ZZU Thrift

Inspiration

As WSU students, we noticed many people posting on the Snapchat school story to sell items or ask for things. It was unorganized and hard to keep track of posts. So we decided to create an app that works like a simple Facebook Marketplace, but specifically for students.

What it does

Our app allows students to post items for sale, browse listings, and search for what they need. It organizes everything in one place, making buying and selling on campus easier and more efficient.

How we built it

For the frontend, we used React with React Router for navigation and Axios for API requests. We also used Magic SDK for passwordless authentication and plain CSS for styling.

For the backend, we used Node.js with Express to build a REST API and MongoDB with Mongoose for the database. We handled authentication using JWT and the Magic Admin SDK. We also integrated the OpenAI API for semantic search.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge was dealing with merge conflicts between the frontend and backend. Another major challenge was integrating the Magic Admin SDK properly with the frontend authentication flow.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we were able to overcome our technical challenges and improve as we went. We successfully connected the frontend and backend and made the authentication system work smoothly.

What we learned

We learned how to communicate better as a team and collaborate more effectively. We also gained a deeper understanding of Docker and how to manage full-stack applications.