Exercise Tracker (MERN Stack)

Full-stack exercise tracking application built with MongoDB, Express, React, and Node.js. Designed and implemented RESTful CRUD APIs with proper HTTP methods, schema validation, error handling, and integrated them with a React frontend using client-side routing and shared state management. Configured a Vite development proxy for secure frontend–backend communication without CORS issues. Features include creating, editing, viewing, and deleting persistent exercise data through a responsive, accessible UI.

Key Concepts: RESTful API design, state management, async/await, data validation, full-stack integration

Tech Stack: Frontend- React (with Vite), React Router, Fetch API, React Icons, CSS (responsive layout) Backend-Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Mongoose

Features: -Create new exercise entries -View all exercises in a dynamic table -Edit existing exercises -Delete exercises -Client-side routing with React Router -RESTful API with proper HTTP methods -MongoDB persistence with Mongoose schema validation -Responsive, accessible layout with consistent global navigation

Installation & Setup

1. Clone the repository git clone https://github.com/your-username/exercise-tracker.git cd exercise-tracker
2. Install backend dependencies cd backend npm install
3. Install frontend dependencies cd ../frontend npm install
4. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the backend folder: MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string PORT=3000

5. Start the backend server cd backend npm start

6. Start the frontend cd frontend npm run dev

Frontend typically runs on:

http://localhost:5173

Backend runs on:

http://localhost:3000

Design & Architecture: -Global application state is managed in App.jsx and passed to child routes. -Client-side routing is handled with React Router. -Backend follows REST principles with proper status codes and error handling. -Date validation is performed using Date.parse() to ensure ISO or YYYY-MM-DD format compliance. -A Vite development proxy is configured to securely connect frontend requests to the backend without CORS issues.

Future Improvements: -User authentication (JWT) -Deployment to a cloud platform -More UX/UI friendly