https://gentle-mountain-97851.herokuapp.com/
https://github.com/LocalHire/localhireapp
In Australia, there is an inclination toward buying consumer goods even when those goods are not necessarily required. It is this reason that many households are over-stocked with under-utilised goods. Why not use these goods to generate money from items that you have but hardly use?!
Lend out those items that you have sitting around your house under-utilised, or borrow items that you can't afford, or lack the storage space for.Also know that you are doing good for the environment by sharing items and reducing the over-manufacturing of consumer goods.
- Local Hire allows users to search for an item within proximity of their home thanks to geo-location capabilities.
- Multiple images can be loaded up for each item.
- Item can be rented out by day, week or month as chosen and confirmed by the lender. A duration slider allows users to see the borrowing length limitations set on the item.
- Enclosed in the footer is a contact form which allows users to interact with LocalHire at any time they experience an issue or have a question.
- Borrowers and lenders are able to communicate through a custom built messaging system, available through each users dashboard.
- Authentication throughout the site is provided courtesy of the Devise gem and some customisation.
- Authorisation throughout Local Hire is provided via the Pundit gem and some customisation.
- Payments are processed through Stripe and allow lenders to safely and securely receive payment from borrowers.
- Automatic emails are triggered throughout LocalHire by various actions (including creating a new item, payment of a book (to both the lender and borrower)). This functionality is achieved using ActiveMailer and the service provided by MailGun.
- Geolocation is achieved through the Geolocation gem, along with google maps API
- Storage and retrieval of uploaded images is achieved using ActiveStorage and Amazon's AWS S3 service.
The home page features an advanced search function
The item index page orders all items in the order that they are uploaded, with the most recent appearing first. This is also the main area from which a user is able to create a new item via the "Add New Item" button.
The item show page contains a carousel of all item images. We draw in the lenders pricing and duration parameters into the show page, so that a borrow can only hire based on the lenders paramters.
The tech stack that was used to develop this app was:
- Ruby
- Rails
- HTML
- CSS (most styling and layout using grid)
- Bootstrap (limited styling )
- Heroku for deployment
- Amazon S3 for hosting images
- VS Code (text editor)
- Visit the URL to visit published app (see beginning of document) and register as a user.
- Post an item (with uploaded image) that you would like to loan out to others.
- Browse other items available for loan, using maps to find items within a distance you feel comfortable travelling to.
From a local perspective:
Pre-requisite accounts:
- You must have a mailgun account
- You must have an aws s3 account
- You must have a stripe account
- You must have a geocoder api key from google maps api
Pre-requisite software:
- Must have homebrew installed for bundling
- Must have ruby installed
- Must have rails installed
- You must have a text editor
- Must have postgresql installed on your system (this app uses postgresql)
Directions:
- Fork the app from github
- Run bundle install
- Run db:migrate
- Open your text editor
- Run rails s from the console
- Check out localhost:3000 in the browser, and you are good to go.
FIGMA
- Create wireframes in order to assist with the build of models
- Create user stories
- Outline models and identify primary and foreign keys
DB DESIGNER Create an ERD that will provide visual representation of how our models will be built, including identification of primary keys and foreign keys.
PINTEREST As we felt that the nature of this application lends itself to an eco friendly and community feel, we looked for inspiration from eco businesses and the feeling of being outdoors.
COLOUR SELECTION
-
We found a page on Pinterest which resonated with all team members. It was made of vibrant greens, yellows, whites and browns.
-
After researching the psychology of colour, we chose to use green as the dominant colour on our site. Green is the color of balance and growth. It can mean both self-reliance as a positive and possessiveness as a negative, among many other meanings. We felt that as a product sharing site, self-reliance and the sharing possessions, green would help to convey this community feel.
-
As we are trying to convey inclusiveness and sharing to help each other and the environment, we chose white as a complementary colour. White is color at its most complete and pure, the color of perfection. The color meaning of white is purity, innocence, wholeness and completion.
-
We had considered brown, but decided against it due to its seriousness and relation to material wealth...which is not something we are trying to convey here.
-
Homepage As a user, I would like various search filters so that I can easily narrow down items by its name, hireplan, price range & location.
-
Search Results Page As a user, I want to be able to see the list of products sort the results of products most recently uploaded.
