UMDConnect

Inspiration

We were inspired to create UMDConnect to find affordable and accessible services provided by student small business owners on campus, such as hair, nails, lashes, etc.

What it does

Our website allows anyone to create an account to register their business with the website. After creating an account, a card with the business's details will be displayed on the homepage, allowing anyone to see the services they provide as well as a means to contact the business.

How we built it

We used Node.js to create our backend, and Express.js as our routing and middleware framework. For our front end, we used HTML and EJS to create a dynamic front end. To store each business' information, we used MongoDB.

Challenges we ran into

As we were all beginners to web development, the hardest part was getting started. We had no idea what exactly it took to create a website, so the first week of development was researching what frameworks or languages to use. We were learning JavaScript while creating a website, which proved a challenge.

We were also new to using GitHub and version control, so there was definitely a steep learning curve.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of the integration between our front end and the database (after much trial and error) to successfully display each business's information on our homepage.

What we learned

We learned a lot about both front-end and back-end development. Often times, it was hard for us to tell where a certain component began and another ended. We learned a lot about the modular approach for better organization and readability of code.

What's next for UMDConnect

Currently, we're using sample data through larger, established buildings around the University of Maryland campus. Moving forward, we'd like to move to only being a platform for student-owned small businesses on and around the University of Maryland College Park campus.

We've still got a few kinks to work through, such as editing one's profile and information after registering, and we'd like to implement a sorting and tagging system so that users can filter and search through a specific service they'd like to have.