While I worked at Tekside.io, I worked on the DevOps team. This team focuses on coding marketing solutions for clients. We primarily work on communication between the clients and their customers - mainly through email. The task I was assigned was to create their first instance of their third channel of communication: push notifications.
During my work term, I worked on creating a sample app for a local coffee shop. Through this, we gained the knowledge of app development and push notifications. This sample app could then be shown off to potential clients. It's inclusion has the potential to influence future patronage.
During my two terms at Tekside.io, I worked on a project called the Coffee App.
Tekside.io helps companies connect with their clients by offering varied channels of communication. One channel they had yet to pursue, though, was push notifications. Never having made an app before, they decided to try it out by making a prototype. This prototype was modelled after a local coffee shop in Guelph named Planet Bean. My job was to learn about app development and create this app.
To create the app, we used React Native for the UI, Google Firebase for the notifications, and MongoDB for saving user account information, such as keycloak tokens, addresses, and abandoned carts. I and one other employee were assigned to work on this. I handled the Shopify integration and two other tasks, and they handled push notifications.
There were 3 main tasks I completed in this app:
- Shopify integration - I used Shopify's APIs to fetch products and create orders. I displayed products by Product Type, showing their title, image and lowest price. Then, upon clicking the details button, the app would display its description and various options as well. Upon choosing the options, the price would update dynamically.
- Checkout - On the checkout screen, I let the user choose from shipping or pick up for their order. For shipping, they could input an address (or choose from their saved addresses), and for pick up, they could choose from a list of existing store locations. This choice was then reflected in the order on the Shopify store. When the user is logged in to keycloak, I allow them to save addresses so checkout is easier next time. They also don't have to provide their name or email during checkout, since their account already provides that information.
- Nearest Store - I made calculations to find the nearest store and displayed it on the homepage. From the homepage, the user can click a button that redirects them to a screen with a map. This map would be focused on the nearest store, with the option to open Google Maps for directions.
The most challenging (and fun) part of this project was the Shopify integration. I made a dummy store with all of Planet Beans products and figured out how to organize it so that the products could be displayed in a comprehensive way. Parsing the product information into a cart and then creating the orders was also fun. I enjoyed working on this project.
