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 theParse
database - Parse Python SDK - A web frontend using a .co domain that visualizes
Parse
data usingd3.js
- Parse JS SDK - An
iOS
App that visualizes the data onParse
- Parse iOS SDK - A
hardware
hack built with theSpark Core
that grabs data fromParse
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 theParse
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 toParse
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
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