Data Files¶

The School Enrollment System uses simple text‑based storage to persist data across sessions.
Each entity type—students, instructors, administrators, courses, and assessments—is stored in its own .txt file.
These files are managed entirely by the dataManager class.

Purpose¶

The data files serve to:

Store all system data between program runs
Provide a human‑readable format for debugging
Keep the system lightweight without requiring a database
Allow easy serialization and deserialization of objects

This approach is ideal for academic projects and console‑based systems.

File List¶

The system uses the following files:

students.txt
instructors.txt
administrators.txt
courses.txt
assessments.txt

Each file contains one serialized object per line.

File Format¶

General Format¶

Each line in a data file represents a single object.
Fields are separated using a delimiter such as a comma or semicolon, depending on implementation.

Example structure:

The dataManager class:

Splits each line using the delimiter
Converts the fields into the appropriate object
Adds the object to the corresponding list

Students File¶

Stores:

Name
ID
Password
Email
Phone number
Address
Role
Credit limit
Enrolled course codes (optional)

Each student is stored on a single line.

Instructors File¶

Stores:

Name
ID
Password
Email
Phone number
Address
Role

Instructors do not store course assignments directly; courses reference instructors instead.

Administrators File¶

Stores:

Name
ID
Password
Email
Phone number
Address
Role

Administrators typically have fewer fields than students.

Courses File¶

Stores:

Course name
Course code
Schedule
Description
Capacity
Credit hours
Enrollment status
Instructor ID (optional)
List of enrolled student IDs

This file represents the academic structure of the system.

Assessments File¶

Stores:

Student ID
Course code
Assessment type
Score
Assessment name

Each line represents one grade entry.

Loading Data¶

When the system starts:

dataManager checks if each file exists
If not, it creates an empty file
If it exists, it reads each line
It reconstructs objects and populates the system lists

This ensures the system always starts with valid data.

Saving Data¶

Before the system exits:

Each list is serialized
Each object is written as a single line
Files are overwritten with the latest data

This guarantees that all changes made during the session are preserved.

Advantages of Text‑Based Storage¶

Easy to inspect manually
Easy to debug
No external dependencies
Simple to implement
Works well for small to medium datasets

Limitations¶

Not suitable for large‑scale systems
No indexing or query optimization
No concurrency control
No relational integrity enforcement

For academic or console‑based projects, however, this approach is ideal.

Summary¶

The data files form the persistence layer of the School Enrollment System.
By storing each entity type in a simple text file and managing them through the dataManager class, the system remains lightweight, transparent, and easy to maintain.

This storage method supports all workflows while keeping the project accessible and easy to understand.