week 7

 

During Week 7, the FoodNextDoor project team focused heavily on sprint implementation tasks that were essential for moving closer to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Our sprint aimed to complete key functionality including user registration, survey forms, backend integration, and staff search features. A major achievement was the successful development and testing of the user registration and login system, which now securely stores data and authenticates users via backend APIs. Another key milestone was the creation and connection of the multi-page survey form. This survey allows respondents to provide their preferences and details, with Page 3 dynamically changing based on the selections from Page 2. Despite some conditional rendering issues initially, we resolved these through collaborative debugging and logic refinement. We also began backend integration where survey responses are now stored in MongoDB through Node.js and Express routes. Furthermore, we developed a staff search interface that allows internal users to filter and find participants based on specific criteria, a crucial feature for food donation coordination. In terms of UI/UX, we refined the platform’s layout for mobile responsiveness and aligned the frontend with Figma design guidelines. These changes enhanced usability and gave the platform a more professional look. Throughout the sprint, we encountered challenges, including data mismatch between frontend inputs and backend schema, and occasional merge conflicts during team collaboration on GitHub. These were tackled by improving team communication, using Trello for clearer task delegation, and conducting frequent test runs. We also gained valuable insights into the importance of early-stage testing, as it allowed us to detect form submission bugs and API issues before scaling. The tools used this week included ReactJS and Tailwind CSS for frontend, Node.js and MongoDB for backend, and Figma for UI design. GitHub and Google Meet supported collaboration and code management. Looking ahead, the next sprint will focus on completing advanced staff search functionalities, enabling export to CSV, and conducting comprehensive end-to-end testing. We are also planning a short internal demo to showcase our progress to mentors and peers. Overall, Sprint 2 was productive and helped lay a solid technical foundation for the upcoming features. The collaborative effort of the team ensured that tasks were completed efficiently, setting the pace for a successful final sprint in the coming weeks.