Beertender

Background

For the final project at Turing School of Software & Design, we were randomly assigned into groups to work with an already existing API from another student. We were tasked with the wire-framing, design, and build-out of the front-facing interface.

For this project, we were assigned an API that utilizes the Open Beer DB (all routes listed at end of of the README). We decided early on that we wanted to focus on creating a pleasing UI that would allow users to "swipe" random beers populated from the database, much like the dating apps Tinder and Bumble. Because of this, we made the decision to work with React Native for our front-end. As a group, we also strongly desired to work with React Native since it is not currently covered in the curriculum at Turing School.

Reflection

This proved to be a challenging project to take on for a variety of different reasons. Much of our struggle during the early stage of this project was in learning brand new technologies and tools (namely React Native and Expo XDE) and implementing this project with a pre-existing backend API. Beyond the initial setup/learning curve, we also ran into difficulties in working with our inherited backend. This was largely due to the many-to-many relationships that were set up in the inherited code - they simply did not configure well with what we were looking to display on the front-end, which forced us to make three calls every time we wanted to display a single beer.

Future Iterations

Although we made our MVP for this project, there is still much left to do.

Next phase will include:

Rebuilding the BE from scratch utilizing the Brewery DB API. The Open Beer DB has not been updated in several years and was missing some features of the beers we wished to showcase.
Change the database schema to account for what we are looking to display on the FE.
Add features to help guide users with swiping left vs right (and what that entails).

Database used

Open Beer DB

Endpoints

All POST/PUT/DELETE/PATCH endpoints are protected by JWT's

POST categories
Allows the user to add a new beer category by passing though name in the request body.
POST styles
Allows the user to add a new beer style by passing though name and category_id in the request body.
POST beers
Allows the user to add a new beer by passing though name, cat_id & style_id in the request body.
POST breweries
Allows the user to add a new brewery by passing though name, address1, city, state, code & country in the request body.
DELETE categories/:id
Allows the user to delete an existing beer category by passing though the beer category ID in the request body.
DELETE beers/:id
Allows the user to delete an existing beer by passing though the beer ID in the request body.
PATCH styles/:id
Allows the user to update an existing beer style by passing either name or beer category_id in the request body.
PATCH breweries/:id
Allows the user to update an existing brewery by passing either name, address1, city, state, code, or country in the request body.
PUT categories/:id
Allows the user to update an existing beer category by passing name in the request body.
PUT beers/:id
Allows the user to update an existing beer style by passing name, cat_id, style_id & brewery_id in the request body.

Tables

id	category_id	name
1	1	British Ale
2	2	Irish Ale
3	3	North American Ale

Styles

id	style_id	name	category_id
1	1	New Classic Style of Pale Ale	1
2	2	Ordinary Bitter	1
3	3	English-Style India Pale Ale	1

Beers

id	beer_id	name	cat_id	style_id	brewery_id
1	1	Hocus Pocus	11	116	812
2	2	Grimbergen Blonde	null	null	264
3	3	Widdershins Barleywine	null	null	779

Breweries

id	brewery_id	name	address1	city	state	code	country
1	1	(512) Brewing Company	407 Radam, F200	Austin	Texas	78745	US
2	2	21st Amendment Brewery Cafe	563 Second Street	San Francisco	California	94107	US
3	3	3 Fonteinen Brouwerij	Hoogstraat 2A	Beersel	null	null	Belgium

thatPamIAm/beertender