MoviePool Full-Stack project

Complexity

Developing three products in parallel, first with static data, then hosted data, and to understand how a first SQL then NoSQL database, RESTful API, and SPA come together, interact and create requested results, was challenging.

Figuring out in what order to develop to get something successfully up and running (first locally, then hosted) was fun but also frustrating at times.

Solution: Breaking tasks down into small, manageable bits, succeed in solving them, understand more and more, bit by bit.

Errors & Bugs

To find out where errors and bugs were rooted was challenging, at the same time really fun!

I never knew that I would enjoy figuring out where errors or bugs come from so much, being it the database with a corrupted JSON object, the JavaScript or React.js syntaxes, a slow hosting provider, the build process, a slow database response... and then successfully solving them!

Solution: Monitoring ALL platforms, thoroughly reading ALL kinds of error messages, being it in the terminal, the browser developer console or on the page, researching, then solving issues, bit by bit.

Database Content

At the beginning the importance of a database with decent content was not clear to me.

Needed data I simply copy and pasted, partly from IMDB, partly from Wikipedia, to get those JSON objects filled up quickly, this made for a lack of good data quality as I rushed through this.

An example: at some point I had empty images (movie posters) on the page because I had no images in my JSON database. I simply forgot to research websites with movie posters to link to, and add those links to my JSON objects. Besides a first panic attack, I then researched and added the links to my database movie objects at MongoDB Atlas directly.

Solution: Taking an extra minute to go through requirements and to make sure to understand the role of every single detail. It might turn out to be important to put more effort in the beginning to not have extra work in the middle or at the end.

Authentication & Authorization

Understanding the different layers and order of processes to authenticate and authorize was tough.

I still need some clarification about what is sent when to receive what kind of result, with which kind of authentication/authorization, choosing from a multitude of middleware and packages thrown at the API.

Solution: I've already built a additional mini MERN project, following my "break it down into smaller bits to better understand" motto. This only serves as a start to clarify questions I have regarding authentication and authorization.

React-Bootstrap Components & Bootstrap

It was challenging to understand in a very short amount of time what React-Bootstrap components and Bootstrap bring out of the box (HTML/JSX, styling, functionality), and what to keep as for the MoviePool SPA, it was expected to use specific React-Bootstrap components within a specific React set-up.

The time-based decision to not go into deep detail on how to best apply custom styles to mandatory React-Bootstrap components or even to look into Bootstrap theming, was challenging.

This conscious decision led to overwriting present Bootstrap styles which might not even be needed, and on top of that does not really resulted in the best visual experience, is inefficient and makes the code messy.

Solution: Working on React-Bootstrap, Bootstrap projects in the future, I would make and take the time needed to go through React-Bootstrap/Bootstrap documentation.