# LegoLog - A lego catalouge for you Submitted for the Application Programming coursework of 2021/22
Installation
Input psql database credentials into the .env file.
For more detailed configuration instructions, see the CONFIGURATION.md file.
If npm i fails, and you go down the manual route, see troubleshooting, make sure you run it again to fill the database with the data.
npm run setup
A test administrator account exists with the login:
username: systemadmin@legolog.com
password: TestAdministrator123
The demo MUST be run from localhost NOT 129.0.0.1 due to auth0
Future Plans
- "Refine Search" field
- Make use of worker threads for rendering execution of components
- Make the marketplace dynamic, more demand should incur a higher price
- Allow users to create their own sets from bricks the shop sells
- Could be much more scalable with better transaction management and with reduction of redundant API calls from the client
- Clearer indication of how many of x item are in your basket on that item's page would be nice
- There are some snake_case and camelCase inconsistencies among HTTP requests that I did not have time to refractor out
Known Issues
- There are some issues with selecting modifiers for bricks
- Sometimes the basket subtotal is incorrect
Troubleshooting
Sometimes with installing you must manually install those plugins that
require node_gyp to be installed.
The most common to have issues are,
npm i pg
npm i jest
npm i sharp
Resources / Notes
Web design (i hate web design)
- https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/fixed-vs-fluid-vs-elastic-layout-whats-the-right-one-for-you/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/website/fluid-design
- https://jonsuh.com/hamburgers/
Usable shop design
Databases
- https://rebrickable.com/downloads/
- https://www.bricklink.com/catalogDownload.asp?a=a
- https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/140643-open-and-freely-available-data-set-of-all-partspieces/
- https://www.sqlitetutorial.net/sqlite-nodejs/
- https://dbschema.com/features.html
Documentation & Implementation Rationale
Make sure to see docs/ for more detailed module documentation
IMPORTANT MAKE SURE TO READ CONFIGURATION.md BEFORE RUNNING
1.1 Content Delivery and Storage of Thousands of Images
Due to the fact that there is ~85000 images of individual lego bricks and even more of sets. I have chosen not to store them in a database as a BLOB or anything else like that as it is inefficient. I am also aware of the pitfalls of a conventional filesystem for storage of mass data.
The way I have approached a solution for this is in preprocessing, by hashing the name of the image file (which is also the brick / set in question), I can then use the filesystem's natural directory cache speedyness to speed up access times significantly.
Take the file name 2336p68.png, which is a Lego "Cockpit Space Nose",
after a simple MD5 hash, the result is:
"d2ef319ea58566b55070e06096165cb8"
^^^^
d2ef
Using the first four characters in the hash, we can allocate images into buckets for storage and quick retreval. This acts very similar to a hash table implemented in the filesystem.
Therefore the path to find this file would be /d/2/e/f/2336p68.png
Also due to the non-ability to use subdomains during this project, all
content served like this will use the API suffix, cdn/
This implementation description does not take into account resource cacheing.
1.2 Component System
For more technical / implementation specific details see d docs/CLIENT-FRAMEWORK.md
I chose to use a component system for easy modularisation of pieces of the codebase, for example. A basket popout is a perfect use for this, as every page has one and repeated code is bad code.
However, in retrospect. I would not have made every page's root a component, yes it makes it easier to have dynamic state but i feel there is a better way to write HTML which doesn't involve the component settup process as it introduces a lot of unneccesary overhead and potential uncleanlines of code.
1.3 Database
See docs/DATABASE.md for more technical documentation.
1.4 Orders
For the purpose of this demo, there is no collection of card details, nor shipping details as this is largely irrelavent without any intent to ship nor charge the users items. In all view order views a placeholder address is put in place instead of the entered values from the checkout.
Acknowledgements
PortSoc Eslint (I'm sorry Jacek, I overwrote your 2 spaces rule, I prefer 4)
The MIT Permissive Software License can be found in LICENSE
Copyright 2021/22 Benjamin Kyd