Assignment 4
In this assignment we will be connecting to a database directly through our frontend!
Step 0 - Setup
Create a Next.js using our starter code with the following command:
yarn create next-app --typescript --example "https://github.com/cornell-dti/trends-sp22-starters/tree/main/a4" YOUR_DIR_NAME
Create a Firebase Project
For this assignment, you will be setting up your own Firebase project. You will be connecting your Next.js web app to the Firestore database to store task data.
See Ed for more specific Firebase setup instructions.
Step 1 - Finding One's Bearings
As with A2/A3, run yarn dev
in the project directory to start the server and
navigate to localhost:3000
to see what the starter code gives you.
In this assignment we will be implementing a simple task/todo list with add/delete functionality. Each task can also be "checked off" to denote being completed.
Tasks will be stored in our Firestore database, within a collection called
tasks
. Each document in the collection will represent a single task,
containing information such as the text/name of the task, as well as whether is
checked off.
Here are the important files you'll be working with:
- React Components
util/firebase.ts
- Utility file for all Firebase-related exports.
- We initialize the Firebase app here, so this is the place to paste your
firebaseConfig
.
components/frodo/Frodo.tsx
- Overall "todo list" component.
- We store a list of tasks in the state which gets passed down and displayed in children components.
components/frodo/TaskAddControl.tsx
- Component for adding a new task to the task list.
- Instead of updating state directly, we will perform a database operation in order to add a task.
components/frodo/TaskList.tsx
- Simple "intermediate" component that maps over a list of tasks.
components/frodo/TaskItem.tsx
- Component for displaying a task's information.
- Has a toggleable checkbox and a "delete" button
- Other Files
types/index.ts
Task
is a simple schema for a task. Firebase documents that represent tasks should match this schema.TaskWithId
is a type that has every property inTasks
PLUS theid
property, which represents the task's Firebase document id.
As always, make sure to fill in all the TODOs before submitting!
You can press CTRL + SHIFT + F in VSCode to search through all project files.
Step 2 - Add The Firebase Config
In util/firebase.ts
, you want to fill in your Firebase config with data found
on the Firebase Console. To find the config, you can start at your Console and
navigate Settings/Cog -> Project settings -> Scroll Down
You will find a code snippet including something that looks like the following:
const firebaseConfig = {
apiKey: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
authDomain: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.firebaseapp.com',
projectId: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
storageBucket: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.appspot.com',
messagingSenderId: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
appId: 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
};
Copy/replace the empty object in your project code in order to finish setting up your Firebase.
Step 3 - Fetching Data
If we look at components/frodo/Frodo.tsx
, we see that there is a useState
hook used to keep track of the tasks. However, we never call setTasks
!
This web app should connect to our Firestore database to get all the tasks, and then set our local state to what the database gives us.
The plan is simple:
- First, construct a Firebase query that gets all the documents in the
tasks
collection.- Hint: use
query()
andcollection()
to create the query
- Hint: use
- Then, subscribe to the query in order to get realtime updates to the
query results
- We use the
onSnapshot()
function from the Firebase library to do this - The code for this step is provided, you just have to uncomment it
- We use the
- Finally, set our tasks state with information contained in
querySnapshot
- Hint: use
.map()
to create aTaskWithId[]
list - Hint 2: use
obj as Task
to "cast" an object to typeTask
- Hint 3: use
doc.id
to get the id of a document - Hint 4: use
{...obj, foo: 'bar'}
to create a new object based onobj
, but with an additional propertyfoo
(this is object destructuring!)
- Hint: use
Feel free to add in dummy Firestore documents through the web interface (Console) to check if you've completed this step properly.
Step 4 - Adding Tasks
Now let's direct our attention to components/frodo/TaskAddControl.tsx
.
We have a function called addTask
that fires whenever the form submits (such
as when a user clicks the Add Task
button).
All we have to do here is implement the rest of this function!
Hint: you can call the addDoc()
function without specifying an id
to create
a document with a random id (in many cases this is preferable).
Step 5 - Modifying Tasks
Let's wrap up by implementing functionality in components/frodo/TaskItem.tsx
.
We have two functions toggleTask
and deleteTask
that are empty.
toggleTask
is triggered when a user clicks on the checkbox. It should toggle
the checked
status of that particular task.
deleteTask
is triggered when a user clicks on the delete button. It should
remove that particular task from the database.
You may find updateDoc
and deleteDoc
helpful for this part.
Step 6 - Submission
Make sure you've completed all of the TODOs, including your name/netid in
components/layout/Footer.tsx
and the hours worked in pages/index.tsx
Feel free to remove the contents of your firebaseConfig
object in
firebase.ts
before submission. We will be grading by connecting your app to
our own database.
Once you are done, please zip up everything in your project folder EXCEPT the
node_modules
and .next
folders.
Then submit to CMS!