Welcome to the Country Information App! This web application allows you to explore detailed information about countries from around the world.
- Search for countries by name.
- View information about a country, including its official name, capital, currency, flag, coat of arms, and driving side.
- Paginated results for easy navigation.
- Real-time search results as you type.
To run this project locally on your machine, follow the installation instructions below.
Before you begin, ensure you have met the following requirements:
- Clone this repository to your local machine: git clone https://github.com/your-username/country-information-app.git Navigate to the project directory then run npm install Running the Application: npm run dev
Technical Choices and Trade-offs React Query In this project, we opted to use the React Query library for managing API data and state. There were several reasons behind this choice:
Efficient Cache System: React Query provides a powerful caching mechanism out of the box. It helps reduce unnecessary API requests by storing and managing data in a smart and efficient way. This is especially beneficial when working with real-time data.
Simplified State Management: By utilizing React Query, we were able to simplify the state management in our application. We no longer needed to maintain complex state variables like isLoading or write custom logic for fetching and caching data. React Query handles these tasks seamlessly.
Avoiding useEffect: With React Query, there's a significant reduction in the need for useEffect hooks to manage data fetching and updates. This leads to cleaner and more maintainable code, as data fetching is abstracted away into hooks provided by React Query.
Debouncing Search To enhance the user experience and prevent issues related to API rate limits, we incorporated a debouncing mechanism for the search feature. This was achieved by utilizing the useDebounce hook. Debouncing ensures that API requests are made only after the user has finished typing, reducing the frequency of requests and potential API rate limit concerns.
Material-UI Material-UI was chosen as the UI framework for this project to streamline development and enhance the visual appeal of the application. Material-UI offers a wide range of pre-designed components, styles, and themes, which significantly accelerates the development process. By using Material-UI, we were able to avoid spending extensive time on custom CSS styling, focusing instead on the core functionality of the app.
Trade-offs While using third-party libraries such as React Query, debouncing hooks, and Material-UI has undeniable advantages, it's important to acknowledge the trade-offs involved. In this project, we opted for a small number of third-party libraries to keep the application lightweight. However, there's always a trade-off when introducing dependencies:
Increased Bundle Size: Adding libraries can lead to a slightly larger bundle size. For small-scale applications like this one, this trade-off is often acceptable. However, it's important to consider the impact on larger projects.
Learning Curve: Each library comes with its own learning curve. Developers need to become familiar with the library's API and best practices. In this case, the benefits of using React Query and Material-UI outweighed the initial learning investment.
In summary, while there are trade-offs associated with using third-party libraries, they can significantly speed up development, improve maintainability, and enhance the overall user experience. For small applications like this, the advantages typically outweigh any drawbacks related to increased bundle size or learning curves.