/school-scout-be-pjt-56

School Finder is a web-based application that helps students (aspiring undergraduates and postgraduates) to find information about the institution of their choice. This platform creates a comparison between different schools based on the user’s choice. The comparison is based on, but not limited to the following: programmes, location, history, fees, staff, students, culture etc. This helps the user to understand and know more about the school of their choice before making a final decision. The app encourages school advertisements and also articles and comment sections. Each school will have a profile page. Another feature on the app helps with comparison. The app also provides general guidelines on the requirement of each school for admission processing. The app also directs the user to the school website for further details Users having to search and explore several websites before making a decision is minimized Helps user search through various options on a single platform, Allow users to be able to compare schools side by side without leaving the website. It helps user prepare adequately for schools they have chosen, Helps user search through various options on a single platform, Allow users to be able to compare schools side by side without leaving the website. It helps user prepare adequately for schools they have chosen

Primary LanguageCSS

SchoolScout

Table of contents

Project Overview

SchoolScout is a web-based application that enables individuals to gather and compare information about various institutions in Nigeria, in order to make informed decisions.

site image

The platform would have a list of schools where users can view information about each school such as the history, programs offered, location, fees, and available scholarship opportunities.

The site would also provide an option where you can chat with a representative on the site for help. The backend for this project is hosted on Heroku - https://schoolscoutapp.herokuapp.com.

Target Audience

Prospective undergraduates and postgraduates students who intend to further their studies.

Goals of the project

  • To create a user-centred website that provides information about institutions.
  • Allow users to generate a comparative analysis of Institutions based on key features.
  • Provide information about available scholarships.
  • Enable Students to view available internship and assistantship opportunities within the institution.
  • Provide students with advice on suitable careers.
  • Allow prospective students to add favorite schools to their wishlist.

Project Features

  • School profile page.

  • Chat function on the Home page and School profile page.

  • Search and filter options.

  • Comparative analysis of schools.

  • Articles about scholarships and assistantships/internships

  • Ability to Comments on articles

  • Adverts either from schools or people offering educational - services i.e. JAMB classes.

  • Career advisor.

  • School wishlist feature.

  • Authentication for users and universities.

Example screenshot

Technologies

*Note: This project was setup and developed on a system running Windows 10. The stacks used for the project backend include:

Stack Usage
Python 3.9 Programming language.
Django General backend
DBML Datamodels
Django Rest framework APIs.
Django Rest Auth Authentication.
PostgreSql Database.

Backend Team To-do list

  • Create the data models.

  • API Setup.

  • Database and repo setup.

  • User testing.

  • Authentication controls.

  • Documentation of the backend process.

  • Troubleshoot and debug the project.

  • Integrate a live chat feature.

Backend Repo Setup

To setup the repo, first fork and clone the Zuriteam Team 56 backend repository to create a copy on the local machine. 

# git clone git@github.com:pauline-banye/school-scout-be-pjt-56.git

Change directory to the cloned repo and set the original Zuriteam Team 56 backend repository as the "upstream" and the forked Zuriteam Team 56 backend repository as the "origin" using gitbash. 

# git remote add upstream git@github.com:zuri-training/school-scout-be-pjt-56.git

Edit the readme.md file, add it to git to track changes and create the first commit.

$ git commit -m "updated readme.md"
[main a4c9702] updated readme.md
1 file changed, 197 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
rewrite README.md (100%)

Using git push origin main, push the commit to the remote origin repository (the forked Zuriteam Team 56 backend repository).

Finally, initiate a pull request to push the edits to the upstream repository.

Setting up the project

The first step requires the download and installation of Python 3.9 and a check to confirm that pip and the necessary dependencies are properly installed.

After the installation of the Python program, setup the project environment with pip and virtualenv in the command prompt, powershell or gitbash terminal. Virtualenv helps to create an isolated Python environment containing all the packages necessary for the project.

*Note:

  • This project was setup using the gitbash terminal. Some of the commands used do not work with command prompt or powershell.
  • If a "pip command not found error" is encountered, download get-pip.py and run phython get-pip.py to install it.
# pip install virtualenv

Navigate to the cloned local school-scout-be-pjt-56 project folder and run virtualenv folder-name to create a virtual environment folder.

Activate the environment by running the following command in the gitbash terminal.

# source folder-name/scripts/activate

Once the virtual environment is active, the next step is the Django installation. Django is an open source Python web application framework thats helps with the rapid development of secure websites. 

# (venv) pip install django

After installing Django, install Django REST framework in the gitbash terminal. The Django REST framework is a flexible toolkit for building Web based APIs. The REST framework was used for the creation of APIs, serialization and the authentication process for this project. 