-
Register/Login Page As a user I want to be able to sign into my account securely so I can access additional functions on the site.
-
Add Items Page As a user, I want to quickly and easily load up new items so I can start making a profit.
-
Item Show Page As a user, I want to get more information about the product I'm looking to borrow.
-
Item Edit Page As a lender, I need to be able to quickly edit my listing if the situation or information changes.
-
Thank You Page As a user I want to know that my booking has gone through by receiving an email.
-
Footer As a user I want to be able to find out information about the Local Hire business or contact them if I need assistance.
-
Desktop Dashboard As a user, I want to be able to update my profile settings and have easy access to my messages.
-
Mailers As a user, I want to receive an email whenever I book a product As a lender, I want to receive a mail whenever I upload a product to the website so that I am alerted to its successful listing on the site As a lender, I want to receive a mail whenever an item I own is booked by a borrower so that I take steps to lend out the item.
Our original wireframes were a little ambitious so we scaled back and decided upon this:
Originally the group created a massive project, in both erd and wireframs. But it was suggested to us that we scale back. Here was the original ERD.
This is the ERD that we settled on with the instructors.
Then we appended the above to this before we coded.
By the end of the project our ERD looked like this.
This app is an item loaning platform that offers consumers a marketplace where they can:
- profit from their under-utilised items; and
- borrow under-utlised items that they are unable to afford and/or store.
2. Identify the problem you’re trying to solve by building this particular marketplace App? Why is it a problem that needs solving?
Worldwide consumerism is taking its toll on the environment with little to no recycling or repairing of goods, particularly in first world countries. Products are purchased that are often not required or used. Too often, these products are disposed of into landfill in great condition,or left to collect dust rather than being used.
Through this loan app, we encourage people to purchase less and share more. By loaning out their products, this app enables consumers to profit from the goods that they have purchased but rarely use. Driven by profit, we anticipate consumers will maintain their products to a loanable standard.
As a result users will have the secondary benefit of knowing they are doing good for the environment by sharing products and reducing the over-manufacturing of consumer goods.
This app is an item loaning platform that offers consumers a marketplace where they can:
- profit from their under-utilised items; and
- borrow under-utlised items that they are unable to afford and/or store.
Local Hire uses the infrastructure as a service product Heroku. Heroku is a cloud platform as a service. They take care of deployment, hosting and dev ops (to a degree).
That means you do not have to worry about infrastructure; you just focus on your application. ... Instant Deployment with Git push - build of your application is performed by Heroku using your build scripts. Plenty of Add-on resources (applications, databases etc.)
VS CODE Text editor used to code the app in.
RUBY/JAVASCRIPT/HTML/CSS Languages used to build this application.
BOOTSTRAP Styling language used to create responsive and styles on the website.
RUBY ON RAILS Framework that the code is placed in. It utilises the MVC structure.
GEMS The following gems were utilised in this app:
- ruby '2.4.1'
- gem 'dotenv-rails', groups: [:development, :test]
- gem 'rails', '~> 5.2.1'
- gem 'jquery-rails'
- gem 'bootstrap', '~> 4.1.3'
- gem 'puma', '~> 3.11'
- gem 'sass-rails', '~> 5.0'
- gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.3.0'
- gem 'turbolinks', '~> 5'
- gem 'jbuilder', '~> 2.5'
- gem "devise", "~> 4.5"
- gem "stripe", "~> 3.29"
- gem "pundit", "~> 2.0"
- gem "aws-sdk", "~> 3.0"
- gem "geocoder", "~> 1.5"
GEOCODER Location API to enhance the usability and search function of the application.
GITHUB As a team, we used GitHub to omtimze our development workflow. Acting like a cloud for our code, we created a project team to manage our "issues" (to-do list) whilst keeping track of the iterations to our code.
We have chosen to implement with Postgresql, an object-relational database management system with an emphasis on extensibility and standards compliance. It is a database management system that we have learnt about in class that is renowned for managing complex designs, is great for data integrity and also has a strong community of users.
While Sqlite is very powerful, Postgresql was chosen over Sqlite as it is the most advanced database management system. Due to the powerful underlying technology, Postgres is extremely capable of handling many tasks very efficiently. PostgreSQL is highly programmable, with custom procedures that are called "stored procedures". These functions can be created to simplify the execution of repeated, complex and often required database operations.
