Maseeh College students, in collaboration with a local performing non-profit arts venue, Portland Playhouse, undertook a coding challenge that evolved into WonderTix. As anyone who has worked with ticketing software in the nonprofit world is aware, they are clunky and difficult to navigate, and the team has made great strides in simplifying and creating a better user experience for backend ticket sellers.
This project which began as a Computer Science Senior Capstone Project with multiple teams, is a comprehensive ticketing, donor management, and database system developed specifically for the theater. Under the leadership of senior instructor Bruce Irvin, the project’s development has been continued by capstone teams over several terms. It has been divided thus far into three teams which consist of ticketing, deployment, and donor management. The ticketing team handled the aspect of the project which supports the Portland Playhouse customers and their user experience. The deployment team handled the development of the WonderTix programming, while the donor Management Team handled the support of Portland Playhouse day-to-day business activities.
Completion of the WonderTix project is targeted for March 2024, with subsequent teams aiming for further improvements to the project. The summer and fall teams were led by three students assigned as leads for each team, Henry Kaus (Ticketing Team), Johnny Nguyen (Donor Management Team), and Jaeger Tang (Deployment Team). Each team also included other students who contributed to both the front-end and backend engineering of the project.
This application consists of three primary containers, the database, the server, and the client. The database is powered by SQL, and the server, functioning as the backend of this application, was developed using Typescript in a NodeJS environment. The client container was created using the ReactJS framework and styled using the TailwindCSS library. For payment and checkout processes, the third party service Stripe was integrated to allow for secure payment processing without the need for storage or management of sensitive customer information.
According to the students, the WonderTix project “enabled us to learn new environments and tools and also to collaborate on projects in the workforce.” The students were praised for their efforts and progress; Brian Weaver, Portland Playhouse’s Artistic Director, commented “I am very pleased with the progress the students made so far.” As in so many development projects, the students overcame challenges and deprogrammed bugs during the development of WonderTix, and their progress thus far is a testament to their hard work and commitment.
WonderTix is just one of many projects that typifies the ongoing dedication of Maseeh College to student development, work experience, and entrepreneurship. Students, faculty, and staff continue to build on the school’s reputation for excellence and accessibility. The current teams of project WonderTix have established a strong foundation, and their successors build upon this success and work to bring the project to fruition.