leomedina/considered_collectively

A web app that allows you to track and follow the bills in Congress that matter to you. Built using Python, Flask, Bootstrap 5, and deployed on Heroku using a PostgreSQL database.

Considered Collectively

Considered Collectively is a web app that allows you to track and follow bills in the United States Congress.The application is built using Python, Flask, Bootstrap 5, and deployed on Heroku using a PostgreSQL database.

Technologies in Used:

• Front-End:

  • In Use: HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap 5 (alpha) using templates built with Jinja.
  • Not in used: JQuery (because it's 2020).

• Back-End:

  • In Use: Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, and Bcrypt.

Database Information:

• DATABASE:
  • Data is stored in a many-to-many PostgreSQL database on Heroku.
  • User password data is encrypted using Bcrypt.
  • Bills are only saved when a user clicks on "Follow The Bill". This saves space on the server.
  • Bills are updated every morning when an external cron job makes a request to a secret route, allowing for the user to see the latest bills whenever they login.
• DATA USED:
  • ProPublica's Congress API.

Testing

All Functions will be broken down and unit tested wherever possible. This section is still a WIP, more to come soon.

Errors and bugs

If something is not behaving intuitively, it is a bug and should be reported. Report it here by creating an issue: https://github.com/Leomedina/Follow_Your_Rep/issues.

Help me fix the problem as quickly as possible by following Mozilla's guidelines for reporting bugs.

Team:

• UI / UX: Leo Medina
• Front-End Developer: Leo Medina
• Back-End Engineer: Leo Medina

Screenshots:

considered_collectively's Issues

[version 2] Implement ability to follow publicly

Give the user ability to follow legislation publicly. This is designed to make the application more social (think Venmo's public tab)

[bug] 500 Server Error when following a bill that's already being followed by the user

[version 2] Implement the ability to follow a representative

Overview: Implement the ability to follow a representative, such as House member or Senator.

Technical Details: Currently the server includes several tables such as "representatives" and "representative-users" that give you many-to-many database capabilities to follow representatives.

[server enhancement] Indexing all table columns on the server

Indexing all table columns in the server will greatly improve speed - may require additional space... TBD.

More info: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/indexes/columnstore-indexes-overview?view=sql-server-ver15

[bug] Custom 404 Page

Currently, any 404 errors will not be routed to a custom 404 page.

[version 2] state management

find a way to save the user's follow in a separate state, that would prevent any catastrophic failures if the user saves a bill when the database is not accessible.

[version 2] Add ability to comment on bills

Allow for users to discuss the bill

[version 2] Add user roles (admin, rep, etc)

Have the ability to create super users and users that are "verified" representative. This will allow representatives to answer any questions set forth by users in the comment sections of the bills.