PawPoints

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Inspiration

We were inspired by the stray cats we see around Toronto.

What it does

This web platform is designed to assist people in locating stray cats in their area. People can earn PawPoints by feeding stray cats and providing photo evidence. The platform offers two main sections: "Tracked Cats" allows you to view the locations of all previously tracked cats, while "Found a Cat?" lets you report new stray cats by uploading a photo, naming them, describing their appearance or habits, and pinpointing their location on a map. This project aims to support your efforts in caring for stray cats and making a positive impact in your community.

How we built it

We built this web platform using a combination of web development technologies and tools. TypeScript was used in place of JavaScript. The front-end of the platform was developed using the Svelte via SvelteKit. For the visual design and styling, we used a combination of vanilla CSS and TailwindCSS. We also used Mapbox in our project to display the main map component. Our backend was built with a combination of SvelteKit and Firebase (Google Cloud). Firebase was used as a database and for authentication. We have containerized our application using Docker, setup Google Cloud Build with triggers, and setup a service at Google Cloud Run, which continuously builds and deploys the application from the Github repository.

Challenges we ran into

We originally began work on a mobile application, even though none of us had prior experience in that domain. As we delved the app, we realized the complexity and learning curve it entailed. So, we made the decision to pivot to web development, where the majority of our team members were more comfortable and had expertise.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of completing the project to the scope we originally planned for and for using a wide range of technologies. Specifically, we're proud of using Firebase for user authentication and as our database, of continuous delivery process, of integrating the map, and of ourselves for all using technologies we were not originally familiar with.

What we learned

None of our team members were familiar with all the technologies, we all learned new things.

What's next for PawPoints

Our next step is to expand for all animals, not just stray cats, and to finally deploy to a mobile application. We want to create an invite-only system for users to join the application.