stuRENT 🏠

Student Rental Management System — A modern Django REST API + React Single Page Application designed specifically for student accommodations, room rentals, equipment rentals, and peer-to-peer buying/selling.

🔗 Live Link: sturent.mirzashafi.com

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🌟 Core Features & Recent Updates

1. 🏠 Specialized Housing Module

• Dynamic Attribute Engine: Supports specific property details including City, Area, House Type (Apartment, Sublet, Hostel, etc.), Flat Size (sqft), Rooms, Bathrooms, AC Status, and Furnishing Status.
• Advanced Filtering Navbar: Dynamic, interactive filter bar embedded on the catalog page. Location filters dynamically load area recommendations based on selected cities.
• Monthly Rental Billing: Housing listings automatically transition pricing units from /day to /month across search results, details pages, cart views, and payment checkout lists.
• Refundable Security Deposit: Implements a standard 2-month refundable security deposit calculation automatically added to the checkout flow for housing rentals.
• Custom Presentation: Eliminates e-commerce generic widgets (like quantity selectors or "add to cart") for housing listings. Replaced with direct "Rent/Buy" modals and trusted real estate signals (e.g., Verified Landlord, Physical Key Exchange, and Signed Lease Agreement).

2. 💰 Flexible Pricing & Listing Types

• Listing Configurations: Supports three transaction modes:
  • Rent Only: Daily/monthly rental price is required; purchase price is hidden.
  • Buy Only (Permanent Buy): Flat purchase price is required; daily/monthly rental price is removed/hidden.
  • Rent & Buy: Both rental and purchase options are offered simultaneously.
• Dynamic Price Ranges: Client-side filtering sliders automatically rescale their limits based on listing types (scaling up to $1,000,000 for housing purchases).

3. 💬 Direct Messaging & Real-Time Chat

• Landlord Inquiry: Direct chat button on listing pages allows prospective tenants/buyers to open conversation channels immediately with listing owners.
• Inbox Interface: Interactive messenger layout to retrieve, view, and send direct messages, organized dynamically by conversation threads.

4. 🔐 Dual-Auth & Admin Workflow

• User Roles: Separation between Student profiles and Admin (Owner/Landlord) accounts.
• Admin Access Requests: Users can apply for Admin privileges. Access request queues are managed directly through a secure workflow where superusers approve/reject applicants.
• Google OAuth Support: Integrated social login buttons for quick onboarding.

5. 📊 Management & Performance Dashboards

• Admin Hub: Dedicated interface for managing customer accounts, viewing active orders, validating and approving/rejecting user-submitted product listings.
• Unified KPI Stats: Analytics charts showing rental revenue, transaction volume, active listings, and user registrations.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer	Technology	Key Features
Backend API	Django 4.2 + Django REST Framework	Clean architecture, relational mapping, validation
Authentication	JWT (djangorestframework-simplejwt)	Secure token rotation, silent token refresh, Google OAuth
Frontend	React 18 + Vite	Single Page Application routing, fast local bundles
Routing	React Router v6	Nested layouts, private routes, search parameter parsing
HTTP Client	Axios	Request interceptors, error handling, token refresh integration
Styling	Vanilla CSS	CSS variables, glassmorphism, responsive grids, dark mode
Database	SQLite (Dev) / PostgreSQL (Prod)	Scalable database schemas

