AI-Powered Book Recommendation & Review App

An all-in-one Flutter mobile app that lets readers search for books, track their reading, write/edit/delete reviews, join discussion boards, and get AI-driven personalized suggestions.

---

Presentation: https://youtu.be/a_lRYFDl9gU

---

Features

• Authentication: Email/password sign-up & login via Firebase Auth
• User Profile & Preferences: Save favorite genres, display name
• Book Search: Google Books API lookup by title/author/ISBN
• Book Details: Metadata, description, rating, reviews, discussion
• Reading Lists: “Want to Read” / “Reading” / “Finished” management
• Reviews: Write, edit, delete your book reviews (1–5 stars)
• Discussion Boards: Threaded posts & replies per book/category
• AI Recommendations: OpenAI-powered suggestions based on your tastes
• Offline Support: Firestore caching for reads, queue writes when offline

---

Prerequisites

1. Flutter & Dart SDK

   • Install from flutter.dev
   • Make sure flutter doctor reports no critical errors.

2. Android Toolchain

   • Java JDK 17 (e.g. Eclipse Temurin 17)

     brew install --cask temurin17
     export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-17.jdk/Contents/Home"
     export PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH"

   • Android SDK & Platform Tools (via Android Studio)
   • Set ANDROID_HOME / ANDROID_SDK_ROOT in your shell if needed.

3. Environment Variables (.env)

   • Create a .env file at the project root (same level as pubspec.yaml).
   • Add your API keys:

     # Google Books API
     GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY=your_google_books_api_key_here
     
     # OpenAI API
     OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here
     
     # (Optional) Other keys for Goodreads / NYTimes
     GOODREADS_API_KEY=...
     NYTIMES_API_KEY=...
     

4. Firebase Setup

   • Create a Firebase project.
   • Add an Android &/or iOS app to your project.
   • Download & place google-services.json (Android) in android/app/
     and GoogleService-Info.plist (iOS) in ios/Runner/.
   • Enable Authentication (Email/Password) and Cloud Firestore.
   • In Firestore, create a single-field or composite index on:
     • reviews collection: bookId (ascending) + createdAt (descending)
     • discussions collection: category + parentId + createdAt

5. FlutterFire Configuration

   flutterfire configure \
     --project your-firebase-project-id \
     --out lib/firebase_options.dart