So, we intended to write “Open Event” to allow event/conference organisers to be able to have their own website, and android app without having to code or build them. Our GSoC project is not yet complete, and we are adding new feartures everyday, but it is at a stage where, if you have a small event to host in your school or something, you can take a shot at it, to get versed with how the server works and how the app and website is generated.

The “Open Event” system consists of a server (code), where organisers make an event database, and add list and details of all speakers, sessions, sponsors, locations etc.

We currently have a dev and staging server set up, where organisers can create an account and try out the interface. Neither of these servers are production servers, and their databases keep getting reset when we change code, so use them only to learn how the server dashboard works for now, not to host your final event data.

Next, the organisers might want to have a webapp (code). The webapp is just a responsive, mobile friendly website that shows the details of the events in a easily readable format for the attendees. To create your own webapp, you need to fork this repository and adjust the parameters of the config.js to represent your app.

var config = {
"title": "OpenEvent", // Title of your event.

“apiBaseGetUrl”: “http://open-event.herokuapp.com/get/api/v1/”, // Base URL of the orga-server from where data comes.

“eventId”: “3”, // The event-id of your event
.
“use_testApi”: false // Must set to false, or else uses testcase json files.
};

After changing the config.js, you can deploy the webapp on any webserver that supports hosting static files (example bitballoon.com), or you can host it via github by creating a gh-pages branch, like the example app.

Next, the organisers, can create and deploy an android app (code) for their event. There are some automated configuration options still left to be manipulated, but organisers need to change the BASE_URL variable, in the Urls.java file to point to the data server, and change the package name to their liking in build.gradle. The app can be built using the command ./gradlew build . We have a FDroid flavour, that uses Open Street Maps instead of Google Maps and is completely and purely FOSS.