Inventory Manager CLI

A real-world inspired command-line tool designed for small businesses to manage inventory data.
The application provides full CRUD functionality, CSV import/export, JSON persistence, and robust input validation — all inside an intuitive terminal interface.

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Table of Contents

• Project Overview
• User Goals
• Site Owner Goals
• Features
• Data Model
• Flowchart
• Technologies Used
• Testing
• PEP8-Validation
• Bugs-and-Fixes
• Deployment
• How-to-Run-Locally
• Credits--Attribution

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Project Overview

Inventory Manager CLI is a Python-based command-line application that enables users to efficiently track and manage product stock.

It allows users to:

• Add new products
• Edit existing product details
• Delete unwanted entries
• Search products by name
• Export inventory to CSV
• Import inventory from CSV
• Automatically save data to JSON

All operations include error handling, input validation, and clear user feedback.

The project aligns with the Code Institute’s Python Essentials assessment requirements and demonstrates clean code, modular functions, defensive programming, and robust data handling.

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User Goals

• Easily manage product information
• Search for products quickly
• Import/export inventory files
• Use a simple and intuitive interface

Site Owner Goals

• Provide a reliable database-like system using JSON
• Ensure the user cannot break the application through invalid input
• Offer helpful messages and confirmations
• Maintain clean, maintainable, readable code

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Features

✔ Add Product

Adds a new item with:

• Name
• Quantity
• Price
  With validation:
• Positive values
• Non-empty names
• Handles ValueError gracefully

✔ Update Product

Allows modifying:

• Quantity
• Price
  Empty input keeps the original value.

✔ Delete Product

Deletes by ID, with confirmation prompt:

Are you sure? (y/n)

✔ Search Products

Case-insensitive partial search.
Example: “app” matches “Apple” and “Pineapple”.

✔ Export to CSV

Exports the inventory into inventory_export.csv.

✔ Import from CSV

Reads inventory_import.csv and adds products.
Invalid rows are skipped safely.

✔ JSON Data Persistence

Data automatically loads at startup and saves on exit.

✔ Defensive Programming

• Handles invalid numeric inputs
• Catches missing files
• Prevents negative values
• Protects against corrupted JSON

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Data Model

Product structure stored in inventory.json:

{
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Apple",
    "quantity": 10,
    "price": 1.5
}

The inventory is a list of these objects.

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Flowchart

[Start]
   ↓
Load JSON → If missing: create empty list
   ↓
Show Menu
   ↓
User selects option ─────────┐
   ↓                         │
Perform operation            │
   ↓                         │
Save/Exit? ── No ────────────┘
   ↓
Save data to JSON
   ↓
[End]

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Technologies Used

• Python 3
• JSON (data persistence)
• CSV module (import/export)
• Replit (cloud deployment)
• Git & GitHub (version control)
• PEP8 Validator (code style compliance)

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Testing

✔ Manual Testing Table

Feature	Action	Expected	Result
Load data	Start program	Inventory loads without crash	Pass
Add product	Enter name, qty, price	Product added	Pass
Add invalid product	Enter text instead of number	Error message	Pass
Update product	Modify qty/price	Updated successfully	Pass
Update invalid	Negative values	Error message	Pass
Delete product	Enter ID	Removed with confirmation	Pass
Delete invalid	ID not found	Error message	Pass
Search	Type partial name	Returns matches	Pass
Export CSV	Option 6	File created	Pass
Import CSV	Option 7	Products imported	Pass
Save and exit	Option 8	JSON saved	Pass

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PEP8 Validation

The Python code was validated using:

• Code Institute Python Linter
• PEP8 Online Validator

Results:

✔ No major issues
✔ Proper indentation
✔ No unused variables
✔ No overly long lines
✔ Clean and readable code

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Bugs and Fixes

Fixed:

• Incorrect function ordering → reorganized
• Indentation error in update_product → fixed
• Missing CSV import validation → added try/except
• Non-PEP8 formatting → full refactor

Remaining Bugs:

No known bugs at the time of submission.

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Deployment

✔ Live Deployment (Replit)

The project is deployed online using Replit and can be accessed here:

🔗 https://replit.com/@biv7sor/inventory-manager-cli?v=1

This deployment fully satisfies Learning Outcome LO9 for cloud-based command-line application deployment.

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How to Run Locally

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/inventory-manager-cli

2. Navigate to the project folder:

cd inventory-manager-cli

3. Run the application:

python run.py

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Credits & Attribution

• All code written entirely by Sorin Bivol.
• No code was copied from external GitHub repositories or tutorials.
• General knowledge and syntactic references:
  • MDN Web Docs
  • W3Schools
  • StackOverflow (conceptual clarification only)
  • Python official documentation

This project was created for the Code Institute Full Stack Diploma – Portfolio Project 3 (Python Essentials).