MotiYoda: Motivational Texts/Emails

Send a personalized message to a friend through text or email with an included inspirational quote from Yoda himself.

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Submission for Beginner category

Inspiration

We wanted to become familiar with using API's, so we searched through RapidAPI.com for some unique and fun databases. We found two that we thought would be enjoyable to combine: Yoda Translator and Motivational Quotes. We decided to combine them and use SMS and email as the medium for sending motivational quotes translated in Yoda language. Plus, the idea fit into the fantasy theme of the Hackathon. Although, we wish we had found a Dobby translator to truly match the theme of the event.

What it does

MotiYoda is a terminal-based program that either texts or emails a randomly-generated Yoda-translated motivational quote. A user simply runs the program on their terminal, selects their method of communication, and is able to send a personalized message to the recipient of their choice.

How we built it

We wrote MotiYoda in Python using VSCode as our IDE. The APIs we utilized include the RapidAPI Motivational Quotes API as well as the FunTranslations Yoda Translator API. We also built our program using many Python libraries including sys, smtplib, email.message, re, email, json, and requests.

Challenges we ran into

This was the first Hackathon for both of us, so it took a minute to figure out how to work collaboratively and come up with a project idea and plan. Secondly, neither of us had had prior experience writing in Python. Additionally, only one of us had limited experience using open-source API's and libraries. Finally, we had a difficult time on the last day trying to make setup.py. Because of those reasons, the project was a huge learning curve for the both of us.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are extremely proud that our final submission mirrored what we originally envisioned. We thought we wouldn't have enough time and/or ability in order to complete our project, but we impressed ourselves. One technical aspect of our project that we are especially proud of is our gathering and manipulation of the data using HTTP requests. Neither of us even knew what an HTTP request was when we started. However, not only did we make POST requests, but we were able to use the data that we collected from them in order to create new data.

What we learned

We learned how to collaborate on both a technical and an interpersonal level. We learned how to collaborate on the project simultaneously using Git while not interrupting the other's progress. More importantly, we learned how to communicate our ideas, manage the project, and execute predetermined steps into order to fulfill our vision. Plus, it was refreshing to learn a new language and not have to write in C++.

What's next for MotiYoda's Motivational Text

Our vision for furthering MotiYoda would be creating a more user-friendly and accessible interface, such as a mobile app or a web portal. Additionally, we would add a component where users could subscribe to either a, daily, weekly, or monthly subscription to MotiYoda Motivational Texts and/or Emails.

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