Syncave

Web app to easily share, sync and collect information with others

Motivation

• Learning FastAPI, Svelte and everything involved in developing and deploying a web app.
• Having the ability to make my ideas a reality.

Tech Stack

• JavaScript + Svelte in the frontend
• FastAPI (with Python) in the backend
• Supabase (Postgres) as the database
• Cypress and pytest for testing
• Deployed on Netlify and AWS EC2

Features

Application

• Access space with (predefined) keys or directly through url
• Create notes and save in DB
• Load and display notes
• Notification toasts
• Basic UI
• Dark mode
• Delete note
• Create Cave
• Feedback button
• Copy note text

  Deployment

• E2E tests
• Unit tests
• Svelte app deployed on netlify
• Dockerized backend
• FastAPI app deployed on a AWS t2.micro EC2 instance
• Custom domain for frontend and backend

Next steps

• Fix E2E tests (some broke)
• Auto-deploy (CD) to Netlify and AWS on push
• Fixing bugs

Potential further steps

• "Last used caves" on login screen
• Clean refreshing of notes after creating / deleting
• Making links clickable, QR code for cave key
• Checkboxes for deleting multiple notes
• Redesign of UI
• Proper implementation of dark mode
• Info text for users
• Auto-testing (CI) on push
• encrypting data

Discovered bugs

• Feedback button doesn't stay fixed on the bottom
• Dark mode setting resetted when refreshing / redirecting page
• Page not accessible without 'www.'

Timeline

• Sept 20 to 23, 2022: Started the project
• Sept 24, 2022: Created repository and upload on GitHub
• Oct 19, 2022: Added delete note and create cave functionality
• Oct 21, 2022: Added feedback button
• Oct 22, 2022: Implemented E2E tests
• Oct 23 to 26, 2022:
  • Tried continuous integration with E2E and unit tests using Github Actions but wasn't succesful (see deployment branch)
  • Wrote basic unit tests
• Oct 27 to 29, 2022:
  • Deployment of svelte app on Netlify
  • Dockerization and deployment of backend on a AWS t2.micro EC2 instance (Ubuntu)
  • Setting up custom domain for frontend (www.syncave.com) and backend (api.syncave.com)
  • Tried setting up HTTPS for backend with certbot but wasn't successful yet
• Oct 30, 2022:
  • Improved color scheme in web app
  • Unified designs of buttons
  • Many small improvements in web app.
• Oct 31, 2022:
  • Implemented copy note text button
• Apr 16, 2023:
  • Added SSL certificate for backend and frontend
  • all connections are now HTTPS secured

Database Schema

Screenshots

E2E tests

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/100248269/197353113-d547f76f-492b-4a07-977a-12eb0a3d1046.mp4

updated: Apr 16, 2023