Cinema Ticket Booking

A VB.NET WinForms desktop app for a fictional cinema ("Palace Kino Cinema"): staff log in or register an account, browse what's currently showing, pick a showtime and ticket types, choose seats on a 64-seat hall map (A1–H8), and confirm payment. Built as the CSC301 Visual Basic course project (UiTM, 2022) on .NET Framework 4.7.2. The forms carry a cosmetic dark-cinema restyle (near-black surfaces, gold/red accents, Segoe UI, flat buttons), and the originally documented functional gaps have since been fixed (working payment confirmation + receipt, real data handoff between forms, seat deselect with a quantity cap, register validation, password masking, friendly first run, clean process exit — see Functional fixes below).

New developer? Start with .docs/tldr.md — every doc summarised on one page. The full guide lives in .docs/.

What it does

Captured from a live run (just run, demo account registered in-app):

Login	Register
Start Up	Movie Information
Booking	Payment

Seat — the 64-label hall map (A1–H8); click a seat to select it (red), click again to deselect (here D4, D5, E4, E5; selection is capped at the booking quantity):

Receipt — after CONFIRM PAYMENT, the RECEIPT button prints the full booking:

Screen by screen:

Screen	What happens there
Login (entry form)	Reads UsernameAndPassword.txt line-pairs and matches the typed username/password (masked input); success opens Start Up. First run: friendly "no accounts yet" message and the file is created
Register	Validates all fields are filled and the username is not already taken, then appends the pair to UsernameAndPassword.txt and returns to Login
Start Up	Hub menu — More Information, Book, or Exit (exits the whole app cleanly)
Movie Information	Static movie fact sheet: title, director, cast, genre, subtitle, synopsis, rating, length
Booking	Showtime picker: date, time, ticket types (Adult RM20 / Children RM15 / Disabled RM10 / Senior), quantity — all handed to the shared BookingContext on NEXT
Seat	64-label seat map (rows A–H, seats 1–8); click to select (red) / click again to deselect; selection capped at the booking quantity; Confirm carries the seats to Payment
Payment	Live booking summary (movie, date, time, type, seats, quantity, RM total) + payment-method radio group; CONFIRM PAYMENT validates a method and confirms; RECEIPT shows the full receipt

Every transition is a Form.Show() + Me.Hide() pair — one process, eight forms — with the booking flowing through a shared BookingContext module.

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Installed by
PowerShell + winget	Windows 10/11 stock	— (the only true prerequisites)
MSBuild	Framework MSBuild (ships with Windows); VS Build Tools 2022 preferred if present	— (detected by setup.ps1, never auto-installed)
.NET Framework 4.7.2 runtime	in Windows 10/11 stock	—
Node.js	LTS (only for the Claude CLI)	setup.ps1
uv + Python	latest (only for .claude tooling)	setup.ps1
just	any recent	setup.ps1
Claude Code CLI	latest	setup.ps1 (optional, for AI-assisted dev)

Quick start

# 1. One-time machine setup (idempotent — safe to re-run)
pwsh ./setup.ps1

# 2. Close and reopen PowerShell so PATH updates land
# 3. Build and launch the app (the Login window opens)
just run

The app is a GUI — just run builds the solution and launches the exe; close the window or run just stop. First launch has no accounts: click Register first (clicking LOGIN without any accounts shows a friendly "no accounts yet" message and creates the store).

Commands

Run just with no arguments to list every recipe. The ones you'll use daily:

Command	What it does
just build	Build the solution (Debug) with MSBuild
just run	Build, then launch the WinForms app
just stop	Kill only THIS repo's app processes (matched by exe path)
just clean	Delete MSBuild output (bin\, obj\)
just test	Run the test suite — smoke checks + BookingContext unit tests (tests/smoke.ps1)
just claudex	Launch Claude Code (Sonnet, all permissions)

Testing

just test runs tests/smoke.ps1 — 48 checks, exit 0 only on a full pass. Sections 1–4 are smoke/regression checks over the built app; section 5 is a real headless unit suite over the one piece of logic that is testable without a GUI.

1. Build gate — just build must exit 0 and produce the exe.
2. Launch/lifecycle — the exe is launched (working dir pinned to bin\Debug, same as just run); within 10 s it must expose a main window handle titled Login; it must still be alive 3 s after launch (no startup crash); it is then closed via CloseMainWindow() (WM_CLOSE, with Kill() as fallback) and zero processes may be left running from this repo's exe path.
3. Warning-baseline gate — a rebuild capturing MSBuild output must introduce no warning codes beyond the documented three-warning baseline (the uncoded ToolsVersion 15.0→4.0 notice, MSB3644, MSB3270 — see Troubleshooting). A warning-free Build Tools 2022 build passes trivially.
4. Regression gates — that the functional fixes stay in place. Two of these read the built assembly by reflection rather than grepping source: each password box is instantiated and its real UseSystemPasswordChar property asserted, and every navigational form must carry a *_FormClosed handler that survived into IL. A tightened source check then requires all six navigational forms to guard the call (If e.CloseReason <> CloseReason.ApplicationExitCall Then Application.Exit()), not merely mention Application.Exit somewhere.
5. BookingContext value assertions — tests/bookingcontext.tests.ps1, dot-sourced so its results fold into the same summary. BookingContext.vb is a plain Public Module with no WinForms dependency, so vbc.exe compiles it standalone into a throwaway DLL (using the same switches the .vbproj uses) which PowerShell then drives directly. That standalone compile is itself the assertion that the module stays WinForms-free. The 34 checks pin TicketCount (typed quantity, and the fallback to SelectedSeats.Count when it is 0), TotalPrice (= TicketCount × RM20, on both paths), SeatList() (join order, deselection, the "-" empty case), and a full Booking → Seat → Payment round-trip: the fields Booking.btnNext_Click writes and the seats Seat.ToggleSeat adds, asserted as the exact strings Payment.RefreshSummary renders ("A5, A6", "2", "RM40") plus the receipt gate. Run it alone with powershell -NoProfile -File tests\bookingcontext.tests.ps1.

