We Tech Care- an iOS App

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  User-Auth

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  Add Events Page

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  Profile Page

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  Events Page

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  App Icon

Inspiration

Growing up, I was fortunate to have access to technology. I had a MacBook, an iPad, and the internet at my fingertips. It was a world of opportunities. For example, I started to learn app development at the age of 12 by simply going on YouTube and installing Xcode. I recently picked up React as well by buying an online course. But, not everyone can do this. This is when I realized that not everyone had access to the same education in order to develop their skills and knowledge. So when I saw the theme of this hackathon, I knew what to build.

What it does

We Tech Care is a full-stack iOS App that lets users discover and register for free tech events hosted by organizations/individuals/companies to learn new skills and develop cool software. It has a simple interface with user authentication, an events page, an add event page, and a profile page. Users look for events that interest them, and can simply register for them, for Free! People who add these events can add detailed information, such as the name of the event, address, description, time, etc...

How we built it

I built it with Xcode, Swift and Google Firebase. Xcode is the development ecosystem/environment provided by Apple to build apps. I built my interface and programmed the entire app in Xcode using Swift as well. I integrated my app with Google Firebase, more specifically the Real-Time Firebase Database. This is for User-Auth so users can quickly make accounts. The database also holds all event data, and specifics of the user like what events they signed up for.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge I ran into was the events page because when a button was clicked, it simply didn't add that Event Object to my database. I had to test it manually by hardcoding it into my database, then I finally realized what I was doing wrong, which was my code not conforming to the rules of Firebase. I made some changes and then Event Object data was successfully added, to read and write. Another minor challenge was displaying the events the user registered for because I would have to filter all the events and display only the ones the User signed up for, which was a bit challenging but successfully tackled.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am really proud that I could integrate Firebase this fast. I have previously used Firebase in my previous apps, and it took me a while to fully integrate it with no errors, which was an expectation yesterday when I first started building it. But, to my shock, the whole process of adding events, user auth, etc... was pretty seamless.

Aside from that, I am proud I built a legit solution to this problem. Even though this app is not published yet, it is one step closer to that and I am glad that I can build something which I will continue to develop. I hope I will be able to publish and get some publicity so that real people can register for events.

What we learned

I learned that technology can be your enemy at times, but has a work-around to it. Throughout the development of this project, I ran into many issues which seemed like setbacks. But after continuous Google searches, I was able to fix almost all of the bugs my app had. Other than the technology aspect, I definitely learned how to hustle in the tech world, which to me means building something innovative and creative in a fast manner. While I do build cool projects, I don't usually build them in the span of a hackathon duration.

What's next for We Tech Care- an iOS App

I will continue to develop this app and integrate some API's for Firebase to make it more seamless. I plan to enhance the current features in hopes of publishing this on the App Store. To actually add events that people can register for, I will utilize my social media and Medium blog account to gain some traction, even if it's our very first event.

Built With

• firebase
• swift
• xcode