Requirements

Let's imagine we're building a platform to connect freelance designers with clients seeking design services. This platform needs to handle various aspects of the hiring process, from initial project posting to final payment and feedback. This is a complex ecosystem with numerous moving parts, demanding a robust and well-designed solution. Think of this as a "LinkedIn" meets "Upwork" specifically for design-related tasks. Clients post projects detailing their requirements, budget, and timeline. Freelancers browse these projects, submit proposals, and the client selects the best fit. Throughout the project lifecycle, the platform facilitates communication, milestone tracking, and payment processing. Finally, once the project is completed, both client and freelancer can leave feedback, contributing to the platform's reputation system. A poorly designed system will lead to significant maintenance overhead, difficulties in adding new features (like support for new design categories or payment methods), and potential security vulnerabilities. Our goal is to craft a design that's not just functional but also maintainable, scalable, and secure. # Requirements ## Functional Requirements * **User Management:** * Allow users to register as either "Clients" or "Freelancers." * Clients can create, update, and delete project postings. * Freelancers can create and update their profiles, showcasing their skills, experience, and portfolio. * Users should be able to log in and log out securely. * Password reset functionality. * **Project Management:** * Clients can post projects with detailed descriptions, required skills, budget, and deadlines. * Freelancers can browse projects based on various criteria (e.g., skills, budget, deadline). * Freelancers can submit proposals for projects, including their proposed rate, estimated completion time, and a cover letter. * Clients can review proposals and select a freelancer for a project. * Clients can cancel the project before work begins. * **Collaboration:** * Enable direct messaging between clients and freelancers. * Support file sharing between clients and freelancers. * Milestone tracking to monitor project progress. * **Payment Processing:** * Support multiple payment methods (e.g., Credit Card, PayPal, Bank Transfer). * Escrow service to hold payments until project completion. * Automated payment release upon project completion or milestone approval. * Transaction history for both clients and freelancers. * **Reviews and Ratings:** * Clients can rate and review freelancers after project completion. * Freelancers can rate and review clients after project completion. * Display average ratings and reviews on user profiles. * **Search and Filtering:** * Clients can search for freelancers based on skills, experience, ratings, and location. * Freelancers can search for projects based on skills, budget, and deadline. * Filtering options for both project and freelancer searches. * **Reporting:** * Generate reports on project statistics (e.g., average project cost, completion time). * Generate reports on freelancer performance (e.g., number of projects completed, average rating). * Ability for Admins to generate various other reports. * **Dispute Resolution:** * Allow clients and freelancers to submit disputes if there are disagreements regarding project completion or payment. * Provide a mechanism for platform administrators to review and resolve disputes. * **Notifications:** * Notify users of new projects matching their skills (for freelancers). * Notify clients of new proposals for their projects. * Notify users of messages, milestone updates, and payment confirmations. ## Non-Functional Requirements * **Thread Safety:** The platform must be thread-safe to handle concurrent requests from multiple users without data corruption or race conditions. Particularly important for payment processing and user profile updates. * **Extensibility:** The design should be easily extensible to support new features, such as new design categories, payment methods, or communication channels, without requiring significant code changes. Use design patterns to achieve this. * **Modularity:** The system should be divided into independent modules with well-defined interfaces, allowing for easier maintenance, testing, and reuse of components. * **Testability:** The code should be designed to be easily testable, with clear separation of concerns and dependencies. Unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests should be possible. * **Security:** Protect against common web vulnerabilities (e.g., XSS, SQL injection). Securely store user credentials and payment information. * **Maintainability:** The code should be well-documented and easy to understand, allowing developers to quickly diagnose and fix issues. * **Performance:** The platform should be responsive and efficient, providing a good user experience even under heavy load. Consider the performance implications of different design choices (e.g., caching strategies for frequently accessed data). * **Scalability:** Consider how the platform can scale to handle a growing number of users and projects. Class design choices impact scalability, e.g. avoiding global mutable state. ## Core Entities * **User:** Abstract base class for both `Client` and `Freelancer`. Contains common attributes like ID, name, email, password, contact information, and potentially roles/permissions. * **Client:** Represents a client who posts projects. Extends `User`. Has methods for creating, updating, and deleting projects. * **Freelancer:** Represents a freelancer who submits proposals. Extends `User`. Has attributes like skills, experience, portfolio, and availability. * **Project:** Represents a design project. Contains attributes like ID, title, description, required skills, budget, deadline, and status (e.g., Open, In Progress, Completed, Cancelled). * **Proposal:** Represents a freelancer's proposal for a project. Contains attributes like ID, freelancer ID, project ID, proposed rate, estimated completion time, and a cover letter. * **Message:** Represents a message exchanged between a client and a freelancer. Contains attributes like ID, sender ID, recipient ID, content, and timestamp. * **Payment:** Represents a payment transaction. Contains attributes like ID, payer ID (Client), payee ID (Freelancer), amount, payment method, and status (e.g., Pending, Completed, Failed). * **PaymentMethod:** An interface for handling different types of payments. Implementations could include `CreditCardPayment`, `PayPalPayment`, `BankTransferPayment`. Strategy pattern. * **Review:** Represents a review and rating given by a client to a freelancer or vice versa. Contains attributes like ID, reviewer ID, reviewee ID, rating, and comment. * **Skill:** Represents a design skill (e.g., logo design, web design, UI/UX design). Used for matching freelancers with projects. * **Portfolio:** Represents a freelancer's portfolio. * **Dispute:** Represents a dispute between client and freelancer. * **Notification:** Represents a notification to a user.

Design Freelancing hiring platform.

Requirements

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