1a1Searching in two languages at once
Students refer to the same subject as 'Signals', 'إشارات', or a course code, often switching mid-sentence. Indexing one language means half the searches fail silently.
0The facts
- Role
- Volunteer: mobile and backend
- Year
- Since 2022
- Status
- Shipped
- Category
- Mobile
- Built with
- React Native · Expo · TypeScript · Firebase · Zustand · React Query · Reanimated · Zod · Caching
- Where to find it
- Google PlaySource
1 · Overview
What it is, and why it exists.
Pick any subject from the study plan tree and get everything attached to it: material, recordings, staff contacts. Includes a GPA calculator, bilingual Arabic/English search, and a night mode. Volunteer work that has outlived several intakes of students.
The committee had been answering the same questions in the same Facebook group for years: which prerequisites does this subject have, who teaches it, where are the notes, what will my GPA be if this goes badly.
The app turns that into structure. The study plan is a navigable tree, so a subject is a destination with everything hanging off it. Staff details are searchable. The GPA box projects both semester and cumulative results before the semester ends.
It is the longest-running thing I maintain, and the constraint that shapes it is that I am not paid for it. Anything that needs constant attention does not survive.
1a · Challenges
Each problem got a card. Each fix got filed behind it.
1a1aWhat I did
Every subject carries both names and its code in one searchable field, normalised on both sides. A query in either language, or a code, reaches the same subject.
1a2A campus network you cannot rely on
Students open the app between lectures, in corridors and basements where the connection is unreliable. Every screen hitting the network makes the app feel broken in exactly the place it is used.
1a2aWhat I did
The plan tree and staff directory are cached aggressively and treated as slow-changing data, so the app opens instantly from cache and revalidates in the background rather than blocking on a request.
1a3Content that must outlive its maintainer
Study plans change, staff move, and I am one volunteer. An app that needs a code release every time a course is renamed dies the moment I get busy.
1a3aWhat I did
All of it is content in Firebase, editable by committee members without touching the app. My job is the client; keeping the data current is theirs, which is the only arrangement that lasts.
2 · Results
- Published on Google Play and maintained across multiple student intakes.
- About eleven services behind one search box.
- Content editable by the committee without a release.
3 · Screens
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