A project designed to give photographers a guided tour of local photo opportunities

As a long time photographer and participant in photo walks with friends, I wanted to try my hand at an application that could combine the Google Map API with the idea of marking specific known photo opportunities. The idea crystallised when I was given a gift of the book “Whitechapel in 50 Buildings” by Louis Berk and Rachel Kolsky for Christmas. This provided me with a ready source of locations nearby where General Assembly were operating from.

Project Aims

• Build an application that would leverage the Google Maps API
• Provide the ability for users to create their own walk by either selecting existing landmarks, or by adding landmarks of their own
• Give the user the ability to record their walks and show the images they took during it

Technologies Used

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript (inc. some ES6)
• Express.js framework
• MongoDB API
• Google Maps
• JWT token authentication
• SASS
• Pure.css
• Gulp
• Babel

Successes

• Building an API to house the locations to be placed on the map, and getting this seeded with suitable data
• Creating a re-useable (DRY) function for creating a modal where required
• Learning how the Google Maps API works, and seeing the extent to which it can be manipulated

Challenges

• Working with a single client.js file that contained API, map, template and application logic
• Developing a good understanding of MVC build patterns and the way which they are structured
• Time constraints involved in creating a minimum viable product

Future Development

• Add the ability to upload images
• Enhance the ‘admin’ functionality and backend management tools

Live Version

• a live version of the app can be found on Heroku at ‘Photo Walk’
• The code for the app can be located on ‘GitHub’ - ‘WDI_PROJECT_2’
• To get started, register on the site as a new user