Team ClowderpresentClowder
Clowder Demo Video
Track your cat. Beat the competition. Win the street.
Clowder is a social GPS tracking app for your cat.
Nala, Jay's cat, went missing (inside the house), and that snowballed into the idea of an app to GPS track your cat. But that's boring and has been done before. So what about an app to GPS track your cat and compete with other cats in the neighborhood?
Users can not only see where their cat is now but also a track of where they've been on their travels. When other people's cats pass close by your cat, you are then able to challenge them to a showdown - who is the cutest; the strongest; the fastest?
The Team
Maria Mizamidou
Jay Green
Philip Battersby
Steve Locke-Wheaton
Technologies
We used: Docker; PSQL; Express; React; Tailwind; TypeScript; Mapbox; Jest; GitHub; JIRA
Docker: easily scalable database backend
React / Tailwind: responsive and reusable components
TypeScript: robust and readable code
Mapbox: provides 3D mapping capabilities
GitHub: visual version control, distributed code review, and Actions for CI / CD
Jira: for ticket dependency tracking and sprint planning
Challenges Faced
Test data: We needed a source of realistic data tracking data to seed our database. We found that some researchers had published the tracking data of 92 cats on GitHub, so we used that for our test data.
Docker: We found that the Docker host application for macOS has a different interface between the VM and host machine than the Windows and Linux versions. Our initial database system ran on all but one team member’s machines. We lost a day of development solving the issue as it was not a well-documented issue.
Time: As well as the time lost to Docker, we had a number of issues with development time available. Most notably, a team member had to unexpectedly stop work on the project mid-way. They did an excellent job of handing over their in-progress code, but this took time to adopt and impacted the remaining team hours available.
FAQs
Q: What does the word clowder mean?
A: Clowder: noun - The collective noun for “cats”. e.g. "Where are my clowder of cats?"
Q: What GPS devices are compatible with Clowder?
A: We designed our app to be compatible with the open standard implemented by [FindMyCat](https://www.findmycat.io). You can also [build your own version](https://www.instructables.com/Find-My-Cat-the-GPS-Tracker-for-Pets/) of the device.
Q: Where did you get your test data?
A: The researchers published their data on [GitHub](https://github.com/richbi/CatTrack_public)
Q: How can I run the app?
A: The backend is available [here](https://github.com/clowder-cloud/backend). A mock-device for generating GPS updates to the server is available [here](https://github.com/clowder-cloud/mock_device). The frontend is available [here](https://github.com/clowder-cloud/frontend).