Proxamie [Meteor Hackathon]
Socializing is already difficult enough for some individuals. This problem has been exacerbated with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, with many universities and organziations forced to move to remote instruction. One of the greatest losses of this has been the lack of communication between people, and Proxamie aims to close that gap. Proxamie allows users to create hangout groups with ease, while ensuring that they abide to COVID regulations set by the CDC.
Contributions
My main contribution to this project was implementing the modals that the user will utilize to create as well as join a group. One of the main features of the modals is to insert a record (called “document” in MongoDB terminology) when a user creates a group and also when they join a group. For the former, a record is inserted into the Groups table (“collection” in MongoDB terms), which stores the user ID of the individual who created the group as well as the newly generated group ID (which will be utilized for the group page, more on this later). The latter inserts a record into the Memberships collection, which keeps track of the users who belong to a certain group.
The Experience
This was the very first hackathon I participated in my college career, so it was definitely an exhilarating event! The hackathon lasted for five days, and it was quite a fast-paced project, but with the assistance of my group members, the result was a very fun experience as well as new knowledge (programming, as well as the whole process of participating in a hackathon). I am very thankful for having the oppurtunity to participate in this event with such passionate team members, they have made every moment of being in this class so far an enjoyable one. The most significant skill that I was able to improve in this project is my communication skills, which I realized is a crucial aspect when it comes to working in teams. This is personally quite a big accomplishment for me, as I usually struggle to express my opinions in large groups, but my team members made me feel comfortable with pitching in my thoughts as well as working together with them.
Screenshots
Join Group
The join group modal that I worked on for this project. The dialog itself is simple (a Semantic UI modal); however implementing the functionality to behave the way we intended it to took longer than I originally expected. However, in the end, I was able to get it to function so that it redirects a user to their unique group page, so that was quite rewarding!
Create Group
The other modal that I worked on for this project. Once the user enters the appropriate fields (group name & description), a Mongo method call will be made to insert a new record into the Groups collection. This was where I encountered the obstacle of handling the newly created Group ID and then using that so the user will be redirected to the appropriate group page when they enter the code from the Join Group modal.
Group Page
The group dashboard for the Proxamie application.
Landing Page
The main landing page for the Proxamie application.