I Built Blason to Learn Full-Stack Architecture

I built Blason to enhance my full-stack development and software architecture knowledge. My objective was to construct a comprehensive application rather than a standalone frontend project. Blason encompasses: React and TypeScript for the frontend, an Express backend, SQLite database, authentication system, REST APIs, business workflows, file handling, user profiles, quests and submissions, career-related features, and an overall architecture.

Initially, Blason depended on Supabase, but I subsequently replaced that dependency with a local Express + SQLite architecture. This transition compelled me to grasp and implement more aspects of the underlying application stack on my own. The most valuable takeaway from the project was not any specific framework, but rather understanding how the various components of a real application interact: frontend communicates with API, business logic processes data, database stores information, authentication secures user access, workflows orchestrate tasks.

As for improvements, I would consider implementing different authentication methods, refining the file handling system, enhancing user profile management, and optimizing the quest and submission tracking workflow. The full project is open source and available at https://github.com/fotsopatrick/blason.