Alright, so today I’m gonna spill the tea on my little project inspired by “Sex and the City” Season 5. No, I didn’t suddenly move to New York and start dating around like Carrie Bradshaw (though a girl can dream!). This was all about diving into a specific tech stack to build a mock e-commerce site inspired by the show’s fashion and vibe.
First off, I decided on the tech stack. I went with React for the front-end because, well, it’s what I’m most comfortable with. Plus, it’s great for building interactive UIs, perfect for showcasing clothes and accessories. For the backend, I opted for * with Express. It’s simple, fast, and gets the job done without a ton of fuss. And for the database? MongoDB. NoSQL felt right for this project, given the flexible nature of product attributes.
The first thing I did was setting up the backend. I fired up my terminal and created a new * project. Then I installed Express, Mongoose (for MongoDB interaction), and a few other necessary packages like CORS for handling cross-origin requests. After that, I defined my product schema in Mongoose – things like name, description, price, images, and some “Sex and the City” inspired categories like “Manolos,” “Cocktail Dresses,” and “Statement Jewelry.”
Next up, creating the API endpoints. I whipped up routes for fetching all products, fetching a single product by ID, and (eventually) for adding and updating products (though I didn’t fully implement those last two for this mock project). I made sure to include error handling and proper status codes. Nobody wants a 500 error when they’re trying to browse for the perfect outfit!
Then came the fun part: the frontend! I created a new React app using Create React App. Once that was set up, I started designing the UI. I wanted it to be clean, modern, and with a touch of “Sex and the City” glamour. Think lots of white space, high-quality product images, and a chic font. I used components to display the product listings, individual product pages, and a simple navigation bar.
Connecting the frontend to the backend was the next hurdle. I used the `useEffect` hook to fetch data from the API endpoints when the components mount. I made sure to handle loading states and error states gracefully. No one wants to stare at a blank screen while waiting for data to load!
I spent a good chunk of time styling the app using CSS and a little bit of styled-components. I focused on making it responsive so it looks good on both desktop and mobile devices. After all, Carrie would want to shop on the go!
Testing was crucial. I made sure the API endpoints were returning the correct data, and that the frontend was displaying everything properly. I used the browser’s developer tools to debug any issues that popped up.
Deployed it to Netlify. It’s free, easy to use, and great for hosting static sites. It wasn’t a fully functional e-commerce site with a shopping cart and checkout, but it did showcase a product catalog with a clean, modern UI.
Reflecting on the project, I learned a ton about building full-stack applications with React, *, and MongoDB. It was a fun way to combine my love for coding with a little bit of pop culture. Would I do it again? Absolutely! Maybe next time I’ll add a shopping cart and a checkout process.
- Backend: * with Express
- Frontend: React
- Database: MongoDB
