Hostly - A Microservices-based Hostel Management System

Hostly is a comprehensive hostel management system designed to showcase a microservices architecture. Each module is intentionally developed with a different technology stack to demonstrate polyglot programming, inter-service communication patterns, and various software engineering concepts.

Features

• Centralized Frontend Gateway: A single, unified entry point for the entire application, featuring user authentication (students and wardens) and a dashboard that provides access to all modules.
• Real-time Complaint Management: A real-time system for students to submit complaints and for wardens to track and update their status.
• Room & Occupant Information: A service for managing room details and occupant information.
• Real-time Notice Board: A module for broadcasting important announcements to all users in real-time.
• P2P Resource Sharing: A peer-to-peer file sharing system for students to share study materials and other resources.
• Live Mess Feedback: A real-time voting system for students to provide feedback on the mess food.

Tech Stack

This project utilizes a diverse set of technologies to build a polyglot microservices application:

Service	Language / Framework	Key Libraries/Features	Communication Protocol	Storage
Frontend Gateway	Node.js / Express.js	EJS, JWT (JSON Web Tokens)	REST API	In-memory (for users)
Complaints	Node.js / Express.js	Socket.IO	WebSockets	In-memory
Room Info	Java	Java RMI, com.sun.net.httpserver	RMI, REST API	In-memory
Notice Board	Node.js / Express.js		REST API	In-memory
P2P Share	Go	net/http	REST API	File system
Mess Feedback	Python / Flask	multiprocessing.shared_memory	REST API	Shared Memory

Architecture

The system is designed as a set of independent microservices, each running in its own Docker container. These services communicate with each other over a dedicated Docker network. A central Frontend Gateway acts as the main entry point, handling user authentication and routing requests to the appropriate backend service. This architecture allows for individual services to be developed, deployed, and scaled independently.

Modules

1. Frontend Gateway (frontend-gateway)

• Tech: Node.js, Express.js, EJS
• The primary user interface of the application.
• Provides a login page for students and wardens.
• Features a dashboard that acts as a launchpad to access all other modules.
• Handles user authentication and generates JWTs for secure communication with other services.

2. Complaint Management (mod1-complaints)

• Tech: Node.js, Express.js, Socket.IO
• A real-time, interactive module for managing hostel complaints.
• Students can submit new complaints, view the status of their complaints, and receive live updates.
• Wardens have a separate dashboard to view all complaints and update their status (e.g., "Pending", "In Progress", "Resolved").

3. Room Information (mod2-room-info)

• Tech: Java, RMI
• A service to manage room assignments and occupant details.
• Demonstrates the use of Java RMI for remote procedure calls.
• Provides a simple web interface for students to search for occupants and for wardens to manage room information.

4. Notice Board (mod3-notice-board)

• Tech: Node.js, Express.js
• A real-time notice board for displaying important announcements.
• Wardens can post new notices, which are then broadcasted to all connected students.

5. P2P Resource Sharing (mod4-p2p-share)

• Tech: Go
• A peer-to-peer file sharing network for students.
• Users can upload files, which are then available for download by other users on the network.
• The system demonstrates P2P concepts where nodes can discover and download files from each other.

6. Mess Feedback (mod5-mess-feedback)

• Tech: Python, Flask
• A simple, real-time voting system for collecting feedback on the quality of the mess food.
• This module uses shared memory for high-performance, inter-process data sharing, showcasing a unique approach to state management.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose

Running the Application

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/DotDev262/Hostly
   cd Hostly

2. Build and run the services using Docker Compose:

   docker-compose up --build

   This command will build the Docker images for each service and start all the containers.

3. Access the application: Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:60000.

Stopping the Application

To stop and remove all services, networks, and volumes created by Docker Compose, run:

docker-compose down

Demo Accounts

You can use the following credentials to log in and test the application:

• Warden:
  • Email: warden@hostly.com
  • Password: password123
• Student:
  • Email: student@hostly.com
  • Password: password123