If you’ve read about my first big project, Natur Digital, you already have a sense of the kind of app this is. If not, here’s a quick summary - it’s a mobile application that combines geospatial content and a lexicon, allowing users to explore maps, Points of Interest (POIs), areas, routes and events. Hello Vajdaság is built on the same foundation, but with a slightly different purpose and for a different kind of user.

While Natur Digital was created for hikers and nature lovers exploring Bavaria, Hello Vajdaság was designed with tourists and locals in Vojvodina, Serbia in mind. The main focus here isn’t just on locations and landmarks, but on events - concerts, festivals, exhibitions, sports matches and other cultural happenings that make a place vibrant and worth visiting.

The idea was to give people whether they’re visiting for the first time or live nearby a simple, elegant way to discover what’s going on around them. It helps tourists find not only must-see spots but also timely, unique experiences happening in their area. In a way, it’s like having a local guide in your pocket, pointing out not just where to go, but when.

While Natur Digital was tailored for nature lovers and hikers exploring the Bavarian countryside, Hello Vajdaság was designed for tourists and locals in Vojvodina, Serbia. The goal was to give users a simple, engaging way to discover what's happening around them not just where to go, but when.

Here, the focus wasn't on static content like trails or landmarks, but on live events that change daily. Whether it’s a concert, a cultural festival, a sports match or a community gathering, Hello Vajdaság aimed to keep users informed in real time.

Because the app dealt with time-sensitive information, one of our main technical challenges was ensuring accurate syncing. We had to make sure outdated or expired events were automatically removed, while new ones appeared instantly across both the mobile app and the backend interface.

This meant building a system that could handle dynamic updates efficiently and reliably a challenge that demanded careful handling of data caching, background refresh logic and real-time content rendering.

The core tech stack remained the same as in Natur Digital: React Native for the mobile app, a backend powered by Node.js and Drupal, MongoDB for data storage and a familiar infrastructure to support it all.

However, for the search functionality, we tried something new. Instead of Elasticsearch - which we used in Natur Digital, we decided to implement Typesense, a faster and more lightweight search engine that was better suited for handling frequently updated, event-based data. This decision resulted in noticeably quicker search performance and a smoother user experience, especially when filtering and browsing through live event listings.

For me, Hello Vajdaság was less of a standalone project and more of a natural extension of the work I began with Natur Digital. It allowed me to take everything I had learned from geospatial content rendering to mobile optimization and apply it in a different context, with new challenges and new solutions.

It wasn't just another project, it was a chance to refine my skills, explore new tools and expand my understanding of how to build fast, reliable and real-time applications for everyday users.