App

[luniac]

I've been on this forum for a few years but this is my first progress thread, because this may be my first genuinely PreValidated app idea.

I occasionally do a poor man's idea extraction by asking friends "yo you got any app ideas? is there anything in your life that could be improved with an? or do you have some cool idea for an app? lemme know brah!"

99% of time i get nothing, but this time i got a bite. I have a friend who has many years of experience in a certain industry. He says that for the smaller businesses in the industry, it can be inconvenient for them to find workers, especially if at the last minute some worker cannot show up.

The app idea is to create a centralized place for these smaller businesses and workers to find each other, in a location based way.

I'll be developing this app myself using Unity3D, which is the software i have become intimately familiar with over the last several years.

I'm confident in my ability to create a functional Front End.

My only real challenge is the backend and communication between that and the front end. I have to learn how databases, servers, etc work. I know absolutely nothing about that stuff.
I did a little research already and i know solutions exist that work with Unity3D. I'm gonna do a shit ton more research so i can make an informed decision on how to implement the database stuff.

I'll be meeting up with my friend sometime soon to draw up the entire design document for the app, this way i can at least develop the front end and test it out with dummy data.

I have no experience making these kinds of apps but i'm confident ill figure it out.

Stay tuned for updates lol

EDIT:
im also on unemployment currently but they have SEAP(self employment assistance program) where they don't require you to look for work if ur building ur business fulltime.
Before i didn't wanna do this because they require bullshit business plans, etc and all my apps were just testing the waters, but with this latest app idea i think its worth a shot applying for this.
If i get into the program, the world will leave me the F*ck alone for a few months so i can just bang out this app.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Lucid Tech]

Wishing you the best of luck. It sounds like you've already validated your idea before building something which is more than most.

We have used Unity3D extensively over the past several years for very graphically-intense simulations and it handles them well. However, are you sure Unity is the best platform on which to build this app? Unity most often used for games and other very visual programs. It may be a bit "heavy" for what you are trying to do. (I don't have an answer or a better recommendation, just food for thought.)

If you do end up using Unity3D, my recommendation is phpMyAdmin to manage your back-end database. We've used this with no problems and it's fairly intuitive to use.

 

[luniac]

Wishing you the best of luck. It sounds like you've already validated your idea before building something which is more than most.

We have used Unity3D extensively over the past several years for very graphically-intense simulations and it handles them well. However, are you sure Unity is the best platform on which to build this app? Unity most often used for games and other very visual programs. It may be a bit "heavy" for what you are trying to do. (I don't have an answer or a better recommendation, just food for thought.)

If you do end up using Unity3D, my recommendation is phpMyAdmin to manage your back-end database. We've used this with no problems and it's fairly intuitive to use.

I completely agree with you, it's not the best, but its the best for me.

Yea i did see phmMyAdmin mentioned but had no idea wtf it does exactly. I'll look into that and everything else a ton more over the next few days.
I wanna become a minor expert on this shit before i commit to any particular approach.

The way i see it and i'm pretty sure i'm right about my approach, the important thing is to create a functional product, if it takes off and makes money i can always hire smarter programmers than me to develop a more proper app.

 

[luniac]

oh god... doing SEAP orientation video so i can apply.... can anyone say Slowlane Small Business...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2iyiIKq5dA




first piece of advise "do what you like", beacuse starting a business is hard enough already, and learning new skills is even more difficult... FACEPALM

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[luniac]

Wishing you the best of luck. It sounds like you've already validated your idea before building something which is more than most.

We have used Unity3D extensively over the past several years for very graphically-intense simulations and it handles them well. However, are you sure Unity is the best platform on which to build this app? Unity most often used for games and other very visual programs. It may be a bit "heavy" for what you are trying to do. (I don't have an answer or a better recommendation, just food for thought.)

If you do end up using Unity3D, my recommendation is phpMyAdmin to manage your back-end database. We've used this with no problems and it's fairly intuitive to use.

ohhh i know what phpMyAdmin is, yea i used it in CPANEL before for my websites.

