Xplore

Inspiration

Summer is coming and finding great new places to hike would be easy with an app.

What it does

We created a mobile application for Android and iOS which lets users explore hiking trails in BC

How we built it

The designs were first mocked up in Adobe Experience Design and Illustrator before being built natively for Android and iOS. For the backend, we created an API using CockroachDB and Node.js. We wrote a web scraping script that parsed XML data from vancouvertrails.com and stored the data in CockroachDB. We then designed and implemented a REST API which the mobile client consumes to retrieve data. We then designed and implemented a REST API which the mobile client consumes to retrieve data.

Challenges we ran into

We had many small bugs that were hard to find and debug.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our apps work and look nice, including the backend node api using cockroachdb

What we learned

cockroachdb nodejs android ios ui/ux design

What's next for Xplore

If we had more time, we would have implemented Google Maps API to help users navigate to the trails. We would have also looked at expanding additional features such as searching, and localization. For this hackathon, we focused more on refining the user interface and user experience of the application rather than adding additional functions.