Dev Interview

Project Setup

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.2+
• Node.js 18+
• Composer

Clone & Install

git clone <repository-url>
cd dev-interview

# Install PHP dependencies
composer install

# Install Node dependencies
npm install

# Environment setup
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Database setup (PostgreSQL)
# Create database and update .env with your PostgreSQL credentials
php artisan migrate

# Build frontend assets
npm run build

Development Server

# Option 1: All services with hot reload
composer dev

# Option 2: Manual setup
php artisan serve                # Backend (http://localhost:8000)
npm run dev                      # Frontend with hot reload
php artisan queue:listen         # Queue worker (optional)

Database Configuration

I used PostgreSQL for development, change the credentials in .env for the database connection:

# For MySQL
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=dev_interview
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

# For PostgreSQL
DB_CONNECTION=pgsql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=5432
DB_DATABASE=dev_interview
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=

Then run migrations:

php artisan migrate:fresh

Seeding

I use bgg to fetch the images for the board games. There are a few ways to do this:

Option 1: Limited Seeding with Images (Recommended)

# Seed 50 games with images (takes ~1 minute)
php artisan boardgames:seed --fresh --limit=50

# Or seed 100 games (takes ~2 minutes)
php artisan boardgames:seed --fresh --limit=100

Option 2: Fast Seeding + Gradual Image Updates

# Step 1: Seed many games quickly without images
php artisan boardgames:seed --fresh --limit=500 --no-images

# Step 2: Update images in batches
php artisan products:update-images --limit=50
php artisan products:update-images --limit=50
# Repeat as needed...

Option 3: Environment Configuration

Edit your .env file:

SEED_GAMES_LIMIT=50        # Number of games to seed
SEED_FETCH_IMAGES=true     # Whether to fetch images during seeding

Then run:

php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

Seeding commands

# Custom seeding with options
php artisan boardgames:seed --limit=50              # 50 games with images
php artisan boardgames:seed --limit=200 --no-images # 200 games without images
php artisan boardgames:seed --fresh --limit=30      # Fresh DB + 30 games

# Standard Laravel seeding (uses .env config)
php artisan migrate:fresh --seed
php artisan db:seed --class=BoardgamesSeeder

Performance Comparison

Approach	Games	Images	Time	Use Case
50 with images	50	50	~1 min	Development/Demo
100 with images	100	100	~2 min	Small production
500 no images	500	0	~30 sec	Fast setup
1000 no images	1000	0	~1 min	Large dataset