Building PlayStation Heaven: A Web-Based Rental Management System Using PHP Native and MySQL

A student project focused on managing PlayStation rentals, transactions, product stock, and income reports through a simple web application.

Dashboard overview of the PlayStation Heaven rental management system.

As a Computer Engineering student, I believe that learning programming is not only about understanding theories in class. It is also about building real projects, facing real problems, and learning how to solve them step by step.

One of the projects I developed is called PlayStation Heaven, a web-based rental management system for PlayStation rental businesses. This project was created to help manage rental sessions, payment transactions, snack and drink sales, product stock, and income reports in one web application.

Although this project is still in the development stage and still needs improvement, it has become one of the most valuable learning experiences for me.

Background

In many PlayStation rental businesses, the management process is still done manually. The cashier usually has to write down which PlayStation unit is being used, when the customer starts playing, how long the session lasts, and how much the customer needs to pay.

This process may look simple at first. However, when there are many customers, manual recording can become difficult. The cashier may forget to record a session, miscalculate the rental time, or lose track of product sales such as snacks and drinks.

Because of this, I wanted to create a system that could make the rental process easier, more organized, and more efficient.

Project Objective

The main goal of PlayStation Heaven is to help admins and cashiers manage daily rental activities more easily.

Through this system, the cashier can start a PlayStation rental session, monitor the running time, add products to a transaction, and process customer payments. On the other hand, the admin can manage PlayStation units, product stock, cashier accounts, and income reports.

This project was also created as a learning project to improve my understanding of web development, database management, transaction flow, and user interface design.

Technologies Used

In this project, I used several basic web development technologies, including:

• PHP Native
• MySQL
• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Bootstrap
• jQuery

I chose PHP Native because I wanted to understand the basic flow of a dynamic website without depending too much on a framework. By using PHP Native, I learned how login systems, sessions, database operations, CRUD features, and transaction processes work from the beginning.

Main Features

PlayStation Heaven has several main features.

The first feature is the login system for admin and cashier. The admin has access to manage data, while the cashier focuses on daily transactions and rental activities.

The second feature is PlayStation rental management. The cashier can select an available PlayStation unit, start a rental session, monitor the timer, and finish the session when the customer is done playing.

PlayStation rental session page with unit selection and running timer.

Another feature is product sales management. This feature is useful because many PlayStation rental businesses also sell snacks and drinks. With this feature, the cashier can add products directly to the customer’s transaction.

The system also includes a payment feature. The cashier can see the total payment from the PlayStation rental session and additional product purchases.

Cashier payment page for managing rental and product transactions.

For the admin side, the system provides product stock management and income reports. These features help the admin monitor available products and view transaction records more easily.

Challenges During Development

While developing this project, I faced several challenges. One of the biggest challenges was creating a transaction flow that was easy for the cashier to understand.

At first, the interface was too large and required too much scrolling. This made the system less comfortable to use, especially when the rental place was busy. From this problem, I learned that a good system is not only about complete features, but also about usability.

I also found several bugs during development, such as PlayStation selection issues, page refresh problems, and payment flow that still needed improvement. These problems helped me understand that software development is a process of testing, fixing, and improving.

Through this project, I realized that building an application is not only about writing code. It is also about understanding user needs and creating a system that is simple, useful, and easy to operate.

What I Learned

From this project, I learned many important things about web development.

I learned how to create a login system, manage database records, build transaction features, calculate payments, display reports, and design a user interface for different roles.

I also learned that a project does not have to be perfect from the beginning. Every bug, mistake, and revision is part of the learning process.

Most importantly, I learned that understanding the user is very important before building a system. A system may work technically, but if it is difficult to use, then it still needs improvement.

Conclusion

PlayStation Heaven is one of the projects that helped me grow as a Computer Engineering student. Through this project, I learned not only about PHP and MySQL, but also about problem-solving, system design, user experience, and real-world application development.

Even though this project still has many things to improve, it has become an important part of my learning journey. In the future, I hope to improve the system by making the interface cleaner, the transaction flow faster, and the features more complete.

For me, building a project like this is one of the best ways to learn. It gives me the opportunity to apply what I have learned, solve real problems, and improve my skills through practice.

Project by Moh. Rifaldo Mantali Computer Engineering Student — Universitas Negeri Gorontalo

Portfolio: https://aldomantali.github.io/portfolio_aldo/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moh-rifaldo-mantali-0358ab373/