UniRentals
A web application for university students to find housing near campus.
About
UniRentals is a platform that simplifies the process of finding student housing. Featuring an interactive map, rental listings near University of Toronto campuses are displayed with key details and tools to plan routes or connect with roommates.
Features
- Interactive map highlighting university campuses
- View detailed rental property information
- Find potential roommates and connect with profiles
- Get directions to campuses using multiple transportation options
Technologies Used
- Frontend: React, Vite (TypeScript)
- Backend: Django Rest Framework (Python)
- Database: PostgreSQL on GCP
- Other: OSRM, Nominatim, Leaflet, Google OAuth
The UniRentals map displays rental properties near university campuses.
Users can view detailed information about rental properties.
UniRentals provides directions to campuses using multiple transportation options.
Role
As a full-stack developer, I contributed to the frontend UI, backend REST API development, and integration of third-party APIs. I implemented features like user authentication, rental property information, and map interactions.
Reflection
Working on UniRentals has been a transformative experience that significantly improved my web development and teamwork skills. The project challenged me to integrate third-party APIs like OSRM for map routing and learn how to properly connect frontend and backend components.
These tasks required my problem-solving and debugging abilities, especially when resolving issues with API communication and CORS. Collaborating with a team of developers on a completely new independent project was also a new experience for me, as I transitioned from working on guided projects to navigating the dynamics of independent team-based development. This required us to come up with our own design of the application, choose the technology stack, and resolve issues without external oversight, providing us an opporunity for a lot of personal growth and learning.
One of the biggest lessons from this project was prioritization. Due to time constraints, we could not implement all the features we initially envisioned. We had to carefully evaluate and focus on the most impactful features to deliver a functional and user-friendly application. Despite this, we remain committed to further developing UniRentals into a more complete and valuable platform for university students.
This project also deepened my understanding of web security. We encountered numerous CORS issues and had to implement solutions like proper server configurations and cookie flags to resolve them. These challenges provided me with hands-on experience in ensuring secure and seamless communication between different servers and domains.
Finally, the end-to-end process of building and deploying UniRentals, from the initial project setup to acquiring a domain name and deploying servers, provided me with valuable insights into the lifecycle of web application development. It was an incredible learning journey that strengthened both my technical skills and my confidence in tackling complicated, real-world projects.