Library App

A web app to digitise the lending system for the Alfa office library. The project is a work-in-progress and was initiated as part of the first remote Innovation Day in March 2020.

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User Stories

As a library manager, I want to be able to add new books to the library.
As a library user, I want to see a list of books that are in the library.
As a library user, I want to seach for available books at the library.
As a library user, when I am interested in a book, I want to see the title, author and other details of that book.
As a library user, I want to see what books I have currently have loaned and when they are due back.
As a library user, when I really like a book, I want to take it out on loan.

Tech Stack

Back-end

The back-end is a REST API built using Spring Boot.
It has several end-points that the front-end calls upon to retrieve data.

Back-end setup

Ensure you have a GitHub account & GitHub Deskdop App downloaded.
Make sure your GitHub account is added to alfasoftware on GitHub.
Go to GitHub/alfasoftware you should be able to accept the invitation if this is a new account.
Make sure your account has been added to the library-maintainers group.
Download the library app code from GitHub.
Ensure you have a Postman account & Postman Desktop App downloaded.
You then have to be added to the necessary Team workspace by someone already on the team.
Make sure you have SQLyog
Create new connection in SQLyog with libraray database
Next step is to create a new project from existing sources in IntelliJ with the library app code downloaded from GitHub.
Update the appplication.properties file in IntelliJ to have spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create
Run the app
Stop and then re-start the app after updating that same line to spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
Add some ISBN's into your database via postman's api/addbookposting

Front-end

The front-end is built using the JavaScript library React
It uses axios to make GET requests to display information in UI and POST requests to send data to the back-end to persist in the database.

Front-end setup

Downlaod NodeJS, npm
Go to powershell and cd into the library-app downloaded from github
Run npm install
Run npm start

To use the app

First, clone this repo.
Both the back-end and front-end need to be running simultaneously for the app to work...

To run the back-end API

In your IDE open the library-backend folder and run the main() method in the Application.java file.

To run the app (front-end)

Navigate to library-app folder
Run npm install --save axios in Command Prompt/Terminal to get node modules and include axios in the package.
Run npm install --save react-router-dom in Command Prompt/Terminal to include react-router-dom in the package.
Run npm start in Command Prompt/Terminal to run the app.
To stop app use ctrl+c for Command Prompt or cmd+c in Terminal.

Progress so far

The front-end is currently presenting a home page and a catalogue of the books in the library

The back-end currently stores a table of books and a table of loans. It utilises the Google Books API to retrieve full details of the books available in the library. There are several end-points for the front-end to call upon to retrieve and send data.

alfasoftware/library