About SAND

The goal of SAND is to create new oppertunities for students to seek help in their studies from their peers. Using this application, students can submit a request for tutoring in a class, and eligilbe tutors who can accomadate the students time frame recieve a notification. Once the tutor accepts, it is between the tutor and the student to work out payment, using the links to venmo provided. This way, more students can get the help they need to pass their classes in a timely manner and students looking to make a bit of money can do so by helping their peers.

Web

The website is written in a laravel framework with PHP as a core programming language. Sand theme is being used throughout the website.

1. Features

This project is all about Students who are looking for tutors to learn from them. Tutors while registering their account can specify which course they would like to teach and their class timings so students can choose from the list of tutors to place a request for tution.

There are kind of users using this website:

• Student
• Tutor
• Admin

Once the Student register their account they can place request for tution by selecting a specific tutor from the dropdown. Each student can place multiple requests for tution and can also see the Tutors list along with their course and class timing information. There is a schedule page where a student can see their class schedule. Apart from this there is a profile page where a student can view or edit their profile.

Tutor registration is necessary for this project as without tutors student cannot study hence during registration tutor will specify which subject they teach and what are their class timings. Once they register or login they will be redirected to requests page where they can see the requests placed by different students to study from that tutor. Tutor can also view or edit their profile along with their course and class timings.

Admin is a pre-existing user where (s)he can see a list of students, tutors, requests, subjects etc. and it's a place a where they can be managed as well.

2. How to Use

If the project is running on a localhost and default port# 8000 then just open this link: http://localhost:8000 on your browser which will show the login page. If you already have the credentials you can start using the website by providing the valid credentials otherwise you can create a fresh account by registering as a tutor if you are a tutor otherwise student.

If you are registering as a tutor there are bunch of information that needs to be provided which are mostly related to specifying a username, email, password and other address details. As a tutor you also have to select the course from the existing list of course dropdown and in case if your course is not available in the dropdown then please choose the other option so that you can specify the code and title of your course in the fields below the dropdown which will be added to the list of available courses on successful registration.

Once you have successfully registered or logged in as a tutor you will be redirected to Requests page where you will see the list of requests placed by students interested to join your class. There is also a profile page where you can view your own profile and in case you want to change your profile details or your course information or your class timing you can do so by editing your profile.

If you are registering as a student you have to provide your basic information like your username, email, password, name and address details for a successful registration. Once you have successfully registered or logged in you will be redirected to Schedule page which can be blank initially as you have not placed any request yet. You can head over to Request page where you can see the list of available tutors along with the information of courses they teach with class timing. Once you find the relevant course you want to study you can place a request by selecting the tutor from the dropdown and other relevant options. Once the request is placed you can place another request if you want. As by now you may have placed few requests so now if you head over to Schedule page you can see your schedule. In case you want to view or edit your profile you can do so by clicking on the Profile section.

If you are an Admin, you need to login with your admin credentials and on successful login you will be taken to the Admin Dashboard where you can view or manage students, tutors, requests and subjects.

3. Firebase Authentication:

Firebase Authentication used as areference

4. Development

This website has been developed as listed below:

• implemented the basic sign in, sign up and logout functionality using Firebase.
• Added role based authorisation and security for each role namely student, tutor and admin. Implemented proper redirections based on logged in user.
• Created different sign up pages for tutor and student. Created profile pages for tutor and student.
• Made Requests Page for Students that will show all the tutors and the option to make request, where student name will be automatically taken from logged in user.
• Changed Block to Time Needed
• Removed rating in Tutor table
• Shown availability time in tutor table
• Changed "Availability" to "Class Time" in student's Place Request page
• Removed "Time Needed" option from form.
• Changed "Time Slot" option to "Class Beginning Time" in form
• Moved "Select Tutor" option to top and "Select Course" second in form.
• Course dropdown will have Course of selected teacher in dropdown.
• "Class Begin Time" will have time of selected teacher in dropdown.
• Changed "Existing Tutors" to "Classes"
• Changed "Courses" Column to "Course" which will show only one Course.

