Understanding Software Development Lifecycle

Software Development

Software development is a significant process that attracts an integration of the software development models. In this context, the project considers the software development lifecycle in establishing the requirements of creating the create-react app, product design, testing, deployment of the product and maintenance and operations. The create-react app is regarded as a comfortable environment meant for learning react. However, the app may not be in a position to handle the databases or the backend logic.

Analysis and Requirements Gathering

The requirements needed in developing the product can be identified under this stage. Basically a webpack is needed in transforming the files and directories into static assets. The package.json is equally needed in outlining the necessary settings meant for the React app. The node modules are important and they carry with them both the sub-dependencies and dependencies of the packages applied to the current React app. If one runs 1s -1! wc -1, then the node module will yield over 800 subfolders. The src is also another requirement and carries with the JavaScript that I essentially processed by the webpack. The src has the App.js, App.css, index.css, App.test.js and the registerServiceWorker.js known for taking care of updating and caching the files. Another important requirement is the npm, which provides the $npm build known for building an app meant for production of the build folder while bundling React especially in the production mode (Bertoli 2017). The command also optimizes build for the purposes of attaining best performance. Yarn also provides for $yarn start and cd which provides for $cd mern-stack-ecomm. JavaScript Resources are equally important. React documentation is necessary for programming as noticed across the JavaScript language.

Product Design

Product design looks at visualization, design resources and front-end implementation. The visualization language is essentially based on the design guidelines supported by data visualization features. This component ensures that data expression is aligned towards the user’s psychology while incubating the visual solutions (Eisenman 2015). Based on this, the project focused on the back-end database supported by MongoDB, Express and Node.js. Before sending data to MongoDB database, a file titled “mongoose” is needed to define the schema, which remains flexible in terms of accepting any formats. A folder titled “models” is better placed for defining the user, who covers the user object which is saved in DB. The MongoDB assigns the name, email, password, image, cart, role and tokenExp to the user (Bertoli 2017). The product is assigned to the product object which is saved in the database in terms of the writer, description, views, title, sold, price an image. Another component is the payment object which takes the user, product and data. On the other hand, the design resources play a focal role in the product design. The design resources include the design principles and usage of chart. For this project, the key resources include the architectural components linked to the built system. Notable components for the project include the index file, which is necessary for setting up the routes needed for the application. With the help of MongoDB connection, the string can be connected to the backend of the database (Paul and Nalwaya 2019). Routes 1 have both the users and products where the API endpoints are necessary. Another architectural component include the models, which play a focal role in terms of defining the user, the payment schemas and product while the middleware paves way for authentication through the json web token. The config component plays a pivotal role in modifying the MongoDB connection string regardless of whether the application would start in the production mode, or in the development mode. Lastly, the client component would make the http calls to the API endpoints, as well as make use of React js in displaying data.

The last part of the product design is the front end implementation. This calls for the utilization of the high interaction base chart while focusing on the relationship analysis. The most notable element at this stage is the hashing user password. Notably, within the model file, the user needs to register or log in for one to hash the password. The library bcrypt, a JavaScript library as well, can be of help. The preliminary flowchart diagram for the design of the project is as shown.

Starting a React process is somehow complicated and can take a multi-step process. The necessary requirements call for a build system, a base directory structure and a code compiler. However, all these may not be necessary when there is a Create React App which hosts the JavaScript packages. Some of the packages include build systems, basic linting and code transpiling. Some of the prerequisites one has to consider before starting the coding process are the basic understanding of JavaScript, which is covered in the JavaScript series, as well as the knowledge in CSS and HTML (Rice 2018). Installation of Node.js version 10.16.0 is necessary for the purposes of developing a Local Development Environment. Npm includes a tool known as npx, which has the capacity of running the executable packages. It is more convenient to use the react-scripts, which would be installed with repo. The test code can only be executed after running the test script. This helps in running the project in its minified version. Another concern is the build script, which requires the script name for the terminal. It is worth noting that only a limited number of the special scripts can be omitted while running the command. However, it is more recommendable to run the entire command (Fedosejev and Boduch 2017). The build directory can still be opened in the gitimore file. Sometimes, it is never necessary to make use of the version control due to the availability of the build command. Test script is still regarded as one of the most important scripts which may not call for the run keyword but may still work to have it included. Running the test script attracts the test runner known as Jest, which plays a focal role in terms of scanning through the files with either the test.js or spec.js extension. Sample code for test script is as shown below.

After running the scripts, it is also more convenient to start the server and modify the homepage at the same time. While running the local serve, it is important to execute the entire project code while listening to the code changes when opening it in the web browser. Apparently, if the script is active and running, the local server will also be active (Roldan 2019). On the other hand, modification of the Homepage requires a relook at the public directory that also contains the HTML page. Notably, logo512.png, favicon.ico and logo192.png are significant icons which a user would notice in a tab linked to the browser. The manifest.json is regarded as a structured set linked to metadata which describes the entire data. On the other hand, the robots.txt file carries significant information meant for the web crawlers. No changes are done to the file or the URL. When the index.txt file is rooted in the application, the following code is deemed necessary.

Before building the project, the Styling and the Heading Tag may need to be modified. Changes need to be done on the React component for the src directory. In addition, small changes need to be done on the JavaScript code and the CSS, which shall be updated in the browser (Satyal 2020). The serviceworker.js can be introduced for the purposes of making the progressive web applications. It is worth noting that the service worker is in a position of doing many things include offline caching and push notifications. Both the App.test.js and setupTests.js can be done while running the files.

The Create React App makes the fundamental use of Jest as part of the test runner. The tests would run within the node environment due to the fact that this would prevent flakiness and give room for fast iteration speed. The test files are normally introduced next to the project code for the purposes of giving room to relative imports which will end up appearing shorter. The command line interface further paves way for running the npm test as jest launches the watch mode. The interactive command line has the capacity of running all the tests or fosters the search pattern.

The deployment phase attracts the npm run build, which is essentially known for creating the build directory in the course of developing the app. However, the most convenient way is by introducing the client-side routing which can be used in serving apps. Routers are compatible to HTML5 pushstate. The development server will obviously respond to the server as the React Router takes /todos/42. The server keeps on looking for the file as one way of responding to the request prompted by /todos/42. On the other hand, the Apache HTTP server would require one to create the htaccess file.

Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to Agile Methodology in E-Commerce Development.

References

Eisenman, B., 2015. Learning react native: Building native mobile apps with JavaScript. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".

Fedosejev, A. and Boduch, A., 2017. React 16 Essentials: A fast-paced, hands-on guide to designing and building scalable and maintainable web apps with React 16. Packt Publishing Ltd.

Paul, A. and Nalwaya, A., 2019. Learning the Basics: A Whistle-Stop Tour of React. In React Native for Mobile Development (pp. 1-20). Apress, Berkeley, CA.

Roldan, C.S., 2019. React Design Patterns and Best Practices: Design, build and deploy production-ready web applications using standard industry practices. Packt Publishing Ltd.

Satyal, A., 2020. Designing and Developing a Website with ReactJS: Progressive Web Application.