TMBC Comment App

A simple nested comment application built with Laravel 5.4 and AngularJS 1.6.

Backend:

• Controller: App\Http\Controllers\Controller [Folder: app/Http/Controllers]
• Model: App\Comment [Folder: app]
• Comment Seeder Factory: [Folder: database/factories/ModelFactory.php]
• Comment Database Schema Definition and Versioning: [Folder: database/migrations/]
• Comment Seeder Class: [Folder: database/seeds/CommentsTableSeeder.php]
• Views:
  • Layout file: frontend.blade.php [Folder: resources/views/layouts]
  • Comment App View: index.blade.php [Folder: resources/views/comment]
• Routes:
  • API (for AJAX post and Delete comments): api.php [Folder: routes]
  • Home View Route: web.php [Folder: routes]
• Settings: .env
  • DB_DATABASE
  • DB_USERNAME
  • DB_PASSWORD
  • MAX_COMMENT_DEPTH [to define maximum level of comments allowed]
• Tests:
  • Integration: [Folder: tests/Feature]
    • CommentControllerTest
  • Unit: [Folder: tests/unit]
    • CommentControllerTest

Frontend:

• Libraries:
  • AngularJS 1.6.1
  • Angular Animate 1.6.1
  • Bootstrap UI
• Controller: CommentController.js [Folder: public/js/commentApp/controllers]
• Service: CommentService.js [Folder: public/js/commentApp/services]
• App Module: App.js [Folder: public/js/commentApp]

Requirements:

- PHP7
- Laravel5.4 and its dependencies
- AngularJS, AngularAnimate, BootstrapUI

Installation:

- Clone this repository and run into bash: 
    php composer.phar update
- Set correct settings (based on your environment) on .env file
- Add to .env file: MAX_COMMENT_DEPTH=3
- Create databse: 
    php artisan migrate
- Seed database with initial data:
    php artisan db:seed
- Run PHP7 Server:
    php artisan serve
    Then use provided url to access the application in the browser.

TODO:

• Angular View should use Directives for dynamic nesting of comments. I tried this, but came up with few issues, and rolled back to manual levels (hard layering with CommentLayer1, CommentLayer2 and CommentLayer3).
• Respond with nice messages on JSON response, and implement that sensibly on frontend.
• Create Customs Exceptions and Catch those within Code.
• Cover Unit and Integration tests on AngularJS for frontend.
• Cover remaining Unit and Integration tests for Controller and Model.
• Use Closure table for storing Comment hierarchy.
• Use Localized messages (for multilingual implementation).
• Use Bower/npm and requirejs for javascript dependency management.
• Use service layer between controller and model. Most of the business logic must reside in service layer.
• Use OAuth or similar libraries for API authentication.
• Use efficient query for getting nested comments. This application can get any level of nested comments, but is not efficient.

License

The TMBC comment application is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.