Step-by-step guide — Plan-Design-Deploy-Optimize — To provide a comprehensive solution for the architectural design of the next-generation online — trip management — dashboard for the — travel agency

Biswanath Giri
5 min readJul 21, 2024

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This guide outlines the workflow for designing a comprehensive online trip management dashboard for a travel agency with 10,000+ users, considering both functional and non-functional requirements.

1. Define Requirements:

  • Functional Requirements:
  • User registration and login
  • Automatic reservation loading (airline, hotel, car rental APIs)
  • Manual reservation entry
  • Trip grouping and management (automatic removal of completed trips)
  • Social media integration for trip sharing
  • Rich user interface (web and mobile)
  • Seamless integration with existing travel systems
  • Accommodation for future partnerships with new vendors
  • Non-Functional Requirements:
  • Scalability (to handle 10,000+ users)
  • Security (secure user data, encrypted communication)
  • Performance (fast loading times, responsive UI)
  • Availability (high uptime)
  • Maintainability (easy to deploy updates and fix bugs)

2. Design the System Architecture:

This system will use a microservices architecture with a focus on scalability and maintainability.

  • Frontend:
  • Develop a web application using a modern framework like React, Vue.js, or Angular.
  • Develop a mobile application using a cross-platform framework like Flutter or React Native.
  • Backend:
  • Implement an API Gateway (e.g., Google Cloud API Gateway) for a single entry point for all requests.
  • Develop microservices for:
  • User Management (registration, authentication, profiles)
  • Reservation Management (fetching & storing reservations, manual entry)
  • Trip Management (grouping reservations, managing trip lifecycle)
  • Social Media Integration (connections & sharing)
  • Utilize a container orchestration platform like Kubernetes (e.g., Google Cloud Run) for managing and scaling microservices.
  • Data Storage:
  • Use a relational database (e.g., Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL/MySQL) for structured data (users, reservations, trips).
  • Consider a NoSQL database (e.g., Cloud Firestore) for unstructured data (social media posts, logs) for flexibility and scalability.

3. Development Workflow:

  • Phase 1: User Interface and API Design
  • Design the user interface mockups for both web and mobile applications.
  • Define the API endpoints for each microservice.
  • Phase 2: Backend Development
  • Develop the API Gateway and individual microservices.
  • Integrate with third-party APIs (airline, hotel, car rental, social media) using secure protocols (OAuth).
  • Implement security features like user authentication (e.g., Firebase Authentication) and data encryption.
  • Phase 3: Frontend Development
  • Develop the web and mobile applications using the chosen frameworks.
  • Connect the frontend applications to the API Gateway for data exchange.
  • Phase 4: Testing and Deployment
  • Conduct thorough testing of all functionalities (manual and automated).
  • Deploy the application to a cloud platform (e.g., Google Cloud Platform) for scalability and reliability.

4. Ongoing Maintenance and Improvement:

  • Continuously monitor system performance and identify areas for improvement.
  • Implement logging and analytics to track user behavior and identify potential issues.
  • Release regular updates with new features and bug fixes.

Users:

  • 10,000+ registered users worldwide

Requirements:

Automatic Reservation Loading:

  • Integrate with existing airline, hotel, and car rental systems via APIs.
  • Use frequent flier accounts, hotel point accounts, and car rental rewards accounts to fetch reservations.

Manual Reservation Entry:

  • Allow customers to manually input reservations into the system.

Dashboard Grouping and Management:

  • Group reservations by trip.
  • Automatically remove items from the dashboard once the trip is complete.

Social Media Integration:

  • Allow users to share trip information on standard social media platforms.

Rich User Interface:

  • Provide a highly responsive and feature-rich user interface across web and mobile platforms.

Seamless Integration:

  • Ensure smooth integration with existing travel systems.
  • Plan for future partnerships with ‘favored’ vendors.

Proposed Architecture:

  1. Frontend:
  • Web Application: Built using a modern frontend framework like React, Vue.js, or Angular.
  • Mobile Application: Developed using cross-platform frameworks like Flutter or React Native to ensure consistency across iOS and Android devices.

2.Backend:

  • API Gateway: Acts as a single entry point for all client requests, providing load balancing, caching, and security.
  • Microservices:
  • User Management Service: Handles user registration, authentication, and profile management.
  • Reservation Management Service: Interfaces with airline, hotel, and car rental systems to fetch reservations. Supports manual entry of reservations.
  • Trip Management Service: Groups reservations by trip, manages the completion of trips, and removes completed trips from the dashboard.
  • Social Media Integration Service: Manages connections and shares trip information to social media platforms.

3.Data Storage:

  • Database: Use a relational database like PostgreSQL or MySQL for structured data (users, reservations, trips).
  • NoSQL Database: Use a NoSQL database like MongoDB for unstructured data (social media posts, logs).

4.Third-Party Integrations:

  • Airline, Hotel, and Car Rental APIs: Integrate with these systems to fetch reservation data.
  • Social Media APIs: Use OAuth for secure access to social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

5.Security:

  • Authentication: Use OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect for secure authentication.
  • Data Encryption: Ensure all data in transit and at rest is encrypted.
  • Role-Based Access Control: Implement RBAC to control user access to various features.

6.Scalability:

  • Load Balancer: Use a load balancer to distribute incoming requests across multiple instances.
  • Containerization: Use Docker for containerizing services to ensure consistency and ease of deployment.
  • Orchestration: Use Kubernetes for orchestration and scaling of containers.

Detailed Components:

API Gateway:

  • Manages all incoming requests.
  • Routes requests to appropriate microservices.
  • Provides authentication, authorization, and request throttling.

User Management Service:

  • Manages user registration and authentication.
  • Stores user profiles and preferences.

Reservation Management Service:

  • Fetches reservations from third-party APIs.
  • Allows manual entry of reservations.
  • Stores reservation data in the database.

Trip Management Service:

  • Groups reservations by trip.
  • Manages the lifecycle of trips.
  • Automatically removes completed trips from the dashboard.

Social Media Integration Service:

  • Manages social media connections.
  • Allows users to share trip information.
  • Uses OAuth for secure access to social media platforms.

Technology Stack:

Frontend:

  • Web: React / Vue.js / Angular
  • Mobile: Flutter / React Native

Backend:

  • Node.js / Spring Boot (Java) / Django (Python)
  • Express.js (if using Node.js)

Database:

  • PostgreSQL / MySQL
  • MongoDB (for NoSQL)

Infrastructure:

  • AWS / Azure / Google Cloud for cloud services.
  • Docker for containerization.
  • Kubernetes for container orchestration.

High-Level Diagram:

Frontend:

  • Web Application
  • Mobile Application

Backend:

  • API Gateway
  • Microservices:
  • User Management Service
  • Reservation Management Service
  • Trip Management Service
  • Social Media Integration Service

Data Storage:

  • Relational Database (PostgreSQL / MySQL)
  • NoSQL Database (MongoDB)

Third-Party Integrations:

  • Airline, Hotel, and Car Rental APIs
  • Social Media APIs

Ongoing Maintenance and Improvement

  • Continuously monitor system performance and identify areas for improvement.
  • Implement logging and analytics to track user behavior and identify potential issues.
  • Release regular updates with new features and bug fixes.

By following this guide, the travel agency can build a robust, scalable, and user-friendly trip management dashboard that meets both current and future needs. The architecture ensures seamless integration with existing systems and provides flexibility for future enhancements.

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Biswanath Giri

Cloud & AI Architect | Empowering People in Cloud Computing, Google Cloud AI/ML, and Google Workspace | Enabling Businesses on Their Cloud Journey