You have been hired by a client to develop a new web service, “Neverwrote”, for
managing virtual notes – “Never say ‘I never wrote that down’ ever again!”. Having heard
of the latest and greatest in web technologies, your client specifies that the backend shall
run on a Node.js server, and that the frontend shall be built with React. “That’s strange,
those are exactly the same things that I learnt in CSE5WDC” you think to yourself as you
boot up your computer and get ready to start work.
Plagiarism
This is assignment must be completed individually, not in groups. You are welcome to discuss
problems with fellow students, but the work that you submit must be your own. Don’t try to
plagiarise, it’s extremely obvious and will only serve to get you into trouble. That’s not any fun for
you or for us.
Due Date
This assignment is due on Wednesday, 21 October 2020, 5:00 PM. Penalties are applied to late
assignments (accepted up to 5 days after the due date only). See the departmental Student
Handbook for details.
Submission Details
• Zip up everything in your project directory into one file.
• Submit your zipped file via LMS
Your final submission must run in a clean virtual machine after invoking docker-compose up, as this is
the environment that we will be using to mark your assignment.
Demo Implementation
I will show the demo again in the next lecture to help you understand about what an implementation
of Neverwrote might look like. However, be aware that everyone in the class will be able to see
what you write, so be sensible and don’t put up personal information or inappropriate content.
Objectives
• To combine what you’ve learnt in labs into a complete web application
• To provide you with a reference web application for future projects
Getting started
There is a template for the assignment project available for you on LMS at
https://lms.latrobe.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=4329541. Download this zip file and use it as
a starting point for your assignment. Be sure to commit and push regularly to avoid losing any of
your work as you develop.
You will find more specific information about the project structure in the README.md file.
Part 1 – Backend API (50 marks)
Task 1.1 (50 marks)
Create the backend database and REST API for the Neverwrote application.
Specifications
The database shall have two tables, one for notebooks called Notebooks and one for notes called
Notes.
• Records from the Notebooks table shall contain the attribute title (string).
• Records from the Notes table shall contain the attributes title (string) and content (text).
• All tables have a primary key column called id.
• Foreign keys shall follow the camel-case naming convention (eg a foreign key to the
Notebooks table would be called notebookId). Specify the foreign key name explicitly in
associations, as in Lab 07 (there we did foreignKey: ‘postId’).
• Each note shall belong to one notebook, but a single notebook can have many notes.
• Two Sequelize models shall be defined – Notebook and Note. These models shall have the
correct associations.
• The backend shall expose the following REST API:
HTTP action Description
GET /notebooks Returns a list of all notebooks (does not include notes).
This endpoint has been created for you already.
GET /notebooks/:notebookId/notes Returns a list of all notes for a particular notebook.
POST /notebooks Creates a new notebook using the posted data. Returns the
new notebook.
GET /notebooks/:notebookId Returns a single notebook by ID.
DELETE /notebooks/:notebookId Deletes a single notebook by ID. All of the notebook’s
notes shall be deleted also. Returns an empty object, {}.
PUT /notebooks/:notebookId Updates the attributes of a particular notebook. Returns
the updated notebook.
GET /notes Returns a list of all notes.
POST /notes Creates a new note using the posted data. The notebookId
attribute shall specify which notebook it belongs to.
Returns the new note.
GET /notes/:noteId Returns a single note by ID.
DELETE /notes/:noteId Deletes a single note by ID. Returns an empty object, {}.
PUT /notes/:noteId Updates the attributes of a particular note. Returns the
updated note.
• The tests shall pass. This is a very helpful tool, as you can verify that you are on track as you
complete this part of the assignment. You can run the tests with:
docker-compose run –rm api jasmine
? You shall not modify the tests in the spec/ directory
• The API shall access the database (and accept values from the HTTP request where
appropriate). The REST API shall not use hard-coded values for notes or notebooks.
