Imagine that you are creating a program that an online streaming service will use to manage its inventory of shows. Describe at least two classes that you would create and several subclasses.

Answer 1

To manage the inventory of shows for an online streaming service, I would create the following two main classes:

1. MediaItem Class

This class would represent any media item available on the streaming service, which could be a movie or a TV show.

Attributes:

• title: string, the name of the media item
• genre: string, the genre of the media item (e.g., Comedy, Drama, Action)
• release_date: date, the release date of the media item
• rating: float, overall rating of the media item (e.g., from user reviews)
• duration: integer, the length of the media item (in minutes for movies, in episodes for shows)
• description: string, a brief description of the media item

Methods:

• get_info(): return a string with media item details
• update_rating(new_rating): updates the rating based on user inputs
• is_available(): checks availability of the media item

Subclasses:

• Movie Class

  • Inherits from MediaItem

    Additional Attributes:

    • director: string, the director of the movie
    • cast: list of strings, a list of main actors

    Additional Methods:

    • get_cast(): returns the list of actors in the movie

• TVShow Class

  • Inherits from MediaItem

    Additional Attributes:

    • seasons: integer, number of seasons available
    • episodes: integer, total number of episodes
    • network: string, the network the show was originally aired on

    Additional Methods:

    • get_season_info(): returns number of seasons and episodes
    • get_episode_details(season, episode): returns details of a specific episode

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2. User Class

This class would represent any user of the streaming service (a subscriber or visitor).

Attributes:

• username: string, the username of the user
• email: string, the user’s email address
• subscription_status: string, the type of subscription (e.g., Free, Basic, Premium)
• watchlist: list of MediaItem objects, a list of media items the user wants to watch

Methods:

• add_to_watchlist(media_item): adds a MediaItem to the user's watchlist
• remove_from_watchlist(media_item): removes a MediaItem from the user's watchlist
• view_watchlist(): returns the current watchlist of the user

Subclasses:

• Subscriber Class

  • Inherits from User

    Additional Attributes:

    • subscription_expiry: date, the expiration date of the subscription
    • payment_method: string, the payment method used

    Additional Methods:

    • renew_subscription(): renews the user's subscription
    • change_payment_method(new_method): updates the payment method

• Visitor Class

  • Inherits from User

    Additional Attributes:

    • browse_history: list of MediaItem objects, shows the history of media items viewed

    Additional Methods:

    • register(): registers as a subscriber, promoting the visitor to a Subscriber class
    • save_browse_history(media_item): saves viewed media items to browsing history

Conclusion

These two main classes and their subclasses allow for efficient management of media inventory and user interactions within the streaming service, facilitating operations such as tracking shows, managing user libraries, and analyzing user behavior for recommendations.