ROW Manager – Farmer ROW & Land Compensation Management System (prototype)

Prototype for Ipower Engineering Services LLP. It tracks farmers, land/survey numbers, poles and towers, agreements, compensation and manually recorded payments, and the seven progress stages of every location, from survey to staywire.

rowms/
  backend/   Django 5.2 + Django REST Framework API, PostgreSQL (SQLite works for a quick look)
  web/       React web admin (dashboard, records, map, reports, users, activity log)
  mobile/    Android field app (Expo / React Native), offline-first with background sync

What the prototype does

Web admin (all office roles)

• Dashboard per project or across projects: farmers, survey numbers, locations, agreements executed/pending, crop claims, ROW cleared %, progress by stage, a "line progress" diagram (each pole a column, each stage a row), and compensation approved / paid / balance.
• Farmers with a permanent Farmer ID (FRM-000001), masked Aadhaar (last 4 digits only), KYC status, encrypted bank details, and a lifetime history across all projects, survey numbers, poles, agreements, crop claims and payments. Excel farmer statement.
• Land records with joint owners and one primary payee; poles/towers/substations/access roads/lines with GPS.
• The seven stages – Surveyed, KYC, Agreement, Payment, Pole Erection, Stringing, Staywire & Accessories – can be marked in any order. KYC is taken from the farmer record; "Agreement Executed" and "Payment Made" are also set automatically when an agreement is executed or the location's compensation is fully paid.
• Agreements (lease / ROW / easement / consent) with scanned signed copies.
• Compensation by category (crop, tree, pole/tower, land, access road, other), approval by Project Manager / Admin, and manually recorded payments in instalments. Nothing transfers money.
• Map (OpenStreetMap / satellite) of routes, land boundaries and locations coloured by progress or by a chosen stage.
• KML/KMZ import (points → poles/towers, lines → route, polygons → land boundaries) and KML export.
• Excel reports: farmer list, pole/tower progress & GPS, compensation statement, payment register, agreements, crop assessments, village/hobli/taluk summary.
• Users and roles, project assignment, activity log of every change, approval, export and sensitive-document view.

Android field app (Field Surveyor, also usable by ROW Officers)

• Works with no signal: everything is saved on the phone and uploaded automatically when connectivity returns (also retried every minute while anything is waiting). Retried uploads are never applied twice.
• Register farmers, land records and poles/towers; link owners; mark stages done with date, remarks and proof photos.
• GPS capture with live accuracy; a warning (not a block) when accuracy is worse than the configurable limit (15 m).
• Live camera photos (tagged with GPS and time) or gallery uploads; KYC and bank-proof photos are encrypted on the server.
• Crop assessments with photos and GPS.
• A sync screen showing what is waiting, anything the server refused (e.g. a stage the role cannot change), and re-download.

Roles

Role	Sees	Can change
Company Administrator	everything	everything, users, settings
Project Manager	assigned projects	all records; approves compensation
Land / ROW Officer	assigned projects	farmers, land, agreements, proposes compensation; bank details
Field Surveyor	assigned projects only, no money	farmers, land, locations, stages (not Agreement/Payment), crop, photos
Finance User	all projects	records payments, "Payment Made" stage, bank details
Management	all projects	read only
Farmer User	–	reserved for the future farmer portal

The rules are all in backend/core/access.py.

Quick start with Docker (recommended)

Requires Docker Desktop.

cp .env.example .env        # then edit SECRET_KEY and FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY
docker compose up --build

Open http://localhost:8000. With SEED_DEMO=true the demo data and users are loaded on first start:

Username	Role	Password
admin	Company Administrator	Demo@1234
pm	Project Manager	Demo@1234
rowofficer	Land / ROW Officer	Demo@1234
surveyor1, surveyor2	Field Surveyor	Demo@1234
finance	Finance User	Demo@1234
management	Management	Demo@1234

Set SEED_DEMO=false and change or deactivate the demo users before real data goes in.

Running without Docker (development)

# API
cd backend
python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate      # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py seed_demo
python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000           # uses SQLite unless DATABASE_URL is set

# Web admin (second terminal)
cd web
npm install
npm run dev                                       # http://localhost:5173, proxies /api to :8000

Tests: cd backend && python manage.py test core (22 tests). Field-app sync check against a running server: python scripts/simulate_field_app.py http://127.0.0.1:8000 surveyor1 Demo@1234.

Building the Android app

The app is an Expo (SDK 54) project. Expo Go from the Play Store only runs the newest SDK, so install a built APK:

Option A – Expo's cloud build (no Android Studio needed)

cd mobile
npm install
npm install -g eas-cli
eas login                      # free account at expo.dev
eas build -p android --profile preview

EAS gives a link to download the .apk. Install it on the phones (allow "install unknown apps").

Option B – build on your computer (Android Studio + JDK 17):

cd mobile && npm install
npx expo prebuild -p android
cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease     # APK in android/app/build/outputs/apk/release/

On first launch enter the server address: during a pilot this is the office computer running Docker, e.g. 192.168.1.20:8000 (phone and computer on the same Wi-Fi); in production an HTTPS address such as row.yourcompany.in. Plain HTTP is allowed in this prototype build so a local pilot works; use HTTPS for real data.

Security notes

• The full Aadhaar number is never stored: only the last 4 digits. Uploaded Aadhaar, other ID and bank-proof images are encrypted at rest (Fernet / AES) and only Admin, Project Manager and ROW Officer (bank proof: also Finance) can open them; every view is written to the activity log. Surveyors can upload but not re-open them.
• Bank account numbers are encrypted in the database and hidden from roles that do not need them.
• Documents are never served as public files – only through short-lived signed links checked against the user's role.
• Keep FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY safe and backed up. Without it encrypted documents cannot be read.
• Back up the pgdata and media Docker volumes (database and documents) daily.
• Before go-live: HTTPS, strong passwords, remove demo users, and a legal check of Aadhaar/DPDP Act handling.

Deliberately left for later (designed to be added without rework)

Multi-company (a Company table already exists), ownership-share split compensation (share_percent field exists), span-level stringing (P-244 → P-245), asset-specific stage lists (StageDefinition.asset_types), automatic compensation rates, multi-level approvals, farmer portal with OTP login, e-signatures, Kannada, background sync while the app is closed, PostGIS spatial queries, Play Store release (needs the app upgraded to a current Expo SDK at that time).