Roomsurfer

Roomsurfer is a web application that allows University of Waterloo students to find rooms on campus to study in. The user can check what time a room is available at, or they can find all rooms that are available during a certain time interval. there is also an API available (currently in the works).

API Usage

The Roomsurfer API is very simple - you can only send GET requests using a URL. All queries must be sent to http://saintdako.com/roomsurfer/api/METHOD, where METHOD is replaced by one of the methods described below.

`usedrooms`

Find all of the rooms (building name and room number) that are being used this term. Returns an array of objects, where each object is of the form {"building": BUILDING, "room": NUMBER}.

Example output:

[
    {"building": "AL", "room": "105"}, {"building": "AL", "room": "113"}, ...
    {"building": "B1", "room": "169"}, {"building": "B1", "room": "266"}, ...
    ...
]

`usedrooms/:building`

Find all of the room numbers being used in a specific building this term. building is the building code. Returns an array of objects, where each object is of the form {"room": NUMBER}.

Example output (http://saintdako.com/roomsurfer/api/usedrooms/EIT) :

[
    {"room":"1009"}, {"room":"1013"}, {"room":"1015"}, {"room":"2053"}, {"room":"3141"}, {"room":"3145"}, {"room":"3151"}
]

`room/:building`

Find all of the times that all of the rooms in a specified building are free. building is the building code. Returns an array of objects, where each object is of the form {"room": ROOM, "day": DAY, "starttime": STARTTIME, "endtime": ENDTIME}, where:

ROOM is a room number (integer)
DAY is one of: M, T, W, Th, F (string)
STARTTIME is the number of minutes (integer) where the room's free period begins, e.g. 510 represents 8:30 AM
ENDTIME is the number of minutes (integer) where the room's free period ends

Example output (http://saintdako.com/roomsurfer/api/room/PHY):

[
    {"room":"145","day":"M","starttime":0,"endtime":510},   {"room":"145","day":"F","starttime":1010,"endtime":1439}, ...
    {"room":"150","day":"F","starttime":680,"endtime":870}, {"room":"150","day":"F","starttime":920,"endtime":1439}, ...
    ...

room/:building/:room

Find all of the times that a specified room in a specified building is free. building is the building code, room is the room number. Returns an array of objects, where each object is of the form {"day": DAY, "starttime": STARTTIME, "endtime": ENDTIME}.

Example output (http://saintdako.com/roomsurfer/api/room/PHY/145):

[
    {"day":"M","starttime":0,"endtime":510},
    {"day":"M","starttime":1100,"endtime":1439},
    {"day":"T","starttime":0,"endtime":510},
    ...
]

time/:day/:start?/:end?

Find all of the rooms that are free at a specific time. day is one of M, T, W, Th, F, start is the room's free period start time in minutes, and end is the end time. If start is not specified, it defaults to 0. If end is not specified, it defaults to 1439 (11:59 PM). Returns an array of objects, where each object is of the form: {"building": BUILDING, "room": NUMBER}.

Example output (http://saintdako.com/roomsurfer/api/time/M):

[
    {"building":"CPH","room":"3602"},{"building":"CPH","room":"3607"}, ...
    {"building":"PAS","room":"1241"},{"building":"PAS","room":"2438"}, ...
    ...

Getting the Data Yourself

If you want to store the data on your own machine instead of using the API, use the python/roomscraper.py script. Make sure to create a database called Roomsurfer.

Inside this directory, create a secrets.txt file with the following content:

YOUR_UW_API_KEY
YOUR_POSTGRES_USERNAME
YOUR_POSTGRES_PASSWORD

If you want to store the raw JSON data, uncomment store_raw_data(TERM, key). Then you can run the script, specifying the term number using the TERM variable. If you did not uncomment store_raw_data, then you will have to change

used = get_times(TERM, key, local_data=True)

used = get_times(TERM, key, local_data=False)

The table name is FreeRooms and you can check server.js for how to query it.

Version History

1.3.0

added tests for validating API response data
server.js now exports the Express application (used in tests)

1.2.1

fixed a bug that prevented Thursday times from appearing

1.2.0

switched to PostgreSQL
fixed front-end

1.1.0

switched to MySQL

1.0.0

switched to using a MEAN stack (MongoDB/Express/Angular/Node)
created the api
in process of fixing #4

0.3.14

switched from using jQuery for "data-binding" to KnockoutJS

0.2.71

created Mongo database on my DigitalOcean server (i.e. created a backend)

0.1.61

original app
loaded ALL of the data into the user's browser and called it through there (I did not own a server or know anything about web-dev / back-end stuff, so yeah)

Dakkers/Roomsurfer