Discord Univ Calendars: A Smart Bot for University Schedules

📌 Project Overview

University schedules can be a hassle to check, often requiring multiple steps through clunky online portals. Discord Univ Calendars solves this problem by bringing schedules directly to students via Discord.

This bot allows students from MMI (Multimedia and Internet Professions) and RT (Networks and Telecommunications) at IUT of Rouen (Elbeuf campus) to quickly access their weekly schedules without leaving their favorite communication platform. Instead of manually looking up their timetables, they can simply use a slash command and instantly retrieve the relevant information.

By integrating real-time updates and ensuring the data remains accurate, this project significantly improves accessibility for students, reducing the friction of schedule management.

📌 TODO: Screenshot of the bot responding to a schedule request in Discord.

🔧 Key Features

1. Instant access to schedules: Retrieve the current week’s schedule or request a specific date.
2. Slash command integration: Simple and efficient interaction via Discord’s built-in command system.
3. Automatic updates: Ensures that the schedules remain up-to-date without manual intervention.
4. Optimized for student needs: Designed with ease of use in mind to provide a frictionless experience.
5. Robust error handling: Prevents outdated or incorrect information from being displayed.

📌 TODO: List of available commands in Discord with example usages.

💻 Technologies Used

Building a reliable bot required a solid tech stack to ensure efficiency and responsiveness:

1. Node.js - The core language for developing the bot.
2. Discord.js - A powerful library for interacting with Discord’s API.
3. Prisma - ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) for managing database queries efficiently.
4. Automated fetch system - Ensures data is updated dynamically.

📌 TODO: Diagram illustrating the bot’s architecture (data flow from the university’s schedule system to Discord).

⚡ Challenges & Solutions

🔹 Ensuring Reliable Data Fetching

University schedules can change frequently, and outdated information could cause confusion. To handle this, I implemented an automated data retrieval system that regularly fetches and updates schedules in the database. This guarantees that users always receive the most accurate information available.

🔹 User-Friendly Interaction

Since many students are not familiar with bot commands, I focused on making interactions as intuitive as possible. Using slash commands, students can retrieve their schedules with minimal effort. Commands like /schedule and /schedule week X make navigation easy and quick.

🔹 Performance Optimization

Given that many students might request their schedules simultaneously, the bot needed to be efficient and scalable. Using Prisma for database queries improved performance by allowing quick lookups, while caching mechanisms reduced redundant API calls.

📌 TODO: Example of a user interacting with the bot in Discord.

📈 Impact & Lessons Learned

Developing Discord Univ Calendars provided valuable insights into API development, database management, and third-party service integration. More importantly, it reinforced the importance of building tools tailored to user needs.

🚀 What I Learned:

1. How to efficiently fetch and process external data for real-time updates.
2. The importance of UX design in command-line interfaces, ensuring ease of use.
3. Optimizing API requests to balance performance and reliability.

This project successfully demonstrated how automation can streamline everyday tasks, making important information more accessible and user-friendly.

📌 TODO: A flowchart showing how the bot processes schedule requests.

🎯 Conclusion

Discord Univ Calendars is a practical solution to a common student problem, proving that small automations can significantly enhance productivity and accessibility. By leveraging Discord’s ecosystem, the bot seamlessly integrates into student life, making it a useful tool for anyone in need of quick schedule access.