Part 2 – Frontend interface (40 marks)
You will find “Lab 08 – Frontend” to be particularly useful as a reference for this part. I have also
prepared a stripped-back React/Redux code example which you may find useful to look at for ideas:
https://jsfiddle.net/dismal_denizen/zq23cheL/.
Don’t forget that you need to have Gulp running (docker-compose run –rm frontend gulp) for your
frontend code to be compiled as you work.
Task 2.1 (18 marks)
Create a read-only web interface for the Neverwrote application which displays notebooks and
notes.
Specifications
• There shall be a view which lists the titles of all of the notebooks.
• Clicking on a notebook shall display a list of all of the titles of notes within that notebook.
• Clicking on a note shall show the full content of that note.
Task 2.2 (20 marks)
Allow users to create and delete notes and notebooks via the web interface.
Specifications
• Users shall be able to create and delete notes and notebooks.
• The state of the application shall be maintained in a Redux store.
• All changes to the Redux store shall be made via dispatched actions.
• Modifications to notebooks and notes shall be persisted in the backend database via the
REST API. Therefore changes should survive a page refresh.
• You shall use the MarkdownEditor component provided for you as the way to edit notes.
This is not much different from using a normal text field. Example usage: value={this.state.noteContent} onChange={onChangeContent} />
• You shall use two Redux reducers: one for the notebooks and one for the notes.
Task 2.3 (2 marks)
Make the interface pretty and nice to use. The Internet is a great place to find inspiration for styles
and small snippets of CSS which you can incorporate into your design.
Bootstrap v3.3.6 is already included as a dependency of the project, and defines a bunch of nice-
looking CSS classes which you can use out-of-the-box. Check out the documentation at
http://bootstrapdocs.com/v3.3.6/docs/ to see what’s available (in particular the CSS and
Components pages).
Part 3 – Summary statistics (10 marks)
Task 3.1 (4 marks)
Create a new controller in the backend and set up the routes so that the controller is responsible for
the /stats URL path. Add a single action to the controller which responds with JSON indicating
some key statistics about the notebooks and notes stored in the database. Use your Sequelize models
to perform the necessary database queries.
Here is an example of what the API response might look like:
Specifications
• The new /stats API endpoint shall be made available at http://localhost/api/stats.
• The stats controller code shall be placed in a new file, src/controllers/stats.js.
• The /stats endpoint shall respond to GET requests with a JSON object containing the
following information:
? The number of notebooks in the database.
? The number of notes in the database.
? The name of the most recently updated note.
? The name of the oldest notebook by creation time.
Task 3.2 (4 marks)
Modify the frontend to display summary statistics on the Neverwrote home page. The statistics
themselves shall be retrieved using the /stats API endpoint implemented in Task 3.1.
Specifications
• A new reducer shall be added for managing statistics in the frontend application store.
• A new “Statistics” React component shall be created which is connected to the application
store and displays the summary statistics.
• The Statistics component shall be displayed on the Neverwrote home page.
• Stats shall be loaded into the application store the first time that the Statistics component is
initialised.
? It is not required that the statistics update as notes/notebooks are added, removed, or
modified.
Task 3.3 (2 marks)
Add a refresh button which updates the displayed statistics when clicked.
For example, if the statistics show a count of 3 notebooks, and then you add another one, clicking
the refresh button should update the displayed statistics to indicate that there are now 4 notebooks.
Specifications
• A refresh button shall be visible in the statistics component.
• Clicking the refresh button shall update the stats by accessing the /stats API endpoint.
Part 3 – Bonus task (up to 20 bonus marks)
These bonus tasks are an opportunity for you to earn back marks which you may lose in the other
parts of the assignment.
Implement a search system for the frontend interface.
• 10 marks will be awarded for search functionality within a notebook (filtering based on title
and content). This can be purely client-side (in the browser).
• The rest of the marks will be awarded for a separate ability to search across all notes and
notebooks based on title and content. This shall be implemented via a new API endpoint (so
the searching happens in the backend).