- .Net 8
- Blazor Server
- EF Core 8
- MSSQL Server
- ASP.NET Identity Framework with Blazor Identity Framework UI
- Blazor Fluent UI
Defining the requirements and features is a crucial first step in designing a system. Let's break this down for each of our primary users: Customers, Restaurants, and Delivery Personnel.
- 1. Account Management: Customers should be able to create and manage their accounts, which includes setting their addresses and payment information.
- 2. Restaurant Browsing: Customers should be able to browse different restaurants, view their menus, and see reviews and ratings.
- 3. Order Placement: Customers should be able to place orders from restaurants, specifying the items they want and any customizations.
- 4. Order Tracking: After placing an order, customers should be able to track the status of their order in real-time.
- 5. Payment Processing: Customers should be able to pay for their orders securely through the system.
- 6. Order History and Reordering: Customers should be able to see their past orders and easily place the same order again.
- 7. Rating and Reviews: After the delivery, customers should be able to rate and review both the restaurant and the delivery personnel.
- 8. Promotions and Discounts: Customers should be able to see any current promotions or discounts, and these should be automatically applied to their orders if they qualify.
- 9. Loyalty Program: Customers should earn points for every order, and should be able to see their point balance and redeem points for discounts.
- 10. Customer Support: Customers should be able to access customer support via live chat, phone, or email.
- 1. Account Management: Restaurants need to manage their accounts, which includes setting their location, business hours, and bank account information for payouts.
- 2. Menu Management: Restaurants need to be able to update their menus, including adding new items, removing or disabling unavailable items, and updating prices.
- 3. Order Management: Restaurants need to be able to receive new orders, update the status of orders (e.g., preparing, ready for pickup), and see past orders.
- 4. Payout Management: Restaurants need to be able to see their earnings, manage payouts, and see transaction histories.
- 5. Rating and Review Responses: Restaurants should have the ability to respond to customer reviews.
- 6. Promotion Management: Restaurants should be able to offer promotions on their items, subject to any rules or restrictions set by the platform.
- 7. Support: Restaurants should also have access to customer support, in case they encounter any issues with order management, payments, etc.
- 1. Account Management: Delivery personnel needs to manage their accounts, including setting their availability and managing their banking information for payouts.
- 2. Delivery Management: Delivery personnel needs to be able to receive new delivery assignments, navigate to the restaurant and then to the customer, and confirm when deliveries have been completed.
- 3. Earnings Management: Delivery personnel needs to be able to see their earnings, manage payouts, and see their transaction history.
- 4. Loyalty Program System: The backend services also need to support the loyalty program, including point accrual and redemption.
- 5. Customer Support System: There needs to be a system in place for managing customer support inquiries, which could include a ticketing system, chat system, etc.
- Account Creation and Management:
- Customers can create an account using their email or through social media integration.
- Account management includes setting up and editing personal details, delivery addresses, and payment information.
- Restaurant Browsing and Filtering:
- Customers can browse different restaurants.
- Advanced filtering options allow sorting by distance, cuisine type, ratings, or delivery time.
- Order Placement:
- Customers select items from the restaurant’s menu and add them to their cart.
- At checkout, a detailed summary of the order is provided, including items, quantities, total price, and estimated delivery time.
- Payment Processing:
- Multiple payment options are available, such as credit/debit cards and mobile banking. Cash on delivery can also be chosen.
- Basic Order Tracking:
- After placing an order, customers can track its status (e.g., order placed, being prepared, out for delivery).
- Ratings and Reviews:
- Post-delivery, customers are encouraged to rate and review the restaurant and delivery service.
- Account Creation and Management:
- Restaurants set up their profiles, including location, business hours, and bank account information for payouts.
- Menu Management:
- Restaurants can update their menus, adding new items, modifying existing ones, and managing availability.
- Order Management:
- Restaurants receive orders, update the status (preparing, ready for pickup), and view past orders.
- Basic Analytics and Reporting (Future Feature):
- Basic reporting features for tracking sales, popular items, and customer preferences, with more advanced analytics tools planned for future implementation.
- Account Creation and Management:
- Delivery personnel manage their profiles, including setting their availability and bank information for payouts.
- Delivery Management:
- They receive delivery assignments, navigate to the restaurant and customer’s location, and confirm delivery completion.
- Security: Basic security measures are in place, ensuring data protection and transaction safety.
- Scalability: The system is designed to handle an increasing number of users, orders, and data volume.
- User Interface: The system features a user-friendly interface for easy navigation and operation across all user types.
- Implementation of a comprehensive customer support system.
- Real-time location tracking for orders.
- Advanced analytics tools for restaurants.
- Feedback mechanism for continuous system improvement.
- Target: 1,000,000 customers.
- Consideration: Diverse geographical locations, varying peak usage times.
- Assumption: A ratio can be established for restaurants and delivery personnel to customers. For instance, 1 restaurant per 50 customers and 1 delivery person per 100 customers.
- Estimation: Approximately 20,000 restaurants and 10,000 delivery personnel.
- Assumption: Average order frequency per customer (e.g., 4 orders per month).
- Estimation: Around 4,000,000 orders per month.
- Estimation: Large data sets encompassing user profiles, order histories, menu items, etc.
- Peak Times: Estimate peak traffic times (e.g., weekends, evenings).
- Load Variation: Plan for normal load and peak load scenarios.
- Long-Term Target: 100,000,000 customers.
- Implications: Exponential increase in restaurants and delivery personnel, order volume, and data handling.
