Pantry Pal is still a work in progress, but eventually it will be an app where you can store info on all the groceries you have in your pantry, cupboards, fridge, anywhere you store food. You can split food storage into multiple areas, and track food expiration dates and lot codes so you know when your food is about to expire to minimize food waste or danger from potential product recalls. Set minimum stock levels so you know when to buy more essential staples before you run out. You can also set storage requirements for items that need to be refrigerated or frozen, or for items that should be stored in a dark place.
Link to project: Coming Soon
Tech used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Express, Node, MongoDB
I'm using the basic MERN stack to develop Pantry Pal. For now images are stored with Cloudinary, the database is hosted on a free MongoDB Atlas cluster, and the app itself is hosted on NameCheap shared web hosting.
Right now you can add or remove only a whole item. Eventually I would like to be able to use a partial quantity of an item. Like if you have a 10 pound bag of flour, you can remove it by the ounce or pound, or even cups or tablespoons. Ideally, you can enter in almost any measurement and it will convert it. Similarly, I would like to be able to split items into different storage areas by partial quantities. Like if you bought a 50 pound bag of flour, you might keep 45 pounds in a large tote in the pantry, but have a smaller 5 pound container in the kitchen.
If you want to run your own copy, clone the repo locally, then run npm install
- Open the
.env.examplefile in the config folder, and fill in the missing variables- PORT = 3000 (use any open port on your system)
- EXPRESS_SESSION_SECRET = Generate a random value to encrypt session storage
- MONGOOSE_DB_STRING = Your MongoDB URI
- CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME = Your cloudinary cloud name
- CLOUDINARY_API_KEY = Your cloudinary API key
- CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET = Your cloudinary API secret
- MULTER_ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS = Allowed image extensions (adjust if necessary)
- FRIENDLY_APP_NAME = The name of the app, used in templates
- BCRYPT_SALT_ROUNDS = How much time bcrypt will take to calculate salt
- JWT_SECRET = Generate a random 32-character alphanumeric key
- CLIENT_URL = The final URL where this app will be hosted (ex. http://localhost for development)
- EMAIL_FROM = The email address messages sent from this application will come from
- EMAIL_HOST = SMTP server used for sending emails to users
- EMAIL_PORT = Port of the SMTP server above
- EMAIL_USERNAME = Username for the email account from which you send messages
- EMAIL_PASSWORD = Password for the email account from which you send messages
npm start