Dog Meet Dog

A dating app, but for dogs.

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Inspiration

We wanted to create some kind of web application, and the idea of a dating app that had a fun twist stuck out to us. Thus, a dating app for dogs was born.

What it does

Dog Meet Dog is a dating app-esque web application that allows dogs to "match" and message each other to potentially meet up to play. Obviously, the swiping and profile building will be mostly done by the dogs' owners, but the app provides a unique twist in that it is focused on matching compatible dog playmates, rather than matching their owners.

How we built it

We built the front-end using React.js, Node.js, HTML and CSS. The back-end was built with Express. We used Twilio's API to establish a messaging system, Firebase for authentication, MongoDB to store our dogs database, and GitHub for version control.

Challenges we ran into

We mostly had issues with incorporating back-end code with the front-end code. We attempted creating and using a database, but MongoDB doesn't have an easy method of storing images, which is important for our dogs' profiles. We got the Twilio messaging up and running, but weren't able to integrate it with the rest of our app. Additionally, we weren't too familiar with Git, so we spent a lot of time trying to properly manage our different branches, and in the end, some of our code didn't make it because of our issues with Git.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our team was entirely new to hackathons, and most of our knowledge and experience was from what we had learned in our courses. Some of us basically started learning Javascript and React 36 hours ago, and some of us had never touched a database before. Somehow though, we managed to put together a semi-working project. Honestly, just getting the project to work, and also getting the swiping left and right to work, was the accomplishment we were most proud of.

What we learned

We learned a lot of both front-end and back-end skills. As mentioned before, our team didn't have much experience building full-stack projects at all. We learned a lot more about front-end and back-end design, Javascript, and how to use APIs and databases, etc.

What's next for Dog Meet Dog

For now, Dog Meet Dog is a doggy-only app, but we may open up the market to different types of pets in the future. We also hope to get messaging and a functioning database up and running, since we weren't able to finish doing so this weekend.

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