RentalApp — renting anything and everything
Why rentalApp?
Have you ever wondered about the things you don’t use very often but are quite valuable?
Take for example a DSLR camera which can be a very expensive gadget to afford for a vast majority with limited utility unless you are an amateur photographer. So for such spare things, renting them to someone can be a really good business! Many times we are reluctant to buy certain things owing to their cost or use case — what could be a better option than having things on rent. According to my research, there are many apps in the Indian market for renting specific stuff like clothes, property, furniture, etc. but there is no app to buy and sell anything and everything on rent.
The rentalApp can serve this purpose very well. Be it anything, the app will cater to the needs of anyone, anytime.
The making of rentalApp
After my proposal got accepted for Season Of Code 2k19–20, it was now time to dive deep into the world of Android development. Initially I made certain test apps following the android tutorials on udacity and learnt basic git. Then the toughest part — coding phase began in December and I familiarised myself with the concepts of Object Oriented Programming in Java.
Workflow
- Once I had a picture of how I wanted to present the information in my app, the next step was to decide the workflow. I just took a pen and paper and drew all the screens along with their navigation architecture.
- Next I worked on the functionality of each component and framed a timeline for the completion of each part in the app.
Back end
- I used Firebase for the back end of my app. It is a Google’s app development platform that helps you build, improve, and grow your app.
- It provides you with a plethora of features like cloud Firestore , Firebase cloud storage, Firebase Authentication, etc which makes handling the back end quite an easy task! I’ve added links to the tutorials I followed at the end of the post
Front end
- Since my app had to display a scrolling list of uploaded products which could be changed as well, I used
RecyclerViewalong with theCardViewwidget. They not only improve the UI but also arrange the things in a systematic order. - Also, I used the navigation drawer which is a UI panel that shows the app’s main navigation menu. The drawer appears when the user touches the drawer icon on the top left of the app bar or when the user swipes a finger from the left edge of home the screen.
- I wanted the UI to look simple but appealing — so I kept the theme as a combination of blue and white and used dark font colours.
Here is a quick ride through my rentalApp :)
Current status and future vision
Currently, a basic working prototype of the rentalApp is ready and it can be used to connect the people who prefer renting things over buying them. The app will be soon launched on Google Play Store and you are ready to go!
- In the later versions of my app, I am planning to implement MVVM architecture and AndroidJetpack components like ViewModel and LiveData in my app for its better functionality.
- Also I want to include some payment procedures and a personal chatroom to ensure better communication between the users while taking care of their privacy and for a smooth renting process.
My experience in SoC 2k19–20
My SoC journey was a complete roller coaster ride — exciting, interactive, organised — in short WONDERFUL!
There were times when I was stuck at a bug for several days and it was really annoying, but eventually I figured out that this is what software development is. It is quite important to have patience while working on any project and believe me, Google is your best friend!!
Also my mentors Arnesh Agarwal and Samagra Sharma were always there to help me get through any problem in this project.
So in a nutshell, SoC was a great learning experience for me and I explored a lot in this amazing journey :)
Cheers!!
Relevant Links
- For authentication ->
https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth - For storing user and product data -> https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore
- For storing images ->
https://firebase.google.com/docs/storage - Android Jetpack->
https://developer.android.com/jetpack
