EmptyNEU

Find open study spaces at Northeastern University

Live at: empty-neu.vercel.app

EmptyNEU is a web application that helps Northeastern University students discover available study spaces in real-time. Built with modern web technologies, it provides an intuitive interface for browsing study locations and managing user profiles.

Features

• User Authentication

  • Email/password signup and login
  • Magic link (OAuth passwordless) authentication
  • Email verification support

• Study Space Discovery

  • Browse available study spaces across campus
  • Real-time availability updates
  • Search and filter functionality

• User Profiles

  • Create and manage student profiles
  • Select major and academic year
  • Add courses to your profile

• Course Management

  • View course catalogs by term
  • Add courses to your profile
  • Integrated course data from Northeastern

Project Structure

f25-group-17/
├── frontend/              # Next.js frontend application
│   ├── app/
│   │   ├── login/         # Login page with captcha & magic link
│   │   ├── signup/        # Signup page with form validation
│   │   ├── study/         # Study spaces page
│   │   ├── profile/       # User profile page
│   │   ├── onboarding/    # Course selection onboarding
│   │   ├── api/           # API routes (server-side functions)
│   │   └── components/    # Chakra's prebuilt componenets 
│   │       ├── system.js  # Disable Chakra's preflight
│   ├── components/        # Reusable React components
│   ├── public/            # Static assets
│   └── .env.local         # Environment variables (local)
│
├── supabase/              # Supabase backend configuration
│   ├── config.toml        # Supabase project config
│   └── lib/
│       └── supabase.ts    # Supabase client setup
│
├── Data/                  # Course data scripts & catalogs
│   ├── catalogAPI/        # Course catalog parser
│   └── [termCode]/        # Term-specific course data
│       ├── coursesRaw.json #Only created for fall 2025 and cps 
│       ├── courseMeetingTimes.json
│       └──data_cleaning.js #Pushes selective data into a postgres database
│
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
├── .env.local
└── .env

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js 15, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS
• UI Components: Chakra UI, ShadCN UI, React bits
• Backend: Next.js API Routes (Node.js)
• Database: Supabase (PostgreSQL)
• Authentication: Firebase, Supabase, Supabase Auth with Cloudflare Turnstile captcha
• Deployment: Vercel (recommended)

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm/yarn
• Supabase account and project
• Cloudflare Turnstile account (for captcha)

Setup Instructions

1. Clone & Install

cd f25-group-17/frontend
npm install

2. Environment Variables

Create .env.local in frontend/ directory:

# Supabase
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=your_supabase_url
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your_anon_key
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=your_service_role_key

# Cloudflare Turnstile
NEXT_PUBLIC_TURNSTILE_SITE_KEY=your_turnstile_sitekey

# Allowed Email Domains (comma-separated, optional)
NEXT_PUBLIC_ALLOWED_EMAIL_DOMAINS=northeastern.edu gmail.com

3. Database Setup

Set up your Supabase project with the following tables:

users (handled by Supabase Auth)

• id, email, password

UserData

• user_id (foreign key to auth.users) (primary key) #UUID
• firstName #Text
• lastName #Text
• email #Text
• major #Text
• year #Numeric
• course #JSON

CourseData

• id #UUID
• courseName #Time
• beginTime #Time
• endTime #Text
• building #Text
• roomNumber #Text
• crn #Numeric
• monday #Bool
• tuesday #Bool
• wednesday #Bool
• thursday #Bool
• friday #Bool

Enable RLS (Row Level Security) on UserData and CourseData table with appropriate policies.