 

[luniac]

AHA!!! got a piece of the puzzle.
App companies use cloud storage solutions for their data.
snapchat uses App Engine - Build Scalable Web & Mobile Backends in Any Language | Google Cloud Platform
airbnb uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Cloud Computing Services

I was originally thinking in terms of my inmotionhosting account and managing an sql database on that, and talking to a representative to see what my limitations are.

Anyways back to researching.

EDIT:
uh oh after more researching this cloud computing seems like potentially problematic long term.
Snap has financially handcuffed itself to Google Cloud (Updated)

very interesting stuff,
wow it looks like the question of what kind of backend database infrastructure to use is a BIG question with many answers and approaches. So im not a total idiot then for feeling overwhelmed lol

 

[PatrickWho]

Hey, sounds like you're making great progress.

I'll offer a few tidbits that could help you get your backend up and running.

10,000-foot View:

There are various ways to store data:

1. MySQL / MariaDB (essentially identical)
2. NoSQL like MongoDB, Firebase

PhpMyAdmin is simply a tool that allows you to look at your MySQL / MariaDB database.

AWS, DigitalOcean and other providers like this offer a variety of storage options, among other things. They'd the services available to host your db on the internet, but they aren't the only options.

Simple Options:

1. AirTable (easiest to use for simple cases)
2. WordPress self hosted installation (probably better for complicated queries to the database, and a good option if you're already familiar with WordPress code)

To keep things as simple as possible, you may be best served using something like AirTable - Airtable: Organize anything you can imagine

AirTable gives you a simple way to setup a database with the tables (think spreadsheet sheets) with the columns you want, along with relations between different tables.

WordPress also has a plugin that allows you to interact with the database from another front end program. The plugin is the REST API v2.

REST API:

With AirTable and WordPress, you get great documentation showing you how to connect to your table via http requests (GET requests, POST requests, etc.) in the form of a REST API.

If you're comfortable consuming a REST API, you'll be fine.

For example, you can have two tables - one for Users and another for Posts

Each entry in the Posts table would have a user_id stored in a 'user_id' column, which would serve to associate that particular post with the user that created it.

To get this data, your front end code may make a GET request to a URL like this "http://the_air_table_url/your_table_id/posts" - this may return a full list of posts. On the other hand, sending a POST request to that same URL would create a post.

1. GET http.../posts/ --> retrieve a list of posts
2. POST http.../posts/ --> create a new post
3. PUT / PATCH http.../posts/{post_id} --> update a post with a particular ID
4. DELETE http.../posts/{post_id} --> delete post with that particular ID

AWS, DigitalOcean, etc. require that you know quite a bit about managing servers. You skip all of that with AirTable and WordPress.

Does that help at all, or did I just make things more confusing?

EDIT:

Found another back end as a service provider: Backand Pricing - Build scalable serverless applications with AWS Lambda

Looks like you'd get by on the free plan for now. I haven't used them before, though, so I'm not sure if the service will require some knowledge of backend architecture.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[luniac]

Hey, sounds like you're making great progress.

I'll offer a few tidbits that could help you get your backend up and running.

10,000-foot View:

There are various ways to store data:

1. MySQL / MariaDB (essentially identical)
2. NoSQL like MongoDB, Firebase

PhpMyAdmin is simply a tool that allows you to look at your MySQL / MariaDB database.

AWS, DigitalOcean and other providers like this offer a variety of storage options, among other things. They'd the services available to host your db on the internet, but they aren't the only options.

Simple Options:

1. AirTable (easiest to use for simple cases)
2. WordPress self hosted installation (probably better for complicated queries to the database, and a good option if you're already familiar with WordPress code)

To keep things as simple as possible, you may be best served using something like AirTable - Airtable: Organize anything you can imagine

AirTable gives you a simple way to setup a database with the tables (think spreadsheet sheets) with the columns you want, along with relations between different tables.

WordPress also has a plugin that allows you to interact with the database from another front end program. The plugin is the REST API v2.

REST API:

With AirTable and WordPress, you get great documentation showing you how to connect to your table via http requests (GET requests, POST requests, etc.) in the form of a REST API.

