperation & assistance in solving a technical problem. We would thank to
our chairman Dr. M.U.BOKHARI & all lab maintenance staff for providing
us assistance in various h/w & s/w problem encountered during course of our
project.
We are also very thankful to respective timetable in charge sir MR. A.
R. FARIDI who gave us an opportunity to present this project.

MUHAMMAD JISHAN

INDEX
SERIAL
NO.

CHAPTER NAME

1. INTRODUCTION
Introduction to Project
Introduction to Technology Used
2. SYSTEM ANALYSIS
3. CONSTRAINTS
SOFT CONSTRAINTS
HARD CONSTRAINTS
4. END USER OF SYSTEM
5.

WHY DECIDED TO DEVELOP THIS SYSTEM

6.

UML DIAGRAM

7.

ER DIAGRAM

8. DATABASE DESIGN
9. COMPLETE SYSTEM MODULE DESCRIPTION
10. REPORT GENERATED BY THE SYSTEM
11. INSTALLATION AND USER MANUAL
12. LIMITATION AND POSSIBLE ENHANCEMENT
14. REFERENCES

PAGE
NO.

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION OF PROJECT
The problem is to design and implement an algorithm to create a semester course time
table by assigning time-slots and rooms to a given set of courses to be run that semester
under given constraints. The constraints include avoiding clashes of time-slots and
rooms, assigning appropriate rooms and appropriate no. of slots and contact hours to the
courses etc

Although most of the college administrative work has been computerized, the lecturetimetable scheduling is still mostly done manually due to its technical difficulties. The
manual scheduling of lecture-timetable requires considerable time and efforts. The
lecture-timetable scheduling is a constraint satisfaction problem in which we find an
optimal solution that satisfies the given set of constraints.
The college lecture-timetabling problem asks us to find some time slots and classrooms
which satisfy the constraints imposed on offered courses, instructors, classrooms and so
on. Therefore, the variables to be instantiated are time slots and classrooms of offered
courses. Since the problem is a combinatorial optimization problem belonging to NPhard class, the computation time for timetabling tends to grow exponentially as the
number of variables increase. There have been a number of approaches made in the past
decades to the problem of constructing timetables for colleges and schools. Timetabling
problems may be solved by different methods inherited either from operations research
such as graph coloring, mathematical programming, local search procedures such as
tabu search and simulated annealing, genetic algorithms or from backtracking-based
constraint satisfaction manipulation.
We have formulated the method for developing effective and practical timetabling
algorithm [3] which is capable of taking care of both hard and soft constraints using
simplified version of iterative forward search technique [7] based on priority. We
primarily focused on developing algorithm, which is easy to implement without
compromising on its effectiveness and performance.

INTRODUCTION TO TECHNOLOGY USED

Features of Visual Basic.NET:
Visual Basic.NET is a flexible, high level, object-oriented programming
language.
Visual Basic.NET includes certain low level features that are normally
available only in assembly or machine language.
Visual Basic.NET is widely available, commercial interpreter are available for
most personal computer, mini computers and main frames.
Visual Basic.NET is largely machined independent. Programs written in Visual
Basic.NET are easily ported from one computer to another.
Your programs interface may include the familiar controls that window users
already know how to operate-such as command buttons, option list, text boxes and
scroll bars.
With just a few mouse actions, you can add any combination of these controls
to a program.
As a result design tasks that used to require many hours of detailed
programming efforts can how be completed in minutes.
The S/Ws developed in Visual Basic.NET are user friendly and good looking
In Visual Basic.NET you can quickly design the visual elements of any new
programming project.

Chapter 3
CONSTRAINTS
Constraints are divided into two parts:

HARD CONSTRAINTS
C1: A classroom is not assigned to more than one lecture at the same time.
C2: An instructor cannot teach more than one class at the same time.
C3: Courses for the same year-session students of a department cannot take
place at the same time.
C4: The classroom for a course should have enough capacity to take students
registered in the course.
C5: The classroom should be well equipped with required facilities for the
classes

SOFT CONSTRAINTS
C6: The lectures are not assigned to time slots, which are in the
instructors forbidden time zones.
C7: Instructors daily lecture hours should be restricted to be within the
allowed maximum hours.
C8: As far as possible, classes are scheduled in the instructors preferred
time zones.

