technical-services-exchange/README.md

Provider Exchange

Provider Exchange is an early Laravel prototype for a provider-centered field service network and work-order exchange.

The product goal is not to clone Field Nation. The first version focuses on:

• provider and buyer profiles;
• community posts;
• buyer job posts;
• provider quotes;
• work-order assignment and status tracking;
• mutual reviews;
• peer-review dispute records;
• external profile/rating snapshots from Field Nation, WorkMarket, and similar platforms.

Guardrails

• The platform does not hold money in v1.
• The platform does not set or recommend market rates.
• Providers control their own rate cards and terms.
• Buyers control their own posted offer terms.
• Payment remains direct between buyer and provider unless a compliant payment partner is added later.
• Reputation is mutual: providers review buyers and buyers review providers.
• Dispute records are reputational/peer-review records, not legal adjudication.

Local Setup

composer install
npm install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
touch database/database.sqlite
php artisan migrate:fresh --seed
npm run build
php artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8123

Demo Accounts

All seeded demo accounts use password password.

• admin@example.com
• provider@example.com
• buyer@example.com
• hybrid@example.com

Test Commands

php artisan test
npm run build

Current Roadmap Status

1. Foundation: Laravel app, auth, roles, seeded demo users.
2. Profiles: provider and buyer profiles.
3. Social layer: community feed posts.
4. Job posts: buyer job-post creation and listing.
5. Quote flow: provider quotes and buyer acceptance.
6. Work orders: assignment, status transitions, deliverables, completion notes.
7. Reviews: mutual buyer/provider reviews.
8. Disputes: peer-review dispute records.
9. API prep: Sanctum installed with starter API routes.
10. Hardening: tests, seed data, setup docs, and no-payment/no-rate-setting guardrails.

External Profile Imports

Provider profiles support manual external snapshots. For Field Nation, the first version records:

• platform name;
• external provider ID;
• profile URL if available;
• rating;
• review count;
• completed jobs;
• notes or copied review summaries.

Public search did not expose a Field Nation profile for provider ID 172-630, so any automated Field Nation import should be treated as a later authenticated/export-assisted workflow rather than a public scrape assumption.