Bucket list is a single-page application that allows users to track goals they would like to achieve and experiences they would like to have in their lifetime.
Bucket List is basically a MEAN (Mongo, Express, Angular, NodeJS) without the 'A' -- Angular.
The backend database is MongoDB, and the API server is a Node/Express application that enables CRUD and authorization functions.
In addition to that stack, we used the DataTables jQuery plugin.
The backend server is hosted on Heroku, and the front end is hosted on Github Pages. See below for links to deployed front and back end servers as well as links to front and back end repositories.
We used the DataTables, a jQuery plugin that helps developers display and update table data. We chose it because it is widely used enough to be stable and well-supported, and it built-in extra features we would not have had time to implement, such as search and sort.
DataTables also has its own API. Because of this, we did not have a completely traditional approach to building a model/route/controller set to handle crud functions. For some of these functions, we were using the DataTables API to both get and set data a user sees when they log in.
We briefly considered having DataTables emit all of a user's bucket list items for each request and storing it as one big blob in Mongo, but ultimately we took a row-by-row approach where each bucket list item has an individual database record.
We held daily standups in the morning to coordinate and divide tasks. To cut down on the chances of merge conflicts, we created long issue queues for the front and back end repositories. Each new feature branch was named after its issue, for example: issue#11. Referencing the issue in our commits and pull requests gave us a clear sense of which commits applied to which desired features and bugfixes. As an example, look at the following issue, a bugfix for the UI The issue clearly shows commits in progress towards solving the problem and documents the merge of the feature branch into development.
We used Slack extensively to communicate in the evenings when we weren't physically together. We might have been Slacking each other at 1AM a few times, but no team members will confirm or deny this.
Libraries giveth, and libraries take away. While DataTables significantly sped up the creation of our UI, we spent too much time struggling with an add-on to the library which would have allowed in-row editing of bucket list items.
Once we abandoned that approach, we took a more traditional approach, popping up a form to allow users to create and edit bucket list items.
Clone this repository and run npm install.
Install DataTables and its default styles at the command line:
npm install datatables.net # Core library
npm install datatables.net-dt # Styling
We have an extensive wiki documenting our approach to authorization, our API, checklists, and more. We would like to call out the following specific planning documents and documentation:
Link to Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
A link to the deployed front-end app A link to the repo for your back-end
A link to the front end repository A link to the back end repository
Bucket List was built by Alex Constantine, Eric Scace, and Lisa Williams as a team project undertaken during WDI18 at General Assembly Boston.