Chef Guru, GIF Wars and DevisDeck will certainly impress you with their relevance and functionality

We already shared some of the organizational details surrounding Astea Solutions’ software internship program in 2020. But what is even more interesting is actually seeing the end results of our interns’ work.

They were divided into 3 teams and developed 3 proprietary web applications. They built upon the knowledge they acquired in the first part of the internship: on the dev side they used Node.js, React, and various third party services; on the QA side they tested the applications rigorously and implemented multiple end-to-end tests; and on the DevOps side they set up everything necessary for the products to run smoothly. So without further ado…

Get ready for Chef Guru – a great platform to put in order those Christmas recipes

Chef Guru is a web application for browsing and sharing recipes. Users can add their own recipes as well as search for inspiration through the available collections. There is an option to rate the recipes through a 5-star rating system and to “heart” them as favorites. The app also offers an inventory for products – users can add the ingredients they have on hand and allocate them into three categories: Fridge, Freezer and Pantry.

One of the app’s essential features is its interactive cooking mode. When a user clicks on “Cook Now”, he is first presented with a list of ingredients for the recipe. Once the user checks the list, he can continue to the next section – Instructions. The user is then presented with the steps in sequential order with some later instructions only getting unlocked after the user is ready with their pre-requirements.

Three dev interns and one QA intern took part in the development process of Chef Guru. For the future of the app they are planning to improve filtering and to add more functionalities to the inventory so that the app suggests recipes according to the available ingredients in the inventory.

GIF battles on a next level – the Astea interns’ custom platform for GIF Wars

Back in spring this year we tested out a new online team building activity – GIF Battle Game on Trello. We undoubtedly had fun but we also thought that the game’s mechanics could be potentially improved. Now, thanks to a team of four dev interns and one QA intern, Astea Solutions has its own platform for GIF Wars. ????

The app’s interface is pleasant and easy to use. On the homepage we can see the Ongoing wars but there is also a section for the archived ones. Users can choose to join the active battles either as spectators or as warriors. The different rounds are collapsible in order to avoid cluttering the view and the GIFs are displayed in a grid accompanied by heart buttons for voting.

The interns faced different challenges related to the front end and UI tasks but thanks to their persistent effort and research they found appropriate solutions for GIFs preview and integration with Giphy. The team successfully handled even the redesign challenge as they had to modify the look and feel of the app in just 4 days.

And, finally, DevisDeck – the Astea interns’ elegant solution to managing our inventory of devices

Three dev interns and one QA intern were involved in the making of DevisDeck – a web application that allows users to track, find and book devices from the office. The app addresses a real need in our company and thanks to its broader capabilities and functionalities it will ultimately replace Astea’s current way of managing the inventory of devices.

On the homepage DevisDeck displays all of the company’s devices in a pleasant grid accompanied by status, picture and additional details. At the top there are multiple filters for browsing by type, OS and status of the device. The user can add, edit and retire devices, mark them as taken or returned and request an OS update for a device. The app has “Find a lost device” functionality and also offers an option to add the company’s teams.

At first, the interns were challenged by the necessary third party integrations with Amazon SES and Slack API but thanks to the good teamwork they successfully implemented email and Slack notifications on top of the real time notifications in the app. The team felt encouraged to have open discussions and to brainstorm ideas which resulted in a well structured work process very close to a real project. Their plans for DevisDeck include a responsive design and additional features such as device activity tracking and user profile preview.

But how did the Astea interns build 3 web applications in just 2 months?

Well, this would not have been possible without the help of our two DevOps interns and… you guessed it – the Astea mentors. The DevOps interns supported their colleagues in all three projects as they were taking care of the environments and the automated processes. They also worked on the optimization of their own processes as they set up a system for centralized collection of logs. They created Slack notifications for the ease of their colleagues and put a lot of effort into studying GitLab CI/CD and Kubernetes. They also delved into some cutting edge technology such as Grafana Loki.

On the other hand, the Astea mentors were always ready to answer questions of any sort. They did their best to recreate all the steps of the software development process in order to prepare the interns for their future roles. Over 80% of the participants in the program received a job offer and chose to continue their career at Astea Solutions. The passion our mentors put into the interns’ training certainly pays off and we are grateful for their efforts in making Astea’s software internship such a thorough program. ☺️

Check out the latest news about our internship program