We choose postgresql because it is more efficient than sqlite3. Luckily we were able to carry this database system over to heroku.
Heroku creates a new database for us when we upload our app to the site.
In order for us to populate the data with our tables and fields we need to run:
$heroku run rake db:migrate
This will populate our production database with the same database structure that we had in our development database.
We have employed Ruby on Rails to create this app. Within the rails framework is the MVC pattern which is essentially the architecture of Ruby on Rails. It separates an application into the following components:
MODELS for handling the data and business logic.
- In this instance, we have 7 models. They are:
- Application_record (from which all other models inherit)
- Conversation
- Item
- Lender
- Message
- Search
- User
CONTROLLERS for handling the user interface and application.
- We have 11 in use controllers:
- application_controller (from which all other controllers inherit)
- charges_controller (to handle the logic for stripe)
- conversations_controller (for the messaging sytem)
- dashboards_controller (for handling the dashboard logic)
- howitworks_controller (for items in the footer)
- items_controller
- legal_controller
- lenders_controller
- messages_controller
- searches_controller
- users_controller
There is also a 'users' folder that contains the various controllers that devise utilises.
We also have controller-like files within the mailers folder, they are:
- application_mailer (which all other mailers inherit from)
- localhire_mailer (where we have stored all mailers at the moment)
VIEWS are used for handling graphical user interface objects and presentation. The are also important in routing as we employ routes directions such as "show#index" which refers to the show page (of say items) and then looks up the index action that is located within the items_controller and uses that information to display the index.html.erb file in the Views/Items/index area. This is convention and rails magic at work.
- We have also employed partials for item forms, nav bar and footer both of which have been passed in on the application.html.erb to ensure they are applied to each page of the application.
Think this is MVC - in which case please re read previous answer about the MVC.
In terms of abstractions we have utilised many ruby gems, such as devise, geocoder etc. Also please read the section about the gems outlined above.
HEROKU
- Essentially Heroku is used for hosting - i.e. server and delivery
- This provides us with instant deployment via Git push. So the final build of our application is performed by Heroku, using the code created in VS Code
AMAZON AWS S3
- We have implemented Amazon AWS S3 to store our images. We have employed this serice given it has a simple web services interface that you can use to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web.
MAILGUN
- As with most web-based marketplaces, our application provides a proof-of-loan in the form of an email confirmation. Built in to the application is the Mailgun API, which is an email automation service that offers a cloud-based email service for sending, receiving and tracking email sent through our website.
GOOGLE MAPS
- As an advanced search option, the Google Maps API has been implemented into this web application. This will allow users to search for a product to loan that is within a short distance (i.e. 5km) of where they live, rather than having to travel far or have the product sent to them.
- This will also allow us to create a searchable map, display live data synching with data and even plan routes to pick up an item.
STRIPE
- As with all online marketplaces, a payment system needs to be implemented to allow sellers (or lenders) receive payments in exchange for their products and services. Stripe has been implemented on this website to do just that.The Stripe software allows individuals and businesses to receive payments over the Internet providing the technical, fraud prevention, and banking infrastructure required to operate on-line payment systems.
FIGMA
- Figma is an online prototyping tool that allowed us to create the wireframes for the setup and design of our application. It is a browser-based design program that allowed us to collaborate as a team to create this application.
GITHUB
- As a team, we used GitHub to omtimze our development workflow. Acting like a cloud for our code, we created a project team to manage our "issues" (to-do list) whilst keeping track of the iterations to our code.
11. Describe (in general terms) the data structure of marketplace apps that are similar to your own (e.g. eBay, Airbnb).
AIRBNB Similarly to airbnb, our app allows you to:
- Search for items you need.
- Check for availability (feature pending).
- Then hire the item for a chosen time and duration.
This can be viewed in the screenshots of the ERD provided above. Essentially we use foreign keys in order to draw the relation between item, user and lender table and between conversation, message and user.
