Alumni-Student Interactive Messaging

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN:2395-0056

Volume: 09 Issue: 12 | Dec 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN:2395-0072

Alumni-Student Interactive Messaging

Dept of Information Technology, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi ***

Abstract:

CommunicationovertheInternet is becoming vital thesedays.Onlinecommunicationallowsuserstocommunicatewith other people in a fast and convenient way. An online communication application must be able to share texts, images, or any other files faster with minimal or no lag. One platform that offers real-time database and cloud services to help developers create these applications is Firebase. Instant messaging can be thought of as a communication platform. ComparedtootherplatformslikeiOS,Androidoffersa superiorframework forthecreationofdiverseinstantmessaging apps.Thispaper'smajorgoalistointroduceasoftwaretoolthatenablesreal-timecontactbetweenstudents,alumni,and, insomesituations,teachers.DevelopedonAndroid,thesystemwillallowuserstocommunicatewithotherusersthrough textoraudioorvideo,orPDFmessagesusingtheInternet.Thesmartphonesmustbeconnectedviatheinternettoreceive orsendmessages.ThisappisbasedonAndroidwithabackendprovidedbyGoogleFirebase.

KEYWORDS:Alumni,DoubtResolution,RealTimemessaging,Firebase,Android

1. INTRODUCTION

In the world, communication plays a vital role. folks communicate with one another through numerous applications or media. Initially, folks communicated with alternativeoneanotherthroughlettersorothersources,as these mediamaytakean extended timeto delivercontent. Cell phones are another means of communication; however, the drawback is that any restricted or little messagemustbesenttoadifferent phonecallanditisnot a perfect method Developers are then sought-after to implement text communication that might alter an immediate communication service. In 1984, the SMS conception was developed within the Franco-German in collaboration with Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert.ThelimitationofSMSwastherestrictedsizeof 128 bytes, with the increase of smartphones within the decade once several electronic messaging applications weredeveloped.SomeareBluetoothprimarilybasedanda few are net based like WhatsApp and WeChat. This software permits the utilization of applications on mobile devices. As developed by Google, Android users will develop mobile apps that are installed through app stores like the Play Store. Firebase is a NoSQL DB that uses socketstopermituserstostoreandretrieve datafromthe DB Android version ought to be more than 2.3, as this prerequisite for firebase. Firebase provides different varietiesofservices,suchas: 

Firebase Authentication: Firebase Authentication is useful to both developers and users. Developing and maintaining a sign-in setup may be a bit difficult and time taking. Firebase provides an easy API for sign-in. Italsoprovidesdatabackupusingreal-timedatabases

Firebase cloud: Building the infrastructure for storing data like video, text, and photographs would be challenging and expensive for a new developer, therefore firebase offers the platform forcloudstorage.

Real-time database: It is a cloud-hosted NoSQL database. This DB is used as we want minimal to no lag, as we are developing an instant messaging serviceandwearenotusingonetypeofDB asthe pricingforthistypeofDBismore

FirebaseFirestore: It is a servicefrom Google andis a scalable, adaptable database for server, web, and mobile applications. It supports offline cachingfor mobileso wecanviewolder messages independent of network delay or Internet connectivity, and it keeps the data synchronised across client apps. Cloud Firestore provides aconnectionwithCloudFunctionsaswellasother FirebaseandGoogleCloudtechnologies. 

Firebase Crashlytics: When some unexpected crashesoccurin anyapplicationitmaybedifficult to conclude why the application crashed. Firebase provides a crash reporting service to deal with thesecrashes.

The main object of this research paper is concerned with a software application for the establishmentofreal-timecommunicationservices between alumni, students, and teachers. Chat applications have many-to-many types of communicationsystemswheretheuserswillable



International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN:2395-0056

Volume: 09 Issue: 12 | Dec 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN:2395-0072

to exchange messages among themselves. Users can create the chatroom according to their requirements or can also join the existing chatroom. With this functionality, a college student who is clueless about the subject or their career can gain clarity and will start workingtowardsreachingtheirfullpotential.

2. Literature Survey



ApplicationofFirebaseinAndroidAppDevelopment-:

You can use Firebase Cloud Messaging, a notification server with an online console, to send notifications to target audiences based on Firebase Analytics data. Using NoSQL, Firestore's Realtime Database stores and syncs real-time data between users and devices. Additionally, Firebase Cloud Storage makes it simpler to organise and store user-generated content like images, audio, and video. Using Cloud Tasks, you may evaluate your apps at any stage of their lifecycle without evaluating the active servers.Withusefultoolsandsimpleprocedures,hosting and verification are easily managed with Firebase. Using the ready-to-use Firebase ML Kit APIs, the machinelearning capabilities of the operating system have been carefully improved. The best aspect is that you can still bring creativity to complex software even with limited machine-learningknowledgeandexperience.

