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Swap Sweeper 
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0. Overview

1. Requirements and Dependencies

2. Setup Development Environment

3. Conceptual Framework

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Section 0. Overview
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Swap Sweeper is a Rails web application that integrates with
Facebook.  It is a web based application that facilitates barter
within ones social network.
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Section 1. Requirements and Dependencies
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MongoDB
Ruby 1.9.2
Rails 3.0.3
RVM http://beginrescueend.com ( Optional )

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Section 2. Setup Development Environment
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Facebook test accounts are needed to work on this application. I've
created an utility application to manage these  accounts:

https://github.com/murphybytes/fb-testuser-tools

After you check out the rails project you'll need
to run 'bundle install'  from the rails project root.  

You'll need to set up localhost to point to www.swapsweep.com

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Section 3. Conceptual Framework
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The application is designed to facilitate the barter of goods and 
services between a community of people who have a relationship with 
one another.  There are similar applications out there but this one
differs in two key respects.  Existing web applications rely on
rating systems to communicate satisfaction with the individual 
conducting a transaction. This is to attempt to build some level
of trust with the parties involved.  The Swap application doesn't 
do this because presumibly the parties know one another as 
indicated through Facebook friendship.  Parties desire to stay
in good standing within a Facebook community will facilitate the
integrity as it pertains to behavior in a barter transaction.       

Data Model

Users have multiple offerings.  An offering is a good or a service 
that is to be sold or traded by a user.  An offering is associated
with one active auction. The user accepts bids on an offering until 
an acceptable bid is recieved.  A bid describes the items a counterparty
will trade in exchange for the offering at auction.  When an acceptable 
bid is recieved the offering user closes the auction and the swap is 
confirmed. The offering is exchanged with the items described in the winning
bid.  In some cases an offering will be available continuously.  In this
case a new auction will be opened indicating that the offering is still 
available.  An example of this type of offerings would be a service like
plumbing or web design.  

See a picture of the data model. 

http://github.com/murphybytes/Swap-Sweeper/blob/master/data-model.png