Dear Future Self

Your virtual time capsule.

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Inspiration

We know that last year was difficult for many, but next year we want to look to the present and future instead of holding onto the past. Dear Future Self focuses on sending messages to your future self!

What it does

Dear Future Self is a virtual time capsule where you can attach photos, videos, letters and goals for your future self. You will be able to receive your time capsule by email on the chosen date and time.

How we built it

Dear Future Self was built with React for the frontend and Node for the backend. JetBrains WebStorm was the IDE of choice, a very powerful and useful environment for web apps.

Challenges we ran into

Our original plan was to allow for any type of media to be uploaded, from images to videos and more. Unfortunately we only had time to support text, but there is unfinished code for handling file uploads. We also planned a very stylish interface, which can be seen in the Figma link. We did not have time to finish the website's appearance, but this could easily be added in a future update with some CSS updates.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The entire application is a single-page web app that changes based on user input. It was fun and challenging designing an entire website within the React framework. We created a Node backend, which successfully stores user data and automatically sends emails once the user-defined time has elapsed. The website has a great appearance as well.

What we learned

Previously we have worked with the React framework. We learned how single-page applications work. React has a component called 'Router' which changes the HTML injection based on the URL. We learned to create a Node backend with Express which communicated with the React frontend using Axios.

What's next for Dear Future Self

Dear Future Self has great potential. Further development would start with fixing the file upload feature. The website style could be improved using a framework like Reactstrap. Many other features could be added, like creating user accounts and allowing time capsules to be modified and periodically sent out. It would be a great way for people to surprise themselves in the future and reflect on the positive moments of the past.

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