forests

Inspiration

During the API expo, the Parse API caught our interest and with the way data gains more and more importance every day, we wanted to see how far we can take the Parse API in terms of portability and applicability

What it does

Our app(s) provide multiple ways to use and visualize Bloomberg data from a Parse Database. This includes:

A Python game called Blasteroids which seeds it's original sprite positions based on data from the Parse database - Parse Python SDK
A web frontend using a .co domain that visualizes Parse data using d3.js - Parse JS SDK
An iOS App that visualizes the data on Parse - Parse iOS SDK
A hardware hack built with the Spark Core that grabs data from Parse and displays it on a 4 digit 7 segment LED display - Parse REST API

Why "forests"?

Forests signify uncharted territory. A place where you've never been before and you often get lost. This entire project was an attempt to get exposed to tech that we weren't familiar with 36 hours ago and making something amazing in that time.

Challenges I ran into

Seeding the Parse Database
I've never used a DBaaS earlier and the Parse API was central to our app
I've never done hardware before
Getting the Spark Core to work with the Parse REST API without an SDK
Xcode breaking due to git

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

First experience with hardware
Built a light Sinatra based utility server that served frontend files and exposed simple APIs
Had my first experience with iOS development
Wrote a script that moved data using the Bloomberg API to Parse in personal record time

What I learned

Using the Parse API ( and most other RESTful APIs) effectively
Hardware
Sinatra

What's next for forests

Improving on the basic UI's used throughout the apps
Android
Leveraging other Parse APIs to do analytics on the data
Combining the different apps to work with each other and work with complex database scenarios