Inspiration
We thought of a real world problem that we personally run into that affects other people as well. We decided to build off of our idea of helping people save money by creating a coupon finding website, and helping people save time by organizing the coupons based on store and zip code.
What it does
Coupon finder includes a database of stores and coupons for those stores within a certain zip code radius. Users select a certain store that they want to shop at, and coupon finder selects coupons for stores within that person's desired location.
How we built it
We used html and css to build our website on github and then forwarded it onto our free .tech domain. For the database of coupons, we used firebase to store the coupons in JSON and used javascript to integrate the coupons into our website.
Challenges we ran into
None of us had ever coded using Javascript or JSON before, and we didn't know how to use certain elements of the software. We tried to use a .tech domain, which did not work at first since it was unable to connect to our firebase database. We attempted time and time again to get firebase itself to host our website, but as none of us had ever used firebase before, we kept running into errors even after debugging. After deciding to host our website on github and forwarding it onto the .tech domain, we realized we had to find a database of public source coupon APIs. One we found that database, we again had trouble linking it up to firebase since none of us had any prior knowledge of JSON, the only language firebase can interpret. After much trial and error coding, we finally came up with code that firebase could interpret and send to our website. We then had trouble linking the firebase code in a user friendly format to our website. We attempted to use javascript, a language none of us had prior experience with, and after much experimental coding, we succeeded using javascript to turn our JSON into a user friendly html format.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We absolutely loved our website design and logo that we came up with, and were especially proud of the CSS that we used to design our site. We also were successful in connecting our project to both firebase and a .tech domain, two forms of software we had never used before. Finally, we were successful in coding with JSON and Javascript, which none of us had prior experience with. All in all, we are extremely proud of our final product.
What we learned
Not only did we learn how to use new programming languages and computer software, but we also learned that we could work together and come up with an amazing project in just 24 hours. None of us had met each other before this hackathon, and none of us had ever been to a hackathon before. However, we used our individual knowledge to build off each other and create a website with a practical functionality.
What's next for Coupon Finder
We are looking to add more features to coupon finder to make it a more organized and unique website using different "filters", such as coupon price range. After making these changes, we will hopefully be switching from a model of our website to one that is more usable and practical.
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