Tutor Changes:

• Made Requests page that will show requests came from student to that tutor
• Shown Tutor Profile Page Tutor Sign-up Changes
• Changed "Select Available From" to "Class Time Begin"
• Changed "Select Available Upto" to "Class Time End"
• Removed Courses Checkbox
• Added dropdown to select only one of the available course with the option as Other to add a new course
• Added two fields and enable them if other option is selected for course so a tutor can add a new course. Field names are Course and Title.
• Added validation to choose either one course or add a course.

Tutor sign up changes:

• Added "Available From" option for Tutor sign up. Added "Available To" option for Tutor sign up.

• Removed "Time Needed" column from tutor view requests page

• Changed "Time Slot" to "Class Begin Time"

• Added edit profile option in profile page of tutor to open Edit profile page.

• Changed "Availability" to "Class Time" in Tutor Profile page

• Changed "Courses" to "Course" and it should have only one course in Tutor Profile

• Created Edit Profile page so Tutor can edit their username, or other valid options.

• Admin Changes:

• Removed id field from request

• Changed Block heading in input and table to Time Needed

• Removed rating in Tutor table

• Shown availability time in tutor table.

• Made all URL to have "sand-" as prefix after localhost:8000/. Example localhost:8000/sand-requests.

Student page changes

• Added edit profile option in profile page of student to open Edit profile page.
• Created Edit Profile page so Student can edit their username, or other valid options.

5. Backend

Firebase is being used as a backend for this website.

In Firebase at the root level there are following nodes:

• roles: It contains roles assigned to each userid where user having role value as 1 is an admin, 2 is a student and 3 is a tutor.
• courses: It contains the list of available courses with course code as key and title as it's value.
• requests: It contains the requests placed by student. It has keys named as "classBeginTime" to store the time when class will begin, "course" to store the course code selected by student "student" to store username of the student placing the request "tutor" to store username of the tutor.
• students: It contains the list of students with their profile details. It has keys named as "email" , "firstName" , "lastName" , "password" and "userName".

6. Codebase

This section will walkthrough the codebase structure for the website:

• Controllers

  • DashboardController: This class controls the security aspects and redirects users to proper pages on successful login or register. It enforces authorization checks and authentication checks throwing unauthorized users back to login or error page.
  • StudentController: This class is used to create, edit or manage students and their profile. It is also used to get students page for admin.
  • TutorController: This class is used to create, edit or manage tutors and their profile. It is also used to get tutors page for admin.
  • ProfileController: This class is used to get role based view profile and edit profile page.
  • RequestController: This class is used to get Requests page for tutor and admin, Schedule page for Student. It is also used to place a new request from student.
  • SubjectController: It is used to get the Subjects page for Admin and to store courses.
  • Model Classes: Below are the model classes used in this website to wrap Firebase data: - Course - Location - Roles - Student - Tutor

• resources

  • views: It contains following views and layouts required for HTML pages:
    • head.blade.php: A common blade file to implement header when user is logged in.
    • nav.blade.php: A common blade file to implement nav bar when user is logged in.
    • app.blade.php: A common blade file for login and sign up screens.
    • edit_student_ui.blade.php: A blade file to design edit student profile page.
    • edit_student.blade.php: Helper blade file for above blade file.
    • edit_tutor_ui.blade.php: A blade file to design edit tutor profile page.
    • edit_tutor.blade.php: Helper blade file for above blade file.
    • error.blade.php: A blade file to show error pages.
    • login.blade.php: A blade file for login page.
    • logout.blade.php: A blade file to perform logout and redirect to login page.
    • profile_ui.blade.php: A blade file to show profile page for student and tutor.
    • profile.blade.php: Helper blade file for above blade file.
    • requests_student_ui.blade.php: A blade file to show request page for student.
    • requests_student.blade.php: Helper blade file for above blade file.
    • requests_tutor_ui.blade.php: A blade file to show request page for tutor.
    • requests_tutor.blade.php: Helper blade file for above blade file.
    • requests_ui.blade.php: A blade file to show request page for admin.
    • requests.blade.php: Helper blade file for above blade file.
    • schedule_ui.blade.php: A blade file to show schedule page for student.
    • signup_students.blade.php: A blade file to show sign up page for student.
    • signup_tutor.blade.php: A blade file to show sign up page for tutor.
    • students_ui.blade.php: A blade file to show students page for admin.
    • subjects_ui.blade.php: A blade file to show subjects page for admin.
    • subjects.blade.php: Helper blade file for above blade file.
    • tutor_ui.blade.php: A blade file to show tutors page for admin.
    • tutor.blade.php: Helper blade file for above blade file.
  • routes: web.php route file contains all the routes being used in the website t.