If you're comfortable consuming a REST API, you'll be fine.

For example, you can have two tables - one for Users and another for Posts

Each entry in the Posts table would have a user_id stored in a 'user_id' column, which would serve to associate that particular post with the user that created it.

To get this data, your front end code may make a GET request to a URL like this "http://the_air_table_url/your_table_id/posts" - this may return a full list of posts. On the other hand, sending a POST request to that same URL would create a post.

1. GET http.../posts/ --> retrieve a list of posts
2. POST http.../posts/ --> create a new post
3. PUT / PATCH http.../posts/{post_id} --> update a post with a particular ID
4. DELETE http.../posts/{post_id} --> delete post with that particular ID

AWS, DigitalOcean, etc. require that you know quite a bit about managing servers. You skip all of that with AirTable and WordPress.

Does that help at all, or did I just make things more confusing?

EDIT:

Found another back end as a service provider: Backand Pricing - Build scalable serverless applications with AWS Lambda

Looks like you'd get by on the free plan for now. I haven't used them before, though, so I'm not sure if the service will require some knowledge of backend architecture.

Thanks a lot for chiming in man, i appreciate it. Every bit's helpful.
Most of what you said actually echoes the research i've done yesterday.
The HTTP requests, SQL vs NoSQL, i read all about that stuff.
Also checked out things like Node.JS, but not sure how it differentiates from REST api

I did find Digital Ocean, and their developer centric API seems cool.
I checkd out google cloud and microsoft azure and dont understand WTF is going on with their pricing, theres so many variables there im not even gonna bother, i assume amazon is the same but ima take a quick look at it.

Digital Ocean also has competition lol, called UpCloud.
This AirTable you mentioned i will definitely check out today, the way you describe it it sounds very straightforward and user friendly.
the Backand Pricing one looks interesting too, with the free tier to try out.

I'm mainly looking for ease of use and very clear pricing.
I checked out VPS Servers for inMotionHosting, which is the hosting i use for my 2 websites, but the basic VPS Server is 40 a month just to start out, so that's not an option.

Since i'm developing this app in Unity, I'd prefer to find a solution that's as much integrated with it as possible and i may have found one:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/user-tools/network/database-control-pro-68574
Its called Database Control Pro, and they even have a custom visual based server language for interacting with their DB.
I've asked the owner several questions on the Unity forums already and the responses have been very nice and helpful, so ill be keeping an eye on them. They're also updating their entire infrastructure to be more easily scalable and should be done in September.

But yea research is ongoing!

A big question i do have is, how do you query a database based on x mile radius?
Lets say i have a user who registered as a worker on the app. The user wants to find local job postings within 5 mile radius of his address, so the database will use his address as the center point, but how complex would it be to query all job post addresses in a 5 mile radius?
I know this has to be standard functionality, google maps uses it all the time, i just don't know how to do it yet.

 

[luniac]

lmao ok now im more confused...
So Backand
Backand Features - Build scalable serverless applications with AWS Lambda
is actually built using Amazon Cloud...

so they're like a "middle man"? providing an API to interact with the cloud on a higher level?
I mean thats good this is the kind of simplification im lookin for


Watching this now to learn more bout REST API

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llpr5924N7E

 

[PatrickWho]

I've only ever gotten so far as to play with their database model utility, which is a gui allowing you to quickly setup database schema.

I'm not surprised they use AWS, but when using Back& you won't have to worry about that. That's their problem. You just have to set up Back& and connect with their API to access the database you setup.

This stuff ain't easy at first, but it's worth learning

Geo Radius Search

After a quick Google it looks like folks use latitude, longitude and some math to run the query. So it looks like you'll need to get user locations and abstract the long / lat from there to store in the db.

I've never used Unity before, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone has already solved this problem for you. Giving you a simple way to store long/lot and then query the same. Does Unity have a package manager that allows you to easily add in other packages to your project?

Off the top of my head I'd say the query would be grabbing all users with a long/lat within a certain range from the origin. I'd have to look up how to calculate the range you'd need to check.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[luniac]

I've only ever gotten so far as to play with their database model utility, which is a gui allowing you to quickly setup database schema.

