tminder

Inspiration

We liked the idea of a text message reminder application that didn't need to be downloaded. That way if you lose your phone and get a new one, you will still have all your reminders set.

What it does

The program is a node application that listens for text messages to a certain number. If it receives a text of the form "remind me to do your homework in 2 hours" or "remind me to get groceries tomorrow at 7pm" it will record the reminder in the database and later send you a text with the reminder message.

How we built it

We used node.js as the server and twil.io (text message api) for connecting to phones via text. The database is mongoDB and it records every single reminder put through the server. There is also a web interface for viewing and adding reminders, and this was created using javascript, html, css, and jquery. in order to send data from the web interface to node, socket.io was used.

Challenges we ran into

Finding a suitable text message api was hard, while also trying to make sure it is free. There was some difficulty getting dates into the correct format to display on the calendar. We also had difficulty with the domain name (tminder.com) pointing to the webserver. It seemed to work on my phone but doesn't work on the PSU network. Maybe this is because the DNS data hasn't propagated yet.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We set out to make a text based reminder app and at the end of the day, thats what we did. We even made a web end for it too which exceeded out expectations. We are proud of this because we know we will actually use it in the future. This is just another tool we've made specifically for us which may also be useful for a lot of others.

What we learned

What's next for tminder

TMinder is just one example of how you can interface text with a server. I have always wanted this connectivity and now I have it. I plan on adding additional completely different features. I have a playlist making website, and I plan on making it possible to send a text that will add a specific song to a playlist. Extending a controllable server through text is a powerful tool and there's a lot I have planned.