ConnecTech

An Android app concept for B2B matchmaking. Businesses post a technology problem, and the app matches them with tech service providers who have the right expertise.

Team project for CS 407 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (Fall 2024). This is a fork of the team repository sahilmehtx/ConnecTech.

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The problem

Small and mid-sized businesses often know what they need (a mobile app, a cloud migration, help with cybersecurity) but not who can do it. Tech service providers, for their part, spend heavily on marketing to find clients that fit their skills. ConnecTech's idea is to have a business describe its problem in a structured way and then match it to providers by expertise, availability, and rating.

What we built

This repository is the project at its Milestone 1 stage (November 2024). It is an Android app skeleton in Kotlin with:

• an MVVM layering (Fragments → ViewModels → Repositories → network/models)
• authentication screens (login, register, forgot password) wired to a Retrofit REST client
• problem submission and "best matches" screens with a RecyclerView adapter
• shared domain models and utilities (users, providers, problems, matches, constants, encryption)

The matching logic and data are mocked at this stage: repositories return hard-coded project and partner lists. The Retrofit client points at a placeholder base URL (https://api.connectech.com/). No backend is included in this repo.

Architecture

The intended design at this milestone:

flowchart TD
    A["ConnecTechApp<br/>(single Activity + FragmentManager)"] --> F1["Auth fragments<br/>Login · Register · ForgotPassword"]
    A --> F2["Main fragments<br/>ProblemSubmission · BestMatches<br/>(+ stubs: Home, Profile, Settings, Filter, MatchDetails)"]

    F1 --> VM1["AuthViewModel<br/>LiveData&lt;Result&lt;User&gt;&gt;"]
    F2 --> VM2["ProblemViewModel · MainViewModel · SettingsViewModel"]

    VM1 --> R1["AuthRepository<br/>coroutines on Dispatchers.IO"]
    VM2 --> R2["ProblemRepository · MatchRepository<br/>(mock data)"]

    R1 --> API["Retrofit ApiService<br/>POST /auth/login · /auth/register · /auth/resetPassword"]
    API --> BE[("REST backend<br/>(placeholder URL, not part of this repo)")]

    M["model/<br/>User · Provider · Problem · Match"] -.-> R1 & R2 & API
    U["utils/<br/>Constants · EncryptionUtil (AES)"] -.-> R1

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Key features (as implemented)

• Auth flow UI: login, registration, and password-reset fragments with input validation and Toast feedback, using View/Data Binding.
• Networking layer: Retrofit + Gson ApiService with typed request models (LoginRequest, RegisterRequest, ResetPasswordRequest), and repository methods that wrap calls in Kotlin Result on Dispatchers.IO.
• Problem submission: a form with a category dropdown that hands off to the ViewModel layer.
• Best matches list: a ListAdapter + DiffUtil RecyclerView for showing matched providers.
• Domain models: typed Kotlin data classes for User, Provider (expertise list, rating, availability), Problem (category, status, ISO-8601 timestamp), and Match (provider ↔ problem with a score).
• Utilities: centralized constants (API base URL, timeout, error messages, SharedPreferences keys) and an AES-256 encrypt/decrypt helper.

Tech stack

Kotlin · Android SDK (min 24, target/compile 35) · AndroidX Fragments, ViewModel, LiveData · View/Data Binding · Retrofit 2 + Gson · Kotlin Coroutines · Gradle (Kotlin DSL, AGP 8.6, Gradle 8.7)

Project status

This snapshot is a work-in-progress milestone and does not compile as-is. Pieces written in parallel by different team members were merged before being integrated:

• repository/AuthRepository.kt contains an unresolved merge-conflict marker (=======) between two versions of AuthRepository.
• Some files declare package com.connectech.app... while others import from com.cs407.connectech....
• BestMatchesFragment and ProblemSubmissionFragment call ViewModel members that don't exist yet (bestMatches, fetchBestMatches(), submitProblem()), and MatchAdapter reads Match fields (name, rating) that the Match model doesn't define.

My contributions

I owned the shared domain model and utility layer (commit 93f145d, about 150 lines across 6 files), which the other sub-teams built on:

• model/User.kt, model/Provider.kt, model/Problem.kt, model/Match.kt: replaced empty class stubs with typed Kotlin data classes. Each file has a header documenting every field and explaining how the frontend, backend, and matching sub-teams should use or extend it. User is the response type used by ApiService, AuthRepository, and AuthViewModel.
• utils/Constants.kt: a central place for the API base URL, request timeout, user-facing error messages, and SharedPreferences keys.
• utils/EncryptionUtil.kt: AES-256 key generation, encrypt/decrypt to Base64, and key reconstruction from bytes.
• Merged team pull requests #9 and #10 (integrating main with the Harsh branch).

Team

Member	Main areas (from commit history)
@sahilmehtx	Project setup and starter code, authentication UI (login/register/forgot password + layouts), AuthViewModel, Retrofit networking layer, original README
@tmodi3	Milestone 1 screens: problem submission, best matches, MatchAdapter, and their layouts
@sgupta285	Starter code, ViewModels (Main, Problem, Settings), repositories (Auth, Match, Problem) with mock data
@Harsh-Sahay009	Domain models (User, Provider, Problem, Match), Constants, EncryptionUtil

Running locally

Requirements: Android Studio (with Android SDK 35) and JDK 17.

git clone https://github.com/Harsh-Sahay009/ConnecTech.git   # TODO: update if the repo name changes
cd ConnecTech
./gradlew assembleDebug

Or open the project in Android Studio and run the app configuration on an emulator (API 24+).

The build currently fails because of the issues listed under Project status.

Screenshots