VoCoVo recruitment exercise

This codebase contains a skeletal, microservices-like app for registering IoT appliances (e.g set top boxes, smart bulbs) with a database. There is a "front end" (a blank Create React App in the client directory), and a "back end" (a rudimentary Node app in the api directory).

Submission made by Alex Bransby-Sharples

This codebase has been updated with my work on completing the first 5 tasks defined at the bottom of this Readme.

Time taken: Over two hours, probably more like 3.

Packages added

Newman a command line runner for Postman, for API testing
Jest popular JS testing tool, used for some unit testing
Cypress a browser testing tool, not actually used due to time constraints
CUID Collission-resistant ids optimized for horizontal scaling and sequential lookup performance - in this case used so that clients can generate a valid id, reducing API chatter and simplifying testing.

Running the API tests

Note: The tests assume that Node app is running on http://localhost:3000.

Checkout this branch, then run the following in the api/appliances folders:

npm i
npm run start

Run the following in the api folder and perform a test run:

npm i
npm run test

Running the Node unit tests

Checkout this branch, then run the following in the api/appliances folders:

npm i
npm run test

Notes

Overall it was good becoming reaquainted with Node and Express. Ofcourse I would have liked to have a) kept within the time limit and b) completed it all.

Main factors in time overrun:

Context swictching, I kept having to put this down for home life/work deadlines
Having to do a fair bit of reading around and trial/error with aspects of Express.
Introducing API tests - not strictly in the brief but end to end tests are at least as important as unit tests

I wouldn't want to ship this but I hope it gives enough of an idea of the general direction of travel.

Original instructions

Scope

You should attempt to complete as much as you can in no more than 2 hours.
100% completion is not a requirement (but how much you complete and to what quality, will be evaluated).
Your solution should be runnable by our staff, when reviewing your work
Your solutions should consider all engineering practices e.g security, structure, maintainability, performance, usability etc.
You can install any packages you need
All of the code is fair-game for any changes you deem necessary.

Installation

Check out this repo, then run the following in the client and api/appliances folders:

npm i
npm run start

Delivery of your solutions

Please submit a PR to this repo which includes your solutions.

Tasks

Create suitable REST routes in the appliances service, to
- create, read, update and delete values in the appliance "db".
- reboot an appliance (we don't expect this to function, instead focus on how the API would look)
Write unit tests for at least one route
In the front end, add functionality to the <ApplianceList> component to make it list all the appliances from the API, ensuring all suitable data properties from the API are displayed in a way helpful to the user.
Style the <ApplianceList> with CSS to give it appropriate information architecture and clarity
Add sorting to any part of the list of appliances.
Start the auth service and ensure that users of the appliances service can't create or update appliances without the user being authenticated using the auth service.
Modify the docker-compose.yml file to run both the auth and appliances services at the same time, removing the need to run npm run start for the api services individually.

adoublebarrel/recruitment-task