About-BombayLibrary

BombayLibrary is a platform to share hard copies of Books (Novels, Academic Textbooks) and Discs (PS, PC) with other users from your neighbourhood -(currently in Mumbai, NaviMumbai, IIT-Bombay).

Basic functionality

a) Add an Item
As a user, you can add any item (books/discs) to your inventory to share with other users.

b) Searching for an Item
As a user, you can search for an item added by others. If someone is sharing that item, you will see it in search results

c) Request an Item
As a user, you can request an item from a user who is sharing it by simply messaging him.

d) Keep track of your Item
After sharing, you can update your borrowed item or inventory content status to keep a track of the current status of your item.

e) Rate other Users
After getting back your item, you can rate the user with whom you had shared to help other users who might in future share with him.

How does it work?

Let's assume there are 2 users Rohan and Pratik who have an account in BombayLibrary.

1) Rohan lives in Dadar and has a copy of Game of Thrones, Rohan has already read it and wishes to share the book.

2) Rohan logs into BombayLibrary.com and adds the book.

3) Pratik is a user who lives in Dadar and wishes to read the book. He searches for Game of Thrones on BombayLibrary.com and sees that the book is currently being shared by Rohan.

4) Pratik requests the book from Rohan by sending him a message.

5) Rohan after logging in next time sees an unread message from Pratik which is requesting the book.

6) Now Rohan and Pratik can decide on a location and time of their mutual convenience to share the book.

7) After getting the book from Rohan to keep a record of book and not allow other users to request for the same book during the time of share either
a) Pratik can update his borrowed item status by typing in the book name and Rohan's username under his Borrowed Items.
OR
b) Rohan can update his inventory content status by selecting the shared book and enterings Pratik's username under his Inventory.

8) Now, either Rohan or Pratik whoever updates their item status first the other user will get a notification in the notification tab saying that Rohan has given Game of Thrones to you or Pratik has borrowed Game of Thrones from you respectively.

9) Then after the users accept that they have borrowed or shared the status of their added item and borrowed item will change to green text with approval.

10) After reading the book Pratik and Rohan can decide on a mutual location to return Game of Thrones in person.

11) After returning the book in person, either (a) or (b)
a) Pratik can log back into his account and update his Borrowed Items, (Pratik will now get an option to rate Rohan) then a notification will be sent to Rohan stating that Pratik has confirmed the return of Game of Thrones and it is awaiting Rohan's approval for confirmation. After Rohan accepts the return of book (he also gets an option to rate Pratik) both their statuses will be updated.
OR
b) Rohan can update his Inventory items saying Pratik has returned his book already,(Rohan will now get an option to rate Pratik) Now the book's status will be changed to available so that other users can search for it.