FlatScraper

A Kotlin Multiplatform app to scrape, aggregate, filter, and manage Zurich flat-share offers in one place.
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Table of Contents

1. About The Project
   • Built With
2. Getting Started
   • Prerequisites
   • Installation
3. Usage
4. Roadmap
5. Contributing
6. License
7. Contact
8. Acknowledgments

About The Project

FlatScraper is a desktop-first housing aggregation tool for Zurich students and renters. It collects offers from multiple platforms, stores them locally, and provides a workflow-centered UI to filter opportunities and track outreach.

What it is optimized for:

• fast periodic scraping and unified offer tracking
• rich filtering and multi-level sorting for high-volume offer streams
• reusable message templates and status flags (favorite, messaged, deleted) for application workflows
• transit-time-aware decision making via Google Maps integration

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Built With

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Getting Started

Follow these steps to run FlatScraper locally.

Prerequisites

• JDK 11+
• Android SDK (only needed for Android builds)
• Internet access for scraping targets and API-backed features

Installation

1. Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/flxholle/flatscraper.git
cd flatscraper

2. (Optional) Configure local Android SDK path in local.properties.
3. Run the desktop app.

./gradlew :composeApp:run

4. Open Settings in-app and set:

• Google Maps destination(s)
• Google Maps API key(s)
• ETH Wohnen credentials (if used)

5. Build and test.

./gradlew build
./gradlew test

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Usage

• Click Refresh to run all configured scrapers.
• Use Filter to define constraints (rent, dates, source, room traits, transport times, and more).
• Save reusable filters and switch quickly between them.
• Use Templates to create/edit prewritten application messages.
• Manage per-offer workflow with favorite, messaged, and deleted actions.
• Use the availability widgets for selected student housing providers.

More Resources

• ETH Zurich subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethz
• Flateroo: https://flateroo.com/
• Swiftliving: https://swiftliving.ch/
• ETH accommodation info ( EN): https://www.wohnen.ethz.ch/en/search-accommodation/internationale-masterstudierende/accommodation-masterstudents.html
• ETH accommodation form ( DE): https://www.wohnen.ethz.ch/de/wohnraum-suchen/internationale-masterstudierende/accommodation-masterstudents/form1.html

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Roadmap

• Add a type attribute to offers:
  • Flat
  • Shared Flat
  • (Studio) Apartement
  • House
• Check for no longer existing offers and mark them as deleted
• Add a vertical scrolling bar (currently not supported in Kotlin Multiplatform)
• Replace the broken webview library

See the open issues for planned improvements and known problems.

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Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and feature suggestions are welcome.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Top contributors

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

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Contact

Project maintainer: @flxholle

Project link: https://github.com/flxholle/flatscraper

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Acknowledgments

• Compose Multiplatform: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/compose-multiplatform/
• Kotlin: https://kotlinlang.org/

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