Operation On Track

Operation On Track is a site that allows military service members to create and track checklists for key events in the military, such as moving or leaving active duty. I created this project with a team of three other veterans during April 2021 at a veterans Hackathon hosted by FallIn.

Tech Used

Project Motivation

This project is a tailored resource created specifically for service members and veterans to help them automatically track the steps of key career events. Due to the existance of so many resources, key events, and references, it is easy for service members and veterans to be late for or miss key timelines for significant career events (separation, PCS (moving), etc.). By allowing users to create template checklists to interactively track their key events and share with others, we can ensure our service members and veterans don’t miss out.

Technical Challenges

Serverless Functions and MongoDB

One of our team’s goals was to get a site live and working by the end of the Hackathon. We went with Next.js API routes (serverless functions) so we could create CRUD API routes without the need for hosting our own dedicated Node.js server. We hosted the whole Next.js app on Vercel and it was relatively easy getting our production site live. We used a Free Cluster with MongoDB Atlas, which our API routes hit for data persistence. Overall, this allowed us to have persistent data for the app without lots of configuration and without spending any money (used free tiers of Vercel and MongoDB Atlas).

Libraries – Next-Auth and Formik

With only a relatively short period of time to code, we were eager to use libraries that could add functionality to our site quickly. I used two popular libraries for the first time that I would use again: Next-Auth and Formik. The Next-Auth library allowed us to add OAuth social media login and authentication for our site without lots of code. After having done OAuth authentication flows without a library in the past, Next-Auth was perfect, allowing us to add social media authentication with ease. Formik made the form validation and error handling much easier, without being too opinionated.

Summary

I had a great time working on this project, learning with others, and teaching other military service members and veterans. I learned a lot and am eager to use what I learned on future projects!