College TravelMap

A real-time social map and travel hub for college. Students can create travel plans, add trips, find co-travelers, and coordinate meetups through a live map.

Tech Stack

• Python 3.12+
• Django 5.2.x (ORM, auth, admin, views)
• django-crispy-forms + crispy-bootstrap5 (form rendering with Bootstrap 5)
• django-dynamic-breadcrumbs (navigation UX)
• Pillow (image handling for carousel/features)
• SQLite (default DB for local dev via Django)
• Leaflet + Leaflet Routing Machine (front-end mapping and routing)
• Requests (server-side HTTP calls for geocoding proxy)

Quickstart (Clone, Environment, Install, Run Locally)

These commands are for Windows PowerShell. Bash/macOS equivalents are noted where helpful.

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Lakshya717/TravelMap.git
cd TravelMap

2. Create and activate a virtual environment (Python 3.12+ recommended)

PowerShell:

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Bash/macOS:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up the database and a superuser

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser

5. Run the development server

python manage.py runserver

Open http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser. Admin is at http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/.

Notes:

• Static files are served from static/ in development; media uploads are stored under Media/.
• Default database is SQLite (db.sqlite3). No extra setup needed for local development.
• Timezone is set to Asia/Kolkata in TravelMap/settings.py.

Admin access (superuser)

• Create an admin user: python manage.py createsuperuser
  • Provide username, email (optional), and password when prompted.
• Log in at: http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/
• Forgot the password? Change it with: python manage.py changepassword <username>
• Dev reset (SQLite only): delete db.sqlite3 and run python manage.py migrate again to start fresh.

What Is This Project?

TravelMap is a dynamic, social mapping application built for college students. Every semester, many students travel long distances between home and campus. TravelMap simplifies coordination: students can create and share travel plans, find groups or co-travelers, share rides between cities, and see trips visualized on a live map.

Instead of scattered group chats, students can create, share, and join plans directly on the map, making it easy to form groups, share rides, and meet up.

Features

• Live social map (Leaflet + Leaflet Routing Machine)

  • Visualizes all trips with markers and routes.
  • Flights/trains draw smooth great-circle–style arcs; buses/roads use OSRM routing via LRM.
  • Departure-time shading with a gradient or time-bucket controls (hours/days/weeks/months).
  • Route caching: client saves computed routes to the backend (Trip.route JSON) to avoid re-querying the routing engine.

• Travel plans and nested trips

  • Accounts.TravelPlan with many Accounts.Trip items (origin/destination, times, mode, notes, passengers).
  • Create/edit flow uses Django inline formset (TripFormSet) for nested trip editing.
  • Pagination for public and personal plan lists.

• Simple plan chat

  • Each plan has a chat thread (Accounts.ChatMessage).
  • Fetch-based UI with periodic refresh every 5s; CSRF-protected POST endpoint.

• Authentication and UX

  • User registration (SignUpForm), login, logout using Django auth.
  • Redirects configured (LOGIN_URL, LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL, LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URL).
  • Crispy Forms with Bootstrap 5 for consistent styling.

• CMS-like homepage content

  • UI.carousel, UI.features, and UI.step models drive the landing page (carousel, features, and timeline).
  • A context processor (UI.context_processors.site_settings) injects these objects globally.
  • href values are reversed into internal URLs when possible.

• Geocoding helper API

  • /geocode/ view calls Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) for location search suggestions (server-side proxy with UA header and basic error handling).

• Sensible defaults for local dev

  • SQLite database, local media (MEDIA_URL=/Media/), Bootstrap assets in static/, and Leaflet/Leaflet Routing Machine vendored under static/.

Project Structure Overview

TravelMap/
├─ manage.py
├─ TravelMap/                # Django project (settings, urls, wsgi/asgi)
├─ Accounts/                 # TravelPlan, Trip, ChatMessage models
├─ UI/                       # Forms, views, urls, context processors, CMS models
├─ templates/                # Django templates (UI/, partials/)
├─ static/                   # Bootstrap, Leaflet, LRM assets
├─ Media/                    # Uploaded images (carousel/features)
├─ requirements.txt
└─ db.sqlite3                # Local dev database

Key URLs

• / — Landing page (carousel, features, steps)
• /map/ — Live social map
• /travelplans/ — Public plans (paginated)
• /travelplans/me/ — Your plans
• /travelplans/me/new/ — Create a new plan + trips
• /travelplans/<id>/ — Plan detail + chat
• /api/travelplans/<id>/chat/ — Chat messages API (GET/POST)
• /api/trips/<id>/route — Cache a computed route for a trip (POST)
• /geocode/ — Nominatim search proxy (GET)
• /admin/ — Django admin

Environment and Configuration

• DEBUG=True by default for development.
• ALLOWED_HOSTS=[] (use python manage.py runserver locally).
• Change timezone, static, and media settings in TravelMap/settings.py if needed.
• Secret key in settings is for local dev only; provide a secure key via environment for production.

Development Tips

• Log in to /admin/ and add carousel, features, and step entries to light up the landing page.
• Create a few TravelPlan and Trip items, then open /map/ to see routes. For road trips, the first load uses OSRM; subsequent loads use cached geometry when available.
• Geocoding helper at /search_map/ and /geocode/ can assist in picking locations.