Inspiration
We wanted to create something which made you aware of the time you spent on webpages, while being educational, and a deterrent for those webpages. Most people agree that they spent too much time on websites; however, completely blocking them doesn't work.
What it does
On our website, individual users can make a "login account", which identifies them in our database. This allows them to create an individualized list of restricted websites, which they input, in our database. When the user visits those websites, after a period of time, virtual "flashcards" will start to cover the page in regular intervals. This restricts access to the page as well as act as a counter for how long they are there. If the user clicks on a flashcard, they can input an answer in the popup box. If this answer is correct, the flashcards disappear. The time period between the flashcards can be inputed, eventually, as well as the content itself. We give a demo list on our website for vocabulary. There is also a table on the website which tracks how much time the user has wasted on those websites daily.
How we built it
We took basic css files from w3school.com for the style of our website, and created html files for the webpages themselves. We used javascript to link the inputs on the website to a database hosted by firebase. We created an extension which tiles the selected webpages in Chrome.
Challenges we ran into
We currently cannot connect our database to the extension because we have to insert a script into the webpages our extension runs on, and we are having trouble doing that. However, all our functions for the extension works so it is just a matter of integrating it with the database. Additionally, we had problems with integrating Wolfram Alpha's algorithm system so we decided to not use that for our information.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud to have learnt the execute script command for the extension because it was an integral part which we struggled with. We also dynamically created all the elements of the extension. On the website, we are generally proud of being able to link the list of blocked sites with our database and how we managed to set up that data structure. As a group without much experience in web development, we are generally proud of how we furthered our understanding of Javascript in general.
What we learned
As mentioned, we learnt a lot about Javascript as a group, since all of our members had very little experience in that. We integrated a lot different elements (database, extension, webpage etc) into a functioning project, and it was interesting seeing how they complimented each other. Working with a bunch of new-to-us software and api, we also felt that we improved our ability to read other's work.
What's next for BlockLearn
We want to link our database to Google Accounts since this is a chrome extension, and make it work multiple users. We also need to to work out some bugs in our implementation, and link our database. Once everything works smoothly, we will try to add more methods of data analysis and possibly add a visual representation of our data. Additionally, we want to randomize to flashcard order so that the user gets a variety.
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