C9: A lunch/dinner break must be scheduled.

C10: The theory courses are scheduled on Monday and Tuesday, and the
practical courses are scheduled on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
C11: If possible, the lecture hours for a course should be scheduled
consecutively.
C12: As far as possible, classes should be scheduled in their corresponding
departments exclusive-use classrooms.
C13: The classrooms should be allocated in a manner to minimize the
distances between adjacent classes classrooms.

It is desirable for timetables to satisfy all hard and soft constraints.

However, it is usually difficult to meet all these constraints. Any hard constraint
must not be violated in any case, but some soft constraints can be sacrificed to
find feasible timetables.

Chapter 4
END USER OF SYSTEM
Our System is developed keeping in mind that the following end users can
use it in easy manner.
1. ADMINISTRATOR
2. INSTRUCTORS
PROFESSOR
READER
LECTURER
3. STUDENT
INTERNAL
EXTERNAL

Chapter 5
WHY DECIDED TO DEVELOP THIS SYSTEM
The broad objective that I set myself was to develop a generic timetable evaluator,
which would allow the user in the simplest way possible to define both the situation that
the timetable had been developed for, and the characteristics of a good timetable. Such
an evaluator could have a number of possible uses:
To automatically determine the quality of and to give feedback on timetables
generated by an automatic solver or otherwise.
To integrate any number of timetables.
To develop applications for the manual building of timetables that can give feedback
and make suggestions to the user as the timetable is built.
To potentially be used as part of an automatic solver.

As demonstrated in the previous section, any timetabling problem of real world

Proportions are likely to have considerable complexity.
For this reason, creating a reliable automatic solver which requires no manual
Intervention is a very difficult problem, and most organizations do not have such a
solution.
Instead, most timetables are created manually by expert administrators who have deep
knowledge of the requirements of all parties involved.
I believe that a primary use of an evaluator for such timetable would be to give
assistance to the manual creating and modifying of timetables. The human makes every
decision, but can be guided as to what s/he can and cannot do, and can be given
suggestions as to what is the better thing to do.

Chapter 6
UML DIAGRAMS

SEQUENCE DIAGRAM

USER/ADMIN
DATABASE

LOGIN
USERNAME/PASSWORD

CHECK VALIDATION

VERIFY USER
MDI SCREEN
UNSUCCESSFULL
VALIDATION
ERROR MESSAGE

SEQUENCE DIAGRAM(ADD TEACHER)

ADMINISTRATOR
DATABASE

FRONT END
REQUEST ADD FUNCTION

DISPLAY ADD FUNCTION

INFORMATION FILLED
SENDS FIELDS
DATA VALIDATION
MESSAGE (DATA IS SAVED)

SUCCESSFULL
UNSUCCESSFULL

ERROR MESSAGE

SEQUENCE DIAGRAM(DELETE TEACHER)

ADMINISTRATOR
DATABASE

FRONT END
REQUEST DELETE FUNCTION

DISPLAY DELETE FUNCTION

ENTER ID OR NAME
SENDS FIELDS
DATA VALIDATION
MESSAGE (DATA IS DELETED)

SUCCESSFULL
UNSUCCESSFULL

ERROR MESSAGE

SEQUENCE DIAGRAM(ADD TIMETABLE)

ADMINISTRATOR
DATABASE

FRONT END
SELECT COURSE
SELECT SLOT

ENTER TEACHER,ROOM
AND COURSE

SENDS FIELDS
DATA VALIDATION

MESSAGE (DATA IS DELETED)

SUCCESSFULL
UNSUCCESSFULL

ERROR MESSAGE

Chapter 7
ER DIAGRAM
SID
MID

COURSE
TIME TABLE

INSTRUCTOR

ROOM

ASSIGN

TO
NAME

ID
CCODE

DE

TEACHER

1
LECT/
WEAK

NAME

N
COURSE

CID

TYPE
INTAKE

N
ROOM

ID

LOC.