I'm not surprised they use AWS, but when using Back& you won't have to worry about that. That's their problem. You just have to set up Back& and connect with their API to access the database you setup.

This stuff ain't easy at first, but it's worth learning

Geo Radius Search

After a quick Google it looks like folks use latitude, longitude and some math to run the query. So it looks like you'll need to get user locations and abstract the long / lat from there to store in the db.

I've never used Unity before, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone has already solved this problem for you. Giving you a simple way to store long/lot and then query the same. Does Unity have a package manager that allows you to easily add in other packages to your project?

Off the top of my head I'd say the query would be grabbing all users with a long/lat within a certain range from the origin. I'd have to look up how to calculate the range you'd need to check.

yes unity is meant to be used with packages extensively.

I asked a friend who learned database programmin recently how he'd do the radius query. he uses the stack mongodb,nodejs,express and he says theres a premade function for those kinds of queries, just need to specify some parameters.

 

[PatrickWho]

The easiest way is probably to use Google's map API to provide auto-suggest for the addresses. Once you choose an address from the provided suggestions, you'll get the required long / lat from Google's API. From there just store those values in the DB and when you run a query check against those values.

Wiring up the maps API is fairly straightforward, and the address auto-suggest is a nice feature to have.

The stack your friend learned is a popular one. Node and Express in particular are a couple of my favorite tools. Would they be able to put together a REST API for you to use?

You could host the API on Digital Ocean or on something like Heroku.

 

[luniac]

The easiest way is probably to use Google's map API to provide auto-suggest for the addresses. Once you choose an address from the provided suggestions, you'll get the required long / lat from Google's API. From there just store those values in the DB and when you run a query check against those values.

Wiring up the maps API is fairly straightforward, and the address auto-suggest is a nice feature to have.

The stack your friend learned is a popular one. Node and Express in particular are a couple of my favorite tools. Would they be able to put together a REST API for you to use?

You could host the API on Digital Ocean or on something like Heroku.

There is a google maps plugin for unity for sure, the autosuggest is a great idea cause I was wondering how id make sure the user address input is correct.

I'm still not sure how i will connect from Unity to a database, i know there's a plugin that features Socket.IO which seems to revolve around node.js.
I didn't know you can host custom API on digital ocean, im still researching all this stuff.

Thanks for google maps autosuggest tip.
I wonder if the google maps api has some kind of geo radius functions as well that i can run on a database table of addresses to compare to a input address.

It's definitely in my plans to allow people to show registered businesses on a google map inside the app.

UPDATE:
so it is possible to import data into google maps
Importing Data into Maps | Google Maps JavaScript API | Google Developers

When i develop my app ill make sure that when users register into the database, their address will be autocorrected to be compatible with google maps.

Then when i need to search stuff by radius, ill import the database table data into google maps and use google's API to do a radius search.


UPDATE2:
after many more hours of research, looks like Amazon Web Services has a unity3d integration which makes it a strong candidate for my choice unless i find more convenient backend service.
amazon does have a free tier which is cool, i can test everything before releasing.

microsoft azure also has some kind of unity integration.

google aint got nothin so thats off the table.

UPDATE3:
ive been checking out Airtable in depth and it seems really cool, but i don't see any straightforward way to authenticate users.
How am i supposed to log in a user as a Worker or Business... and tie their account to specific database entries.
Right now in airtable u can only authenticate for the whole thing, no way to discern who's who. Maybe there's a way to do this im not sure.

UPDATE4:
after 20 hours of research i wanna blow my brains out, i F*ckin hate backend development and servers and databases and stacks and all that nerdy neckbeard bullshit thats going to be outdated in no time...
goddamn it!!! lol

UPDATE5:
ok time for bed,
azure is probably out, can't get enough good info.
AWS is strong candidate, there a unity plugin for sale and it supports unity directly anyway.
Still got another 1 or 2 closer to unity plugins to check out.
gonna still check out Digital Ocean API to see how complex things are.

might even come back to airtable, perhaps version 1.0 of the app will be so barebones ill just have the job posting feature. But maybe not.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickWho]

There is a google maps plugin for unity for sure, the autosuggest is a great idea cause I was wondering how id make sure the user address input is correct.

