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Git repo

https://github.com/nhan0504/El-Pollo-Loco

Usage

This project requires NodeJS version 17 or later to run. You can install it from https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager.

  1. Add a file called .env with the following contents in the /backend directory.
  DB_HOST=
  DB_USER=
  DB_PASSWORD=
  DB_NAME=

  SESSION_SECRET=super_secret_string

  //Change this if the frontend is running on a different url
  REQUEST_ORIGIN_URL=http://localhost:3001

  //For testing purpose
  TESTUSER=<your account username>
  TESTPASS=<your account password>

Note that the first four fields will have to be filled with private information (you can ask one of the developers for that info). In the /frontend directory, make sure that the contents of next.config.mjs are

/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
  env: {
    //Change this if backend is running on a different port
    BACKEND_URL: 'http://localhost:3000',
  },
};

export default nextConfig;
  1. Open a new terminal window, cd into /backend, and run npm install && npm start to install dependencies and start the backend server. The default port it will be running on is 3000.
  2. Open a new terminal window, cd into /frontend and run npm install && npm start to install dependencies and start the frontend client. The default port it will be running on is 3000. However, in package.json we have set the port to 3001 because port 300 is used by backend
  3. Go to http://localhost:3001/discover to access the webpage.

API Documentation

Unless otherwise specified, routes return status 200 or 201 on success, and 500 if an internal error is encountered. Routes flagged with "(Authenticated)" will return status 401 if the client's browser does not provide a valid authentication cookie (name=poll_cookie).

Authentication

Code located in backend/routes/auth.js.

Create User Account

  POST /auth/signup
Parameter Type Description
username string Required. Display name.
password string Required. Plaintext password.
fname string Required. Real first name.
lname string Required. Real last name.
email string Required. Email address.

Returns status 409 if a user with the same username or email already exists.

Sign Into User Account

  POST /auth/login/
Parameter Type Description
username string Required. Username of account.
password string Required. Plaintext password.

Returns status 401 if the password is invaild, or if the user does not exist. Client is provided with a cookie expiring 24 hours after issuing (name=poll_cookie).

Log Out of User Account (Authenticated)

  POST /auth/logout/

Deauthenticates cookie provided by client browser.

Check If Signed In

  GET /auth/is_authenticated

Returns status 401 if client is not logged in upon request.

Get Profile Information (Authenticated)

  GET /auth/profile/

Returns status 401 if client is not logged in upon request. Returns the following object.

{
  username: string,
  email: string,
  user_id: int
}

User Following

Code located in backend/routes/users.js.

Get Followers List Of User

  GET /users/:user_id/followers/

Returns the following object.

{
  followers: string[],
  total_followers: number
}
Parameter Type Description
:user_id int Required. ID of account.

Get Following List Of User

  GET /users/:user_id/following/

Returns the following object.

{
  following: string[],
  total_followers: number
}
Parameter Type Description
:user_id int Required. ID of account.

Follow A User (Authenticated)

  GET /users/:user_id/follow/

Returns status 404 if the client is already following the specified user. Updates client profile to follow the user specified by :user_id.

Parameter Type Description
:user_id int Required. ID of account to follow.

Unfollow A User (Authenticated)

  GET /users/:user_id/unfollow/

Returns status 404 if the client is not following the specified user prior to the request. Updates client profile to unfollow the user specified by :user_id.

Parameter Type Description
:user_id int Required. ID of account to unfollow.

Poll Tags

Code located in backend/routes/tags.js.

Follow A Tag (Authenticated)

  GET /tags/follow/:tag_name/

Returns status 404 if the specified tag does not exist. Updates client profile to follow the tag specified by :tag_name.

Parameter Type Description
:tag_name string Required. Name of tag to follow.

Unfollow A Tag (Authenticated)

  GET /tags/unfollow/:tag_name/

Returns status 404 if the specified tag does not exist or client is not following the tag. Updates client profile to unfollow the tag specified by :tag_name.

Parameter Type Description
:tag_name string Required. Name of tag to unfollow.

Get Tag Following List (Authenticated)

  GET /tags/

Returns status 404 if the client is not following any tags. Returns string[].

Polls

Code located in backend/routes/polls.

Get Poll By ID

  GET /polls/:poll_id

Returns status 404 if the specified poll does not exist. Returns the following object.

{
  poll_id: int,
  user_id: int,
  title: string,
  created_at: timestamp,
  options: { option_id: int, option_text: string }[],
  tags: { tag_id: int, tag_name: string }[]
}
Parameter Type Description
:poll_id int Required. ID of poll.

Post Poll (Authenticated)

  POST /polls/

Creates a poll attached to the client's account.

Parameter Type Description
title string Required. Title of poll.
options string[] Required. List of options.
tags string[] Required. List of tags.

Delete Poll (Authenticated)

  DELETE /polls/:poll_id

Returns status 404 if the specified poll does not exist prior to the request. Deletes the specified poll.

Parameter Type Description
:poll_id int Required. ID of poll.

Get Comments By Poll ID

  GET /polls/comments/:poll_id

Returns the following object.

{
  username: string,
  user_id: int,
  comment_id: int,
  parent_id: int,
  comment: string
}
Parameter Type Description
:poll_id int Required. ID of poll.

Post Comment (Authenticated)

  POST /polls/comments/

Posts a comment to the poll specified by poll_id.

