Doorprints user guide¶
This guide shows you how to use Doorprints on the website, on Android and on iPhone.
The houses in the pictures are made up for this guide ("Green Villa, 2BHK" and friends). Their names, rents and phone numbers are not real.
What Doorprints is¶
Doorprints remembers the houses you visit while you look for a home to rent or buy in India. It is not a listings site. It holds only the houses you have seen yourself.
For each house you can keep the rent or price, BHK, address and the owner's or broker's contact. You can add notes, photos, a star rating and a ten-item checklist (water supply, power backup, parking and so on). Doorprints shows every house on a map. You can search the houses, put them in order and compare your favourites side by side.
You can also note what a house really costs (deposit, maintenance, brokerage), its floor and rooms, plan viewings with a reminder and the questions to ask, keep a list of your brokers, and, once you have chosen a house, keep track of moving in.
You need no account. Your houses stay on your phone or in your browser. A server of your own (a computer that stays on and keeps a copy of your houses) is optional.
Take the tour (website)¶
The first time you open the website, a card offers Take the tour: short steps over the real screens. Each step highlights one thing and says what to try, such as Add house, Trace my path, Compare or Save a copy. You can use the highlighted control right there, then choose Next. Skip tour (or the Escape key) leaves at any point. To see it again, open Your data and choose Take the tour in the Help card. The Android and iPhone apps have their own tour: see The screen at a glance.
Website, Android or iPhone?¶
- Website: open https://doorprints.web.app in any up-to-date browser, on a computer or a phone.
- Android app: install it from the project's GitHub page (see the README). It is not in the Play Store yet.
- iPhone app: it is new and still being tested. It is not in the App Store.
How the website differs on a phone and on a computer: Phone or computer.
What each one can do ("offline" means without internet; "AI" means the computer reads your notes and answers you):
| What you can do | Website | Android app | iPhone app (early) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Map of your houses | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add a house | Yes, pick the spot on the map | Yes, where you stand or anywhere on the map | Yes, where you stand or anywhere on the map |
| Edit a house, rating, checklist, visits | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add photos | Yes | Yes (camera or gallery) | Not yet |
| Search, filter, sort, Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Save a copy (HTML, PDF, CSV, Excel, Markdown, full backup) | Yes | Yes, plus a weekly automatic backup | Yes, all but PDF (new) |
| Import a backup | Yes | Yes | Yes (new) |
| Plan a viewing, with a reminder | Yes (the reminder only while the site is open) | Yes | Yes |
| Share updates with… someone you hunt with | Imports what they send you | Yes | Yes |
| Add a shared listing (share a listing from another app) | Yes, when installed as an app on an Android phone | Yes, from the share sheet | No |
| Hunt mode (alerts when you pass a house you have seen) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Wake me in my hunting areas | No | Yes | Yes (new) |
| Save an area of the map for offline | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ask and Plan visits (AI), optional: is it worth it for me? | With the AI provider you chose, or your own server with AI turned on | Same | Same, early like the rest of the iPhone app |
| Works offline | Yes, after the first visit | Yes | Yes |
On the phones, Help in Settings, under About, opens this guide in the app's language. The website has a Help link too, at the top and on Your data, and a short About page in all four languages at https://doorprints.web.app/about.html.
For developers: how Doorprints is built is on one page, the architecture overview (in English, on GitHub).