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📂 Project Layout

stuRENT/
├── backend/                      ← Django REST API
│   ├── manage.py
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   ├── .env                      ← Secrets and variables
│   ├── .env.example
│   ├── db.sqlite3
│   ├── static/
│   ├── sturent/
│   │   └── settings/
│   │       ├── base.py
│   │       ├── development.py
│   │       └── production.py
│   └── apps/
│       ├── accounts/             ← Identity & Admin Request workflows
│       └── rental/               ← Core domains (Products, Orders, Chat)
│           ├── models/           ← Customer, Product, Message, Order, etc.
│           ├── serializers/      ← DRF data parsers with custom validators
│           ├── services/         ← Business logic & KPI computation
│           ├── views/            ← Thin REST endpoints
│           └── filters.py
└── client/                       ← React SPA (Vite)
    └── src/
        ├── services/             ← Axios API connectors
        │   ├── api.js            ← JWT interceptor & refresh trigger
        │   ├── authService.js
        │   ├── studentService.js
        │   ├── productService.js
        │   └── orderService.js
        ├── context/
        │   └── AuthContext.jsx   ← Global authentication & user state
        ├── hooks/
        │   └── useApi.js         ← API request utility hook
        ├── pages/
        │   ├── auth/             ← Registration, Logins
        │   ├── Dashboard.jsx     ← Visual analytics dashboard
        │   ├── products/         ← Admin product listings & management
        │   ├── student/          ← Student product catalog & chat interface
        │   └── AllProducts.jsx   ← Global catalog with custom housing filters
        └── components/
            ├── layout/           ← Shared header, sidebar, footer wrappers
            └── ui/               ← Reusable cards, sliders, modals, tags

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🔌 API Endpoints

Auth Services (/api/v1/auth/)

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/auth/register/	Register a new account
POST	/auth/login/	Log in and receive JWT access/refresh tokens
POST	/auth/admin-login/	Authenticate as an administrator/moderator
POST	/auth/token/refresh/	Obtain a new access token using a refresh token
POST	/auth/logout/	Terminate session and blacklist refresh token
GET	/auth/me/	Fetch current user account profile
POST	/auth/google/	Authenticate with Google OAuth credential
POST	/auth/admin-request/	Submit a request for admin account elevation
POST	/auth/admin-request/<id>/<action>/	Approve or reject a pending admin privilege request

Rental & Chat Services (/api/v1/)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/dashboard/	Retrieve admin dashboard analytical metrics
GET/POST	/customers/	List all system customers or create a customer
GET/PUT/PATCH/DELETE	/customers/<id>/	Fetch, modify, or delete a specific customer
GET	/customers/<id>/orders/	Retrieve order history for a particular customer
GET/POST	/products/	Retrieve all inventory products or create a listing
GET/PUT/PATCH/DELETE	/products/<id>/	View, update, or remove a product listing
POST	/products/<id>/approve/	Approve a user-submitted product listing
POST	/products/<id>/reject/	Reject a user-submitted product listing
GET/POST	/orders/	List all orders or create a new order
GET/PUT/PATCH/DELETE	/orders/<id>/	View or adjust an order details
GET	/student/products/	Fetch list of approved catalog items (student catalog)
GET	/student/products/<id>/	View full details of a catalog product
POST	/student/rent/	Process rental/buy checkout transactions
GET	/student/my-orders/	Fetch orders placed by the current student
GET	/student/my-products/	Fetch listings created by the current student
GET	/chat/conversations/	Retrieve chat conversations and thread participants
GET/POST	/chat/messages/	Fetch messages in a thread or send a new chat message

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Django Backend Setup

cd backend

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

# Install requirements
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Configure environment variables
cp .env.example .env    # edit configuration variables

# Run database migrations
python3 manage.py migrate --settings=sturent.settings.development

# Create Django superuser
python3 manage.py createsuperuser --settings=sturent.settings.development

# Start API server
python3 manage.py runserver --settings=sturent.settings.development

• API Host: http://localhost:8000
• Django Admin Console: http://localhost:8000/admin/

2. Frontend React Setup

cd client

# Install packages
npm install

# Start Vite dev server
npm run dev

• App UI Host: http://localhost:5173
• Note: Vite proxies /api/ calls to http://localhost:8000 automatically.

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🔒 Security & Optimization

• Relational Validation: The backend validates price bounds based on product type prior to save, clearing redundant fields to keep DB clean.
• Silent JWT Refresh: Token rotation interceptors in api.js automatically renew user access tokens before expiration without user interruption.
• Bundled Styles: Large inline CSS blocks are extracted into external stylesheets, boosting hydration times and cacheability.