Parameter Type Description
poll_id int Required. ID of poll.
parent_id int Optional. ID of parent comment.
comment string Required. Content of comment.

Delete Comment By Comment ID (Authenticated)

  GET /polls/comments/:comment_id

Deletes the specified comment.

Parameter Type Description
:comment_id int Required. ID of comment.

Feeds

Code located in backend/routes/feed.

All routes return the following array of objects.

{
  poll_id: int,
  title: string,
  created_at: timestamp,
  username: string,
  user_id: int,
  vote_count: int,
  tags: string, //Comma-delimited tags
  score: int,
  options: { option_id: int, option_text: string, vote_count: int }[]
}[]

All routes take the following URL parameter.

Parameter Type Description
:page_num int Required. Page number of feed.

Get Discover Feed By Page

  GET /feed/:page_num

Returns 404 if no polls exist.

Get Friends Feed By Page (Authenticated)

  GET /feed/friends/:page_num

Get Tags Feed By Page (Authenticated)

  GET /feed/tags/:page_num

Get Client User Feed By Page (Authenticated)

  GET /feed/user/:page_num

=======

Frontend Documentation.

The frontend is split into components, which match up with routing as supported by Next.JS. This project relied on Material UI for components such as a Card, Button, Page Bar, Login, etc.

Auth

Signin.tsx has the login components. Likewise, Signup has the sign up components. Each of them rely on AuthContext, which is a context at the Contexts folder that is passed into each component that needs to know if the user is signed in or not.

Discover

This folder has all the components for the Feed in Discover, Freinds, and Following. The parent file is feed.tsx which calls the rest of the files. Each PollCard has a username of who made it (addFriend.tsx), a comment box (comments.tsx). When the comments are open, we load pollCardNoComments.tsx. To search, we use search.tsx, and to create a poll, we use PollForm.tsx. The buttons on the feed are in feedButtons.tsx.

Profile

profile.tsx renders the profile page. This shows user stats (how many polls made, how many votes, etc.) and any polls a user made.

Navigation

Lastly, we have a nav bar in navigation.tsx which has the Home button, Profile, and log in/log out.

Design Choice

Typescript

We decided to use TS due to its easy integration with fetch requests, and how it merged well with the frontend and backend. Typing added a layer of specificity we found important. Most of us have used the language before, which meant we were able to write code faster, since it was familiar.

React

Sort of the traditional route when developing a frontend, we decided to use React. React came with a lot of tools, such as Effects and State we could leverage to our benefit when developing components that would change. It also helped us write code that was slightly more abstracted. Moreover, due to its popularity, we were able to debug and find solutions faster.

MySQL

There were a few reasons why we chose MySQL. Firstly, it was a easily configurable relational database system which was perfect for the features in our app. Secondly, some of the team members were familiar with it so it made it a more enticing option over other relational database systems.

UI/UX

In terms of style and design, we decided to use Material UI. This was a great decision, as it came with a lot of pre-implemented features we could just pop into our project. This also allowed us to spend less time on the style while having a clean and nice UX.

Next JS

We use Next.js because it allows us to create API routes alongside with our React components. It's a popular framework to work with React to build web application because of serverside rendering making web app load faster

Vercel

This is a platform for hosting created by the creators of Nex.js. Therefore, we chose this platform for hosting as it's compatible and easy to host our frontend created with Next.js

Heroku

We decided to use Heroku to host the backend as it's free for students and easy to use.

Bugs and Limitations

Creating a poll with tags

Tags do not show up on polls until they have already been entered once into the database (i.e. a new tag not already in the database will not show up the first time a user tries to attach it to a poll).

Profiles

Users can only see their own profile, and not those of other users.

Search

The search function returns polls with a similar title to the query, but the poll cards are missing options, tags, and creator username.

Tag/Friend lists on feeds

The tag and friend lists at the top of the Following and Friend feeds respectively cannot be used to unfollow tags or unfriend users - this can only be done from poll cards.

Local storage

If the server is stopped while a user is logged in, some information like followed tags and friends will remain in the browser's local storage and appear on poll feeds the next time it's started, even though the user is logged out. The user must log out before stopping the server to properly clear out the local storage.

Future Additions

If we (or you!) in the future decide to expand upon this project, we plan on implementing at least the following:

Private Polls

Users should be able to post polls just to their friends, and or to the whole public.

Follow Requests

Users should be able to have a 2 way system whether or not they follow a person, and should decide to accept or deny someone's follow request.

Notifications

As detailed above, users need to be notified when someone follows them, or when someone likes or comments on one of their polls.

Search

Users should be able to use the search bar to search for other users. Right now user are only able to search for poll based on the poll title.

Settings

It would enhance the user experience to have a settings page where users could set notification settings, use dark mode, and save other various preferences.

Forgot Password

We would like to have an email based forgot password system, where users can reset their password.

Frontend testing

We would like to add test for the frontend. Right now we only have unit test for backend endpoint

Testing

  • To start the unit test for backend run cd backend && npm test
  • Make sure to add your account credential in the .env file as the test will be using this account to test the endpoint that require authentication

Attributions

Email Format Verification

We used a regular expression for email format verification on Signup from Stack Overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54916150/how-to-make-this-email-validation-regex-from-regular-expressions-info-work-in-ja

Navigation bar

Our navigation bar is an altered version of this Material UI template:

https://mui.com/material-ui/react-app-bar/#app-bar-with-a-primary-search-field