ELIF - A VS Code Extension

Inspiration

What it does

ELIF is a vscode extension that makes your vscode application more interactive and intelligent. With ELIF, your theme will adapt based on the sun position in your place. In addition, you will become healthier with the ELIF reminders and more productive with GitHub management all in one place and calendar reminders. ELIF is your assistant for a better vscode experience.

Features

1 - Set Reminders with ELIF

ELIF offers a functionality to set reminders within VS Code without changing windows. To make things easier for the user, the reminders can be written in natural language with the time mentioned.

For example:

Drink water in 1 hour
Attend meeting in 30 minutes

Recurring Reminders

To make the reminders recurring, one needs to add the word "repeat" after the reminder.

For example:

Drink water in 1 hour repeat
Attend meeting in 30 minutes repeat

This will make the reminder recurring and the user will receive an alert every 1 hour to drink water.

How does it work?

To detect the natural language while setting the reminders, we made use of SherlockJs, which is a natural language parser for JavaScript. We also made use of the date-fns library which provides a simple tool set for manipulating JavaScript dates. After getting the reminder input from the user, we parse it using SherlockJs to get the event title and the event time. We then set the timer for the reminder starting from the local time and notify the user at the time of the reminder.

Screenshots

2 - Change Theme with ELIF

Elif can switch your theme automatically between dark and light based on the position of the sun at your own place. When it gets dark at your place, ELIF protects your eyes by switching to your dark theme. When the sun comes back, ELIF switches the lights back for you with your prefered light theme.

How does it work?

Simply switch the “Change Theme Automatically” button and all will be set.

Screenshots

3 - Manage your Github with ELIF

ELIF provides the user with the facility to manage their GitHub notifications. The user can authenticate with Github and create issues from the extension itself. They also have the option to fetch all the comments on a particular issue in a specified interval of time.

How we built it

To build this project, we divided our tasks into sprints and assigned each sprint a timeline. During the first week, we brainstormed over different ideas and connected as a team to finalise the product design and workflow.

After finalising the idea, we divided the tasks among ourselves and in the second week we worked on developing the minimum viable product.

During the third week, we worked on adding additional features to our project, fixing the existing bgs and deploying our project.

Challenges we ran into

We faced a lot of challenges but the most prominent challenge we faced was to group everyone's feature together in the VS Code Extension. But with the help of the documentation we were able to overcome all the issues.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One feature that we are proud of is the integration of GitHub with the extension. The user can access all of their notifications directly from the extension. We are also very proud of the natural language reminders feature which makes it super easy for the user to set reminders.

What we learned

While building this project, we all learnt a lot. Since this was a new domain for all us we all had to start from scratch. We worked on technologies like VS Code Extension API, Google Calendar API, Github API, SherlockJs and Express.

What's next for ELIF

The future scope of ELIF includes the addition of new features to make the life of a developer easier. Some of such features are,

1. Manage your meetings with ELIF

This feature will change the vscode theme 5-10 mins before any scheduled meeting. We'll provide the integration with Google & Apple Calendar. Users will have the option to customise the application and decide the color to which the theme should be changed.

2. Play Music with ELIF

This feature will allow the user to select and play music while developing without changing any windows. This will help the user concentrate better and be more productive.