7. Future Enhancements

There are certain areas in the website that can be further improved like in the Admin the functionalities related to add/manage tutors, students, courses or requests can be organised further. In tutor an option can be added where a tutor can teach multiple courses.

• There is an important feature which helps to improve the quality of work by giving reviews/rate for tutors.

• The direct massage can be added and that will allow students to communicate with their tutors.

• Adding payment page that handles how students pay for their tutors.

Web Automation Test

• Partially Completed Tests to review functionality of the webapp. Needs finalized test cases.
• To test locally, follow these steps...
  • Install Homebrew through your local machine terminal.
  • Install Chromedriver, Selenium, and python to test current code.
  • Run python file and edit as needed.
• https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium used as reference.

Theme

• Creating the theme for The pages:
  • Home page.
  • Login page.
  • Register page.
  • Classes page.
  • students profile page.
  • Tutor profile page.
  • Schedule page.
  • Payment page.
  • Request page.
  • Student schedule page that shows existing student’s class.
  • I have applied Sand theme on the website.
• Future Work for the theme:
  • Apply the theme on the website for the schedule page and add a search class window on the home page.

Firebase

Firebase Rules

• Rules that ensure that only administrators and authenticated users have access to features
• Validation rules included that do things like:
  • Ensure that user has write access only if already authenticated
  • Verify that email string is less than 30 characters
• Indexing to locate data faster in the database
• Reference - Firebase Security Rules

Firebase Structure

• Contains nodes /Classes, /Requests, /Students, and /Tutors.
  • Classes contains information about what classes are offered at Stetson University, generated from ParseHTML.py script.
  • Students and Tutors nodes contain relevant information about those types of accounts. Student nodes contain their name, email, and what classes they are enrolled in. Tutor nodes contain information about what classes they are offering, what their rating is, and at what times they are offering tutoring.
    • Note that tutor accounts have not yet been fully implemented.
  • When requests are submitted by students, they appear at and are listened to in the Requests part of the database. Requests contain an identification for the student that submitted them, whether the student is looking for a group session, what class they are looking to be tutored in, and at what times they are available. The values for "time" and "tutorLocation" initially left empty, and "matched" is initialized to false. When a match is made, these are updated appropriately.

iOS Application

Firebase Integration

• Uses GoogleService-Info.plist as an API key to access the Firebase database.
• References to database fields are made in AppDelegate.swift and accessed globally via AppDelegate.shared().reference.
• When accounts are initially made, a field is created in /Students using the user's "AuthId" as a key, which contains information about their name, email, and what classes they are taking (initially an empty list).
  • Because tutor functionality has not been implemented yet, all accounts created through the app are implicitly "Student" accounts and have their information written to the student part of the database.
• RequestController.swift uses AppDelegate.shared() to poll firebase for live status updates of whether classes are matched or not; these changes are reflected in UpcomingSessionView.swift.
• ClassesListController.swift uses AppDelegate.shared() to draw from a specific student’s record and compile a list of classes, which is displayed in ClassesListView.swift.
• AddClasses.swift uses AppDelegate.shared() to compare the student’s existing class list with the class they are trying to add, and append it to their list if it is not already in the list; the UI demonstrating this logic is also in AddClasses.swift.