Review and Study of Android Based Instant Messaging ApplicationUsingFirebase-:

Internet-based communication is becoming increasingly important today. Online communication enables users to communicate with others quickly and conveniently. Due tothis,theonlinecommunicationtoolmustallowusersto send texts, photos, and other files quickly and without any or little delay. One of the platforms that offer a realtime database and cloud services to help developers create these applications quickly and easily is Firebase. One method of maintaining communication is instant messaging.ComparedtootherplatformslikeiOS,Android offers a superior environment for the creation of numerous instant messaging applications. This paper's major goal is to introduce a software application for starting a real-time conversation between operators and users. The android-based system will let users text each otherwhileusingtheinternettocommunicatewithother users. Both devices must be online for the system to function. This program is based on Android, and Google Firebaseprovidesthebackend.

Along with the related work done on image-to-text recognition, the applications of text recognition are reviewed. This system's experimental findings are also highlighted. Italsoincludesabriefintroductiontooptical character recognition and a discussion of OCR's difficulties.

Artificial intelligence, optical character recognition, and object identification are a few examples of real-world contexts in which Ajay et al described text detection applications. The text detection process's information is discussed. The challenges posed by the various environments in which the image is captured are mentioned. The presentation of a system for text detectionandclassificationisdescribed.



Androidapplicationdevelopmentforpushnotification

featurebasedonGoogleCloudMessaging-:

The push notification process is divided into three domains: worker, server, and initiator. The worker is made up of an interface called Retrofit and a message builder named GSON. The Retrofit interface is a REST (representationalstatetransfer)clientmethodwherethe datastreamflowsinboundandoutboundasynchronously between entities and understands each other. GSON is a Google-initiated Java library used to convert Java objects into JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) representation on theandroidenvironment.Intheroleofaserver,Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) offers the environment required fortheapplicationtoconstruct,target,andtransmitpush notificationsconsistentlyandfornocost.Withthehelpof cloud monitoring, the FCM includes application analytics that helpsdevelopers comprehend how deployed applicationsbehaveandoperate.Acollectionofusecases that represent the application workflow makesup the initiator.

3. Problem Statement

Every year in an engineering college, a batch passes out, stepsout intothecorporate world, andlearns a lot.Also, some alumni become successful and achieve a lot of things. In most of these colleges, the alumni network is solid but in certain colleges, the alumni network is not established to a great extent. As we go along with our study,weencounteredsuchproblemsatmultiplecolleges whichcanbefixedusingthealumnichatapp:

1. Able to keep a complete database of Alumni, including various interactions along with classificationsandcategorization.



MLKitinFirebaseforAppDevelopment-:

A technique for text recognition was put forth by Shashanketal.

2. Keep track of current employment and career developmentsofalumni.

3. PlanandexecuteAlumniMeetsandevents.

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN:2395-0056

Volume: 09 Issue: 12 | Dec 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN:2395-0072

4. Engage alumni for the development of current students.

5. Highlightachieversinthealumnigroup.

6. Communicate with any group or entire alumni usingtext,photos,videos,andaudio.

7. AmobileAppforeachalumnimember.

8. Sharing of Job and career opportunities by Alumniinagroup.

4. PROPOSED DESIGN SYSTEM

4.1. Authentication/Login

In a chat app, the first screen usually is the login screen For this application login data is stored in Firebase Firestore and contains various data like the name, skills, device token (for notifications) andprofileimageURL.

Figure 1: Flowchart of the login flow

Figure 2: Sample data of a single user in firebase firestore

Figure 3: Screenshots of the login flow, where the first screen is for entering the mobile no. and the second is for entering student or alumni details

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN:2395-0056

Volume: 09 Issue: 12 | Dec 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN:2395-0072

4.2. ChattingFeature

A chatting application requires a database that updates in real-time and requires triggers to be set up so that whenever the DB gets changes a trigger is sent to the Google FCM API and that FCM API redirects to the android class and renders a notification. Mostly a chatting application requires a NoSQL DB because it containsahierarchicalstructureasweneedtohavethe receiverUUIDastheparentandthesenderUUIDasthe child. The message information is present as a child of the sender’s UUID. For this app, we have divided the message into two types text and multimedia. For the text, the string is stored directly in the Firebase RealtimeDBandforthemultimediatextwefirststoreit in firebase storage which generates an URL, and that URLisstoredasastringinthefirebaserealtimeDB.