- Restaurants:
- Assumption: 1 restaurant per 50 customers.
- Calculation: 1,000,000 customers / 50 = 20,000 restaurants.
- Delivery Personnel:
- Assumption: 1 delivery person per 100 customers.
- Calculation: 1,000,000 customers / 100 = 10,000 delivery personnel.
- Order Volume:
- Assumption: Average 4 orders per customer per month.
- Calculation: 1,000,000 customers * 4 orders per month = 4,000,000 orders per month.
Table Name | Row Count Calculation | Average Record Size Calculation | Memory Size Calculation | Database |
Account Table | 103M (100M + 2M + 1M) | 4 (INT) + 780 (NVARCHAR) + 9 (DECIMAL) + 16 (DATETIME) = 809 bytes | 103M × 809 bytes = 83.347 GB | Azure SQL Database |
Customer Table | 100M (customers) | 8 (INT) + 200 (NVARCHAR) + 16 (DATETIME) = 224 bytes | 100M × 224 bytes = 22.4 GB | Azure SQL Database |
Restaurant Table | 2M (restaurants) | 8 (INT) + 200 (NVARCHAR) + 16 (DATETIME) = 224 bytes | 2M × 224 bytes = 448 MB | Azure SQL Database |
Rider Table | 1M (riders) | 8 (INT) + 200 (NVARCHAR) + 16 (DATETIME) = 224 bytes | 1M × 224 bytes = 224 MB | Azure SQL Database |
Order Table | 400M (100M customers × 4) | 12 (INT) + 18 (DECIMAL) + 300 (NVARCHAR) + 16 (DATETIME) = 346 bytes | 400M × 346 bytes = 138.4 GB | Azure Cosmos DB |
Delivery Order Table | 400M (orders) | 20 (INT) + 32 (DATETIME) + 200 (NVARCHAR) = 252 bytes | 400M × 252 bytes = 100.8 GB | Azure Cosmos DB |
Location Table | 402M (400M orders + 2M restaurants) | DECIMAL: 18 bytes (2 fields), NVARCHAR: 710 bytes (355 chars) = 728 bytes | 402M × 728 bytes ≈ 292.66 GB | Azure Cosmos DB |
Item Order Table | 1.2B (400M orders × 3 items/order) | 16 (INT) + 9 (DECIMAL) = 25 bytes | 1.2B × 25 bytes = 30 GB | Azure Cosmos DB |
Item Table | 40M (20 items/restaurant × 2M restaurants) | INT: 8 bytes (2 fields), DECIMAL: 18 bytes (2 fields), NVARCHAR: 510 bytes (255 chars) = 536 bytes | 40M × 536 bytes ≈ 21.44 GB | Azure SQL Database |
Ledger Table | 1.6B (4 transactions/order × 400M orders) | INT: 12 bytes (3 fields), DECIMAL: 9 bytes, DATETIME: 8 bytes, NVARCHAR: 400 bytes (200 chars) = 429 bytes | 1.6B × 429 bytes ≈ 686.4 GB | Azure Cosmos DB |
Notes:
- “Row Count Calculation” is based on the final growth projections. For example, the Account Table’s row count is the sum of customers, restaurants, and riders.
- “Average Record Size Calculation” is the sum of bytes used by each type of field in a record. For example, in the Account Table, we calculate the bytes for each field type (INT, NVARCHAR, DECIMAL, DATETIME) and sum them up.
- “Memory Size Calculation” multiplies the total row count by the average record size to estimate the total memory required for each table.
- These estimates are for planning purposes and actual database sizes may vary based on real-world data distributions, database engine specifics, and other factors like compression and indexing.
With these calculations in hand, we can now consider the architectural aspects:
- Scalability: The system must be able to scale effectively to handle the large number of users, restaurants, delivery personnel, and the high order volume.
- Elasticity: The architecture should dynamically adapt to varying loads, especially during peak times like weekends and evenings.
- Reliability and Availability: The system should be designed for high reliability and availability, including redundant components and failover mechanisms to handle system failures without impacting user experience.
- Performance: Optimize for fast response times and efficient processing to handle real-time operations like order tracking and payment processing.
- Security and Data Management: Implement robust security measures for data protection, and design a system that can handle large data sets (user profiles, order histories, menu items, etc.) with durability and integrity.
- User Interface: Ensure the system is user-friendly for all user types (customers, restaurants, delivery personnel).
- Integration of Services: Seamlessly integrate various services like account management, payment processing, order tracking, customer support, etc.
With such significant growth projections, several key architectural considerations must be addressed:
- Advanced Scalability: The system must be designed for extreme scalability, capable of handling 100 times the initial user and transaction volume.
- Robust Infrastructure: The infrastructure must be robust enough to support the exponential increase in users, orders, and data, possibly requiring cloud solutions with global distribution and high resilience.
- Enhanced Performance: Performance optimization becomes even more critical, with a focus on efficient processing and low latency to handle a substantially higher volume of real-time transactions.
- Data Handling and Storage: Data management strategies need to be scalable and efficient, capable of handling exponentially larger datasets.
- Advanced Analytics: Implementing advanced analytics tools will be essential for understanding customer behavior, optimizing restaurant performance, and streamlining delivery operations at this scale.
- Automated Scaling and Load Balancing: Automated scaling solutions and sophisticated load balancing will be necessary to efficiently manage the variable and high-volume traffic.
- Continuous System Improvement: A feedback mechanism should be in place for continuous system improvement, considering user feedback, system performance data, and evolving business needs.