Yup, though sometimes Google suggested addresses won't have all the info you need, so when you start to get things really going, you'll need to find some incomplete addresses and work out an error-handling strategy.

I'm still not sure how i will connect from Unity to a database, i know there's a plugin that features Socket.IO which seems to revolve around node.js.
I didn't know you can host custom API on digital ocean, im still researching all this stuff.

An API is just a website / application you set up at some domain (ie: http://my_custom_domain.com). Then from your front end you make HTTP requests to certain routes. Routes are just addresses:

* http://my_custom_domain.com/users
* http://my_custom_domain.com/accounts

etc.

This is why Back& is so cool. It gives you that API url without needing to wire something up on your own servers. So you really just have to worry about hosting your front end.

So what you need to find is an HTTP library / package for Unity. Something that allows you to make HTTP requests to 3rd party sites.

As for Socket.IO, it is meant for real time event handling, like a chat program. From what I understand about your app, you won't need that.

Thanks for google maps autosuggest tip.
I wonder if the google maps api has some kind of geo radius functions as well that i can run on a database table of addresses to compare to a input address.

What you're describing here is just another way of doing what I already suggested. It would be far more efficient, though, to do as I suggested.

This seems to be the SQL query that allows you to do it:

mySQL longitude and latitude query for other rows within x mile radius

It's definitely in my plans to allow people to show registered businesses on a google map inside the app.

UPDATE:
so it is possible to import data into google maps
Importing Data into Maps | Google Maps JavaScript API | Google Developers

When i develop my app ill make sure that when users register into the database, their address will be autocorrected to be compatible with google maps.

Then when i need to search stuff by radius, ill import the database table data into google maps and use google's API to do a radius search.

I'm afraid I don't know the maps API well enough to comment. It would be great if Google took care of the search for you, but this would only work if somehow Google would store a custom map for you. That is, you create a map, stored by Google, of your users, and then allow Google to return the search results.

This may be possible.

UPDATE2:
after many more hours of research, looks like Amazon Web Services has a unity3d integration which makes it a strong candidate for my choice unless i find more convenient backend service.
amazon does have a free tier which is cool, i can test everything before releasing.

microsoft azure also has some kind of unity integration.

google aint got nothin so thats off the table.

UPDATE3:
ive been checking out Airtable in depth and it seems really cool, but i don't see any straightforward way to authenticate users.
How am i supposed to log in a user as a Worker or Business... and tie their account to specific database entries.
Right now in airtable u can only authenticate for the whole thing, no way to discern who's who. Maybe there's a way to do this im not sure.

Right, I'm sorry. As far as I know, AirTable does not have User authentication.

UPDATE4:
after 20 hours of research i wanna blow my brains out, i F*ckin hate backend development and servers and databases and stacks and all that nerdy neckbeard bullshit thats going to be outdated in no time...
goddamn it!!! lol

UPDATE5:
ok time for bed,
azure is probably out, can't get enough good info.
AWS is strong candidate, there a unity plugin for sale and it supports unity directly anyway.
Still got another 1 or 2 closer to unity plugins to check out.
gonna still check out Digital Ocean API to see how complex things are.

might even come back to airtable, perhaps version 1.0 of the app will be so barebones ill just have the job posting feature. But maybe not.

AWS, DigitalOcean, Azure... those are all larger platforms on which you will host your DB. They are big services and encompass much more than what you're looking for.

So yes, you can choose to host your DB with them, but with that comes all the headache of managing your own server, which is what makes Back& such an attractive option.

Want another option?

I just remembered a really great way to get an API up and running that includes the following:

- Create user accounts.
- Users choose a subscription / membership tier.
- Payment integration with Stripe and/or Braintree
- Password resets.
- Auto Renewal.

The backend boilerplate for all the above is called Laravel Spark.

Laravel is a popular PHP backend and the Spark setup is maintained by the creator of Laravel.

It's a starter kit of sorts that gives you all that commonly required stuff right out of the box.