13. Describe your project’s models in terms of the relationships (active record associations) they have with each other.
Our projects models are related through helpers such as:
- has_many
- belongs_to
- has_many_through
We have 7 models. They are:
- Application_record (from which all other models inherit)
- Conversation (has_many messages)
- Item (belongs_to lender, has_many images)
- Lender (has_many items)
- Message (belongs_to conversation)
- Search
- User (has_one lender_id)
As per above.
Done this in a previous answer, but copied and pasted:
-Homepage As a user, I would like various search filters so that I can easily narrow down and find what I am looking for.
-Search Results Page As a user, I want to be able to sort the results by price to find the quality vs. value that I am looking for.
-Register/Login Page As a user I want to be able to sign into my account securely so I can access additional functions on the site.
-Add Items Page As a user, I want to quickly and easily load up new items so I can start making money.
-Item Show Page As a user, I only want to see the most important information I need to loan or borrow an item.
-Item Edit Page As a user, I need to be able to quickly edit my listing if the situation or information changes.
-Thank You Page As a user I want to know that my booking has gone through.
-Footer As a user I want to be able to find out information about the Local Hire business or contact them if I need assistance.
-Desktop Dashboard As a user, I want a quick-look page to see the items I have for loan or am borrowing.
Done this in a previous answer, please refer to above.
We chose to set up a repository project board in GitHub. Within this project board we were able to push and pull from a single respository as well as create issues (to-do list), which allowed us to create customized workflows for each team member. As each issue was started and completed, we were able to see in real time the progression of the project.
Initially our project was planned out to follow the waterfall methodology, but given the timeline and scope of work involved in that plan, the plan was adjusted for an agile approach.
After the initiation phase of planning and basic designing, the project was deployed using Heroku. Further design work and ongoing debugging was undertaken in iterations, before revisions deployed.
What we should have done:
- pull requests
- submitted pull request
- then reviewed
- then merged with master branch
What we did:
- pulled master
- created branch on local
- made sure worked - most of the time
- then commited and pushed to master branch
- others then pulled down
- As a team, each team member used the browser to ensure all features work.
- We employed some fellow students to test the functionality of the site.
- Each of us also presented to our family for feedback
What we should do:
- implement a testing framework like capybara or rspec which forces us to run tests on each new feature we develop
Pushing keys to github. This is a big no no. A few class mates published keys to their github repositories, which were then found by bots and utilised to run up bills nice and quick. I believe she received a bill for around $500.
For production, these keys are stored within Heroku's "Config Vars"
STRIPE The Stripe payment system has been implemented in this application which will assist in safely conducting online payment transactions. On behalf of our marketplace, Stripe collects and stores names, emails, phone numbers as well as credit card numbers and CVC's if the 'remember me' option is selected. In addition to the collection of personal data, Stripe does offer fraud monitoring, detection and protection to users. Stripe also agree that collected personal data is compliant with applicable law.
GEO LOCATION DATA With the geolocation data, the application will not display the address of a lender and the corrosponding item to the general public. This is to ensure the privacy of the item owner and to protect them from theft. Instead, the suburb of the item will be displayed so that borrowers can see the general location of the item they would like to borrow.
Heroku automatically comes with an SSL certificate when uploading - this is evident through the https at the start of the domain
GEO LOCATION INFORMATION When using certain features of this app, we may collect information about the precise or approximate location as determined through data such as IP address or mobile device’s GPS to offer an improved user experience. Most mobile devices allow you to control or disable the use of location services for applications in the device’s settings menu.
COOKIES We use cookies on this web application. A cookie is a small data file that is transferred to your device (e.g. your phone or your computer). For example, a cookie could allow us to recognize your browser, while another could store your preferences. There are two types of cookies used on this application: (1) “session cookies” and (2) “persistent cookies.” Session cookies normally expire when you close your browser, while persistent cookies remain on your device after you close your browser, and can be used again the next time you access the site.
We use, store, and process information, including personal information, about you to provide, understand, improve, and develop the web aplication, create and maintain a trusted and safer environment and comply with our legal obligations. To help facilitate bookings or other interactions between Members, we may need to share certain information, including personal information, with other Members, as it is necessary for the adequate performance of the contract between two parties.
This web application may disclose your information, including personal information, to courts, law enforcement or governmental authorities, or authorized third parties, if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or if such disclosure is reasonably necessary.