UI and UX

• The iOS UI is primarily driven by SwiftUI from ViewController.swift. It uses a basic TabView structure to switch between the various screens. This is initialized in SceneDelegate.swift with the declaration of contentView.
• UpcomingSessionView.swift is the primary screen where students view the matched/unmatched status of their session requests. The logic behind this screen is in RequestController.swift. This screen also displays the current Day and Date in a custom CardView using DateFormatter.
• ClassesListView.swift is the secondary screen where students view which classes they currently have; they can add classes from this screen (driven by AddClasses.swift) or even make a session request my long-pressing on a class in their list (MakeRequestView.swift is referenced from ClassesListView.swift to prompt the modal view).
  • While the application shows a student has removed a class from their “My Classes List,” the change is currently not reflecting to Firebase. There needs to be another class, e.g. RemoveClasses.swift, that tie to ClassesListView.swift to complete this feature.
• Settings.swift is the third screen where the student or tutor can access their profile, payments, and more info about the app. The Settings screen using a NavigationView structure to display three NavigationLinks: Profile, Payments, and About.
• AddClasses.swift contains both the view and logic for adding classes; the AddClasses struct is responsible for creating the larger list with different class categories, and the AddClassesSub struct is for detailing the various class codes for a particular subject area. It also contains the logic for actually appending the class to the user’s list in Firebase (see Firebase Integration for more).
• Future Work:
  • Display custom images linked to specific class names (i.e. CSCI classes display an image of where CSCI classes are held, etc)
  • Display User Information in the Profile screen such as Display Picture, Username, Password, and add the ability to sign-out
  • Add a Profile System so that Students and Tutors can review each other and submit ratings
  • Add Notifcation system with customized timed alerts based on user preference.

Authentication

• The IOS Authentication is driven by LoginPage.swift which creates an initial screen allowing the user to sign into the app using an email and password that they have pevious made and has been stored in Firebase Authentication. The logic behind this page is stored within LoginPageController.swift.
  • Reference Firebase Authenticaion
• On the initial login page created by LoginPage.swift there is a button that allows users to access the sign up form if they have no already made an account which will allow them to make an account and send the appropriate information to Firebase Authentication and to Firebase Database.

Payment

• The Payment screen is accessible through the "Payments" tab on the Settings.swift view. This screen has two buttons: Paypal and Venmo. Each button leads to a Sign-in page where the User can enter their account information and send the tutor payment through the platform of their choice.
• There is no Payment Verification system to check if the Student paid the Tutor in the app. The Tutor will have to verify if the student paid before they begin the tutoring session.
• Future Work:
  • Make Payment Verication System
  • Add more payment options to the Payment screen

Backend

Tutor Matching

• SandMatching.py script when ran will attempt to match a student with an open session request with a tutor who is available at that time who is offering tutoring for the same class.
  • References the /Tutors, /Requests, /Students parts of the Firebase database. Calls match() to start the matching process, which uses several supporting functions. For each unmatched request, the program will attempt to reduce the list of possible tutors by filtering out tutors that do not offer the class, and then by tutors that are not available at the same time as the student is. It will also attempt to match students with high-rated tutors. Once matched firebase should be updated with the matched information i.e. time, location, and which class if they searched for multiple.
  • Note that while this works with the "Tutor" objects in the Firebase database, full tutor account functionality has not been implemented on the iOS side, and no provisioning has yet been made for a rating system.
    • We have fake tutors and students in order to test in SandMatching.py this can be added to and changed to test different scenarios and bugs. It is structured in json formatting and may be easier to read if put into a json file to edit and view.
  • Writes to a logfile log.txt information about when the script ran, how many matches were made, and the number of outstanding requests.
• Runs automatically every minute if a cronjob * * * * * /path/to/script > /dev/null 2>&1 is used. This currently exists for user lhough on delenn.

Other

• postRequestCourses.sh and ParseHTML.py make a post request to get raw HTML from a Stetson webpage, which is then processed, mostly by regex, to produce lists of course codes for a given subject. This information is written to /Classes on the Firebase database.
  • If future attempts are made to make the project go live, this script should be run every semester to account for changes in what classes are being offered.
• Backend makes use of a sand...###.json API key to access the database.

Future Work

iOS app

• Currently there is no provisioning for tutors at all.
  • Way to in the login page choose if you will be making a tutor or student account.
  • Being able to have student and tutor accounts.
  • Different views for each account and different permissions.
    • View for tutors to see all classes they want to tutor for and an option to change sessions or times.
    • Way for tutors to add classes as a tutor session.
    • Notiications for both student and tutor that they have been matched.
  • Rating system for tutors performance

Backend

• Filter and search by time last matched.
• Test large scale data groups for efficiency.
• Add matching sessions coming up sooner (prioritize matching people looking for a session in one hour instead of someone looking for a session a week from today).