I'm using it myself to setup an app I'm working on.

How's your HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript?

In the learning forums I put out a poll to see who would be interested in learning enough code to get their own apps up and running. Your case here is precisely why I want to do it.

 

[PatrickWho]

Pfft. Would a simple directory built on WordPress work?

DirectoryEngine WordPress Directory Theme | Directory Software
35+ Best Directory WordPress Themes 2017 - aThemes

That's essentially what you have in mind, right? A listing of service providers that users can search and hire.

 

[luniac]

Well regarding maps, i definitely know i can get this done now, unity has a plugin and i talked to the author and i can import addresses and render markers on the map. So this is settled.

Regarding wordpress, naw its not jsut directory.
The app will allow users to register as a business or a worker, with their own type of profiles, and businesses can post jobs that workers can apply to as well as have a public profile as well. It all makes sense in the context of the particular industry im targeting.

Regarding How's your HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript?
I hate them all!!! except pseudo javascript which is what unity calls UnityScript lol... so yea i know nothing and never wanna know lol



I'm still reesarching some unity databse plugins, but if non of that pans out ima go with AWS unity plugin.
I don't wanan deal with REST API.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickWho]

Well regarding maps, i definitely know i can get this done now, unity has a plugin and i talked to the author and i can import addresses and render markers on the map. So this is settled.

Regarding wordpress, naw its not jsut directory.
The app will allow users to register as a business or a worker, with their own type of profiles, and businesses can post jobs that workers can apply to as well as have a public profile as well. It all makes sense in the context of the particular industry im targeting.

Regarding How's your HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript?
I hate them all!!! except pseudo javascript which is what unity calls UnityScript lol... so yea i know nothing and never wanna know lol



I'm still reesarching some unity databse plugins, but if non of that pans out ima go with AWS unity plugin.
I don't wanan deal with REST API.

Sounds good. Looking forward to another update when you get things up and running. )

 

[luniac]

Google Firebase is looking very interesting, depending on how their database works.
They have unity integration!
I'll be studying Firebase extensively tomorrow, i generally like google's stuff.

Either way, gettin closer to picking a solution. but its 443am... time for bed

 

[MiguelHammond10]

Thanks a lot for chiming in man, i appreciate it. Every bit's helpful.
Most of what you said actually echoes the research i've done yesterday.
The HTTP requests, SQL vs NoSQL, i read all about that stuff.
Also checked out things like Node.JS, but not sure how it differentiates from REST api

I did find Digital Ocean, and their developer centric API seems cool.
I checkd out google cloud and microsoft azure and dont understand WTF is going on with their pricing, theres so many variables there im not even gonna bother, i assume amazon is the same but ima take a quick look at it.

Digital Ocean also has competition lol, called UpCloud.
This AirTable you mentioned i will definitely check out today, the way you describe it it sounds very straightforward and user friendly.
the Backand Pricing one looks interesting too, with the free tier to try out.

I'm mainly looking for ease of use and very clear pricing.
I checked out VPS Servers for inMotionHosting, which is the hosting i use for my 2 websites, but the basic VPS Server is 40 a month just to start out, so that's not an option.

Since i'm developing this app in Unity, I'd prefer to find a solution that's as much integrated with it as possible and i may have found one:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/user-tools/network/database-control-pro-68574
Its called Database Control Pro, and they even have a custom visual based server language for interacting with their DB.
I've asked the owner several questions on the Unity forums already and the responses have been very nice and helpful, so ill be keeping an eye on them. They're also updating their entire infrastructure to be more easily scalable and should be done in September.

But yea research is ongoing!

A big question i do have is, how do you query a database based on x mile radius?
Lets say i have a user who registered as a worker on the app. The user wants to find local job postings within 5 mile radius of his address, so the database will use his address as the center point, but how complex would it be to query all job post addresses in a 5 mile radius?
I know this has to be standard functionality, google maps uses it all the time, i just don't know how to do it yet.

