StreetGuardian

Form to report an issue to StreetGuardian
StreetGuardian homepage
An example email that would be sent to the council summarising complaints
Forum database backend
Reports database backend
Variable theme for accessibility and ease of use
Post being censored

Inspiration

Inspiration for this project arises from frustration with various accessibility issues and the lack of resources available to report community issues to local councils and have them addressed. We aimed to create a solution that provides local residents with the opportunity to have their voices heard, thereby improving the environment and enhancing the quality of life for its users, while also preventing the local council from being overwhelmed by multiple complaints about these issues.

What it does

StreetGuardian provides a platform to allow residents to report issues within their local neighbourhood. Reports are made and are then presented, whereby these can then be voted upon to indicate the priority of these issues.

Additionally, there is a forum where blogs can be made by residents. This provides them with a platform to inform others of local issues. These issues will then be collated and presented in an email directly to the local council which is automatically sent on a weekly basis.

How we built it

In order to develop our website we utilised various coding frameworks, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript for the front end, whilst PHP and Python were used for the back end. This aided us in enhancing our UI for improved user experience, as well as allowing remote management of databases containing user-entered information.

The emails are sent via a PHP program that is scheduled to run from the server at a specific time weekly by a cron job.

Challenges we ran into

We chose to host our project locally with one laptop acting as the server, which caused some challenges in collaborating as anything that required access to the database could only be tested on that specific laptop. We overcame this issue by building most of the website on replit, testing essential components on the server, and only brought the whole website together once it was complete.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of delivering a fully functional website with an intuitive design, as well as successfully incorporating various different features within the allotted time frame. Our Database Management System is also extremely robust, storing a vast quantity of information about reports users have made and forum posts.

What we learned

From this project we have learned how to efficiently divide a project into smaller tasks which can then be delegated throughout the group. In addition to this, developing this project has allowed us to develop technical skills - in particular full stack web development and database management.

What's next for StreetGuardian

Our next steps involve creating a robust login system, enabling users to engage in forums using a distinct username rather than remaining anonymous. We also would like to broaden the scope of our website by including coverage of multiple city councils, as well as integrating a city mapper tool to accurately pinpoint the precise location of any reported issues.