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Server Service (Back-End)
In order to ensure data stays persistent, we made use of a PHP server as a back-end service to store the user's information which is sent from the device. We implemented an asynchronous thread on the client which frequently sends information, such as the user's location, to the server which would then proceed to push the information to all other devices. This was used in order to enable multiple users to keep track of one another's location. Our notifications service also used the same system in order to send notifications about an action one user performs to another (i.e. Alice creates an Event and invites Bob. The event information is pushed from Alice's Device to the Server. The Server stores the information and generates a notification to Bob. Bob's device will pull the updated notifications and visually displays it to Bob.). Several PHP scripts were written in order to perform actions such as Creating an Event, Proposing a Change to an Event, Sending a Friend Request, Deleting a Friend, etc. Data-related storage were stored as .txt files on the server, and were prefixed with the user's MIT ID. For example, the list of Charlie's friends would be charlie_friends.txt.