CAPACITY

Chapter 8
DATABSE DESIGN
All the tables used in the system are normalized.

TIMETABLE
SID

MID

TEACHER

COURSE

ROOM

TIMETABLE1
SID

MID

TEACHER

MID

ROOM

NAME

CID

TIMETABLE2
SID

COURSE
CCODE

LEC/WEEK

INSTRUCTOR
ID

NAME

QUALIFICATION

TYPE

ROOM
ID

LOCATION

INTAKE

LEC/WEEK

Chapter 9
COMPLETE SYSTEM MODULE DESCRIPTION

Chapter 10
REPORT GENERATED BY THE SYSTEM

Chapter 11
INSTALLATION AND USER MANUAL
1. Insert the Timetable CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Open the folder named set up
3. Double click the script file named main
4. Give your oracle user id and password.
5. Follow the instructions of the installation program, which will automatically
start on your computer.
3. The first thing you can choose is the language. Select one of the offered
options and click on Next.
4. The installation program will then welcome you with the following start-up
screen

The installation program will ask you for a few necessary details. Every time it
will offer a default option. If you want to change it for any reason, you can do
that in the respective installation step.
There are control buttons at the bottom of the dialog box:
Back: Returns to the previous step. Use it when you want to change existing
data.
Next: Moves to the next step.
Cancel: Cancels the installation. If you interrupt the installation for any reason,
you can run it again as described.
Default options are suitable for most computers.

The installation program will offer C:\TTMS as the default directory. If you want
to change it, click on Browse and find the required folder. When you have
selected the folder, click on Next.

6. The installation program will then ask for the program folder name and it will
offer TTMS. Program folders are used for starting programs. They are
accessible through Start/Programs. If you want to enter a different name, type
it in or select an already existing folder from the list. If you are satisfied with the
name, click on Next.

7. Wait until the program files are copied on the disk and program groups are
created.
8. Finish the installation by clicking on Finish.
9. After a successful installation, the program will create the folder TTMS and
will place into it a shortcut for starting the program. It will also place TTMS icon
on the desktop.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENT:
PENTIUM IV processor or above.
Min. 256 mb of RAM
ORACLE should be installed.
Microsofts .NET framework shoud be installed.
Operating System: windows 2000 or above.

Limitation Of The System

Timetable Management System was created for the use of Department of Computer
Science, Aligarh Muslim University (Aligarh). All the basic Requirements of a
timetable such as timetable for student and lecturers, master timetable for lecturers,
enquiry for free classes and booking for the free classes are available. The main
limitation with Timetable Management System is that it is not linking to the current
student database. This is because if the system connects to the current database the
requirement for the hardware and software is higher.
Besides that, another limitation is that the Department of Computer Science must have a
permanent administrator to maintain the database in the system. Administrator has to
key in the data and lecturer for the first time registration.

Conclusions and Future Work

Our approach of developing timetabling system was proved successful and
practical as well as it demonstrated its suitability for solving colleges
lecture-course timetabling problem. We have also shown that how we can fit
our timetabling system as Rich Internet Application. From this timetabling
system, we are able to obtain useful information for future work. Further
development includes expanding algorithm for solving timetabling problem
of more that one department at same time. Also improving problem
modeling and search technique and reducing execution time. More research
is needed to complete our interactive, automatic timetabling system. The
method, techniques and concepts developed will be tested on more datasets
and application.
The Timetable Management System can be further enhanced by adding the following:_ Linking to the AMU database so that the University has one reference database.
_ with the linking to AMU database, the task for the administrator is less. This is
because the students data is taken from the AMU database.

Chapter 14
REFERENCES
1. PL/SQL
IVAN BAYROSS
2. VB.NET COMPLETE REFERENCE
SHAPIRO
3. BLACK BOOK VB.NET
4. INTERNET RESOURCES

your comments and regards are welcome!

Happy timetabling!!!
Muhammad Zeeshan