Developer's Dictionary

A fun and engaging definitions resource for software developers

Built by Mica Whitby, Sho Marovatsanga, Kat Hicks, Tamar Lehmann, Eleanor Kavanagh-Brown and Barbara Shinkarenko in 8 days as the final project for Makers Academy

Instructions

The final project provides a safe environment for you to be creative and enjoy exploring new directions with your code.

You can use any technology you like! It will be easier to use technologies you've already used at Makers. But you can use ones that are completely new.

User stories

As a group, we developed the following user stories that defined our goals for the project as well as what we considered to be the minimum viable product (MVP)

MVP

As a developer,
So that I can learn in a fun and interactive way,
I want to scroll through the definitions wheel and play with it as I want.

As a developer,
So that I can see what terms are in the dictionary,
I'd like to see a list of terms.

As a developer,
So that I can understand at a glance what a technology is,
I want to be able to see a short definition of each term.

As a developer,
So that I can choose to learn more about a technology,
I want to be able to click through to see further definitions with references and citations.

As a developer,
So that I can quickly navigate to other resources,
I want to be able to view and click on the references and citations.

As a developer,
So that I can contribute to the dictionary,
I want to be able to submit a new term with a definition.

As a developer,
So that I can contribute to the dictionary,
I want to be able to add a new definition for each term.

Version 1

As a developer,
So that I can contribute to the dictionary (and ratings),
I want to be able to sign up and sign in to the dictionary.

As a developer,
So that other people can't contribute on my behalf,
I want to be able to sign out of the dictionary.

As a developer,
So that I can learn something new in a fun way,
I want to be given a random definition when I click "I'm feeling lucky".

As a developer,
So that people can see the most useful definitions,
I'd like to be able to up-vote a definition.

As a developer,
So that people aren't mislead by incorrect information,
I'd like to be able to down-vote a definition.

As a developer,
So that I can know what other developers think of a definition,
I want to be able to view it's rating.

As a developer,
So that I can see the best definitions first,
I want to see the definitions in other of their rating.

As a developer,
So that I can quickly find what I'm looking for,
I want to be able to search by definitions and see the wheel filtered by the results.

As a developer,
So that I can quickly find what I'm looking for,
I want to be able to filter definitions by tag and see the wheel filtered by the results.

As a developer,
So that I can quickly find what I'm looking for,
I want to be able to skip to a letter in the dictionary.

Objectives

• Are you having fun?
• Are you a better developer than you were yesterday?
• Can you use high-quality processes to build an extended project in a team?

Using our app

• You can view our app at www.developers-dictionary.co.uk

Running the tests

• If you do not have MongoDB installed, you will need to install it using the instructions here
  • You will then need to create two databases within the console called developers-dictionary-development and developers-dictionary-test
• Download the source code by cloning this repo with $ git clone
• Navigate into the root of the directory using $ cd developers-dictionary
• Within the command line, run $ npm test
• With this command, you will be able to see each test, their result and a table summarising the test coverage

Technologies

• Built using Node.js with Express
• Runs off a MongoDB database
• Deployed using Heroku
• Tested using Mocha, Chai, Should and Zombie
• Test coverage statistics calculated using NYC and Coveralls
• Front-end design uses SVG as well as jQuery, Bootstrap and CSS
• Various packages used within the back-end logic including Express Validator to validate entries in the database, Node-Mongo-Seeds for seeding the database and Connect Flash for error messages

Approach

• Idea generation and user stories
  • We started off by brainstorming all possible features for the app and then using the development of user stories to ensure that the features really were of value to the user
• Wireframes
  • We each drew our vision of the app on a piece of paper and then came together to compare our drawings
  • We took the best bits from each drawing to develop our wireframes which acted as a template for the front-end design
• Deciding our tech
  • We decided to use the Node, Express and MongoDB tech stack for this project as an opportunity to learn something new
• Adding a project on GitHub
  • We decided to use the project management tool on Github (which can be seen on this repo by selecting the projects tab above)
  • We entered all the user stories as to-do items and tagged them as either MVP or Version 1
• Pairing
  • We paired each day and pairs rotated regularly
  • We made sure that as far as possible everyone got to work on the bits of the app that most interested them
• Standups and retros
  • We had stand up meetings at the beginning of each day to discuss what work was going to be done that day
  • We also had retrospective meetings at the end of each day to review how things had gone and identify any problems or blockers
• Code reviews
  • As not everyone was working on the same thing, it was important to have code reviews so that we all understood how other bits of the app were working

Ideas for extension

There are lots of features that we would have liked to include but didn't have time to implement. Below is just a small selection:

• Users
  • Currently anyone who visits the app can add a term or explanation to the dictionary, which makes it liable to mis-use and inaccuracies
  • Our plan is to include user accounts using OAuth with users signing up using their Github
• Extending search
  • Currently the search only works on exact matches
  • It would be much more user friendly if we could run auto-correct, fuzzy matching and matching on first letters
• Wildcard button
  • One of the main aims of the app was to make researching software development jargon more fun and engaging
  • We had the idea of a wildcard button in the middle of the wheel which takes you to a random page - not only would it be fun, but it might help you learn something new too!