Rentaparking App Study Case

This project is aimed at both a web and mobile environment

Rentaparking is a community of users based on the need to rent parking spaces, close to home or office; and on the other side, people who have availability of one or more parking spaces to be rented for periods of time, to negotiate with the interested party.

In Rentaparking people publish, discover and reserve parking spaces, likewise publish and define the available hours and the value they want, from their mobile phone.

BACKGROUND:

It was necessary to build an app where you could rent a parking lot for a short time or for long periods, to keep the vehicle for a few nights, a week or a whole month.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

It is a project that is aimed at both a web and mobile environment, which allows publishing and renting available parking spaces for this purpose. Being a link between landlord and tenant that facilitates the search, reservation and payment process.

Establish a suitable environment for administration and achievement of objectives.
Organic growth of the application.
Offer users a fast and secure way to get a parking space through an intuitive layout.
Provide tenants with the easiest way to earn money by renting their space and doing business through the platform.
Establish efficient communication channels between those involved with the support of virtual tools.
Integrate with the advanced location system, where users can easily locate their location and thus, a parking space available in the place they need it.
Establish parameters that allow the measurement of actions and their impact on the market.
Create a reservation system, to be able to pay immediately for the application, which uses the Pay U Latam system, a safe and efficient online payment system to streamline the rental process and keep user data and payments safe.
Suggest a price based on the area and the days offered.
TIMELINE:

1.Ideation:: The Lean StartUp methodology was used. The Lean Canvas focuses on studying the problems and solutions that consumers have to apply them to specific segments of consumers through a unique value proposition.

It was decided to launch the MPV (Minimum Viable Product) Mobile Application, given the differential competitive advantage that this implies in the market, supported by a primary version of the website as a communication channel enabled to receive complaints, claims and suggestions of users.

2. Analysis and architecture: An analysis and architecture document was made to capture what was evidenced in the ideation stage, initially the objective was only to build an application prototype with the minimum functional characteristics that could evolve as the user in direct interactions with the application, the architecture team made the decision to use IONIC as the framework for the application and drupal 8 as the information manager.

3.Design: A design was presented as an initial proposal for the mobile application and for the website to which different adjustments were made.

4.Backend development: In the first instance, the first version of the Mobile Application was made in IONIC using code elements in HTML5 / JavaScript language.

The website was made as a complement to the Drupal content manager (CMS) using elements and modules contributed from it. Which endows this site with the ability to manage users of both the App and the website.

5.Quality tests and adjustments: Integration and functional unit tests were carried out by our team in order to determine that the requirements given in the analysis and architecture document comply with the functionalities requested and with the expectations of users and the market.

6.Deployment: Server configurations were made and the general development of each section was assembled, taking into account the user flow and transaction process. Load tests were carried out to validate that the system was supporting the expected request traffic and once the correct operation of each section was verified, it was directed to the domains of the new server. Subsequently, rounds of monitoring the behavior of the site were carried out during the first weeks.

7.Stabilization of the website and the application: In this stage we seek to stabilize each of the application processes, guaranteeing that all the functions offered are verified. Under normal conditions the application is stable since it includes files that are stored in the memory of the smartphone, the app and the hosting. The speed of the application will depend exclusively on the ability of the smartphone device to execute the APK file, internet connection and the speed of third parties such as websites directed to its operation.

WHY WAS DRUPAL 8 CHOSEN? :

The development model was made using Drupal 8 as a source of data and persistent information for the solution. Drupal 8 through Web services delivers the information to the application that is in charge of processing the information to interact with the user.

As Drupal 8 is the tool that contains the information delivered by and to the user, the application should only consume and deliver the information.

The app was built with Ionic 2, a technology created to facilitate the construction of multiplatform applications, thus reducing the effort required to develop it. With Ionic the App is developed on Angular as a development framework and Ionic will be in charge of transforming the code to each platform.

Ionic 2 has high device compatibility and performance on the different platforms it supports, being one of the most widely used tools today in application development.

OUTCOME:

The Rentaparking user who registers in the owner category can:

Publish your space, with a photo and description of it.
Publish aspects that are relevant to the interested client, such as difficulty of maneuvering when parking, distance between doors with other neighboring vehicles and security.
Receive a confirmation from the platform that your space has been rented by a person with a brief description of their profile. To approve the transaction, the owner must agree on the time that he commits to reserving the space for the customer.
Determine the prices and values of the parking lots.

The owners of parking spaces can be individuals or small parking lots that do not belong to a chain or organized company.