Parametrik - parametrized svg drawings

Setup

Prerequisites

• Python
• Docker
• Poetry

How to install for local development

poetry install

poetry shell - activates virtual environment

How to start development server and run tests

docker-compose up

docker-compose exec web python manage.py migrate

Testing

docker-compose up test

QA checks - black, flake8, xenon

tox

Solution decisions

I decided to use dockerized setup for the project. It has separate development service configuration. For the needs of testing with the dockerized database I also prepared test service that uses the same image as a web API service. I also considered database agnostic tests but in this case, much of the logic is handled by the database itself.

To deal with geometric objects I decided to use PostGIS and configured it to work with Django (following documentation). I felt that this is a right tool for that problem. Database stores geometric objects properly and gives validations. With this I didn't have to write geometric logic for my own, so that the solution is less error prone. I was also motivated by PostGIS AsSVG annotation that could be used for generating SVG images.

During the implementation I realised that the format of SVG output from PostGIS is different than example output.svg file but I stayed with that tech stack, because the final result wasn't different.

In the code I provided separation between view and core logic. View uses provided services to generate projections. There is also a custom serializer that converts and validates user input to the internal data objects represantation (entities).

Tests are provided on two stages - integration and unit. Unit tests verifies internal core logic without touching any external dependencies. On the integration level tests uses django test database and verifies real projections from given coordinates to database represenataions and finally svg contents.

Questions to a domain expert

• I assumed that it is better to store each part of the bookcase as a separate database object. Because it feels like better option for generating real parametric documents for the factories. I also considered storing whole product in a single column field (multipolygon in postgis). What is better in this situation?

• PostGIS provides 3D support but it was quite hard to use it in this case. This is why I chose to store 2D projections instead of whole cubes in the database. However, is it giving any benefits to have 3D representations in this case? Finally our product is the 2D projection to a given plane 🤔

Further work

1. Decision regarding storing multiple objects in a single column or staying with 1-M relation between Projections and ProjectionsPart should be made.

2. Moving complex queries with annotation to the QueryManager that could provide better segregation and simplify service layer.

3. Provide more elaborated serializer for the API input - it could verify each field and support both multiple and single object serialization (now it's handling only multiple objects)

My feedback

I started on Wed 19.05.2021 and was putting some bits of work everyday till today - 26.05.2021. I spent totaly 10-11 hours for this project. It took some time to find the best tools for that and I had to learn a bit about PostGIS. Project setup with that database also took more time than usual but finally I played with something new :) It was a very nice and interesting task! My wife was also excited because I finally learned how to draw 😅