codebar hacks Mondo
I recently attended my first hackathon; Mondo and codebar had teamed up to hold an all-day event and give codebar students and coaches the chance to make something cool using the Mondo API. You can read about Mondo and the hackathon announcement here.
Matt Heath, an engineer at Mondo, started the day with an introduction to Mondo and a crash course in APIs. Mondo uses various sources (including location and vendor data) to generate some really interesting metadata about each transaction. As an enthusiast of data analysis and visualisation, I had been looking forward to seeing the possibilities!
Some attendees already had Mondo cards, so they could make something using their own data. Lucky for the rest of us, Mondo kindly provided demo accounts, complete with mocked data. As I am the optimistic kind of person who brings an Android phone and a laptop running Linux to a hackathon for an iOS9 app, I was incredibly glad for the demo account and data; it meant I could still build something.
Fuelled by pastries, coffee and burritos, everyone discussed ideas and started forming teams. My original plan had been to join in where possible, however, with access to the developer login and API of my demo account, I knew what my ideal project would be…
Team GetMondroid was announced and our mission was simple: Build a proof of concept for an Android version of the Mondo app.
We knew we were going to be using React Native to write the app, however, before we could start writing any code, a huge amount of team effort went into creating a development and build chain that could run on low-spec laptops and create apps that would run on ancient Android devices. In the end, we managed to get a decently performant pipeline going.
I learnt how to put my phone into developer mode, get started with Android Studio, and how to structure a React Native project. Although I had written a bit of React before, this was my first time seeing React Native. However, my coach was happy to guide me through how it works and patiently explain the build process.
The app displayed the transaction feed, and automatically updated as new transactions were added. It showed the basic transaction type and amount, but we would have loved another 30 minutes to add in some colourful icons and other interesting bits of metadata!
We managed to get the app up and running on my phone before the end of the hacking session, with just enough time left over to grab a beer while waiting for our turn to present to everyone.
It was great seeing what other groups had been working on. Some had mapped transactions, others had set up automated tweets to scold them for buying too many coffees.
After a few more drinks with the Mondo team, we all headed to the nearest pub; this provided the perfect opportunity for some attendees to try their new cards.
As a proof of concept, I hope GetMondroid shows that if Mondo make a web app, us Android users can get in on the fun (even if we miss out on the eye-catching Alpha release cards). It is also important to me that aspiring developers know that they do not need a high-end Mac and iPhone to build something, including mobile apps.
I want to say a huge thank you to Mondo and codebar for making this event happen; I learnt a lot about mobile development, wrote my first bit of React Native, met some amazing people and had a brilliant day. It has also encouraged me to sign up for some more hackathons!
