Art Supply Tracker

Version 1: GitHub: art-supply-tracker

After gaining confidence developing software and programming in my CS courses, I began exploring ways to create an application to manage my art supply collection. After creating an initial mobile first UX design in Figma, I began exploring React and Firebase to develop a mobile first website during my summer break.

Version 2: GitHub: creative-project

After learning more about Node, Express, and SQL in the fall of my senior year, I redesigned the application, improving the UX and implementing additional features including a SQL database tracking users, art supply categories, properties, and inventory, enabling authentication and routing using Node and Express. I also learned to use APIs, integrating a feature to display clickable color options fetched from an API based on the user's color family selection. Although the application worked, it was difficult to maintain and expand features because I was writing SQL, HTML, and JavaScript/Node code manually rather than using a framework or other tools.

Verson 3: GitHub: creative-project-react

After learning more about React, software design, and cloud computing, I implemented this repo as an improved version during my senior web development course, implementing additional features including both stronger authentication and a JSON database backed by Firebase / Google Cloud, unit tests using JUnit, and dynamic forms utilizing React components that generate fields based on user choices (for example, after selecting a category of art supply like paintbrush or yarn, different fields are generated, like color, weight, or material). As part of the process, I was able to learn a lot about software design, developing more organized and maintainable applications using React components, the challenges and rewards of cloud services, and the tradeoffs between SQL and more flexible NoSQL / JSON databases.

Thanks for checking out my project!