How long did you spend on this assignment?
I spent approximately 4-5 hours on this assignment. Most of it was debugging stupid SQL stuff.
Where did you spend the most time?
The majority of my time was spent writing and debugging the request handlers, as well as ensuring the SQLite database interactions were working correctly. Also, I was having trouble setting up my tests beforeEach.
What did you struggle with the most?
I struggled the most with trying to make SQL queries and set up the database in tests.
What would’ve improved your experience on this assignment?
I did not expect it to be such a long assignment. I was not mentally prepared.
What are some of the issues TypeScript helped you prevent?
What are some of the holes in the type system?
any[] by default unless explicitly typed.What kinds of values did you struggle to type correctly?
I struggled to type the return values of database queries when dynamically selecting or filtering rows.
Are there any TypeScript topics that are still confusing you?
No, I have a pretty good understanding so far.
What was your experience writing tests?
Got it working after a lot of time.
Did your tests help you find any bugs? If so, which ones?
No, not really.
How would you structure your testing differently in the future?
In the future, I would:
What did you learn while testing?
Tests can be helpful but can also take more time than they’re worth.
Keep track of the changes you made to your back-end as you implemented your front-end. What changes did you need to make and why?
database.setup to resolve delete errors.author_id exists in the authors table before inserting a book.Would you structure your back-end differently in the future?
Overall, I think I did a great initial job; there were just a few tweaks I needed to make when setting up the table structure.
Did you also perform client-side validation or did you rely on server-side validation alone? What are the pros/cons of making either choice?
The current frontend app has minimal client-side validation, primarily through the controlled form inputs and placeholders.
Pros/Cons: Client-side validation allows for a better user experience but can be easily bypassed and is not good for security reasons. However, server-side validation is safer but does not supply the user with the best experience. Therefore, having both is ideal.
What was your experience manipulating state with React components (especially with the useEffect hook)? What kinds of things did you struggle with?
I thought it was pretty simple to manage. Did not really struggle at all.
What was your experience using types with the front-end? Did they catch any bugs? Did you have to make a lot of manual annotations? Did you resort to using any frequently, and if so, why?
Using the defined interfaces and explicitly typing everything was helpful, as my IDE was able to fill in a lot for me as I was typing. It made development faster.
Compare and contrast your experiences writing an SPA front-end with React to writing a MPA front-end like we did in CS375. Which was harder? Which did you enjoy more? How did you feel about the experience generally?
SPA > MPA. Personally, I like Angular better than React, but either are miles better than MPAs. While SPAs have a higher learning curve, once you understand them, simple things become much easier and are necessary for larger apps.