BoilerTutors

Scaffolded from the CS 407 design document for Team 7.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React Native + TypeScript (Expo-managed app)
• Backend: FastAPI + Python
• Database: PostgreSQL
• AI Matching Integration: OpenAI API (stubbed service layer)

Repository Structure

TutorApp/
  frontend/        # React Native + TypeScript client
  backend/         # FastAPI server, modular API/services/models
  CS 407 Design Doc.pdf

Domain Model (Design-Doc Aligned)

Backend scaffolding includes the core entities described in the document:

• User (base profile and auth fields)
• Student (extends User with student-specific data)
• Tutor (extends User with tutor-specific data)
• Admin (standalone, does not inherit from User)
• Class (academic class catalog object)
• StudentClass (student perspective of a class + help level)
• TutorClass (tutor perspective of a class + semester/grade received)
• Review (student feedback for tutor)

Quick Start

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run start

Backend

cd backend
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
uvicorn app.main:app --reload

Create a backend/.env file with either:

• Local dev DB (Docker) – recommended for testing:

  LOCAL_DATABASE_URL=postgresql+psycopg2://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/tutorapp

  Then see backend/dev/README.md for:

  • starting the local Postgres container
  • creating tables (python dev/create_tables.py)
  • seeding test users (python dev/seed_test_data.py)

• Shared RDS DB – if you have want to connect to deployed db:

  RDS_HOST=...
  RDS_PORT=5432
  RDS_DB_NAME=...
  RDS_USERNAME=...
  RDS_PASSWORD=...
  RDS_SSL_MODE=verify-full
  RDS_SSL_ROOT_CERT=certs/global-bundle.pem

When LOCAL_DATABASE_URL is set, the backend uses your local Postgres; otherwise it connects to the configured RDS instance.

Messaging API

The backend exposes a simple REST + WebSocket messaging system:

• POST /messages/conversations – create/get a conversation between two users.
• GET /messages/conversations – list a user’s conversations (with last message preview).
• GET /messages/conversations/{id}/messages – list messages in a conversation.
• POST /messages/conversations/{id}/messages – send a message (stored in the messages table).
• WS /messages/ws/chat/{conversation_id} – WebSocket endpoint for real-time chat in a conversation.