Introduction to cat spectrum
Zhongda Cat Book is an open source small program project that assists in the rescue of stray cats on campus . The server is developed using Laf Cloud .
The main functions of Cat Book include: cat information registration, photo sharing, taking photos to identify cats, announcements and messages, etc. The original intention of the project was to solve a common question in the campus cat exchange group: asking who the cat is.
If you organize the information and photos of cats into the mini program, you can filter "dormitory building" and "orange cat" and quickly locate the data cards of several kittens. By comparing the photo with the cat in front of you, you can basically determine its name and see its related information.
In the spring of 2019, driven by this simple demand, Maopu was launched . With the help of enthusiastic cat friends and dedicated volunteer service teams , cat information is becoming increasingly abundant. In the past four years, the functions have gradually increased, and more and more students have participated in development and information maintenance.
In fact, Maopu has become the spiritual sustenance of many students , giving us more motivation to update and maintain it. A classmate adopted a cat named "Qian Mian". In the year after Qian Mian fell ill and passed away, he would leave messages and upload old photos to Qian Mian on the cat book every two days.
Original link: https://forum.laf.run/d/1012
At the beginning of 2021, the project code was changed to open source, a deployment tutorial was produced, and it was gradually promoted to dozens of universities or relief organizations . In the cat records of these universities, not only kittens and puppies are registered, but also various magical campus animals such as turtles and swans.
Currently, no programming knowledge is required , and it only takes about half a day to complete the entire deployment + launch process of the Maopu project .
Features
Cat information maintenance
In response to the needs of cats , our solution is to maintain cat information and photos. On Cat Book, the administrator is responsible for maintaining accurate information; ordinary users can upload recent photos of cats , which will be reviewed by the administrator and then displayed in the cat album .
Around this core function, we have also developed many small background management functions so that administrators do not need to touch the code, including:
- Photo batch review and thumbnail generation
- Campus/Region/Design Management
- Cat-Cat Relationship Management
- Administrator level management
Take photos to identify cats
As the number of cats increases, the efficiency of manual screening is slightly insufficient. We have implemented a set of image cat recognition models based on yolov5+CNN , allowing users to identify who the cat is by taking a photo.
Currently, the cat recognition function is an optional feature of Maopu deployment, and its code has also been open source. It will be trained using cat photos in the cat catalog, and requires more patience to follow the tutorial for deployment. We are also exploring the deployment of artificial intelligence models to the Laf platform to reduce the difficulty and cost of deployment. We hope that friends with similar ideas can communicate together.
Announcements, sticky notes, and feedback
In terms of communicating with users, Maopu has implemented three channels:
- Bulletin Board: Posted by the administrator (Maopu → User)
- Post-it wall: posted by users and reviewed by administrators (user → Maomao)
- Information feedback: sent by the user, and replied by the administrator in the background (user → Maopu)
Cat relationships, badges and lists
In order to add more playability, Maopu has also added several interesting features:
- Cat-cat relationship: Register the relationship between cats. In addition to blood relationships, there are also various complicated emotional disputes.
- Badge system: Users can obtain badges by logging in/watching ads and give them to their beloved cats.
- List: including the list of the number of photos taken by users, the list of photo likes, and the list of cat badge collection
Why Laf
First acquaintance
In the fall of 2022, affected by the pricing revision of WeChat cloud development, the deployment cost of a single Maopu has skyrocketed from a few cents per month to more than 50 yuan. At that time, there were nearly a hundred members in the Maopu deployment exchange group, and dozens of universities’ Maopu were running online. The high costs have made it difficult for the already stretched homeless rescue groups to bear , and the closure of small programs has gradually increased.
To deal with this situation, the Maopu team optimized from two aspects:
- Optimize API calls and reduce cloud development usage costs
- Research suitable migration platforms
At this time, the Laf platform , which was in the early stages of development , came into our view:
- Low learning cost: familiar ServerLess cloud development model, function + data table + storage function combination
- Open source guarantee: The open source source code library supports private deployment, which can not only serve as a backup, but also meet the needs of own servers.
- No cold start: Laf’s memory-resident solution naturally has no cold start problem and can be called very quickly.
- Clear and reasonable billing: from the initial free trial to today's flexible configuration charges, the deployment cost is acceptable
- Friendly open source community: If you have any questions, you can report them to the forum and WeChat group, and community members or official teams will help solve them.
Migration process
In Laf 0.8 version, we started to migrate the Maopu project, which can be roughly divided into three stages:
- The mini-program is compatible with two sets of cloud development at the same time, uses private deployment Laf, and goes online for testing.
- Update the preview version of Release, organize the migration documents, and test it in a small area
- After Laf 1.0 is launched, the project documentation will be completely rewritten and completely switched to the Laf platform.
Throughout the entire migration process, friends from the Laf team actively provided technical support , solved demand issues in a timely manner, and helped the Maopu team migrate smoothly in a short time. The Maopu team compiled the migration process into migration tutorials , data import and data export tools, and helped dozens of universities complete the migration of small programs .
cooperate
In the summer of 2023, we discussed multiple ideas from the technical and implementation aspects of the college voucher program with our friends from the Laf team. Finally, we tried it on a small scale in a simple way, namely the "Maopu College Voucher Plan" .
Specifically, the Laf team generated a batch of vouchers and handed them over to the Maopu team for distribution. The Maopu team accepts applications from mini-program operators from various universities and will issue vouchers upon approval, which are enough to use the lowest configuration Laf instance for free.
During the application process, we set several small thresholds: 10+ cats on the cat book and 100+ users. We believe that for teams that really want to run mini programs, these conditions can be easily met, while those who are just trying to get started will be daunted.
In just 2 months, students from 14 universities across the country have completed their applications , allowing more students to learn about the Laf platform in practice. Among them, most operators do not understand coding at all and have also completed project deployment , which shows that the Laf platform is very easy to use.
| Applets | from college |
|---|---|
| HUT Cat World | Hunan Industry** |
| Meow Illustrated Book | Hunan** |
| Laohe Mountain Cat Illustrated Book | Zhejiang** |
| Xiaoli Cat Book | Guangzhou University of Technology** |
| Maomao Northern Worker | Norinco** |
| Dahuang’s Mangosteen Shop | South China Normal University** |
| Wei meow cat spectrum | Shandong** |
| ZUEL barking illustrated book | Zhongnan Economics and Law** |
| Fire big cat spectrum | Rocket Force Engineering** |
| SUFE's lucky charm | Shanghai Finance** |
| Jida Meow House | Shenzhen Technology** |
| Nam Hwa Cat Book | Nanhua** |
| Adult Cat Family Tree | Chengdu Normal University** |
| Jiaoyi Cat House Illustrated Book | Shanghai Jiao Tong University Medicine** |
Conclusion
Next, the Maopu project will continue to be based on the Laf cloud development platform and add more practical and interesting functions. Interested partners are welcome to join the development and provide your ideas and creativity.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank so many students for their strong support for the Cat Book Project, the Laf platform and the stray animals on campus. We look forward to more college students using cat reading to contribute to the cause of stray animal rescue.
As a small advertisement, please pay attention to the public account of " Duxing Volunteer Service Team ". This is a small rescue team jointly organized by students from many universities in Guangdong. It is mainly responsible for cat rescue and information registration on campus, and will also share interesting cats. Cat stories. In the more than four years since its establishment, it has effectively controlled the number of stray cats on campus through sterilization and other means, and has found new homes for many cats.
