MyTrails

In MyTrails users can search through a map or search bar to find hiking trails in their area. They can view details of any trail in the database which includes length, elevation, 5-day weather forecast, map location, user reviews and nearby trails. Users can sign up for a free account to rate and write reviews for trails, create custom lists of their favorite trails and fill out their profile.

MyTrails is a clone of the AllTrails web application. My project is a fullstack application and uses React/Redux for the frontend, Ruby on Rails for the backend and PostgreSQL for the database. Other technologies I used include AWS S3 for uploading photos, AJAX for frontend requests to the server, GoogleMaps API for the map widget and OpenWeatherMap API for the weather widget.

This project was really fun for me on many different levels. First of all I enjoy hiking and was excited to build something that I would actually use. On the technical side, figuring out how to combine all these technologies and make the code beautiful was challenging but incredibly satisfying. This project required a thorough understanding of the Redux cycle for frontend state management, the MVC framework that Rails provides, frontend and backend routing, user auth, efficient ways to store data in the database, and more! I spent a good chunk of time refactoring my code to significantly increase the performance speed of my web application such as fixing N+1 queries. Adding the ability for users to upload their own photos and connect it with AWS was also a significant challenge but well worth the headache. Finally, on the design side I enjoyed making the UI beautiful and thinking of how I could improve upon the original AllTrails. The UI for the profile, lists and error messages were entirely original.