Slack Link: https://lugatuic.slack.com/messages/CDK91NJS3/
Github Link: https://github.com/lugatuic/LUG_Dungeons_and_Dragons_Webbapp

Jacob Raffe, Ben Maciorowski, Emily, Darius Grassi, Kartikeya Tripathi, Nausherwan Tirmizi, Matthew Alvero, Ali Siddiqi

* Goals

• Stage 1
  • Make a web app which can create characters for board games
  • The first board game to be integrated would be D&D, but the goal is to design the app to handle multiple types of games
  • Would be able to store characters associated with specific user accounts
  • Back End would be created via the Flask library for Python, same stack as the LUG website
  • Front end would be created via the Vue framework for Javascript, same stack as the LUG website
• Stage 2
  • Make a battlemap creator
  • No in depth planning until stage 1 is completed
• Stage 3
  • Make an app which would allow for users to play D&D online
  • Also no in depth planning until stage 1 is completed

* Logistics

• Workload will be assigned via Trello in specific, broken up stories
• Communication will occur via Slack
• Code storage and integration will be done through GitHub(repo link located above)
• Next meeting will occur Monday after so that everyone will have a chance to familiarize themselves with their respective technology stacks

* Tentative class decomposition described on Slack

* Officer positions assigned to Joshua Castor(Front End) and Brent Yurik(Back end)

* Goal for first set of pull requests:

• Skeletons: a “Hello World” which does the bare minimum of what we expect the website to do, which can be filled out gradually as development continues
  • Front End skeleton
    • Assigned to Josh Castor, Nausherwan Tirmizi
    • Basic Webpages which will be able to receive data from back end
  • Back End skeleton
    • Assigned to Brent Yurik, Darius Grasse, and Jacob Raffe
    • app.py file which contains routes which correspond to main pages (described in next series of bullet points

* Description of Website pages/ app requirements

• Three main pages:
  • Home page
    • gives option to either use previously made characters/default characters, or a link to create a unique character
    • will have an app bar and logo at top
    • image of expected result is located on slack
  • Input page
    • Will have a series of text fields which will correspond to certain members of the character class(full decomposition of character class available on slack)
      • text fields for names, fluff text, equipment, etc.
      • each text field will have a randomize option, which will pull random values stored on database
    • Will have a series of drop down menus for members of character class which has finite options
    • Each completed/filled out input will result in another, new input becoming available(e.g. subrace dropdown menu will become available after race is chosen)
    • Some inputs will be hidden until the previous input has been filled/chosen(e.g. subrace will not be visible or available until race has been chosen)
  • Output page
    • HTML document which will be filled out with information given by JSON object which will be served by back end
      • client side processing is less stressful on the LUG server
    • HTML document will have general format of a D&D character sheet, with hidden text fields filled out dynamically by information given by API
    • example located here: http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DDALRoD_CharacterSheet.pdf

* Logistics

• Intermediate end will be doone via Slack library for python(will organize routes and serve JSON object for front end, will gather JSON object from back end)
• True Back End development will largely consist of database creation and management, database stack unknown
• Front end will still work through Vue.js

* The discussion largely centered around which software will be used to manage the database

• The eventual conclusion which had been reached is that we will set up a docker container, and run a NoSQL database on it
  • The Docker Container doesn't handle interaction between databases very well, but can handle interactions between programs well, so the docker container will interact with another container which consists of a program which sets up a NoSQL database
  • The Docker Container has a few benefits over Virtual Machines, which is what the LUG server currently uses
    • Takes up less space/has less overhead
    • environment can be perfectly consisten between machines, rather than having different Oses on different VMs
  • The NoSQL database stack we will use is MongoDB
  • Kartikeya Tripathi will set up the Docker Container and database with Bharat Middha
    • The first goal for the Docker container is to have a skeleton which just runs flask and the NoSQL database
• The API is going to be in the RESTful style
  • This just means that JSON objects will be sent over HTTP
  • The JSON objects will contain the information to render the character output page
• More images which visualize the server client dynamic have been posted by Jacob Raffe on the Slack

* Also, Ben Maciorowski created a logo out of Tux wearing a wizard hat, this image is located on slack

* Back end Skeleton has been finished, can navigate between pages

• only three pages needed are the Character input, Character Output, and Home pages

* The next goal for Back end is to make API specifications, as Front End development largely depends on the JSON objects sent by Back end

• Brent Yurik will give notes on, and lead the discussion regarding the API specification

* The next meeting will be on Friday November 30th