What is still not covered, and why. Everything except BookingContext is WinForms code-behind: Seat.ToggleSeat's quantity cap and colour toggle, Login/Register validation, and the MessageBox receipt text only run in response to real clicks. Asserting those would need a UI-automation driver (WinAppDriver / FlaUI) that this repo does not carry, or an MVP-style extraction far larger than the targeted fixes here. Rather than ship hollow tests that pretend otherwise, the suite asserts what can be asserted honestly — and where a check is necessarily static (the CloseReason guard, the .vbproj wiring) it is labelled as such in tests/smoke.ps1.

Functional fixes (2026)

The coursework originally shipped with a set of documented functional gaps. They have all been fixed (the history of what each gap was lives in .docs/01-overview/architecture.md):

Was	Now	Where
CONFIRM PAYMENT and RECEIPT buttons had no Click handlers (dead UI)	Confirm validates a payment method and shows the booking-summary confirmation; Receipt shows the full receipt (customer + booking + seats + total)	Payment.vb
No data flowed between forms	BookingContext shared module carries customer, date/time, ticket type, quantity, and seats from Booking → Seat → Payment	BookingContext.vb
Seats could not be deselected and nothing was passed on	Click toggles select/deselect; selection is capped at the booking quantity (gentle warning); selected seats reach Payment	Seat.vb (+ on-screen hint)
Register appended blindly — duplicates and empty fields accepted	All fields required; duplicate usernames rejected (file is read before append)	Register.vb
Passwords visible as typed	UseSystemPasswordChar masking on both password boxes	Login.Designer.vb, Register.Designer.vb
First-run login crashed into "Error : Reading UnSuccessful !"	Missing credentials file is created and a friendly "no accounts yet — Register first" message shown; typed exception handling	Login.vb
Closing Start Up (or any later form) left a windowless zombie process	Application.Exit wired on Exit button and on real form closes across the flow	StartUp.vb + all non-main forms

Remaining known limitations (documented, deliberate scope):

Limitation	Where
Passwords stored in plaintext line pairs in a flat text file (no hashing)	UsernameAndPassword.txt (git-ignored)
The movie title is a fixed house value (Palace Kino Feature) — the Booking form never captured one; totals use the RM20 adult rate × quantity (no per-category counts)	BookingContext.vb
frmIndex is an empty leftover form that still compiles	frmIndex.vb
The credential store path is relative to the process working directory (the justfile pins it to bin\Debug)	Login.vb, Register.vb

Troubleshooting

The build prints warnings about ToolsVersion 15.0, MSB3644, or MSB3270

Expected with the Framework MSBuild that ships with Windows — all three are benign and the exe works. Installing VS Build Tools 2022 (manual, elevated) makes them disappear; the justfile auto-prefers it once present. See .docs/06-troubleshooting/common-issues.md.

Login says "No accounts exist yet" or "Login UnSuccessful"

There are no committed credentials. Click Register to create an account first, then log in with it. (UsernameAndPassword.txt lives next to the exe and is git-ignored; clicking LOGIN on a fresh machine creates it empty and points you at Register.)

just build fails with "MSBuild not found"

Run pwsh ./setup.ps1 — it verifies at least the Framework MSBuild exists at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe (present on every stock Windows 10/11).

The app window never appears after just run

Check the build output above the Start-Process line — if MSBuild failed, run stops at the build step. Also confirm nothing killed it: Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.Path -like "*cinema-ticket-booking*" }.

More in .docs/06-troubleshooting/common-issues.md.

Project layout

cinema-ticket-booking/
  Cinema Ticketing Booking System.sln    # VS solution (open in Visual Studio if you have it)
  Cinema Ticketing Booking System/       # the single VB.NET WinForms project
    Login.vb / Register.vb               # flat-file auth (validated; passwords masked)
    BookingContext.vb                    # shared booking state (Booking -> Seat -> Payment)
    StartUp.vb                           # hub menu (Exit ends the process cleanly)
    MovieInformation.vb                  # static movie fact sheet
    Booking.vb                           # showtime + ticket-type form (fills BookingContext)
    Seat.vb                              # 64-label seat map (toggle select, quantity cap)
    Payment.vb                           # summary + confirm payment + receipt
    frmIndex.vb                          # empty leftover form
    *.Designer.vb / *.resx               # designer-generated UI per form
    My Project/                          # AssemblyInfo, app startup config (MainForm=Login)
    App.config                           # targets .NET Framework 4.7.2
    bin/, obj/                           # build output (git-ignored)
  docs/images/                           # README screenshots (captured from a live run)
  tests/smoke.ps1                        # build + launch/lifecycle + regression gates (`just test`)
  tests/bookingcontext.tests.ps1         # headless BookingContext unit suite (dot-sourced by smoke.ps1)
  justfile                               # day-2 commands (`just` to list)
  setup.ps1                              # one-time machine bootstrap
  .docs/                                 # numbered documentation set — start at .docs/tldr.md
  .claude/                               # Claude Code skills, hooks, settings