#E-Commerce Team Project

Happening - Providing discounted experience packages

Brief: As a team, design, build and deploy an e-commerce website - develop the front end client in a technology of our choice, set up a database in MongoDb, and creating a RESTful API to connect the two.

Timeframe: Four weeks.

Description: As a team, we decided to develop an online store that seels discounted experience packages, similar to Groupon etc. - Typical e-store features were included, including searching and sorting products, adding and removing objects from a cart, and placing orders. We also added a functioning login system to generate extra learnings.

Key Learnings:

Workflow:

  Working using Agile methodologies, such as Kanban, daily standups, sprints, rotating scrum masters, and weekly sprint reviews.
  
  Using GitHub to handle version control while working on separate features simultaneously.
  
  Performing constant code reviews via pull requests and in person sit downs prior to merging.
  
  Frequent pair and mob programming sessions.

JS/React:

  Further increased comfort using states to handle things like cart functionality and checking 
  whether the user is logged in.

  Using React Router to handle navigation between Pages.
            
  Creating functional form components.
  
  How to use Fetch requests to access DB data via an API using endpoints.

MongoDB:

  Setting up a MongoDB database using Mongo Atlas for online access.

  Formatting collection and document schemas so that data is logically accessible.
  
  Formatting queries to search and filter data.
  
REST APIs:

  How to build a RESTful API from the ground up.
  
  How to connect to a database.
  
  How to use CRUD operators (POST, GET, DELETE etc.) to store, retrieve and manipulate data in the DB.
  
  Connecting to a server that is hosted online using Heroku.
  
Deployment:
  
  Used MongoAtlas to host DB online.
  
  Used Netlify to deploy the client.
  
  Used Heroku to deploy the server.
  
  Used variable URLs so the site will run both online and locally.
  
  Using OG meta tags to format the website thumbnail attractively.