War of Elements Project Documentation

Introduction

The War of Elements project is the culmination of the "Computer Analyst" course, serving as the final assignment for the Computer Analyst degree at the National University of Río Cuarto. This documentation provides a comprehensive overview of the project, detailing its purpose, functionality, and implementation.

Step by step to run the application

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to set up the project:

1. Create a virtual environment: This helps to keep the dependencies required by different projects separate by creating isolated Python virtual environments for them. This is done using the command:

   python3 -m venv venv

2. Install the required packages: The requirements.txt file contains a list of items to be installed using pip install like so:

   pip3 install -r requirements.txt

3. Run the API: This starts the backend server. Open a console and run the following command:

   python3 run.py

4. Move to the client directory and install npm packages: This installs the necessary npm packages for the frontend in the client directory:

   cd client
   npm install

5. Start the client: This starts the frontend application:

   npm start

6. Create a .env file: This file will store environment variables. These are often used to store sensitive information such as API keys, and in this case, they are used to store the SECRET_KEY, FLASK_APP, and GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID. You can create a .env file in the root directory and add the following lines to it:

   SECRET_KEY=<your-secret-key>
   FLASK_APP='run.py'
   GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=<your-google-client-id>

Please replace 'your-secret-key' and 'your-google-client-id' with your actual keys. For the GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, you need to create a project and link it to localhost:3000. You can follow the guide here. To generate a secure secret key, you can use a password generator like RandomKeyGen.

Project Overview

Objective

The primary goal of the War of Elements project is to demonstrate the skills and knowledge acquired throughout the university degree. It serves as a comprehensive showcase of the participants’ ability to design and develop a software application using an agile methodology.

Scope

The project is a simulation where it’s possible to choose a team, set the spawn (dispersion area of cells), and the size of the board. The simulation begins and ends with a winning team after a series of battles and fusions between cells.

Technologies Used

The project leverages a variety of technologies:

• Frontend: The user interface is built using Javascript and React is employed for dynamic and responsive UI components.

• Backend: The backend is powered by a API developed with Flask. The logic layer is implemented in Python.

• Database: SQLite is used as the database, and ORM used is SQLAlchemy, utilized for managing the database.

• Authentication: Google OAuth is used for user authentication.

• Testing: Pytest is used for unit testing and behave is used for integration testing of the logic layer.

• Serialization: Marshmallow is used for efficiently storing simulations in the database.

Conclusion

The War of Elements project showcases the culmination of theoretical knowledge and practical skills acquired during the "Proyecto" course. It stands as a testament to the participant's ability to design and implement a complex software application. This documentation serves as a guide to understanding the project's objectives, functionalities, and the technologies employed in its development.

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