Inspiration
When starting this project we were inspired by the largest population around our team, which is our fellow college students. College can be extremely expensive and so many students drop out due to them failing to meet the financial requirements for the university and on top of that they have to pay for housing, food, and books. We aimed to reduce the money spent on one of these categories, textbooks. With this program, we can create a community where books get traded and bought between students and decrease the amount spent each year by students.
What it does
Our website allows users (students) to upload information regarding a textbook they are looking to sell with their email address. Then other students who are looking to purchase these books can search for a keyword (the title, course code, email, etc.), and the site will search our database for every submission with that keyword and display it to the user. From here the user can email the owner to communicate the purchase.
How we built it
Our group used a variety of languages and frameworks like HTML, CSS, SQLite3, Python, and Flask to create a functioning website. We started with a Python backend with a SQLite3 database that created the functions and the database used to store data mixed with an HTML and CSS front end that created the look and feel of the website UI. Also, the framework Flask was used to create our website application with Python and relate it to our HTML and CSS code.
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges when going through this project was the lack of knowledge we had as beginners with us all knowing Python and a few of us having a little background knowledge in typescript. Another challenge we faced was figuring out how to delete a row of data in our SQLite3 file that we hope to correct in further versions of the website application.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
As a team, we are extremely proud of our code and creativity with this project. We came into the hackathon knowing how to create simple functions and we left knowing a little bit of HTML, CSS, SQLite3, and Flask. If we don’t win any challenges as a team we learn valuable skills and how to problem solve when creating programs in uncharted territory for us.
What we learned
Throughout this process, we learned how to use new computing languages like HTML, CSS, SQLite3, and Flask. Similarly, we learned how to research and solve our problems, throughout the hack, we only asked one question to staff members because we wanted to prioritize our learning more than creating a fully fledge and “perfect” application.
What's next for UDictionary HenHacks2024
Looking into the future we want to create a better homepage to welcome the user and create a better opening UI. Also, one of the biggest functions that we want to add is a way to delete values from our SQLite3 database to signify when a user has sold their textbook and it is no longer for sale. Other than the buying and selling of textbooks, we visualize this website potentially being something as grand as a mini UD social media where people can upload their classes and then create study groups for classes, upload opinions about professors, and have course information in one place (office hours, professors currently teaching, helpful aid).
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