4. Run Development Server

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Authentication Flow

Sign Up

1. User fills out registration form (name, email, password, major, year)
2. Completes Cloudflare Turnstile captcha, when cloudflare detects non-human activites
3. Supabase Auth creates account
4. Server-side API (using service role) inserts user profile into UserData table
5. Email verification sent
6. Redirects to login page

Login

1. User enters email and password
2. Completes captcha verification
3. Supabase Auth authenticates user
4. Redirects to study spaces page

Magic Link Login

1. User clicks "Login with Email"
2. Enters email address
3. Receives magic link via email
4. Clicks link to verify and sign in
5. Redirects to study spaces page

Security Features

• RLS Policies: Supabase Row Level Security protects user data
• Service Role API: Server-side routes bypass RLS safely for profile creation
• Captcha Protection: Cloudflare Turnstile prevents bot abuse
• Input Validation: Client-side and server-side form validation
• Email Verification: Required for new accounts
• Secure Tokens: All sensitive data handled server-side

Pages

Route	Purpose
/	Landing page
/login	User login (password + magic link)
/signup	New user registration
/study	Browse study spaces
/profile	View/edit user profile
/onboarding/courses	Add courses to profile
/about	About page

API Routes

Endpoint	Method	Purpose
/api/userdata	POST	Create user profile (server-side, service role)
/api/userdata	GET	Check if user profile exists

📊 Course Data

Course data is fetched from Northeastern's catalog API and stored in JSON format by term:

• Format: [termCode]/coursesRaw.json, [termCode]/courseMeetingTimes.json
• Terms: 202610 (Fall), 202615 (Spring), 202625 (Summer), 202630 (Co-op)
• Parser: Data/catalogAPI/src/courseParser.js

UI Features

• Dark Theme: Red and gray gradient design
• Responsive Design: Mobile-friendly layout
• Animations: Smooth transitions and hover effects
• Form Validation: Real-time error feedback
• Loading States: Disabled buttons during API calls
• Dropdown Menus: Searchable major and year selectors

Testing

Test the application flow:

1. Sign Up: Create new account with test credentials
2. Verify Email: Check email for verification link (or use Supabase dashboard)
3. Login: Sign in with email/password
4. Magic Link: Test passwordless login
5. Failed Retry: Verify captcha resets on failed login attempt
6. Profile: View and update user profile

Local cache

The local cache generated by the catalogAPI module will create folder by term code. Each folder includes raw course data, course meeting times data, and room schedules data. The raw course data is the data taken directly from banner. The course meeting times data is a cleaned up version of the raw data. The room schedules data is a processed version of the course meeting times to show the schedule of each room. To obtain a local copy of the cache, run the following:

cd .\catalogAPI\src\
node .\main.js

To update the course time information on Supabase, run the following:
[to be implemented]

Known Issues & Fixes

• Captcha appears twice on page navigation: Fixed by adding cleanup in useEffect
• Failed login prevents retry: Fixed by resetting captcha token on error
• Hydration warnings: Suppressed on captcha container
• RLS blocks profile insertion: Solved using server-side API with service role
• Some missing class times in website: Potentially caused by limits from Supabase, most class times are still visible
• Current version of cache generalizes start and end dates by class meeting type rather than determining boundaries day by day: Currently no impact on website functionality, and only impacts dates at the beginning and end of each semester

Dependencies

Key packages:

{
  "next": "^15.x",
  "react": "^19.x",
  "@chakra-ui/react": "^2.x",
  "@supabase/supabase-js": "^2.x",
  "tailwindcss": "^3.x",
  "typescript": "^5.x"
}

Deployment

Deploy to Vercel

1. Push code to GitHub
2. Connect repository to Vercel
3. Add environment variables in Vercel dashboard
4. Deploy automatically on push

npm run build
npm start

Development Guidelines

• Use TypeScript for type safety
• Follow React best practices (hooks, composition)
• Keep API routes in /app/api/
• Use Tailwind for styling
• Test authentication flows before deploying

Contributing

1. Create feature branch: git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature
2. Commit changes: git commit -m 'Add amazing feature'
3. Push to branch: git push origin feature/amazing-feature
4. Open Pull Request

Support

For issues or questions, please create an issue in the repository or contact the development team.

License

This project is part of the Northeastern University Oasis Fall 2025 cohort, Group 17.

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🥴 Built with love 😛😛😛 for Northeastern Students 😍 by Northeastern Students 😍 🥴