Forex Currency Converter - Assesssment 3 - SpringBoard

^{by: Etienne Deneault}

Files

• base.html - forex_converter.html - forex_conversion.html - analysis.html - app.py - utils.py - app.css - app.js - test_app.py - requirements.txt - README.MD - conceptual.md

Features

• Main Function: convert currency from one denomination to another based on current exchange rate. Output: conversion amount.
• On request, the user can access additional details/analysis of the conversion.
  • Data Points Available:
    • Conversion Amount
    • Conversion Rate
    • 30 Days Past - Conversion Amount Delta (%)
    • 1 Year Past - Conversion Amount Delta (%)
    • 5 Years Past - Conversion Amount Delta (%)
    • 10 Years Past - Conversion Amount Delta (%)
    • Conversion Amount Estimate - at bank, atm, credit card and kiosk.
    • Count of Conversions performed by user.
• Tested with Python unittest. (unit and integration tests)
• Line Chart Visual Representation of the currency fluctuation over time.
• Bootstrap 4.5 Responsive Behavior.

Code Details

• HTML is structured using flask templates. The structure is nested.
• app.py contains the app routes.
• utils.py contains data request functions, data analysis functions an helper functions. Included in utils.py is a commmented section with a test for each function.
• app.js handles the canvas line chart.
• app.css provides basic styling.

Todos and Improvements

• Improved Documentation: Implentation of doctests with already created tests from the commented section in utils.py.
• Implement a route to provide the reverse the to_county and from_country conversion values upon clicking the "double arrow" fontawesome icon.
• Refactor utils.py into OOP, it would optimize how information is delivered to the routes and facilitate storing conversion transaction states.
• Create more edge case tests.
• Create mote specific flash messages.
• Use a less hacky method to pass data to javascript.
• Include spinner buttons to improve user experience.
• Acuracy of the conversions is rounded to 2 decimal points, calculations are based on 10 decimal points. Currently, the rounding is in favor of the conversion service provider.

Process && Learnings

• I set the following goals at the beginning of the project:

  • Take a Data Science approach to the application favoring functionality, data and data anlysis over UI-UX.
  • Use OOP for model. (did not get to this yet)
  • Create a good level of robutness to the application.
  • Persist the "state".
  • Create tests for all functions and precesses.
  • Create appropriate Documentation.

• Line Chart: Assessment specs said "no js" but I decided to include this feature anyhow since it was not part of the core requirements. I could re-do using mathoplib or bokeh modules in Python but that would take about a "day" to accomplished ( I have done this before for a capstone project ).

Technologies && Third Party Libraries && Fonts

• Python, flask, HTML, CSS, JS, jQuery

Time Log

03-05-2021:

• 15 min. - First Read

03-06-2021

• 20 min. - Read Docs Forex Module
• 45 min. - Planning in Engineering Notebook
• 45 min. - Project set-up and experimentation with forex module
• 30 min. - basic mark-up templates
• 120 min. - build functions in utils to access api data and create functionality functions
• 240 min. - build routes and application logic/flow-data control
• 60 min. - refinement of analysis functions
• 120 min - integration of line chart

03-07-2021

• 120 min. - error checking and flash messages
• 120 min. - code clean-up and minor improvements
• 60 min. - complete the conceptual.md document

03-09-2021

• 60 min. - build a README.md document
• 15 min. - update git/github

Total ~ 17 hrs and 50 minutes

Sources && References

• Code Base provided by SpringBoard - Forex Assessment 3

• Documentation Used: python docs, flask docs, StackOverflow, jQuery, MDN, bootstrap docs

• Media: image is expressively allowed to be used for a nonmonetary purpose.