Pokémon Go Pokédex Web Application

Background

Pokémon Go is different than the original GameBoy games in that in order to evolve a Pokémon you have to collect enough candies. The number of candies needed vary between each Pokémon. When you catch a Pokémon you are awarded a collection of candies and when you transfer or essentially delete a Pokémon from your bag you are also awarded a single candy. The other way a trainer can receive candy is by walking with a Pokémon. The app will track by GPS the number of KM's you walk even when the app is not running. The distance requirement can very from 2KM to 20KM per candy.

Motivation

To create a user friendly application that allows a trainer to see which Pokémon they should walk with next sorted by the number of miles required in which case they can quickly fill up their Pokédex.

Screenshots

Installation/Setup Instructions

This app was originally built for use with the Mongo Atlas database service and hosting through Heroku. The app will either look for a settings.json file or use your servers environment variables. Below is general outline of first steps for integration with your own database and hosting service.

1. yarn install: Install all necessary dependencies
2. Create a settings.json file replacing the below sample dummy data
   • Keep this file hidden using the .gitignore file

{
    "connectionString": "url (atlas or ip address)", 
    "username": "username",
    "password": "password",
    "collection": "mongo db collection name",
    "secret": "random secret string"
}

3. Copy the above object properties name strings and create configuration variables.
4. Run seed data scrips in the below sequence
   a. node /SeedData/index.js --sd
   b. node /SeedData/index.js --se
   

Mongo Atlas & Heroku

1. Sign up for an account and create a new cluster
   a. Click on connect and follow the "Connect your application" steps
2. Create a new account with Heroku and create a new application. Under Settings match your config vars with your settings.json file
   a. Follow the deployment steps found under the "Deploy" tab

Workflow

Reference "Script Definitions" section were needed.

1. Run express server and development instance of React app.
2. Make any needed changes
3. Stop express server and dev processes
4. Run heroku local if using Heroku to test before pushing
5. Build the react app
6. Push to your server

Script Definitions

• node /server/index.js: Runs Express API script
• yarn start: Run app from the /build folder, but yarn build needs to be ran first
• yarn build: Builds the app for production to the build folder
• yarn reactStart: Runs the app in the development mode independent of Express
• yarn test: Launches the test runner in the interactive watch mode.
• heroku local: Heroku local server instance to test before pushing to server
• node SeedData/index.js -h:Seed data to your database
  • node /SeedData/index.js --sd: Add all Pokémon and distances
  • node /SeedData/index.js --se: Add all Pokémon evolution requirements.

Learning Objectives

• Setup basic authentication using Express Basic Auth
• Add third party Jquery plugins to a React app
  • Integration other libraries
  • Integration DataTables

Other Reading

Node Specific

• Base64 encoding with buffer

Authentication & Authorization

• JWT with Node.js

Create React App

• Running tests
• Deployment

DataTables

• Unknown parameter '0' from data source