Inspiration
It all started when Rikesh Mehta visited his sister at UCLA for the weekend College students usually purchase a certain amount of "Swipes", or number of entries into a cafeteria, for the quarter/year. However, in many meal plans, Swipes do not roll over between Quarters. As a result, students who ate less meals than purchased frantically rush to sell off their extra Swipes to those who ate too much, and lack swipes, in order to avoid losing them without any return. This marketplace of swipes however currently resides on various social media platforms and isn't consolidated for convenience nor cost efficiency. A student many times may end up purchasing a swipe for a cost that was above the average market value at the time as they do not have access to all of the sellers in _ one comprehensive platform _. Together, Anusha K, Tanupa T, and Rikesh M set out to solve the problem with Swipe Share.
What it does
Swipe Share essentially is an E Commerce and Networking platform that connects Swipe sellers to Swipe buyers. This allows users to quickly see all the prices and locations of sellers. Users can now choose sellers that are close to them and/or the cheapest price. This boosts convenience for both users. To further expand on the convenience of our app, After choosing a seller, you can send them a text or access their Venmo page to quickly get in touch or pay them for the swipes. This removes the hassle of exchanging numbers and searching for Venmo users.
How we built it
As this was our first Android App, we began by researching how to build a network connected app. Our solution was having a realtime database that can communicate back and forth with individual users. After many roadblocks and countless mentor consultations our idea began to take shape. We continued to research and read Google APIs in order to build the app we have today.
Challenges we ran into
Challenges began with opening up Android Studio. Right off the bat the emulator would not launch on any 42 Mac. To build on that, we slowly realized that android development isn't as simple as previously thought. With the mix of different structures and languages, it became a true learning experience. As we continued to work on our back end, we began to run into even more problems. Firebase API was extremely difficult to understand without a previous Android Dev foundation. Finally, we had never worked extensively with classes before, and so learned how to write and access countless classes.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Accomplishments that we're proud of include learning firebase API leading to us eventually building a firebase server and implementing it into our application. Learning how to code for android layout and main Activities. Understanding the Activity logic of Android Apps. Building a functional Android product within 24 hours.
What we learned
We learned how to budget our time efficiently. By taking power naps and making checklists along the way we were able to reach our goal by the end of the hackathon. We also learned the importance of understanding your code fundamentally as you write it. Finally we learned how to not only make front end and backend for Android Apps, but also for realtime database servers. This will allow us to implement Firebase into future projects.
What's next for Swipe Share
Future features on the horizon include full account support. Users will be able to make accounts and users will become more connected. This will allow for faster redirects to SMS and Venmo pages. It will also allow for multiple contact options including FBM, EMAIL, WHATSAPP, and more. Eventually there will also be a UI refresh in full material theme. Other features soon to come include the ability to rate sellers, and view more statistics about your postings.
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