Cash In

Inspiration

Wanted to do an app on web dev so my team and I could learn frondend, backend, and how they interact with each other.

What it does

Used Square's API to quickly charge someone a predetermined amount of money. Useful for people who want to throw parties or small gatherings but want to charge a small amount to cover costs. Each transaction should take less than 5 seconds.

How I built it

Flask to handle communicating with Square's API and routing, and plain old html to display a simple interface.

Challenges I ran into

Initially we tried using React for the frontend, but React is horrendous with Flask. Also, deploying was difficult as none of us knew how Heroku worked and there exist little to no guides on how to deploy a Flask app on Heroku.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Deployed our app to Heroku. Was the team lead for the project instead of learning over people's shoulders.

What I learned

How Heroku works (kind of). Flask's role in web dev and how to use it. How Square's API works and how extremely applicable Square is in the real world.

What's next for Cash In

Refining UI, implementing small features such as receipt/logging, making sure app scales. Potentially port to Android and iOS (instead of just web app w/ smartphone dimensions) so that we can distribute through app stores.