Inspiration
We wanted to create something that brings neighborhoods closer together. With fewer opportunities for neighbors to connect and growing concerns about children's safety, we thought Halloween would be a great place to start.
Trick-or-treating should be a fun community experience, but families don't always know which houses are participating or where to go. We wanted to make that experience easier and safer while encouraging people to connect with their neighbors.
What it does
TrackYourTreat is an interactive map that allows homeowners and trick-or-treaters to add participating houses and update their candy availability.
Users can see four different candy statuses:
- Starting soon: Getting ready to hand out candy.
- Handing out candy: Currently participating.
- Running low: Limited candy remaining.
- Out of candy: No longer handing out candy.
Our bigger vision is to expand TrackYourTreat beyond Halloween. We hope to add community resources such as parks, water fountains, dog waste bag stations, and more, making it useful year-round.
How we built it
We built TrackYourTreat using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in Visual Studio Code.
- Leaflet and OpenStreetMap: Interactive map and location features.
- Firebase Firestore: Database for saving houses and candy statuses.
- GitHub: Version control and team collaboration.
- GitHub Pages: Website hosting and deployment.
- Porkbun: Domain registration and DNS configuration.
We connected these technologies to create a website that allows users to find, add, and update participating houses.
Challenges we ran into
One of our biggest challenges was getting our domain up and running. We spent time configuring DNS settings, connecting our Porkbun domain to GitHub Pages, and enabling HTTPS so our website could securely access users' locations.
Another challenge was designing the user interface. We wanted the website to look fun and Halloween-themed while remaining simple and easy to navigate, especially on mobile devices.
Balancing functionality with a clean design took a lot of trial and error.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud that we built and launched a functional website that anyone can access and use.
We successfully integrated an interactive map, a database for saving participating houses, and the ability to update candy availability.
We're also proud of our teamwork. Each of us took on something new, communicated throughout the development process, and helped one another troubleshoot problems to finish the project within the hackathon deadline.
What we learned
Each team member worked on something they weren't entirely familiar with, whether that was frontend development with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, backend development with Firebase, or deployment and domain configuration.
We also gained experience using GitHub for collaboration, troubleshooting unexpected issues, making design decisions as a team, and experience with database management.
Most importantly, we learned how the different parts of a web application come together to turn a simple idea into a working product.
What's next for TrackYourTreat
We want to continue developing TrackYourTreat into a year-round community platform.
Our future plans include:
- Adding user authentication and ownership controls so homeowners can securely manage their own pins.
- Improving real-time updates and mobile accessibility.
- Expanding the map to include parks, water fountains, dog waste bag stations, and other neighborhood resources.
- Introducing additional community features that encourage neighbors to connect.
Ultimately, we hope TrackYourTreat can become a platform that makes neighborhoods more connected, accessible, and enjoyable for everyone!
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