Recommendations App/Website

By: Dylan and Oleksandr

Learning Module #5

Overview: Goals

• Create an application that generates recommendations for movies, books, and songs.
• The user answers a set of questions.
• This information is stored in a database.
• The app will search through a dataset of media and return specific movies, books, and songs that fit the user’s interests.
• The user can then remove any recommendations they find to be irrelevant or inaccurate.
• Ultimately, Dylan and Oleksandr wanted to learn how to develop an app and its interface, while adding functionality to it through the use of data sorting and filtering.

What did we accomplish?

• ALL of Dylan and Oleksandr’s initial goals/plans were met.
• Created an app/website that generates recommendations for movies, books, songs based on the user’s interests.
• Working Beyond:
• Dylan and Oleksandr added greater functionality by making a profile page for each user.
• Users can view their interests and personalize a biography on their profile.
• With that, each user has to create a log-in (email, username, and password).
• Accounts are personalized, meaning each username has to be unique.
• Users even have to confirm their email address in order to start using this service.
• The user is sent a link to the email they provided during account creation.

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How did we accomplish this?

• App-building platform Bubble:
• Easy website design process
• Flowcharts, drop-down menus, and minimal typing for coding/programming
• Easy to add images, text boxes, and buttons
• Built-in data integration
• Create databases that store user information
• Upload datasets of movies, songs, and books
• Dataset platform Kaggle:
• Endless amounts of large datasets for all types of media
• Online Resources:
• YouTube Videos
• Bubble Forums

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What problems did we encounter?

• Dylan:
• The “signup with Google” button will not work because Dylan was not old enough to create a Google developer account to create token IDs.
• Issues with the email verification and unique username requirements for accounts.
• Spent time researching ways to disallow users with already used usernames and disallow users from certain pages if their account is not verified via email.
• Oleksandr:
• Problems with databases/data integration:
• Not all databases were of the right size, and Bubble seemed to handle only about 1000-2000 elements.
• Difficulty finding databases that fit the needs of the app.
• Some databases lacked the necessary metadata for a neat and smooth upload into Bubble.
• Some databases had poor quality data (images and dates).

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What did we learn?

• Dylan and Oleksandr obtained important skills in…
• App/Website Design
• Creating buttons, adding images, and including text for easy navigation and a good appearance.
• Personalization and safety for users (account logins, profiles, and email verification).
• Using Databases
• Storing and changing information in a large database.
• Importation of Datasets
• Choosing the right datasets.
• Cleaning, Sorting, and Filtering Data
• Using data to create useful results.

Looking Forward: Future Learning Modules

• Expanding this project:
• Implementing live databases
• Up-to-date results
• Adding more design features
• Better app feel and navigation
• Creating new functionality
• Allowing users to share each other’s profiles.
• Starting new projects:
• Data is used in all types of applications
• Most apps process a lot of data in order to create accurate results for their users

Demonstration of Final Product:

LINK

Thank You!