whizfile.com

whizfile.com

is the first “proper” website that I made. It is the first time I used react, the first time I used a full stack framework, the first time I used TypeScript, and the first time I used external services like S3. What whizfile was inspired by was a popular file transfer service, wetransfer.com

. I used this service a lot and eventually decided attempt to make something similar. Like a boy fascinated by planes making a paper aircraft I set out to make a funtional copy of this website.

And a functional copy I made. I even added features that I thought a file transfer service should have like being able to set the maximum number of downloads or views a transfer can receive, being able to decide when a transfer expires down to the minute, and allowing the receiver to delete a transfer if the sender deems it appropriate. It wasn't bloated, and it remained simple and useful ever since its inception.

Even a year later, whizfile perseveres and I...am proud. It doesn't have a bad rep, either. It saw a lot of use with some of my not so academically inclined friends who liked sharing class assignments with each other—the privacy features really helped this use case—and, more importantly, it still stands strong. Today, you can go to whizfile, upload a file and get a transfer link. Send that transfer link to someone. Have said person download your transfer, and have it all work.

Whizfile is not user friendly, ugly, and was not designed using the ”correct“ design principles. However, it is true to who I am, an engineer not an artist—and even though it is horrid, it works.