A Desktop Application written in the Java programming language. The JavaFX software platform, combined with the mySQL relational database management system, were used for this project.
- What is WorkShifts
- Screenshots from the Desktop Application
WorkShifts is a desktop application designed for companies to manage their workshift program. It features a dynamic database that stores all the information entered by the user.
Users can add the company's workshifts and specify the minimum number of employees needed for each shift. They also create employee index cards by filling out required fields such as ID, name, contact information, days off, sick leave, and time off. The application generates a rotating program of days off for the whole year for each employee. Furthermore, it generates monthly schedules by matching the required workshifts to the available employees for each day, taking into account days off, sick leave, and time off. The workshifts remain almost the same for 7 days for each employee (including days off), and then rotate. Changes can be made at any time according to the user's needs, such as changing a shift for a specific employee, deactivating an employee, changing their days off, time off or sick leave etc. The schedules can be presented either for all the employees or for a particular one. The ability to export schedules to Excel is also available.
The application was made in English language.
By pressing the 'Employees' button, a new window appears where we can create a new record (employee) or view, edit, or delete an existing one. The list of created employees is displayed on the left.
The required fields are ID, name, surname, address, phone number, and email. We also have to select the first two days off of the employee, one random day of the week and one Sunday. After saving our changes, the program calculates all the employee's days off for the current year starting from the selected values. Every week, the day off goes one day after the previous week's day off, and the second day is always the Sunday of that week. By pressing the "Show All" button located in the same line, we can review the calculated days off program for all years.
Furthermore, we have the opportunity to change the current week's days off while in the Edit state. We also have the ability to declare sick leave, as well as time off days, either by selecting the duration from the respective fields or by selecting the first fortnight (the second fortnight is automatically calculated after 6 months). The respective "Show All" buttons display all the days ever recorded, while the text areas on the employee window display only the days remaining.
Finally, the "deactivated" checkbox is also available, which we can use to temporarily or permanently deactivate an employee for various reasons (we declare the reason in the corresponding field). The deactivation process excludes the particular employee from the monthly schedules generated by the "workshifts" application. We can anytime uncheck the checkbox and reactivate an employee according to our needs. In such a case, we might need to re-generate the monthly schedule in which we wish to include the reactivated employee.
By pressing the "Work Shifts" button, the "Add WorkShifts" window opens, where we can create new workshifts by selecting particular duration of time (from hour-to hour). In order to complete the process we must fill out the minimum number of employees that the specific workshift requires.
We can always edit or delete a workshift using the "Edit selected line" and "Delete selected line" buttons.
From the main menu, we choose the month from the dropdown menu, for which we want to produce the monthly program and then we press the "Get Programme" button.
If the program for the selected month has already been produced, a message appears on the screen asking whether we want to keep the old program or produce a new one. Several reasons such as deactivation/activation of an employee, changes on sick leave, time off, or days off may require the production of a new program. We can either change the whole program or make changes locally on the existing one.
The program for the whole selected month appears on a new window (repo, sick leave, timeoff days included).
One workshift corresponds to each employee according to the number of employees needed for each workshift. The workshifts remain almost unchanged for 7 days (including days off) and then rotate. When the required workshifts are covered by the existing number of employees, if there are any surplus, they correspond to "choose workshift." In such a case, we have to select the workshift we wish to assign an employee to from the drop-down menu. After any changes are made to the schedule, we have to save them to inform the database.
We also have the ability to display a particular employee's monthly schedule by selecting their ID and pressing the "Go" button.
We can export our schedule to Excel at any time by pressing the "Export to Excel" button.
