[Live] Phase 5 Project Guidelines

It is time. Your final project for this course. This is the capstone project that you'll be showing off to demonstrate all the things that you've learned so far. This is awesome.

Before we dive into what your project is going to be about, we need to establish some ground rules.

Final Project

This is the time to dive into React libraries you've gotten interested in, or play with APIs that would have taken too long to figure out during a shorter project week. This is the time to make the app that you've always wanted but never had, write up a bunch of custom CSS, and really put your skills on display.

Because we're asking you to show off a specific set of skills, we have some requirements. It should be obvious that one of the requirements is that you need to use the things that you learned during this course. This isn't the time to build a game with Unity or explore the MEAN stack or try and whip up a React Native app. You've done a ton of learning already — it's time to apply all of that knowledge.

Project Requirements

You must meet the following Phase 5 Project Minimum Requirements:

Implement Flask and SQLAlchemy in an application backend.
Include a many to many relationship.
Implement a minimum of 4 models.
Implement a minimum of 5 client side routes using React router.
Include full CRUD on at least 1 model, following REST conventions.
Implement validations and error handling.
Implement something new not taught in the curriculum. (Check in with your instructor to ensure the scope of your idea is appropriate.)
Implement useContext or Redux.

** Please discuss with your instructor if you have any issues aligning these requirements with your project.

Helpful Tools

Organization

Kanban/Scrum Board: Because this will be the most complex project you've made during this course, you'll need something to keep you organized. We recommend Trello or a Github Project Board. Use this to track what you're doing and what you need to work on. It's also a great idea to keep track of bugs that you're not going to immediately fix.
Pomodoro Timer: If you don't take breaks, you'll end up hurting your eyes, getting RSI (repetitive strain injury) or burning yourself out. The Pomodoro Timer method lets you put in solid chunks of work while also giving you regular breaks. We like Marinara Timer, since it's nicely customizable.

Resources

Google Fonts — An amazing resource for fonts of all types
Grid Garden / Flexbox Froggy — Great for getting familiar with Grid and Flexbox
CSS Tricks — Learn yourself some sweet CSS
Semantic UI React / ReactStrap — CSS styling using React components
Postman — Test your backend without having to build out a frontend
Render — Simple, free hosting for your site
App Ideas — some ideas for non-standard apps