This version of the Book Beep web portal is running on Rails 4.3.7 without Active Record. It is using DynamoDB and wraps data from the Libris API (http://libris.kb.se/)
It was my capstone project at Ada Developers Academy in Seattle, January 2017.
##What is Book Beep?
Book Beep is a a way to organize books for personal use or for small libraries through a mobile-first web portal.
Currently it utilizes Libris to catalogue Swedish books and display the library on the cloud. The benefit to have a catalogue of books is that it can be shared to similar organizations around the world, and it gives an overview of books owned.
##How to use Book Beep? Book Beep runs in the cloud, and the user start adding books from the browser on their mobile phone using the books ISBN numbers. The site is responsive, which means it will adapt for the user on the small screen.
For when the user wants a better view of their library, they can use Book Beep on a computer in their browser. It gives more information on their catalogue and the experience is enhanced.
The limitations to Book Beep is that there are no libraries for multiple users, items outside of Libris cannot be added, and the database cannot be edited from the website.
##Thoughts about Book Beep I am proud of having worked out how to use Rails and a NoSQL server together. I choose DynamoDB as my database because my relationships were minimal with only one table and plans for no fixed schema.
The search feature covers the main three pieces of information that can be expected from books: ISBN, Title, and Creator Last Name. It handles the Swedish letters: "Å å Ä ä Ö ö" as well as lower and capital letters.
This project is following MVC with the API wrapper in the '/lib' directory. The code is well covered by tests in the model class, but the controller should be covered to ensure Book Beep performs as intended when the portal is extended.
I made some headway into connecting the barcode scanner QuaggaJS (see link for Github) to my web portal for use with mobile phones. Time did not allow implementation, but I learned about connecting Javascript and Rails, as well as my portal being developed mobile-first, as I had it in mind throughout.
The capstone project intended to maximize new learning goals building on the curriculum.
For the next phase this project will expand to allow several libraries to sign on to the web portal, to expand the number of ISBN APIs connected, and to connect a ISBN barcode scanner for mobile phone use.
Eventually, Book Beep will allow books to be checked in and out of the library by maintaining a borrower database with a feature to email users as their borrowed books are due to be returned.
- Ruby on Rails
- AWS DynamoDB
- AWS Services for deployment
- Libris API
Book Beep web portal
Book Beep on Github
Trello Board
©Alma Maizels 2017