Product List Management App

This project is a full-stack application for managing a Product List, featuring a RESTful API backend (Node.js, TypeScript, in-memory MongoDB) and a React frontend with a custom Tooltip component.

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Getting Started

1. Install Dependencies

From the project root, install dependencies for both backend and frontend:

cd backend && npm install
cd ../frontend && npm install

2. Start the Application

You can start both the backend and frontend in separate terminals:

Backend:

cd backend
npm run dev

The backend will run at http://localhost:3000

Frontend:

cd frontend
npm run dev

The frontend will run at http://localhost:5173

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Database

• The backend uses an in-memory MongoDB database (via mongodb-memory-server).
• The database starts empty every time you restart the backend server.

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Creating Products

• You can create products using the API documentation provided by Swagger.
• Visit http://localhost:3000/docs after starting the backend.
• Use the POST /products endpoint to add new products.

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Notes

• The frontend fetches and displays products from the backend.
• The Tooltip component shows the product description on hover or focus.
• You must create products (using Swagger or the API) before they will appear in the frontend.

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Why soft-deleting?

• It would be perhaps slightly easier to implement a hard delete using the appropriate api on Mongoose. However, this is an opportunity to note that in a real environment there should always be made an effort to preserve history. This can be achieved via a soft delete as implemented here or by any other appropriate means, such as on delete triggering a process that would save some sort of log of the record for audit purposes.

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What else could I have done?

In the interest of brevity and to keep within the scope of the assignment, some features that would otherwise be expected have been left out, such as:

• Auth, even if just a username and password saved in the in-memory database for the purpose of demonstrating a signup and signin process.
• A form to add products to the database. It is assumed that the lack of this is compensated by testing the backend via the Swagger documentation provided.
• Starting by designing the OpenAPI spec, so that a shared types library could be generated from it, and used by both the backend and the frontend to establish the contract between both. I didn't want to overcomplicate the implementation, but in the past I have done this using Zod in a monorepo.