FlightsApp

Demo

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EUK_aa7mEUABIkJPmX2kCyGqTbOe5YqD/view?usp=sharing

Introduction

It is often the case that when a prospective passenger looking to purchase flight tickets, they resort to online booking platforms such as Google Flights, Expedia, Kayak, Booking.com, and many more. It is then that they often find themselves asking how they can get to their destination in the fastest, cost-effective, most comfortable and reliable way possible. That is, each purchase should meet the individual’s or party’s travel needs and expectations accordingly. To this end, we intended to create a small application featuring a simple command line interface (CLI) designed to provide users with the ability to plan trips like that of Google Flights, but specifically for North American domestic & international flights. This would involve having the ability to lookup prices/routes based on desired travel class, number of passengers and other similar features. More interestingly, we also look to explore implementation of features not often readily available from the aforementioned platforms.

The data that will be used for such solution would be obtained by tailoring a combination of datasets from multiple sources to achieve the desired IO functionality. Such datasets include dozens of attributes like date, scheduled departure/arrival time, airline, ground/airtime, and many more, which could provide the basis for creating entities and relationships between such entities to be able to respond to user queries. The dataset will aim to be as recent as possible, however, we will also consider the possibility of associating less recent data with more up-to-date data (old routes with recent prices for example) if necessary.

How to Use

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x installed
• Git installed
• Access to a MySQL server (e.g., MySQL Workbench)
• Basic understanding of virtual environments and Python's packaging tools

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the Repository: First, clone the FlightsApp repository from GitHub (or another version control system) onto your local machine.

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/FlightsApp.git
   cd FlightsApp

2. Setup MySQL Database:

   • Open your MySQL Workbench or the MySQL command line tool.
   • Create a new database named flights.
   • Place the provided .zip file with database files into C:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\Uploads
   • Import and run the database.sql file provided in the repository to set up tables and seed data.

3. Create .env File: Create a .env file in the root of your project directory. This file should contain all the necessary environment variables. Example:

   DB_HOST=localhost
   DB_USER=your_username
   DB_PASS=your_password
   DB_NAME=flights
   

4. Install pipenv and Set Up the Virtual Environment:

   • Ensure you are in the project directory (FlightsApp).
   • Install pipenv if it’s not already installed:

     pip install --user pipenv

   • Create a new virtual environment and install dependencies using:

     pipenv install

   This command will install all packages as specified in the Pipfile.lock, ensuring that you have all the required dependencies as per the locked versions.

5. Activate the Virtual Environment:

   • Activate the pipenv shell to use the virtual environment:

     pipenv shell

   Upon activation, your environment will have all the packages installed and available as specified in the Pipfile.lock, making your setup consistent with the project's requirements.

6. Run the Backend Server:

   • Navigate to the backend directory:

     cd backend

   • Run the Flask backend server:

     python app.py

7. Run the Frontend GUI:

   • Open another command prompt or terminal.
   • Navigate to the frontend directory:

     cd frontend

   • Activate the virtual environment again:

     pipenv shell

   • Start the Tkinter GUI application:

     python flight_gui.py

8. Deactivate the Virtual Environment (when done):

   • When you’re finished working, you can exit each virtual environment by typing:

     exit