Figure 5: Sample data of a single chat in firebase realtime DB

Figure 4: Flowchart for chatting feature

Figure 6: Screenshots of the chat screen, where the first screen is for all the users who have asked you doubts or vice versa and the second is for seeing the individual chat screen with a user

4.3. Ratingsandfilters

Eachusercanratetheotherbasedonhowwelltheuser solvesthedoubts.Thisratingaffectswhichpositionwill the user be displayed on the list of the people screen. Also,FirebaserealtimeDBallowssingleascomposite

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN:2395-0056

Volume: 09 Issue: 12 | Dec 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN:2395-0072

queriesthatcanbeapplied.Intheapp,weusebothsingle aswellascompositequeries.Weusesinglequerytosort rating in a descending fashion and use compound query when we filter based on skills, company, and location alongwithsortingratingindescendingfashion.

of their degree, and the branch will be automatically filled up and using the roll number weextractedwecanconfirmiftheyareenrolledin MAIT 

If there is an alumnus, they must upload their roll number, and all the details like the year of their passingout,the branchwill beautomaticallyfilled up,andusingtherollnumberweextractedwecan confirmiftheywereenrolledinMAIT. 

When they log in/register they can find people using the tech stack of the companies they are workingin. 

Aftersuccessfullyjoininguserscanchatpublicly. 

If the user, receives a message they will receive a notificationusingFCM.

6. Conclusion and Future Scope

Figure 7: Screenshots of the rating and filter screen, in this screen the user can see the user info as well as the skills, ratings and can select a filter.

Figure 8: Sample data of a user ratings in firebase realtime DB

5. Methodology



Wheneverauserwilljointheplatform,he/sheshould have to enter their phone number, and if it is a new user, he/she will have to choose a photo, tech stack theyexcelin,name,etc.



If there is a student, they must upload their id card whiletheappwillextracttherollnumberthroughthe idcardusingMLlibrariesallthedetailsliketheyear

The review of the previous studies revealed that an alumni-student interaction portal has improved the placement statistics and students started to improve in various other competitions like hackathons GSOC, and ICPC. According to a survey done in another research paper in their college, the first batch passed out in 2003 andsince then,theyhavehadover 10,000alumniplaced at esteemed organizations and few of them have opened their businesses or start-ups. And currently, there were closeto2000studentsstudyingwithnoproperguidance and no place to solve their doubts. In conclusion to the research paper, it suggested that there must be an app that will help students get job opportunities and help students get their doubts solved. This will be helpful as mostoftheconnectionstheyaresenttoLinkedInarenot accepted.InadditiontothisLinkedInisnotaplatformfor askingdoubts,andstackoverflowarenotsopersonalized that everyone's doubts can be resolved. The final system that is proposed in this research paper will result in a real-time communication application that will provide students and alumni to communicate with each other withease.Theapplication will havea loginpagethrough which the student and alumnus can register and log in themselves. The home page of the application contains the previous messages if any. The user can be able to searchfortheotheruserandapplyfilters.Userscansend and receive text messages. With these chat rooms, users can ask doubts as well as ask for career advice. Due to time constraints, there were certain features which were tobedevelopedbutcouldnotbe,thoseare: 

Faster uploads of multimedia files (like images, videos,audio,etc)

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN:2395-0056

Volume: 09 Issue: 12 | Dec 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN:2395-0072

Adding ML foridentifying IDcardand extracting roll numbersit

Instead of asking for the location extract it from the GPScoordinates

Addingtokenstogamifythedoubt-solvingprocess

Makingthefiltersectionmoreexhaustive

Minorbugfixesandappimprovements

7. References

1. Neil Smyth. Firebase Realtime Database, In Firebase Essentials- Android Edition. [Online] Payload Media; 2017.p163-171.

2. NeilSmyth.GettingStartedwithFirebase,InFirebase Essentials- Android Edition. [Online] Payload Media; 2017.p3-7.

3. NeilSmyth.FirebaseUserAuthentication,InFirebase Essentials- Android Edition. [Online] Payload Media; 2017.p7-11.

4. PravinAuti,SangamMahale,VikramZanjad,Madhuri Dangat, n.d. An Android Based Global Chat Application,pp.1-2.

5. S, A. K., n.d. Mastering Firebase for Android Development: Build real-time, scalable, and cloudenabledAndroidappswithFirebase.s.l.:s.n

6. AliSh.(2009),“Assessingtherelationshipofstudentinstructor and student-alumni interaction to student learning and satisfaction in Android-based Online LearningEnvironment", Journal of Interactive Online LearningVolume8,Number2,ISSN:1541-4914.

7. Javed Ahmad Shaheen et al, Android OS with its Architecture and Android Application with Dalvik Virtual Machine Review, International Journal of MultimediaandUbiquitousEngineeringVol.12,No.7 (2017),pp.19-307.

8. Lazareva Lazare, Kire Jakimoski et al, Analysis of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Android and iOS Systems and Converting Applications from Android to iOS Platform and Vice Versa, American Journal of Software Engineering and Applications 2017; 6(5): 116-120

9. S, A. K., n.d. Mastering Firebase for Android Development: Build real-time, scalable, and cloudenabledAndroidappswithFirebase.s.l.:s.n