# (venv) pip install djangorestframework

Install all the necessary dependencies for the project. A few of them are listed below.

Modules Usage
django-cors-headers Cross Origin Resource Sharing
gunicorn WSGI HTTP server
psycopg2 PostgreSQL database adapter
requests-oauthlib Authentication support for requests
whitenoise Static files
chardet Encoding detector
Markdown Markup language
django-environ Environment configuration

An exhaustive list can be found in the requirements.txt file included in this project. The modules can be 'batch installed' using the pip install -r requirements.txt command.

Setting up the PostgreSQL Database

Django's default database is Sqlite3 and it was used in the local development stage of this project. PostgreSQL is an object relational database with features for the safe storage and scaling of complicated data workloads hence decision to utilize it for the deployment of this project.

The process of setting up PostgreSQL can be done in a couple of ways. One way requires the download and installation of PostgreSQL interactive installer for Windows. This installer installs the PostgreSQL database server, a terminal program called psql and pgAdmin, which is configured and its values such as the username, password, port are inserted into the django settings.py file.

The method used for this project however involved the download and installation of the dj-database-url module using the command pip install dj-database-url and the configuration of the settings.py file located in the SchoolScout folder.

This module provides a Django database connection dictionary, populated with all the data specified in your URLs. This is especially useful for deployment on sites like Heroku

To setup, simply import the module using import dj_database_url at the top of the document and configure your database as shown below.

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': str(os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "db.sqlite3")),
    }
}

db_from_env = dj_database_url.config()
DATABASES['default'].update(db_from_env)

Backend Deliverables

The backend team on this project were responsible for providing the endpoints of the SchoolScout web API.

An API or Application Programming Interface Endpoint is the specific location where requests for information are sent. Simply put, it refrences the URL which is used to communicate with the server.

The endpoints for the SchoolScout API include:

Name List Endpoints Detail Endpoints
Articles articles/ articles/<slug>/
Scholarship scholarships/ scholarships/<slug>/
School schools/ schools/<slug>/
Comments comments/ comments/<pk>/
Courses courses/ courses/<slug>/
Tuition fees/ fees/<slug>
  • Registration /auth/registration/ - User registration
Media Type: "application/json"

Allowed Methods: "POST"

Content (Request):

# username \<string, unique, required>
# email \<string, unique, required>
# password1 \<string, required>
# password2 \<string, required>
# first_name \<string, required>
# last_name \<string, required> 
 
Note: The password must be atleast 8 characters and not more than 150 characters, can not be entirely numeric and can only contain letters, digits and @/./+/-/_ 
 
Return Type: "application/json"

Content (Response):
key \<string>
  • Sign in /auth/login/ - User authentication.
Media Type: "application/json"

Allowed Methods: "POST"

Content (Request):

# username \<string, optional>
# email \<string, required>
# password \<string, required>
 
Return Type: "application/json"

Content (Response): "key\<string>"

Note

  • CRUD - Create / Retrieve / Update /Destroy
  • pk - Also known as primary key. Unique identifier for records in the database.
  • slug - A short unique label. Usualy used as a valid url for websites.
  • Descriptive lists of some of the individual APIs for the SchoolScout project can be found in a few folders, such as the articles folder.
  • A complete list of all the APIs for the SchoolScout project can be found in the endpoints_list.md file.

Testing

Testing codes is important to detect errors and inconsistencies in the code. This is done to ensure the quality of the project before deployment.

There are multiple ways to test your codes and one important tool called Coverage is often utilized to analyze the extent to which your code has been tested.

To test this project, coverage was installed and run using the following command.

$ coverage run --omit='*/venv/*' manage.py test
  • Note: --omit='*/venv/*' is required to exclude all the files relating to the virtual environment.

Coverage generates a report in a folder called htmlcov, which provides an index of the files that are tested and a percentage coverage. Any files with less than a 100% coverage, potentially requires further testing.

Status

This project is in progress.

Contributing to the project

If you find something worth contributing, please fork the repo, make a pull request and add valid and well-reasoned explanations about your changes or comments.

Please note:

  • It should be inviting and clear.

  • Any additions should be relevant.

  • It should be easy to contribute to.

Urls marked * are temporarily unavailable. Don't delete it without confirming that it has permanently expired.

Before adding a pull request, please remember:

This repository is not meant to contain everything. Only good quality verified information.

All suggestions are welcome!

PJT-56 Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contributed to making this a success.

PJT-56

Contacts

Zuri PJT-56 Backend Team- feel free to contact us!

Ikechukwu Ugwuanyi

Blaise Mubangizi

Paul Egboh

Hezekiah Samuel

Pauline Banye

Readme created by Pauline Banye