SkillShare — Functional Requirements Specification

These requirements are derived from the functionality implemented in the Milestone 4 release. They represent the final implemented system rather than an earlier proposal.

FR-01 Authentication and Account Access

• ID: FR-01
• Requirement: The system shall allow users to securely register, log in, and log out.
• Description: Users can create an account using an email address and password, or authenticate using external OAuth2 providers (GitHub).
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor, Admin
• Expected System Behavior: The system validates credentials, establishes a secure JWT-based session, and denies access to unauthenticated or frozen accounts.

FR-02 Profile Management

• ID: FR-02
• Requirement: The system shall allow users to manage their personal profile information.
• Description: Users can update their biography, academic details, and upload a profile picture which is hosted securely.
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system stores profile updates and retrieves them for public or private display.

FR-03 Skill Management and Discovery

• ID: FR-03
• Requirement: The system shall provide capabilities to manage and discover skills.
• Description: Users can search for existing skills, view trending skills, and assign skills to their profile with designated roles (Teach or Learn).
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system returns paginated skill search results and successfully associates the selected skills with the user’s profile.

FR-04 Availability Management

• ID: FR-04
• Requirement: The system shall allow mentors to define their available time slots.
• Description: Mentors can create, view, and delete specific time blocks during which they are available to teach.
• Main Actors: Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system persists these time slots and accurately exposes them to learners seeking to book a session.

FR-05 Individual Learning Session Management

• ID: FR-05
• Requirement: The system shall facilitate the booking and lifecycle management of individual learning sessions.
• Description: Learners can book an available time slot. Mentors can accept or reject the booking. Either party can cancel prior to the session.
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system updates session status (PENDING, ACCEPTED, REJECTED, CANCELLED) and notifies the relevant party.

FR-06 Credit Economy

• ID: FR-06
• Requirement: The system shall enforce a credit-based economy for peer-to-peer knowledge exchange.
• Description: Booking a session costs a fixed amount of credits. Credits are temporarily held and then awarded to the mentor upon successful completion.
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor, System
• Expected System Behavior: The system atomically deducts 10 credits from the learner’s balance upon booking, tracks the debt, and transfers it to the mentor upon completion.

FR-07 Feedback and Reputation

• ID: FR-07
• Requirement: The system shall collect session feedback and calculate user reputation.
• Description: After a session is completed, users leave ratings and descriptive tags.
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system stores dual-feedback and recalculates the user’s overall reputation score based on incoming reviews.

FR-08 Gamification and Progression

• ID: FR-08
• Requirement: The system shall gamify user participation through Experience Points (XP) and Levels.
• Description: Users earn XP for completing sessions and receiving positive feedback. Reaching certain XP thresholds increases their level.
• Main Actors: System, Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system automatically applies gamification formulas to incoming feedback and updates the user’s XP and Level accordingly.

FR-09 User Connections

• ID: FR-09
• Requirement: The system shall allow users to build a personal network of connections.
• Description: Users can send, accept, and reject friend requests with other peers on the platform.
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system tracks connection states (PENDING, ACCEPTED, REJECTED) and provides lists of accepted friends.

FR-10 Notifications

• ID: FR-10
• Requirement: The system shall notify users of important platform events.
• Description: Real-time or persistent notifications are generated for session bookings, status changes, and friend requests.
• Main Actors: System, Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system persists unread notifications, delivers them to the client, and allows users to mark them as read.

FR-11 Real-Time Chat

• ID: FR-11
• Requirement: The system shall provide real-time messaging between connected users.
• Description: Users can exchange instant messages and see typing indicators.
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system delivers messages securely via WebSockets (STOMP), persists chat history, and manages unread counts.

FR-12 User Reporting

• ID: FR-12
• Requirement: The system shall allow users to report inappropriate behavior.
• Description: Users can submit reports detailing misconduct by other users, optionally linking to a specific session.
• Main Actors: Learner, Mentor
• Expected System Behavior: The system records the report for administrative review.

FR-13 Administrative Management

• ID: FR-13
• Requirement: The system shall provide administrators with platform oversight tools.
• Description: Administrators have access to view all registered users, system-wide sessions, and submitted reports.
• Main Actors: Admin
• Expected System Behavior: The system exposes privileged endpoints that return system-wide operational data.

FR-14 Account Freeze / Moderation

• ID: FR-14
• Requirement: The system shall allow administrators to freeze and unfreeze user accounts.
• Description: To moderate the platform, administrators can suspend a user’s access, effectively locking them out of the system.
• Main Actors: Admin
• Expected System Behavior: The system flips the user’s active status and subsequently rejects any authentication attempts from that user.

FR-15 Authorization and Security Controls

• ID: FR-15
• Requirement: The system shall restrict actions based on user roles and identity.
• Description: Users can only modify their own data. Administrative endpoints are strictly fenced off from regular users.
• Main Actors: System
• Expected System Behavior: The system validates the JWT and verifies that the subject has the required permissions (e.g., ROLE_ADMIN or ownership of the resource) before executing actions.

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Release Boundary

Explicitly defined boundaries for the Milestone 4 release:

• Individual peer-to-peer sessions are part of the final release. The system fully supports 1-on-1 interactions, availability management, and related economic transactions.
• Group Sessions are NOT part of the Milestone 4 release. Any reference to multi-participant sessions or course pools in legacy documentation represents isolated future extensions. Do not describe Group Sessions as implemented final functionality within this release candidate.