Consume More Stuff

A custom CMS for personal product sale

Introduction

Build a Content Management System using:

• Backend

  • Express as the application server
  • PostgreSQL as the database server
  • Bookshelf.js as the ORM
  • passport.js for Authentication and Authorization

• Frontend

  • React.js or AngularJS as FE framework
  • Sass for styling
  • Webpack for bundling, provided by FE generator.

• Stretch Add-ons

  Some stretch and polish goals will use additional technologies.

  • AWS S3 for storing product images
  • mailgun or sendgrid for sending email

Your team will be building a minimal CMS to allow users to list personal items for sale. The application will allow unauthorized users to browse the listed products. To post an Item for sale, a User account will be required. The backend should provide RESTful api endpoints. The frontend should be a SPA (Single Page App) that provides a smooth user experience.

You will need to work as a team to complete this project. To facilitate team communication you will be using Trello to track tasks and stay on track.

The instructors will provide a tech lead role, and will need to approve design and implementation decisions. Data modeling will need to be done by the team, but approved by the tech leads.

Project Setup

• clone repo
• run npm install
• Create database with appropriate owner
• Create 'config' folder. Create a 'config.js' file within the config folder with the following structure:

{
  database: {
    user: 'database_user',
    password: 'user_password',
    database: 'database_name'
  }
}

• run knex migrate:latest to create the database tables
• run knex seed:run to insert filler data into the database
• run back-end server and front-end server from the same terminal with npm run dev

Business Requirements

MVP

Unauthenticated user

• Home page should list x number of random Items by Category.
• Home page should provide a way to view all Items.
• Home page should provide a view of Items by Category.
• Home page should show a subset of key details of the Items, along with one image.
• Home page should have a login button.
• Item detail page should contain:
  • description (required)
  • price
  • manufacturer or make
  • model name or number
  • condition (required)
  • category (required)
  • dimensions
  • when the Item was initially published
  • when the Item was last updated
  • notes / details

Authenticated User

• Should be able to view the same home page and details that an unauthenticated user can.
• User home page should contain:
  • A way to add new Items.
  • A way to logout.
  • display the current Users name
  • List view of published Items.
  • List view of sold Items.
• Add new Item should present the User with a form to add all Item details.
  • A newly added Item should have a status of published when created.
  • The form should provide validation and feedback if inputs in omitted or invalid.
  • Should be able to select an image and upload it for the Item.
• Item detail owned by User:
  • Should be able to modify all inputs.
  • Change the Status of the Item. published or sold
  • Should be able to replace the image associated with the Item.
• When an Item is published it should record the publish date and time.
• When an Item is modified it should record the update date and time.
• The User Settings view should provide the User a way to change their password.

Features

• The application should display a logo.
• Mobile friendly application. Styles should work from phone up to desktop.
• Clicking on an Item in any list, should display the detail view of that Item.
• Items should not be able to be deleted, but should have a status option that is equivalent.
• Should have a registration page to allow the creation of new Users.
  • Users should register using email.
  • Any information that can identify a user should not be available to any other User.

---

Stretch

Unauthenticated user

• Should be able to generate a share link to a specific item.
• Should be able to change the view between grid, list, thumb views.
• Should be able to view more than one image related to an Item.
• Home page should have at least one filter. To filter out Items from the view.

Authenticated User

• Add home view option to show featured* Items, based on how many views the Item has had.
• List of Items currently published for sale.
• List of Items pending publishing.
  • Should provide a quick way to publish the Item.
• List of Items in other state, (sold, archived)
• Should have access to a Messages view that allows anonymous communication between authenticated Users based on a published Item.
• The Item detail view should provide a way for the User to send a message to the User who published the Item.
• Should see a count of how may times the Item has been viewed and if the Item is currently featured.
• Home view should have a way for the User to hide Items they are not interested in and a way to restore all items being visible.

Admin User

• should be able to create new admin accounts
• should be able to make user inactive
• CRUD for categories
• should be able to ban a product sale
• CRUD for statuses
• CRUD for conditions
• should be able to send messages to any user
• Add Role table. Set application access based on role.

Features

• Add more states for Item. Pending, Published, Sold, Archived, Pulled.
• Add unit tests
• Messages will only be allowed by originating from an Item
• Admin User
• When Item details are viewed by anyone other than the owner, it should count the view, to track what Items are most popular.

---

Polish

Unauthenticated user

• should be able to search for keywords
• pagination
• should see a visual indicator if an item is getting a lot of views, is featured.

Authenticated User

• should verify email
• images should be stored in S3
• should be able to contact seller through
  • email
• can send email to a hashed email (eg. [email protected] ) that will forward to registered user
• should be able to see generalized area for the item (geo-location)

Admin User

• should be able to contact all or individual users
  • email
  • messages

Features

• make prettier
• integrate email service (mailgun, sendgrid)
• add supertest tests