Hi John
Welcome to JavaRanch.
Sun have deliberately made the specifications similar to what you would get in the real world. So therefore there can be sections that are vague, there can be contradictions, there could be incorrect information, and there can be important things left out.
In the assignment I did (Fly By Night Services) I had a similar issue: in one part of my specifications it mentioned a requirement for searching on two specific fields, and in another section it gave an example of searching on a third field. I played it safe by allowing the user to search on all three fields. Whether you decide to do this or not is up to you.
My personal view is that I have worked on too many projects where the client expected that anything mentioned in the documentation, or in a meeting, should be considered a requirement :roll: .
Having said that, I should mention that I recall some people stating that they only provided the two absolutely required fields in their GUI, and got 100% for their GUI.
2. To book a record it seems that the id of the customer is stored against the record. If this is correct is it true that a customer cannot book a contractor for a certain date e.g. the customer cannot book a contractor for between the 25th to the 27th of August 2003 - i.e. once a record is booked the user does not know when it is available again.
I think the consensus here is that once a record is booked, it is gone for good. You cannot book a partial period for the contractor (or book each bed in a room separately for hotels).
Also, do people use drop down lists for searching or textfields?
In the Fly By Night Services assignment, drop down lists were used extensively, following one person failing the exam because they did not have drop down lists or menus.
Personally I think that
you should use drop down lists where they are practical - so you might consider whether you have too many unique items for a drop down list to be practical - I think you should be OK, but you have to decide that for yourself.
Good luck with the assignment.
Regards, Andrew