Planly

Planly: To organize all your emails, files, and coursework in one place to search, summarize, and ask questions.

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Inspiration

Everybody uses email. Everybody uses a file-storing service. People often have multiple accounts on multiple apps. There is a plethora of digital information that each person stores, and eventually, it can build up into a sort of maze where it is just impossible to find things, and you feel lost. I thought it would be beneficial to get the different services people use (Microsoft, Google, etc.) and bring them into one spot, where people can conveniently see all of their information in one place. That's Planly!

What it does

The user is prompted to sign into their accounts they want to connect. Then, they choose a date for how far back to go. The project fetches your email metadata and file titles, from the date chose up to now, from Microsoft (Outlook and OneDrive) and Google (Google Drive and Gmail) and displays them. Planly can then summarize mutliple emails at once, or summarize a file that the user can then ask their own questions about. For students, Canvas LMS has been integrated to view summarized course syllabi, upcoming assignements with the due date, and announcements with the date sent.

How I built it

Various APIs such as Microsoft Graph API through an Azure app that fetches Mail, Files, and Notes; Google APIs to handle all types of different files (Slides, Sheets, Docs) and Gmail; and Canvas LMS API to fetch courses and their respective information, which the user can easily switch between to stay updated on all their classes. Users have the ability to search through all services just mentioned, or simply restrict search findings to one service, such as only OneDrive or only Canvas. Each service has its their respective functions responsible for pulling data. A BERT model has been trained to extract important information from emails and Canvas data, while Google Gemini is used to summarize files. A beautiful front end displays the service logos to easily switch between, while the Flask backend loads the user requests of account authentication, metadata fetching, and summarizing.

Challenges I ran into

Learning everything on the go. I had all these ideas which sound great on paper, but each one had to be researched with care to make sure it was possible and ethical. From there learning how leverage certain technologies and frameworks, and learning how to build the front-end and backend from scratch, which was something I had never done before.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm proud of myself for simply being able to call something mine. People ask me what I have been up to, and I have something here that sparks legitimate conversations and garners people's interest. I can build this project how I want, I can form ideas and begin executing them, and I can watch my ideas unravel in real-time as they turn into real features of the project. I wake up every morning excited to see my progress, play around with what I have done, and the feeling of my mind racing for what to implement next and envisioning how far I can take this project. The only thing I cannot do is push limits, because there were never any to begin with. This being my project, there were no rules or boundaries to follow, it was all mine.

What I learned

I learned many different things in this project. I had never worked with APIs before. Reading documentation to build my own code instead of just reporting it to someone as I have done in the past was a great new feeling. Building a visually pleasing and immersive front-end display was very rewarding, as I could tell the time spent doing that paid off when seeing people's reactions to the project. A corresponding backend using the proper methods and routes was also something I learned on the go. This has made me much more comfortable with full-stack development.

What's next for Planly

Planly's next objectives would be to push it further in the realm of digital information. Connecting multiple accounts on the same service is a big one. Going beyond organization, such as displaying an email and then being able to send a response through Planly. Automatically filing emails based on their subject matter and labeling. The ideas are endless, but feel very close due to so much of Planly already being established.

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