Good luck Man keep it up,i have seen that you have done a lot of research and learned a lot that is good,wish you all the very best.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickWho]

Yeah Firebase is a cool solution. It is a NoSQL database, so you don't get relationships between tables like you do with MySQL. I haven't done much with NoSQL, so perhaps someone else on the forum with more experience there would be able to weigh in.

From where I stand, your app would be best suited for a relational database like MySQL, but again, someone more familiar with something like Firebase may have another opinion.

But all that being said, you are just trying to test the waters, so things can always be redone if things start to take off.

 

[luniac]

Yeah Firebase is a cool solution. It is a NoSQL database, so you don't get relationships between tables like you do with MySQL. I haven't done much with NoSQL, so perhaps someone else on the forum with more experience there would be able to weigh in.

From where I stand, your app would be best suited for a relational database like MySQL, but again, someone more familiar with something like Firebase may have another opinion.

But all that being said, you are just trying to test the waters, so things can always be redone if things start to take off.

Yea that's exactly what i was thinking regarding NoSQL. Today I will look into it, hopefully it's doable, fingers crossed!


lol i like the sound of "I'm Luniac, Full Stack Dev, Unity Frontend, Firebase Backend, 100% C# code"

 

[luniac]

Ahhhh and so it begins... the eternal struggle against bugs and issues...
Couldn't even hit the ground running, installed new unity version, imported the example firebase project, tried to build... apk signer failure...

Debugged by creating an empty project... build failed again... Great it's not even firebase related lol...
now uninstalling my entire android sdk and downloading android studio and hopefully itll work this time.

This is why i F*ckin hate software development.
This is gonna be an adventure!

_____________________
UPDATE 3 hours later...

well finally after reinstalling some things and bunch of googling, surprise surprise(well not to me), it was Unity3D's software bug with latest android SDK versions, google(bless their hearts) removed a command that unity uses in the builder... and that broke everything.

This is why i hate the software world, its like dealing with a black box. you poke and prod it until u get enough info to solve the problem(while spending hours sitting in front of a screen...)
In the real world you'd literally see the problem with ur eyes, but in the virtual world good luck with that.

Well at least tomorrow i can start to actually play around with firebase...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[luniac]

small(big) update:
100% gonna use firebase for my backend.
I was researching firebase cloud functions which is code that runs on the firebase server, and it's NodeJS javascript coding. I have a friend who leanred some of that and I'm trying to recruit him to the project. Hopefully he helps out.
There's a plugin called GeoFire that uses firebase servers, it's a location query type plugin, hopefully i can use it for the app. Will do more in depth research on this stuff later on.

I also got accepted into the Self Employment Assistance Program!
So i keep gettin my unemployment benefits(1200 a month) without having to look for employment! this is a HUGE relief for me.
The program requirements state i gotta work on my business full time, get 20 hours of business training, have 2 meetings with a business counselor of my choice, and create business plan and fill out some forms and report my progress on the business.
That's infinitely better than having applying to 3 jobs a week.

At this moment i feel the most free i've ever felt in my adult life.
If at the very least i don't get this app out the door, my fastlane account should be deleted and i should be excommunicated from here lol

 

[PatrickWho]

Glad to hear you got into that assistance program.

Software development can be frustrating, but it's a great skill to have for obvious reasons.

Hopefully your friend is willing to jump into helping your sort out the rest of the app.

 

[luniac]

Killin 2 birds with one stone here, was searching for online classes to satisfy the mandatory 20 hours of training and stumbled across what may be the first Unity+Firebase course in the world haha.
Unity: Working with Google Firebase

It's been VERY educational, i'm talkin night and day difference.
Mostly because it gives me the coding framework for how to integrate firebase with unity.
Creating singletons for authentication and database.
Using delegate, event to separate the backend from the frontend.

I'm familiar with these design patterns but since i'm not experienced software developer i never really learned good use cases.
This is great!

There's even a section explaining how firebase's NoSQL works.
So it's basically JSON Node Trees.
It is technically possible to put all data under 1 node, for example:
node = "players"
subnodes "Unique User IDs" these represent each registered account
"profile pics"
"email"
"skills"
...
...
...

