README

Team: NUSchedulers

Proposed Level of Achievement: Gemini

Deployed website: http://nuschedulers-frontend.vercel.app

Test account: tom, password: qwert

Motivation

Planning a timetable for the semester can be a tedious and time-consuming task for NUS students. Although NusMods provides a list of lectures and tutorial timings, it does not automatically generate a timetable for users. Students have to spend time coordinating with their friends and ensuring they choose the best classes. Our motivation is to develop a web application that simplifies the process of generating an ideal timetable based on the user’s inputted modules and specifications.

Aim

We aim to provide NUS students with a user-friendly timetable web app that can automatically generate an ideal timetable based on inputted modules and user specifications. The app will allow users to personalize their timetable by adding custom events, provide reminders for upcoming classes and events, and allow users to set their own reminders for specific deadlines.

User Stories

1. As a student, I want to be able to plan my timetable easily.
2. As a student, I want to design an efficient timetable that best matches my ideal schedule.
3. As a student, I want to be able to attend classes with my friends.
4. As a student, I want to keep track of my events and deadlines clearly.
5. As a student, I want to be able to see my schedule conveniently.

Project Scope

The web application helps to generate an ideal timetable for students and also helps to keep track of their schedules and deadlines.

The web application provides a timetable-like interface for students to input their modules and specifications and the timetable would be generated based on their modules taken. There is also an advanced filter function for users to set conditions for generating their timetable. Users can personalise their timetable by adding custom events, such as group meetings, study sessions or work shifts. The app provides reminders for upcoming classes and events and allows users to set their own reminders for specific deadlines.

Features to be completed by the mid of June:

1. User authentication and module input
2. Basic and advanced filter timetable generation
   1. Conditions can include but are not limited to:
      1. How many days the user wants to go to school
      2. No morning/night classes
      3. A one-hour lunch break from 12 pm-2 pm
      4. The timetable must include the particular lesson that the user chose

Features to be completed by the mid of July:

1. Allow users to personalise their timetable by adding their own custom events
2. Reminders for upcoming classes and events
3. User can also set their own reminders for their own upcoming events and deadlines

Tech Stack (MERN)

1. React
2. Node.js
3. Express
4. MongoDB

Development Plan

15 - 21 May	Create mockups Learn the technologies needed (HTML, CSS, MERN, etc)
22 - 28 May	Create a login page for user authentication (technical proof of concept) Start planning algorithm used for timetable generator
29 May	Milestone 1
30 May - 4 June	Learn more on technologies needed API
5 - 11 June	Start building timetable generator
12 - 18 June	Allow users to save and edit their timetable Users can add their own events and deadlines
19 - 25 June	Test and debug
26 June	Milestone 2
27 June - 2 July	Read peer reviews and update our project accordingly
3 - 9 July	Allow users to add notes to their timetable
10 - 16 July	Test and debug
17 - 23 July	Brush up and finish the app
24 July	Milestone 3

Diagrams

Mockup

User Authentication

Class Diagram

Sequence Diagrams

User Authentication

Home Page

Timetable Generation

Tasks List

Interfaces

Login page

Create account page

Home page

Inputting modules

Advanced filter page

Edit Timetable Page

Timetable Generation Algorithm

Basic (No filters)

• Classes with the least slots are prioritized, and chosen first.
• If there are definite clashes among the modules chosen, the timetable will not be generated and an alert indicating that there are timetable clashes will be shown.

Advanced filters

• Check for the criteria (exclude days, start, end time)
  • If it does not fulfill the criteria, then it will continue checking for other classes
  • If the class selected fulfils the criteria and does not overlap with other selected classes, then it will be immediately chosen
  • If all classes that does not overlap does not fulfil the criteria, a random class that does not overlap will be chosen and an alert indicating that the timetable does not fulfil the criteria will be shown

Testing

General

• User interface is responsive and works on various devices
• User authentication is functional
  • Users can only access the features if they have an account
  • Users’ personal timetable and tasks are saved securely in database under their own account
  • Changes made would be automatically updated in database

Features

All features are functional after deployment

• Timetable Generator
  • Timetable is accurately generated according to users’ preferences and saved to database immediately after generating
  • Personalised Timetable
  • Users can edit the generated timetable
  • Task List
    • Users are able to add their own events, tasks and deadlines to their home page, and these added tasks would be saved in the database

Features completed

• User authentication
  • Users can create accounts and are only able to log in and access the timetable pages if their username and password are correct
• Login interfaces

Technical Proof of Concept

https://github.com/qinboan/NUSchedulers/issues/2#issue-1729575804

• Module inputs
  • Users can add and remove modules from the NUSMods API

• Users can generate a timetable from their inputted modules

• Advanced filters
  • Users can choose to exclude certain days from their timetable, and also their start and end time for classes

• Users can edit their own timetables by changing the classes to fit their schedule better

img src="https://github.com/qinboan/NUSchedulers/raw/main/images/image17.png" width="" alt="alt_text" title="image_tooltip">

• Task List
  • Users can add their own events and tasks on the home page to remind themselves

Challenges

Creating a timetable generator requires collecting various types of information such as class schedules, users’ preferences, etc. We faced a lot of difficulties in trying to successfully pass the correct information around to ensure that the timetable generator works reliably and accurately. Furthermore, we had to take into account scheduling conflicts, users’ preferences such as which days to be excluded, and the preferred start and end class timing for the users. Integrating all this information into a coherent system posed a significant challenge for us.

During the development process, we encountered some difficulties in deploying our website due to the separation of the frontend and backend components. The frontend and backend servers had to be started separately for the website to run, and this made it more complicated to deploy the website.