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diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29eebfc --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ +# TOTAL EXPENSE + +## Introduction + +This is my final project for Harvard University's online course CS50x. + +I created Total Expense in December 2021 and this repo only serves as a "historical archive". + +All code as well as the content of the Readme below are in their original state, only this introduction and the License was added. + +#### Video Demo: (https://youtu.be/gh2tL8mPyMc) +pw54fegood1 +#### Description: + +Total Expense is a web-based financial assistant. + +##### Purpose: + +The original idea was to create an app that allows users to set their individual budget, register each new expense and review past expenses. + +Later on another feature was added: a simple web scraper to search for cheap sales offers online. + +Overall the goal of the app is to provide a useful tool to anybody who wants to +- monitor their spending habits +- cut down on unnecessary or excessive expenses +- keep track of their available budget +- avoid sliding into debt +- shift the amount of money spent on a certain area towards another one +- consider buying cheaper second-hand products for the sake of saving money and sustainability + +##### Components: + +A user has to register a new account and/or log in first in order to use the app. +Once registered, users are allowed to change their passwords again in the "Account" section. + +After signing in, the user can set their budget. All expenses registered thereafter will be deducted from the budget. +However, setting a budget is optional, expenses can be submitted regardless. +In that case, the budget balance will simply show the total amount of money spent. + +To register a new expense, the user has to use a form where they can name the specific expense. +Naming the expense is optional, but the user is required to give the amount of money spent, +the date of the expense as well to choose an overall category for it. + +Once an expense is submitted, the user can review it and all previous (and following) expenses in the Spending History section. +A table displays the name of the expense ("Unspecified" if left blank by the user), category, amount and date. +The user can also use a search field combined with radio buttons to filter for something specific, +like a certain date, or to display all entries from one category, etc. +Finally, a pie chart on the main page will display the total amount of expenses in each category, +useful for comparisons between e.g. how much is spent on hobbies vs. investment. + +Last but not least, the web scraping feature called "Bargain Finder" allows the user to search for any item +and receive a list of the cheapest offers for that item on Ebay.com. +These offers are sorted by cheapest first, each offering the exact name of the offer on Ebay, +the current price and a link that takes the user directly to the respective page. + +##### The Code: + +The app relies on Python, SQL and JavaScript to run, while the view-component was styled with HTML & CSS, utilizing Jinja templates. +Essential components of the code are Flask as web framework and Beautiful Soup for the web scraping/crawling. + +Two JavaScript files handle matters of visualizing data for the user. +First, piechart.js takes care of the implementation of the pie chart, as well as dynamically +changing the background of the budget display, depending on the user going into debt or not. +Second, filter.js implements the filter-search option for the table in history.html. + +application.py contains all the main code for users registering, logging in & logging out, +passing data between the database (spending.db) and the webpage. +spending.db contains two tables, one for the users storing their username, hashed password and cash/budget. +The second table stores all expenses for each individual user. +Table data meant for display is integerated into the HTML mostly by Jinja loops. + +helpers.py contains helper functions, e.g. for rendering an apology message in case of errors +and for handling the log-in requirement for most pages. +It also contains the function for web scraping which gets called in application.py's "/bargain" route. + +##### Sources: + +Apart from the knowledge gained from CS50's lectures, shorts, labs and problem sets - especially pset9 "finance" - the following sources were used: +- Flask documentation: (https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/) +- Beautiful Soup documentation: (https://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/bs4/doc/) +- Chart.js documentation: (https://www.chartjs.org/docs/latest/) +- W3 Schools Tutorials, especially on JavaScript: (https://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp) +- Corey Schafer's "Python Tutorial: Web Scraping with BeautifulSoup and Requests": (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng2o98k983k) +- Tech with Tim's "Beautiful Soup 4 Tutorial" Playlist: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRLHr664tXA&list=PLzMcBGfZo4-lSq2IDrA6vpZEV92AmQfJK) +- Stack Overflow for reading up on smaller issues encountered here and there during coding |