However it's not recommended to structure a NoSQL db in this manner because every time you access the db, it will return the entire JSON structure with all that info, and you'll have to sift through it to get the info you want, and it's just a big pile of crap at that point performance and sanity wise.

The recommended approach is called "denormalizing your data" which makes the db "flat".

So you may have one node as before
node = "players"
subnode "Unique User IDs"
and then have just the bare essentials like "email", "profile pic", "password"

Then i may have a separate top level node
node = "skills"
subnode "Unique User IDs"
"main skills"
"secondary skills"

So while there may be redundant calls, supposedly this approach overall scales very well and stays high performance.
Anyway back to the training lol

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickWho]

Awesome update!

Your quest has inspired me to learn more about NoSQL, too. I'm currently digging into MongoDB.

Keep it up!

 

[luniac]

Awesome update!

Your quest has inspired me to learn more about NoSQL, too. I'm currently digging into MongoDB.

Keep it up!

nice, good luck man.

 

[luniac]

Wow i never knew it was so easy to get free in person advice about accounting and legal issues for your business.
As part of the self employment assistance program i am required to have at least 2 meetings with a business advisor of my choice.
Since i don't need help really on the technical side of things, I decided to meet with someone specializing in legal and accounting stuff just to educate myself on these things more.

The program recommended checking out SCORE | Free Small Business Advice

I entered what type of stuff i need help with and that's it! just go an email from a Score Business Mentor who's gonna help me with legal and accounting at the SCORE manhattan location.

well that was simple...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[luniac]

Had meeting with business counselor today, was pretty cool.
He had 30+ years in the textile industry for woman's clothing, had an S-corp with his brother.
Eventually sold his company when china started taking over manufacturing.

Since he wasn't specialized in apps, he just gave me some general advice like S-corp vs LLC, and referred me to a colleague who does specialize in web based business. I'll set up a meeting with the guy to ask about any legal gotchas regarding private database content, and get some general advice.

did you guys know that if u set up an LLC in New York state, it's mandatory to publicly announce ur company's existence by buying at least 2 newspaper listings every week for 6 weeks in a row? talk about a sneaky gotcha that costs thousands!

Also gonna meet up again in a month to satisfy the self employment program requirements.
I wanna ask him some more about his business too, I really admire people who succeed in brick and mortar type businesses, real physical world type business.
Even though I deal in the virtual world, I've come to hate it over time. I wanna be in the real world one day lol! Wanna touch the product i'm selling with my own 2 hands!

So my todo for now is, take 20 hours worth of online classes, submit initial form to labour department.
I wanna get all this out of the way so I can focus on the app.


P.S.
on a complete side tangent, I'm also gonna do a side project with a graphic designer friend of mine.
It's gonna be childrens games specifically targeted towards black demographic.
Normally I know multitasking is a fastlane no no, BUT with my experience, it's trivial for me to make a kid's game. The hard part would be getting artwork for the game, and that's my friends department.

Signing off.

 

[luniac]

small update:
doing my training hours, took several courses on databases.
Now I'm taking a JavaScript course, then a NodeJS course cause my friend flaked on me so I have to implement Firebase cloud functions myself to get the GeoFire plugin working.
I spoke to someone in firebase google groups and at this time they're not planning to create a C# Geofire that works with unity, but they told me to send a feature request which I did immediately.

The person brought up the idea of converting the Java Geofire to C# Geofire but that just may be a programmer line i'm not willing to cross, a rabbit hole I'm not diving into.

Id rather learn NodeJS and create some hackish cloud functions to do GeoFire Queries instead of learning how to properly convert sophisticated code from Java to C#.

In other news though, whoever did the math of geolocation is a genius.
So every location is a latitude, longditude and magical algrorithm takes the 2 values and generates 1 value called a geohash.
geohashes are magical because the more prefix characters match between 2 geohashes, the closer the location are in real life.
Geohashes are the KEYS in the database, and your location(ie registered user businesses) are the pairs inside the relevant keys.
Querying is super fast now because you just input a geohash and find(based on radius) the right geohash keys based on similarity.
GENIUS!!! now that's some goddamn innovation!