Announcing Tabsmitten and Using Parse Server
Now that I have a real deal app on the App Store, I'm confident in announcing a project, no matter how far off it may be. Disclaimer: I might abandon this idea because I find something more rewarding to do, and I'm not sure of the timetable.
The majority of college kids and 20-somethings are short on money, and they expect to be paid back for things they pay for. I for one expect my friend to buy the pizza the next time we are together to make up for the 3 rounds of beer I paid for last weekend. We just can't afford to pay for everything and not get paid back.
Tabsmitten addresses this issue. Manage your current balance, connect with friends, and gain karma for paying back your friends. This idea has been addressed before in a very similar fashion, but Tabsmitten gives me a place to develop solutions that solve the challenges of building a social network.
Because I'm not a back-end guru, I'm building a thick iOS client and am using a private Parse instance to manage my data. Like I mentioned in the last post, I'll be losing quite a bit of money, but I'm sure it is going to help me in the long run.
Parse is so easy to set up. I'm using Digital Ocean to host the web service and mLab to manage the Mongo database. Already I'm able to create entities using the Parse Dashboard and am in the process of developing a data layer.
I'm very excited about this project. Hopefully the turnaround can be much faster than Moodsmitten, but I am also reading a lot of books and documentation, and am watching Ray Wenderlich video tutorials to improve on my skills as much as possible. The reading and studying might set me back a bit, but it is well worth it.
Did you like this post? Are you smitten for Soundsmitten? Click the "Tweet" link below to retweet my post. It keeps my livelihood afloat, brightens my day, and I'm always eternally grateful. Thanks for your help!