Virtual Study Room

The Virtual Study Room is an online platform designed to address the lack of motivation in existing study tools. We noticed that many existing tools either lack features to motivate learners or include unnecessary distractions that can hinder learning. Our goal was to create a space where people could come together to study while also enjoying streaming music services and real-time interaction with others. We believe that this combination of features will create a supportive environment that encourages learning and motivates users to reach their goals

The platform features real-time streaming music services to keep users engaged while they study. The platform also features an award and coins system with a leaderboard to motivate users. Users can earn coins by achieving certain goals, and use them to unlock more profiles, music, and backgrounds.

The platform also has a private room feature where the owner friends can join and study together while enjoying the available music.

Tech Stack

Here's the list of the technologies used in the project:

Node.js
Express.js
React
MongoDB
Socket.IO

Installation

Prerequisites

Node.js: Make sure you have Node.js installed on your local machine before proceeding with the installation. You can download Node.js from the official website: https://nodejs.org/en/download/
npm: npm is the package manager for Node.js. It comes bundled with Node.js. Make sure you have a recent version of npm installed. You can check the version of npm installed by running the command: npm -v.

Clone the repository

Clone the repository using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/UOA-CS732-SE750-Students-2023/project-group-amber-axolotls.git

Change to the project directory:

cd project-group-amber-axolotls

Install dependencies

Execute below code from project directory.

Server

To install the server dependencies, run the following command:

npm run install-server

This will install all the required dependencies for the server.

Client

To install the client dependencies, run the following command:

npm run install-client

This will install all the required dependencies for the client.

All

To install all the dependencies (server and client), run the following command:

npm run install

This will install all the required dependencies for the server and client.

Usage

Execute below code from project directory.

Running the server

To start the server, run the following command:

npm run server

This will start the server and listen for incoming requests at address http://localhost

Running the client

If you have already opened up a terminal to open the server / client, open up another terminal ro run the client.

To start the client, run the following command:

npm run client

This will start the client and open it in a new browser tab.

Note!

The frontend must be run from http://localhost and not any other address such as http://127.0.0.1. This is because we use Firebase authentication, which requires the domain to be whitelisted for security purposes. By default, only http://localhost is whitelisted for authentication.

Connecting to the backend server from the frontend

Local server

By default, the frontend will try to connect to the backend server running on http://localhost:4000. If you need to change this URL, alter the contents of .env file:

VITE_SERVICE_URL=http://localhost:4000/api

VITE_SOCKET_URL=http://localhost:4000

Replace http://localhost:4000 with the URL of your local backend server.

Deployed server

Currently, the application has been deployed at url https://amber-axolotls.herokuapp.com

To connect to the deployed backend server, you can change the .env file to point to the remote URL. For example:

VITE_SERVICE_URL=https://amber-axolotls.herokuapp.com/api

VITE_SOCKET_URL=https://amber-axolotls.herokuapp.com/

Demo Login Details

To allow you to try out the platform with coins to purchase, we have provided two different user accounts. Here are the login details:

User 1:

Username: tester1
Password: password
Coins: 100000

User 2:

Username: tester2
Password: password
Coins: 1200 (default value for new users)

Additionally, tester1 and tester2 have been set up as friends by default. You can use these accounts to test out the private room feature and study together while enjoying the music available on the platform. Please note that these accounts are only for demo purposes and should not be used for any other purposes.

The accounts also have friend requests sent from other existing accounts for you to see what it's like when someone sends you a friend request.

Testing

Running Tests

To run tests for only the client, go to project directory then use the following commands:

cd client
npm install
npm run test

To run tests for only the server, go to project directory then use the following commands:

cd server
npm install
npm run test

Contribution

Team Name: Amber Axolotls

Name	GitHub Username
Frank Ji	FrankJi3
Mike Ma	sma148
Qingyang Li	qingyang0506
Harry Qu	HarryQu1229
Yinuo Xue	yinuoxue
Xiaoxiao Zhuang	cczhuang420

qingyang0506 / Virtual_Study_Room