House of Representatives

Overview

A data.json file contains all information about the US House of Representatives (with the exception of places like Guam, Puerto Rico, etc.).

You may explore this information through a website that automatically generates its pages using handlebars. You can see all representatives, or filter by party. Along with their information, are links to their websites.

Objectives

This website uses handlebars for templating, as well as HTML and CSS for the baseline.

Setup

Download and install Node.js from: https://nodejs.org/en/

Clone this repository and navigate to the directory. As a Windows user, I prefer doing this by opening the command prompt and navigating to the project folder.

From the command prompt install the required dependencies:

1. Run npm install
2. Run npm install express.
3. Run npm install underscore.
4. Run npm install morgan.
5. Run npm install express-handlebars.

You are now ready to run the website and explore it! Use the command node index.js. It will listen on port 3000. You can visit the website by going to your internet browser, and going to the domain "localhost:3000". Use Ctrl-C to terminate the process.

Specifications

Templating

Templating allows me to create dynamic web pages. I am able to create a skeleton of what the HTML pages should look like, then control the content however I want. Generation is through the templating engine handlebars. The following are the files I have included to help generate webpages along with HTML and basic CSS.

main.handlebars

Add a navigation bar to main.handlebars so there is one present in all pages rendered.

• This navigation bar has four inline links:

• States: links to /

• Democracts: links to /party/:partyname for Democrats

• Republicans: links to /party/:partyname for Republicans

• Representatives: links to /rep

person.handlebars

This template is rendered when the /rep/:repid endpoint is hit. On this page, the following information is displayed.

• Full name
• State that links to the /state/:statename page for that state.
• Birthday
• Description
• The representative's party linking to the /party/:partyname endpoint for that party
• A link to the representative's website

representatives.handlebars

This template is rendered when either the /party/:partyname or /rep endpoints are hit. This page displays the following:

• The party that is being displayed
• A list of all the people in that particular group where each name is linked to that representative's /rep/:repid page
• Next to each name should also be the state, and this text should link to the relevant /state/:statename page

state.handlebars

This template is rendered when the /state/:statename endpoint is hit. The following is displayed:

• The name of the state
• All of the representatives from that state. The representatives are separated depending on whether they are Democrats or Republicans. If a member of the opposite party does not exist in a state, they and the party text simply will not show up.

allstates.handlebars

This template is rendered when the / endpoint is hit. This page displays a list of all 50 states, where each name links to the respective /state/:statename page.

Credits

Credit to this for the data.json file.