Portable, scalable point-of-sale solution for the small businessperson. API repo.
My approach was to first build a solid back end, and then develop my front end features one by one. There was certainly a benefit to doing things this way, because my API was thoroughly tested and never failed to return expected results. The problem was that I spent a significant amount of time on API architecture which never made it into the app as it is now. I planned methodically, but did not accomplish as much as I set out to, so in the future I might instead (for example) plan in short bursts, and then follow through with the plan in similarly short burts, with only an incomplete sketch of what the big picture will eventually look like.
The back end uses Ruby on Rails. The front end is an Ember.js app, taking advantage of Ember CLI, Bootstrap, and Sass.
They are legion. The positive is that I learned a whole hell of a lot about Ember during this project. This is because I had a very clear idea of what I wanted my project to look like, and beat my head against Ember until I managed to make it do what I wanted it to do.
The negative is that I have a lot of things that I want my app to do, that I am very excited to get it to do, but that it doesn't do yet. This includes tallying up a sale total, organizing line items together (rather than just showing repeating items in a list as if they're not identical), printing a receipt for transactions, and storing all transactions in the database. I will definitely include all of these features in this app before the meet and hire event.
With that said, I am very happy with the results. The app I have now, limited though it is, is not something I would have dreamed possible only a few weeks ago. Much of this can be credited to Ember magic, and to the help of my instructors and classmates. Regardless, I worked hard on this app, and I think the app reflects that hard work. I'm looking forward to continuing to work on it, in order to bring to life the vision I had at the project's outset.