Pathfinder App

https://pathfinder-2017.herokuapp.com

Pathfinder is a web app which allows users to search for information on restaurants, shops, hospitals and many other kinds of location using google APIs. Users can save a favorite location. Users can also log in using a Google, Twitter or Github account and add a location and time to their diary.

Tech

• angular 1.5.0
• angular-route 1.5.0
• node 8.9.3
• express 4.16
• mongodb 2.2
• mongoose 4.13
• Google Places API Web Search - https://developers.google.com/places/web-service/search
• OAuth: passport 0.4, passport-twitter, passport-google-oauth20, passport-github
• build: npm, bower, babel
• logging: winston
• hosting: heroku, mlab

Tech notes

• uses mixture of angular controller and component styles
• data served from four Google API services: Text Search, Place Details, Place Photos and Geocode
• implements custom auto-complete functionality
• social login uses Google, Twitter and Github OAuth
• cloud data provider MLab used for development and production
• responsive CSS design
• uses browser caching of search results (local storage) for better UX
• client side errors logged to MLab
• written in ES6: client-side code transpiled to ES5 and minified with babel

Run the app in dev mode

• npm run build:watch - compile the front end source code in watch mode using babel
• npm run server - run the express server in watch mode
• npm run dev - run the previous two commands concurrently

Production build

• npm run build:prod - run babel build with minification
• npm run server - test the build locally
• git commit and push
• npm run deploy

Resources

• http://www.passportjs.org/packages/
• https://developers.facebook.com/
• https://github.com/johnpapa/angular-styleguide/blob/master/a1/README.md
• https://mlab.com/home
• http://tobiasahlin.com/spinkit/ - css loaders / spinners

Notes

• to load in IE or Edge, use: http://127.0.0.1:3000
• css files are kept next to controllers for convenience but are global - use namespacing to apply style rules locally
• tested with: Chrome, Opera, Edge, IE11
• for testing Twitter oauth locally, use 127.0.0.1 in env and address bar - Twitter app management will not accept localhost
• login with google in dev mode after deploy (Twitter and Github does not accept multiple refs)

Todos

• local storage set item should be wrapped in try / catch if data can exceed limit
• improve diary service