A desktop application for managing a zoo's animal inventory, built with C++, wxWidgets, and nlohmann/json. The application provides a graphical interface to add, edit, remove, search, and filter animals, view species-specific details, track health status, and persist data between sessions.
- Animal list – displays all animals in a table with name, species, category, age, weight, enclosure, and health status.
- Color-coded health status – Healthy (green), Sick (red), In Treatment (yellow) shown directly in the table.
- Add animal – form dialog with input validation (required fields, numeric checks for age/weight/special info).
- Edit animal – pre-filled form dialog; changing category recreates the animal as the correct subclass.
- Remove animal – with confirmation dialog before deletion.
- Detail panel – shows subclass-specific information (feeding type, habitat, minimum enclosure size, special info) for the selected animal.
- Enclosure assignment – each animal is assigned to an enclosure (e.g. Savanna, Aquarium, Aviary, Terrarium...).
- Health status management – set an animal's status to Healthy, Sick, or In Treatment via dropdown.
- Live search – filter animals in real time by name or species.
- Category & status filters – dropdowns to filter the list by animal category (Mammal, Bird, Reptile, Fish, Amphibian) and by health status.
- Statistics overview – total animal count plus per-category and per-health-status counts, shown in the status bar and overview panel.
- Persistence – all data is saved to
data.jsonon every change and reloaded automatically on startup. If no save file exists, a set of demo animals is loaded instead.
classDiagram
class Animal {
<<abstract>>
-id
-name
-species
-age
-weight
-enclosure
-health_status
+get_category()
+get_feeding_type()
+get_habitat()
+get_min_enclosure_size()
+get_special_info_map()
}
class Mammal
class Bird
class Fish
class Reptile
class Amphibian
Animal <|-- Mammal
Animal <|-- Bird
Animal <|-- Fish
Animal <|-- Reptile
Animal <|-- Amphibian
class Animal_Manager {
-animals_list_ : vector~Animal*~
-species_list_
-default_traits_
+load()
+save()
+add_animal()
+remove_animal(uint64_t id)
+search()
+category_count()
+health_count()
+get_default_traits()
+get_species_for_category()
}
Animal_Manager o-- "0..*" Animal
class MainFrame {
-table_
-animal_manager_
-detail_panel_
-on_add_animal(wxCommandEvent& event)
-on_edit_animal()
-on_remove_animal()
-on_filter_changed()
-refresh_stats(const std::vector<Animal*>& animals)
}
class DetailPanel {
+show_animal(Animal* animal)
+update_stats()
+clear()
}
class AddEditDialog {
+get_special_info()
-on_category_changed(wxCommandEvent& event)
-on_ok(wxCommandEvent& event)
}
MainFrame --> Animal_Manager : uses
MainFrame --> DetailPanel : contains
MainFrame --> AddEditDialog : opens
AddEditDialog --> Animal_Manager : queries species/defaults
zoo-manager/
├── animals/
│ ├── animal.hpp / animal.cpp # abstract base class
│ ├── mammal.hpp / mammal.cpp
│ ├── bird.hpp / bird.cpp
│ ├── fish.hpp / fish.cpp
│ ├── reptile.hpp / reptile.cpp
│ └── amphibian.hpp / amphibian.cpp
├── app/
│ ├── animal_manager.hpp / .cpp # data storage, JSON load/save, search & filtering
│ ├── zoo_app.hpp / .cpp # wxApp entry point
├── gui/
│ ├── main_frame.hpp / .cpp # main window, table, buttons, filters
│ ├── detail_panel.hpp / .cpp # subclass-specific detail view + stats overview
│ └── add_edit.hpp / .cpp # add/edit dialog with dynamic special-info fields
├── data.json # persisted animal data (created on first save)
├── species.json # species lists and default special-info templates
├── CMakeLists.txt
└── README.md
- Each animal subclass stores its category-specific attributes in a
special_info_map (std::map<std::string, std::string>) instead of individual member variables. This allows new fields to be added viaspecies.jsonwithout changing any class headers. Animal_Managerowns allAnimal*instances and is responsible for their lifetime (allocation inadd_animal(), deallocation inremove_animal()and its destructor).species.jsonis the single source of truth for both the species dropdown lists and the default special-info templates used when adding a new animal.
- CMake ≥ 3.16
- A C++17-compatible compiler (GCC, Clang, or MSVC)
- wxWidgets (3.x)
- nlohmann/json (header-only; fetched automatically or installed via package manager)
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build .From the build directory:
./ZooManagerThe application looks for data.json and species.json in the parent directory of the build folder (../data.json, ../species.json). If data.json does not exist, a set of demo animals is loaded automatically and a new file is created on the first save.
After building the project (see Build Instructions), run the executable.
The application loads data from data.json on startup (if the file doesn't exist, it generates a few demo entries).
The main window is split into two sections:
- Left panel – search bar, filters, action buttons (Add/Edit/Remove, Tick time), and a table listing all animals
- Right panel – details of the selected animal and an overview with statistics (Total / Healthy / Sick / In Treatment)
The status bar at the bottom shows the total number of animals and a breakdown by category.
Type a name or species into the Search field – the table updates in real time. The Category and Status dropdowns further narrow down the results (filters are combined with the search).
Click +Add animal to open the input dialog. Fields include:
- Name, Category, Species, Age, Weight, Enclosure, Health
- Dynamic Special info fields that change depending on the selected category (e.g. Bird, Reptile, Mammal...)
After clicking Save, the new animal is added to the table and saved to data.json.
Select a row in the table (click any cell), then click Edit. The dialog opens pre-filled with the animal's existing data, including its special info fields.
Select a row, click Remove, and confirm in the dialog that appears.
Clicking a row in the table updates the right-hand panel with:
- Basic info (Name, Species, Category, Age, Weight, Enclosure, Health)
- Species-specific info (Feeding type, Habitat, Min enclosure size, Special info)
- Overview boxes showing the total number of animals per health status (updated after every add/edit/remove/filter action)
- Viktor Borosnyai
- Ema Toplek
Viktor
Animalbase class,Mammal,AmphibianandFishsubclasses- Health state machine (Sick → In Treatment → Healthy ticks)
- JSON save/load with demo-animal fallback
- Animal list view with color-coded health status, real-time search & filter wiring
- Autotests for own classes/logic
Ema
BirdandReptilesubclasses- Search & filter logic (name, species, category, health status)
- Enclosure assignment and health status updates
- Detail panel, Add/Edit dialog with validation, Remove confirmation, statistics panel
- Autotests for own classes/logic
This project is licensed under the MIT License.