Inspiration
The rising cost of groceries motivated us to create a tool that provides transparency in recipe costs, empowering users to make informed decisions about what they cook.
What it does
Our tool allows users to manually enter ingredients or submit an image of a recipe's ingredients. We can access a vast database of products and their current prices through Walmart. The Gemini API processes the ingredient list in the image or the user's input and we then match it with products at Walmart, listing three potential items that can be bought per ingredient. Once the user selects the desired items to the cart, it then calculates the total estimated cost of the recipe.
How we built it
Front-End: The user interface was built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We focused on creating a clean and intuitive interface for easy ingredient input. Back-End: The back-end logic and communication with APIs were handled using Python and Flask. Walmart Integration: We utilized the SerpAPI to retrieve product information and pricing. Deployment: We deployed the website on Render and used GoDaddy to register the domain name.
Challenges we ran into
Our main challenge we ran into was getting permission to use API's that would give us current prices of the ingredients listed. We learned that retail stores like Walmart and Target do not like to give access to pricing API for fear of people creating price comparison apps, and they are very against web scraping, so we had to work around that. We had to change our idea around a bunch because of the challenges we faced.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Having working access to Walmart's data even though it is not the direct API to Walmart, but it gets the current prices. Creating a functional application in the limited time we had despite some major setbacks.
What we learned
Through this project, we've learned valuable lessons about working with third-party APIs, handling and processing data, and the complexities of building a practical application that interacts with real-world e-commerce data. We've gained experience in software development processes, problem-solving, and potentially new technologies. We gained insights into the variations of recipe ingredients and grocery pricing.
What's next for Broke Appétit
We would like to include other retail stores to show prices between stores although that would be a huge challenge. We would like to implement location-based pricing and availability and also to potentially turn it from a website into a mobile app.
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