Collab N Code

Inspiration

College lab sessions were my biggest reason to do this project. Whenever we given a problem to solve as a group, it was always a pain looking into other's desktops all the time. Yes github exists, but it does not reflect your changes in real-time. You have to code in your local system, push and when the other person pulls, then you can view the code.

What it does

CollabNCode allows users to users to join rooms with codes of 6 characters and code, debug and innovate real-time. I have integrated 6 widely used languages - C,C++,python... After the users join the room, they can just start coding on the built in editor and the changes reflect real-time for all the users, even after you change a language it changes for the entire room.

How we built it

I have used React.js for the front-end and Express and Node for the back-end. Integrated the Monaco code-editor using their API and also Jude0 API for code evaluation. I used vercel to deploy the front-end or basically the final website and used Replit to host the backend. I used Socket.io for real-time updates of the code, language and users.

Challenges we ran into

It was challenging updating the code real-time. Especially when the user changed language on their system, it would not reflect on the other users' screens. It took some time and prompting Chat GPT and numerous other LLMs to help me fix it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud that I was able to code this entire project myself in just over a month. I did take help from LLMs too! Another fact to be proud is that I was able to solve a problem I along with my friends faced and gained over 10 users within the first week.

What's next for Collab N Code

I'm planning to integrate a chat, an AI to ask code changes, fix bugs and help the user too! I'm also thinking of an option where the code can be pushed directly to GitHub from my platform.