# Build Foodmood: a matching app in Adalo

Follow the original Foodmood build from friend codes through swipe sessions, profile details, list states, and session IDs.

- Canonical URL: https://adalocado.com/projects/foodmood
- Verification: Verified from current public evidence
- Topic: Project Builds
- Skill level: Intermediate
- Last reviewed: 2026-08-12
- Index status: index-now

## Short answer

This project preserves the five-part 2021 Foodmood series as one coherent learning path. Treat the videos as architectural history and verify every editor-specific step before using it in a current app.

Foodmood is most useful as a complete data-flow case study: create a session, join participants, store each decision, and resolve a match without mixing sessions. Current relationship documentation and recent community guidance support that schema, while the historical screens and complete multi-user sequence remain explicitly unreproduced.

## Intended outcome

A structured view of how several Adalo concepts combine in one feature-rich app.

## Requirements

- Understanding of collections and relationships
- Comfort with lists and actions
- A test Adalo project

## Step by step

1. **Unique friend codes**

   Create a lightweight way for users to find and connect with one another.

2. **Matching swipe sessions**

   Model a shared session and compare participants’ choices.

3. **Profile detail screen**

   Pass a selected user record and present related profile data.

4. **List states**

   Represent loading, empty, active, and completed results clearly.

5. **Session IDs**

   Use a shared identifier to keep records from the same matching attempt together.

## Why it works

- The project’s durable lesson is orchestration: identity, relationships, temporary sessions, and view states work together.
- The exact 2021 UI is not presented as current.

## Data model

| Collection | Properties | Relationships |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sessions | Code, Status, Created Date | Has many participants and choices |
| Participants | Joined Date | Joins a user to one session |
| Choices | Decision, Created Date | Belongs to a participant, session, and option |

## Common failures

### A chapter’s interface no longer matches

Use the chapter to understand the data flow, then map the idea to current Adalo controls and documentation.

## Testing checklist

- [ ] Two participants in the same session can make independent saved choices.
- [ ] A match appears only when the session rules establish a shared choice.
- [ ] Records from separate sessions never leak into one another.
- [ ] Friend identity is unique
- [ ] Session records do not leak between groups
- [ ] Profile navigation passes the intended user
- [ ] Empty and completed states are distinct

## Limitations

- The current sources corroborate the relationship architecture, but the five-part build has not been rerun end to end.

## Community evidence

### [From Structure to Connections](https://forum.adalo.com/t/from-structure-to-connections-setting-up-effective-relationships-in-adalo/59952)

The discussion supports intermediary collections with two one-to-many relationships and properties on the relationship record, matching the participant and choice architecture. Boundary: The evidence validates the data-model pattern, not Foodmood’s full multi-user matching sequence or race-condition behavior.

## Sources

- [Adalo relationships](https://help.adalo.com/database/relationships)
- [Adalo database overview](https://help.adalo.com/database)
- [Adalo join collections](https://help.adalo.com/database/relationships/adalo-join-collections)
- [Adalo forum: relationship structure](https://forum.adalo.com/t/from-structure-to-connections-setting-up-effective-relationships-in-adalo/59952)

Markdown version: https://adalocado.com/projects/foodmood.md