A simple python project that creates reading lists and suggests books to read.
Main Window
Creating a new book
At its core, this project is just a practice on software development (using Python). However, a good software should ideally be built solving a particular problem. In this case, the problem I wanted to solve was:
People can often get stuck on deciding what book to read. Futhermore, people can also have mood for certain genres or authors at times, so when choosing a book, they should be given the freedom to filter out books that are in their mood right now.
This was my first time working with GUI on Python; hence, I opted to tinker around with the library first in order to get a feel on what I can do with it. Once I understood what I can (reasonably) do, I started working on making a barely functional prototype. At this early stage, I prioritized speed over maintainability. Once I had a feel on how the code structure will look like, I started refactoring to make the project more maintanable and to make further developments easier and quicker.
With regards to business logic vs UI/UX, I typically focused more on the business logic first, ensuring that the project is feasible and that there are no obvious bugs. Once I feel that a feature is working sufficiently, I start improving the UI/UX.
The bulk of the logic is contained in the utility classes in the utils folder, where the main class is in the metis.py file. The _gui.py file concerns itself with building the GUI while the _interactions.py connects the GUI with the utility classes through event handlers. The main.py mainly concerns itself with setting up configurations and fail-safes so that the app can still run even with corrupted data files (though, the data might not be saved).
I separated the GUI with the utility classes since the underlying logic should not influence much how the user interacts with the app. Furthermore, I separated the logic into various utility classes since their functions are generally mutually exclusive. This grouping into features helped adding and modifying features easier and less buggier.
One notable point of improvement is with the GUI library; I used TKinter, which led to the non-modern looking design. I chose this since it was my first time with Python GUI applications, but it may not be a good choice for the long term. The way I passed event handlers might also be a bit messy. I should use a system that avoids drilling parameters.
There's nothing to install. Just make sure that you have Python 3.7.0 or later versions in your system!
Make sure you are in the src folder and run the following:
python main.pyThe rest of the application should be pretty straightforward (if they are not, please raise an issue or contact me!)
For a book entry to appear in the list, it must satisfy all filter criteria (genre and search field). For a book to satisfy the genre criteria, it must have at least one genre that appears in the list.
If there are any concerns or problems, please don't hesistate to raise an issue!
Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.