Library App

A web app to digitise the lending system for the Alfa office library. The project is a work-in-progress and was initiated as part of the first remote Innovation Day in March 2020.

       .--.                   .---.
   .---|__|           .-.     |~~~|
.--|===|--|_          |_|     |~~~|--.
|  |===|  |'\     .---!~|  .--|   |--|
|%%|   |  |.'\    |===| |--|%%|   |  |
|%%|   |  |\.'\   |   | |__|  |   |  |      Lo❤e the Library!
|  |   |  | \  \  |===| |==|  |   |  |
|  |   |__|  \.'\ |   |_|__|  |~~~|__|
|  |===|--|   \.'\|===|~|--|%%|~~~|--|
^--^---'--^    `-'`---^-^--^--^---'--'

User Stories

• As a library manager, I want to be able to add new books to the library.
• As a library user, I want to see a list of books that are in the library.
• As a library user, I want to seach for available books at the library.
• As a library user, when I am interested in a book, I want to see the title, author and other details of that book.
• As a library user, I want to see what books I have currently have loaned and when they are due back.
• As a library user, when I really like a book, I want to take it out on loan.

Tech Stack

Back-end

• The back-end is a REST API built using Spring Boot.
• It has several end-points that the front-end calls upon to retrieve data.

Back-end setup

• Ensure you have a GitHub account & GitHub Deskdop App downloaded.
• Make sure your GitHub account is added to alfasoftware on GitHub.
• Go to GitHub/alfasoftware you should be able to accept the invitation if this is a new account.
• Make sure your account has been added to the library-maintainers group.
• Download the library app code from GitHub.
• Ensure you have a Postman account & Postman Desktop App downloaded.
• You then have to be added to the necessary Team workspace by someone already on the team.
• Make sure you have SQLyog
• Create new connection in SQLyog with libraray database
• Next step is to create a new project from existing sources in IntelliJ with the library app code downloaded from GitHub.
• Update the appplication.properties file in IntelliJ to have spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create
• Run the app
• Stop and then re-start the app after updating that same line to spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
• Add some ISBN's into your database via postman's api/addbookposting

Front-end

• The front-end is built using the JavaScript library React
• It uses axios to make GET requests to display information in UI and POST requests to send data to the back-end to persist in the database.

Front-end setup

• Downlaod NodeJS, npm
• Go to powershell and cd into the library-app downloaded from github
• Run npm install
• Run npm start

To use the app

• First, clone this repo.
• Both the back-end and front-end need to be running simultaneously for the app to work...

To run the back-end API

• In your IDE open the library-backend folder and run the main() method in the Application.java file.

To run the app (front-end)

• Navigate to library-app folder
• Run npm install --save axios in Command Prompt/Terminal to get node modules and include axios in the package.
• Run npm install --save react-router-dom in Command Prompt/Terminal to include react-router-dom in the package.
• Run npm start in Command Prompt/Terminal to run the app.
• To stop app use ctrl+c for Command Prompt or cmd+c in Terminal.

Progress so far

The front-end is currently presenting a home page and a catalogue of the books in the library

The back-end currently stores a table of books and a table of loans. It utilises the Google Books API to retrieve full details of the books available in the library. There are several end-points for the front-end to call upon to retrieve and send data.