Access++

Inspiration

Access Plus is a program that everyone uses, but no one enjoys. We wanted to fix that.

How it works

Our program integrates and extends the existing functionality of Access Plus. Where previously it performed, now it excels.

While the vanilla website provides the tools students needs, our extension provides students with the features they actually want, oftentimes features that they are already using. With Access++, we've eliminated the need for constant tab switching.

What it does:

Access++ provides four major improvements to the Access Plus website:
+Rate My Professor integration—when viewing a schedule, a link to your professors' Rate My Professor page is provided in a clean, integrated table.
+Useful meal plan information—On the dining page, in addition to merely stating how many meals you have remaining, and linking to an obscure chart, our extension shows how that compares to the number you should have on a given day.
+Google Calendar Integration—Access++ parses your schedule and provides a downloadable ICS that can be imported to Google Calendar, Outlook, and most modern calendar programs. Events are created for the duration of a class with just a click of a button.
+Scheduling made easy—Removing the need for switching between tabs, Access++ provides your current schedule on the same page as the schedule you are creating, allowing for easy identification of conflicts and opening.

Challenges I ran into

The Access Plus website is coded in a way that makes it difficult to modify. For example, standard web development concepts such as assigning IDs to elements have been eschewed in favor of the esoteric practice of embedding tables within other tables, all of which are nameless but presumably equal in society.

What was learned

This was the first time any of our team members had made a chrome extension, so everything we accomplished came from a virtually nonexistent knowledge base.