DaveBank Distributed Banking System

Project Overview

DaveBank is a distributed banking system built from scratch using Python as part of CSC4010: Parallel and Distributed Programming. The project demonstrates the fundamental concepts of distributed and parallel programming without use of dedicated distributed systems libraries or frameworks.

• Unique Aspect: All core mechanisms — networking, consensus, data replication, node discovery, file sharing — are implemented using Python's standard libraries.

• Goal: To simulate a robust, fault-tolerant banking platform in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.

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Table of Contents

• Features
• Technologies Used
• Project Structure
• How it Works
• How to Run
• Documentation
• License
• Contact

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Features

• P2P node network (UDP communication, node discovery)
• Account creation, storage, and replication across nodes
• Transaction processing (deposits & withdrawals) and distribution
• Super Node management and fail-over
• File sharing for binary data (transaction "attachments")
• Custom distributed index for lookup, routing, and recovery
• Fault tolerance: Node failures, recovery, and heartbeat monitoring
• RESTful API via Flask
• Data import/export from CSV, JSON, XML
• Simple HTML UI (for demonstration)

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Technologies Used

• Python 3
• Flask
• Jinja2
• Standard Libraries:
  socket
threading
uuid
pickle
json
xml
csv
• get_free_port

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Project Structure

DaveBank/
    api/
        __init__.py
        factory.py
        routes.py
    data/
        ...complex data files...
    davebank/
        adapters/       #adapter pattern used for handling complex data
        core/           #core functionality for the node class
        utils/
        __init.__.py
        node.py         #base node class - core functionality is "monkey-patched"
    files/              #binary (.bin) files outputted by the system
    gui/
        __init__.py
        gui_utils.py
        node_gui.py
    tests/
    web/
        static/
        styles/
        templates/
    davebot.py
    main.py
    requirements.txt

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How it Works

• Every node runs its own server (UDP socket) and can join, discover, and synchronize with other nodes.
• Supernodes provide global coordination, handle node failure detection (heartbeats), and act as recovery points.
• All accounts and transactions are distributed and replicated across nodes for reliability.
• The system supports recovery from node loss and simulates realistic distributed failure scenarios.

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How to Run

Disclaimer: This project was created for academic purposes. It is not actively maintained and may require additional setup depending on your environment.

Steps:

1. Clone the Repository:

git clone https://gitlab.com/BHarris02/davebank.git
cd davebank

2. Install Dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Run a Server Node:

python main.py server 127.0.0.1 5001 SuperNode --gui

4. Run a Client Node:

python main.py client 127.0.0.1 5002 Worker1 --target_host 127.0.0.1 --target_port 5001 --gui

• Each Client node must use a unique port and name

5. (Optional) Run additional Client Nodes to simulate the distributed network.

6. Access the REST API:

http://localhost:8080/

Note:

• Depending on your system, you may need to change default ports if they are already in use. This project was last tested on Windows 10, Python 3.11.

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Example API Usage:

Get account balance:

GET /accounts/<account_num>/balance

Get transactions:

GET /transactions/<account_num>

Post transaction:

POST /transactions/
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "account_num": "12345678",
  "transaction_type": "deposit",
  "amount": 100.0
}

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Documentation

Comprehensive documentation and supporting materials for this project are included in the Docs directory:

• Assignment Specification: The assignment specification outlining the requirements of the project (Assignment Specification).
• Assignment Submission: Full academic report detailing how the system works, how each feature is implemented, etc (Assignment Submission).
• Assignment Feedback: General class-wide and my specific feedback (Assignment Feedback).

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details

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Contact

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this project, feel free to contact me:

• Name: Blake Harris
• Email: dev.blake.harris@gmail.com