Rutgers Course Search

Flask app for searching Rutgers courses, classroom schedules, and public instructor salary data.

Run locally

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

Open http://localhost:5000.

Deploy to Vercel

This repository is configured for Vercel's zero-configuration Flask deployment. The top-level app.py exports the Flask instance, requirements.txt declares the runtime dependencies, and vercel.json adds safe static-asset caching.

npx vercel
npx vercel --prod

Recommended environment variables:

• SESSION_SECRET: a long random value for Flask sessions
• COURSE_CACHE_TTL_SECONDS: optional in-process course cache lifetime (default: 900)
• CORS_ORIGIN: optional origin if a separate frontend calls the API
• LOG_LEVEL: optional logging level (default: INFO)

Course data is fetched lazily from the Rutgers API on the first request for each year/term/campus combination. This keeps cold starts fast and avoids background scheduler threads, which are not reliable in serverless functions.

Routes

• / — term/campus selection
• /search — course search
• /room-search — room search
• /room-details — room schedule
• /docs — API documentation
• /api/courses — course search API
• /api/rooms — room search API
• /api/room-schedule — room schedule API
• /api/salary — instructor salary lookup
• /api/health — health check