clowder.cloud
Track your cat
Beat the competition
Win the street
What is Clowder?
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?
Watch the demo
Technologies
Built with:
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Jira
For ticket dependency tracking and sprint planning
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GitHub
Visual version control, distributed code review, and Actions for CI / CD
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Docker
Easily scalable database backend
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PSQL
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Jest
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TypeScript
Robust and readable code
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Express
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React / Tailwind
Responsive and reusable components
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Mapbox
Provides 3D mapping capabilities
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
What does the word clowder mean?
Clowder noun: The collective noun for “cats”. e.g. "Where are my clowder of cats?"
What GPS devices are compatible with Clowder?
We designed our app to be compatible with the open standard implemented by FindMyCat. You can also build your own version of the device.
Where did you get your test data?
The researchers published their data on GitHub.
How can I run the app?
- Set up the backend. A mock-device for generating GPS updates to the server is available.
- Run the frontend.