Full-Stack Application: AWS & CI/CD

Note: due to NDA I cannot show the real UI or reveal the client’s name.

• Employer: ti&m AG
• Client: Constructions
• Role:: Full Stack Engineer
• Duration: 1 month, +1 year of support and maintenance
• Technologies: React.js, SASS, Java 17, SpringBoot, Ansible, AWS

Project Overview

A web application that allows professionals in the constructions field to get access to the data of architectural projects built in Switzerland. The app integrated with Tableau server as a way to provide access to complex dashboards for data visualizations using charts, tables, maps and image galleries.

The Problem

The client needed a quick solution to go online and make their data dashboards accessible to paying customers. The biggest challenge of this project was the rather short timeline, the integrations with third party tools and the experimental nature of the project itself.

The Solution

I was responsible for the vast majority of the design and development of the technical solutions, I was also having periodic meetings and discussions with the client to make sure that we were building the right solution in the most efficient way.

My role was to build the entire web application from the ground up, which required many steps such as:

• create the UI (using React.js and SASS)
• create the backend API and core functionalities (using Java 17 and SpringBoot)
• integrate the application with Tableau server (the software responsible for creating the dashboards)
• set up email communications (e.g. whenever a customer buys a licence)
• configure the infrastructure (using AWS and EC2)
• setup HTTPS with a SSL certificate and configure a custom domain name
• automate deployments using CI/CD, Ansible and GitLab CI

Results & Conclusion

The initial version revealed itself to be quite successful. It was developed and delivered in less than a month, and allowed the client to go online quickly and start attracting customers. Today, what was a rather small application then, kept growing and evolving, multiple iterations and improvements followed, the allocated budget grew and so did the number of customers, which reached several hundreds in the following months.

This project taught me some of the skills needed to create an application from scratch. It also showed me that every big idea starts small; building a minimum viable product (MVP), going quickly online and continuing improving the product afterwards was a key factor in this project’s success.

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