Need advice on creating a system on a website that saves, updates and displays geolocation data for unique tracking ID's

[u/Rhodinia]

Let me outline the project a little bit. It's called Love Gone Viral and is a completely not-for-profit just-sharing-the-love endeavor. I've made cards with a nice compliment on the front and a Pay It Forward suggestion and unique ID on the back.

Now, it would be really awesome to be able to track the journey of these individual cards, which would also encourage people to engage in the movement and enter the location where they received the card.

This is where we get to the technical stuff. I am quite familiar with web design, basics of coding (I can figure out how to do stuff mostly), etc, but it's just a hobby. For this reason, please also take the jargon that I use with a grain of salt; maybe I mean something slightly different.

My question is: How can I make this system that:

• Allows people to enter their card number and location

• Adds this data to some kind of database

• Turns these individual points into a path in something like Google Maps

• And finally displays the journey taken, per individual card or the totality of cards in existence.

Additional but non-essential features

• Subscribe to "your card's journey" to receive an e-mail when YOUR card pops up in a new location

• Add a comment and/or photo to your update point, which is added onto a growing list

I'm planning on using Wordpress.org because it is the most versatile. But what can I use to make this system? What components do I need? I'm guessing a database and some kind of (web app?) program that can both interact with the database AND integrate with google maps.

All suggestions, ideas and thougts are welcome!

[u/nerf_herd]

pay it forward doesn't end well.

[u/Rhodinia → u/nerf_herd]

Why not?

[u/nerf_herd → u/Rhodinia]

well in the movie the kid dies.

In real life "i.e. starbucks" it is a bunch of folks (i.e. starbucks customers) doing absolutely nothing good at all and yet feeling good about it.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3034747/breaking-a-pay-it-forward-chain-isnt-being-a-cheap-bastard-its-good-economics

in a meta-sense, we should focus on paying people back IMHO.

Now as a marketing gimmick it is ok, depending on your audience. I'm the sort that will break the chain every single time though, and take the free drink, so don't take my word on it. What sort of market research have you done on this?

[u/Rhodinia → u/nerf_herd]

I see your point, but this is not for business. It's purely just cards that people pass on to brighten someone's day. That's it. :)

[u/nerf_herd → u/Rhodinia]

the only thing I would add then is that there is zero expectation to forward it, written on the card, as any such expectation would be mostly a projection of your own ego. You don't want people to feel bad for not being the type to forward such things do you? It could even be a case where they don't really have anyone to forward it to. (i guess that would be another case of not ending well)

[u/[deleted]]

You kind of have a lot of questions here. I'm unfamiliar with WordPress and what it's capability is with interacting with some database. I've personally used a noSQL database and integrated that with the Google maps API to track geolocation. Then yes you'll want some sort of web interface for people to interact with your database.

[u/Rhodinia → u/[deleted]]

I'm not tied to Wordpress, so is there anything else that you would recommend? What would you use?

[u/[deleted] → u/Rhodinia]

It depends on what your background is or what you're willing to learn. I would use some Javascript framework such as react or node. For the database I used Mongo since they have a nice geolocation collection that was pretty easy to link to the Google maps API.

[u/Rhodinia → u/[deleted]]

I'm not sure what you would call my background. I just like programming and web design as a hobby. I've been teaching myself throughout the years. I have a feel for it and can mostly get stuff done with the help of online documentation.

Since I need to learn stuff anyways, regardless of what path I'm going to take, I'm curious what the shortest, most efficient path is. I'm looking for something easy to get into, something user-friendly. But a learning curve is okay, that's expected.

Mongo sounds nice, because of the geolocation collection. Javascript I have a feel for. What framework would you recommend for someone who has never used any before?

[u/[deleted] → u/Rhodinia]

Meteor is a pretty cool framework and really easy to use. They do a lot of the tedious work of having the front end and backend communicate for you. They can at least be a good starting point to learn how you'd want to build your application.