Plaudit! is a workplace application that focuses on encouraging a supportive and uplifting work environment through positive peer feedback and recognition. Co-workers are enabled to commend one another for their hard work with company-wide visibility.
While the Plaudit! app has a bright and cheery theme by design, styling can be customized based on client preference or corporate branding.
At its basic level, Plaudit provides organizations with an internal directory of members/employees. The Plaudit app includes an autocompleting search bar to find users, and displays the photo and contact information for each user on their individual profile page. The app is designed to be simple and easy to use, and is fully mobile responsive to make it just as handy when you need to contact a coworker while on the move.
Plaudit enhances this helpful 'directory' functionality by incorporating an award system that allows users to publically recognize their co-workers' helpful actions and achievements. The most recent awards given by any user in the organization will be displayed in a feed on the app's home page, and awards given to (or by) a specific individual will also be visible on that user's profile page.
We recognize that each organization is unique, so we designed Plaudit to be highly flexible for customization. The information on each user's profile page can be tailored to include extra information (currently we feature a 'fun fact' about each user), and the color scheme can be altered to match an organization's image and brand. Additionally, the current 'badge types' we include are very simple, but an organization can choose to use different icons and/or declare meanings for each type of award - for example, a company may choose to include awards at different tiers (a small award for cleaning a supply closet, a giant award for working 36 hours straight to finish a massive product launch), or simply categorize the awards to fit their own unique style (a 'great idea' award, an 'extra effort' award, a 'helpfulness' award, etc).
Plaudit users may only 'register' for the site once they exist in the organization/company database - this will seed basic information about each user, including their name, email, work phone number, position, and supervisor. A new user registers by creating a password and including any extra information that will be displayed on their profile page (currently we incorporate a 'fun fact' about the user). The encrypted password and extra information is then stored in a second database.
Once a user logs in, they see a feed of all the awards recently given to other members of their organization. From here, they can access their own profile page, search for the profile page of any other user, or give a badge to another user.
When giving a badge, a user can choose to award a co-worker a number of different award types (currently represented by a crown, a trophy, a star, and a lightbulb) and include a description for the award. This will add a post about the award to the main feed (which is seen by every user when they log in) as well as the profile page of the user who received the award. A notification email is also sent to both the user and their direct supervisor so that a recognition does not go unnoticed.
- mySQL
- Heroku
- JawsDB MySQL
- bcrypt
- body-parser
- connect-ensure-login
- cookie-parser
- express-session
- nodemailer
- passport
- random-string
- sequelize
- session-store
- CSS
- Handlebars
- HTML
- GreenSock
- Google Fonts
- Javascript
- jQuery
- Materialize
Log in as a guest user
username: plauditapp@gmail.com password: guest
Clone or download the repository to your desktop
Users will need Google Chrome web browser for testing the application and Sublime (or another tool) for viewing/editing the code. Users will also need to install the npm packages (provided in the package.json and listed above under "Technologies Used") via the terminal and use MySQL Workbench in order to establish a database.
Download or clone the repository to your desktop. Create a database in MySQL Workbench entitled "star_power." Use said database and seed it with the seeds from the document SQL_credit or add your own seeds into SQL_credit and enter them into the MySQL database. Add your MySQL Workbench password to the config.json.
Navigate to the file folder that holds the Plaudit! files in the terminal. Type "npm i --s". Then run the server: "node server.js"
From there, navigate to localhost:8080 in your browser to open up the landing page of the website. Create an account based on one of the established seeds and log in. Once logged in, you will be taken to the index.handlebars page were the main activity feed is located. You will also see a nav bar at the top of the page which includes both a search bar in the right hand corner and a hamburger menu in the left.
One can search for other users using the search bar. It will take the user to that person's profile page. The hamburger menu, once clicked, will trigger a side nav to slide out from the left side of the page. Users can navigate to the main activity feed, their profile page, the give a badge page, or the frequently asked questions page. Users can also log out from the side nav.
Profile pages display the profile owner's name, headshot, work role, phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile link. Below this is an activity feed specific to the profile owner
The Give a Badge page offers a brief form in which the user can enter the name of a recipient, select one of four colorful badges, and enter a message for their recipient. Clicking the submit button will push the badge to the activity feed, the recipient and the user's activity feeds, and take the user to main activity feed.
The FAQ page lists commonly asked questions and their corresponding answers in a collapsible format.
The log out function in the side nav returns the user to the landing page.
Please refer to the repository files for coding samples; The sections are commented to indicate their functionality.
If you have any questions about how or why something works, feel free to contact a member of the Project Team for details!
- Michelle Didier meeshyd
- Susan Heiniger SusanArend
- Adam McNerney NorthNern
- Rebecca Palmore rpalmore
- Yilin Xu yilinxu
Hat tip for help, inspiration, and patience to:
- Steven Daoud
- Nate Johnson
- Ethan Romba
- Chris Mendoza
- Liz Wylie
- Kurt Schlueter