Can this be used for production use?

[pbernasconi]

@danasilver

Hi, I'm a midd student keen on making an iPhone app using this API. I was wondering if I could use this API and it's enpoints for a production-type app for all midd kids to use?

I know that heroku has a limit for its free account. If not, could you recommend a service like heroku, and could I use your sourcecode (what's the official license?) on that service?

[danasilver]

Hey @pbernasconi, I'm glad you're making a native app. That was my plan when I wrote the API but I didn't have the iOS skills. I had some bigger ideas (voting on items, emails/texts when an item you like is on the menu) that would require a more extensive backend, and if that's something you'd be interested in incorporating I'd be up for writing that backend. Just an idea.

Anyway, yes you can use the API for production use. It's now officially licensed under the MIT License and you can host it yourself anywhere that can run Node.js. You can also use the API I provide. There's no hard limit, but it won't perform well under a heavy load. Why don't you keep using my API while developing the app and see how it does. I can scale it up if there's an emergency. In the long run, for heavy traffic you'll have to pay for hosting somewhere. If you don't end up deciding to host it yourself, maybe we can work out something where you contribute to hosting on Heroku.

[pbernasconi]

@danasilver awesome!

I'm building the app with a group of technologies: Cordova + Ionic Framework + ngCordova (my own invention 😄 ) + AngularJS. It allows me to use HTML and Javascript to make native app in xcode + objective C, and makes development time very short and simple.

I'm done writing the app now, and you can view it at : https://github.com/pbernasconi/midd-dining. For now, it will be purely a one-way interactive app for simple viewing of todays menu, but I like your suggests a lot! Maybe v2.0 can include a login using 0Auth or @middlebury.edu login, with favorites and push notifications.

I'm in the process of getting a developers license, and will hopefully have the app submitted by this weekend for approval. I will keep you updated, and if you would like to test out the app yourself, let me know and I can provide some easy instructions to get you up and running