BLACK

A Unified Academic Ecosystem

A unified academic space for students. Built by students, for students.

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About The Project

BLACK is a digital ecosystem designed to centralize and simplify academic life. Our mission is to provide an open-source, powerful, and intuitive platform that consolidates notes, tasks, and community interaction. By removing fragmentation, we empower students to focus on what matters most: learning and collaboration.

The application is built on the philosophy that essential academic tools should be accessible, transparent, and community-driven. We prioritize privacy, performance, and a user-centric design that adapts to the real-world needs of students.

Get The App

Download the latest version of BLACK for Android directly from the Google Play Store.

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Core Features

• Unified Uploads & Management: Consolidate handwritten notes, PDFs, lecture slides, and images effortlessly. All your materials, in one place.
• Intelligent Cross-Platform Search: Instantly find notes by subject, tags, or user across all uploaded content. Never lose track of a single piece of information.
• Integrated Task & Schedule Management: Organize your academic life with a built-in to-do list and calendar to manage tasks, assignments, and deadlines seamlessly.
• Collaborative & Community Forum: A dedicated space to ask questions, request notes from peers, share knowledge, and connect with other students from your university and beyond.
• Social Connectivity: Follow classmates and friends to stay updated with their public posts and shared notes, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
• Privacy-Focused: You have full control over what you share. Keep notes private, or make them public to help others. Your data is yours.

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For Developers: Technical Deep Dive

This section provides the necessary information to get the project running locally and to start contributing.

Technology Stack

BLACK is built with a modern, scalable, and cross-platform technology stack, chosen for performance and developer experience.

• Framework: Flutter & Dart
• Architecture: Clean Architecture Principles
• Primary Backend (BaaS): Supabase (Authentication, PostgreSQL Database, Storage)
• Secondary Backend (BaaS): Firebase (Cloud Messaging for Push Notifications, Google Sign-In)
• State Management: Provider
• Containerization: Docker

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed on your local development machine:

• Flutter SDK (version 3.0.0 or higher)
• Git
• Docker Desktop (for containerized deployment)
• An IDE such as Visual Studio Code or Android Studio

1. Installation & Setup

First, clone the official repository to your local machine and install the required Dart packages:

git clone [https://github.com/heptagramorg/BLACK.git](https://github.com/heptagramorg/BLACK.git)
cd BLACK
flutter pub get

2. Backend Configuration

BLACK utilizes both Supabase and Firebase for its backend services. Configuration for both is mandatory for full application functionality.

Supabase Setup

1. Navigate to Supabase and create a new project.
2. Within your Supabase project, go to the SQL Editor. Run the necessary migration scripts located in the /supabase/migrations directory of this repository to set up the database schema (profiles, notes, followers, etc.).
3. Navigate to Project Settings > API to find your project URL and anon key. These will be used as environment variables.

Firebase Setup

1. Navigate to the Firebase Console and create a new project.
2. Enable Authentication: In the console, go to Authentication > Sign-in method and enable the required providers (e.g., Google, Email/Password).
3. Register Your App: Register a new Android application. Follow the on-screen instructions to download the configuration file:
   • Android: google-services.json (place this file in the android/app/ directory).
4. Configure FlutterFire: Use the FlutterFire CLI to configure your local project, which connects your Flutter app to Firebase.

   flutterfire configure

   This command will generate the lib/firebase_options.dart file automatically.

3. Environment Variables

Create a file named .env in the root of the project directory. This file is ignored by Git and is used to store your secret keys and credentials. Populate it with your Supabase credentials.

# Supabase Credentials
SUPABASE_URL=YOUR_SUPABASE_URL
SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=YOUR_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY

4. Running the Application

You can run the application directly on a connected device/emulator or build a Docker container.

• Run in Development Mode:

  flutter run

• Build and Run with Docker:

  # Build the Docker image
  docker build -t black-app .
  
  # Run the container
  docker run -p 8080:80 black-app

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Contributing

BLACK is a community-driven, open-source project. We welcome contributions from developers, designers, and students. Whether it's fixing a bug, proposing a new feature, or improving documentation, your help is valued.

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/YourAmazingFeature).
3. Commit your changes with a descriptive message (git commit -m "feat: Implement YourAmazingFeature").
4. Push your changes to the branch (git push origin feature/YourAmazingFeature).
5. Open a pull request for review.

Please open an issue to discuss major architectural changes or feature proposals before beginning work.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for the full text.

Connect With Us

• Official Website
• GitHub Repository
• Report an Issue