VB is a desktop educational software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It’s build using web technologies—powered by the awesome nw.js platform. I was responsible for the whole project from start to finish, from the initial brainstorming and design of the functionality with the client, to the choice of technologies, design of the user interface and programming implementation of the functionality.
VB runs on OS X and Windows, utilizing the same codebase, which is a Backbone.js backed client side application running within the browser (nw.js). I’ve build a custom ORM layer for the build in sqlite database (also in CoffeeScript) which plugs into Backbone.sync
. Custom database migration toolset modeled after Rails migrations is also included.
The design of the whole application is strongly influenced by Rails code structure: everything is neatly compartmentalized into models, collections and templates directories. The whole thing is compiled and packaged for production utilizing Grunt as well as Ruby for preparing ISO images and such.
The app includes an extensive test suite covering integration tests (full user flows through the application) as well as isolated model and Backbone View tests. The test suite is powered by the fantastic QUnit.
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