Eliot's Weekly Challenge is a competition for developers in the run-up to our annual conference, MongoDB World. Test out your skills and win prizes every week. Find out more here.
If you have been checking out our challenges for the last five weeks, then you have been exploring, querying, and visualizing a variety of data on MongoDB. In this final week, you will combine all the knowledge you gained in the previous challenges and unleash your MongoDB skills and creativity to create a Stitch Rube Goldberg machine.
Who doesn’t love a Rube Goldberg machine? Push a button and a wonderfully illogical set of actions assembled into a logical sequence of events accomplishes some otherwise trivial task.Â
Still not sure what a Rube Goldberg machine is? Follow this link to see the Rube Goldberg machine by OK Go. Good news, your machine doesn't have to cover you in paint.
We will be judging based on the most creative use of MongoDB Stitch triggers, functions, service integrations, and multiple APIs - the more the better. Bonus points for hilarity! The first ten submissions will receive a $25 prize. The main prize for week 6 is:
• $6000
• $1000 MongoDB Atlas Credits
• Custom MongoDB shoes, which you’ll be able to retrieve at MongoDB World.
• A free Conference Pass to MongoDB World
• Opportunity to demonstrate your Rube Goldberg Machine during MongoDB World Builder’s Fest Stitch TrackÂ
Jonathan! Congratulations Jonathan, we will send you an email with all the details about your prize.
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And here are the names of all the others who submitted answers. We will notify you by email about your $25 prize!
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Jesus, Piyush, and Tajay!Â
This week for Eliot’s Challenge, we’re inviting you to explore the amazing world of service integrations with MongoDB Stitch. We challenge you to build a MongoDB Stitch Rube Goldberg machine. Let your imagination run wild as you envision a hilariously complex sequence of API-enabled services all connected using MongoDB Stitch in order to perform the simplest of tasks.
Just like a real Rube Goldberg machine would see one action trigger a thing that triggers another thing which triggers another thing to eventually complete an action.... well, we want you to put together Stitch Triggers, Functions, API services and anything else you can connect to on the internet to create a digital version of a Rube Goldberg machine.
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With Stitch’s HTTP service integration, you can call ANY service that is available over HTTP from a Stitch function. Tens of thousands of APIs out there allow you to create, read, update, or delete basically ANYTHING. So just imagine the possibilities of what you can do!
Stitch together a wacky web of triggers, functions, webhooks, services, and APIs to honk your car horn or send a weather update. The combination and number of APIs you use for your machine are literally limitless. You can even use APIs for whatever hardware you may have already at your disposal.
Here are a few fun examples:
Need some fun API inspiration? Check out RapidAPI’s nifty list of the current 50 most popular APIs here or Programmable Web.
Razzle dazzle us with your API adroitness to impress your neighbors, win some killer MongoDB World Swag, collect $$ cash prizes $$, and bask in your eternal Stitch API glory!Â
You have until Monday, June 10th, at 5:00pm (Eastern Daylight Time) to submit your machine.
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If you have completed some of the previous challenges, you can reuse your existing MongoDB Atlas cluster and Stitch application.
If this is your first challenge (or you would like to start anew), the prerequisite steps are:
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1. Set up an Atlas Account using a free tier. Instructions can be found here.
2. Set up a Stitch Application for the cluster created in the previous step. Instructions can be found here or follow this video tutorial.
3. Unleash your imagination!
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Here are a few handy how-to video tutorials to get you going:
• How-to video tutorial to create a Stitch HTTP service.
• How-to video tutorial to create an HTTP GET to an external API, store API keys, and use the payload response to enrich your MongoDB data.
Once you have finished with your Stitch Rube Goldberg machine, it’s time to show it off!
Create a video walk-through of your API masterpiece. The winning entry will have their video published online. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even show it off for you at MongoDB World!
Additionally, share your code by exporting your new Rube Goldberg Stitch application and pushing it (zipped or unzipped) to a GitHub repository. You can export the app directly from the Stitch UI. Click Settings on the left-hand menu. Then click the Export tab and the Export App button. Â
• If you stored your API keys as Secrets, they are hidden from users and not included in exported applications.
Finally, create a diagram of your Rube Goldberg Stitch application. You can create the diagram using whatever tools you like (hand sketching is fine...as long as it’s legible!). Enter by clicking the green "submit" button above or below and fill out the form.Â
You can find helpful information in the MongoDB documentation for:
• Stitch Triggers and Trigger Snippets
• Stitch Functions
• How-to video tutorial to create a Stitch HTTP service
• How-to video tutorial to create an HTTP GET to an external API
• Setting up a Stitch integration with Twilio
• Setting up a Stitch integration with AWS
• Integrating Stitch with an HTTP service and corresponding webhooks
For an overview, as well as live interactive examples for all things Stitch, you can refer to our documentation or this MongoDB Stitch video tutorial (triggers and functions start at 17:50).
Stitch Blog links:
Build a Slack App in 10 Minutes with MongoDB Stitch
Replace Tedious Coding with MongoDB Stitch and Public APIs
Data Enrichment with MongoDB Stitch
Creating a Data Enabled API in 10 Minutes with MongoDB Stitch
Eliot's Weekly MongoDB World Challenge is a competition for developers in the run up to MongoDB's global conference. You can win up to $6,000!
