Week 8 Worklog

Week 8 Objectives:

• Run the first in-person team meeting to align workflow, roles, and project direction.
• Set up project infrastructure on GitHub and GitHub Pages.
• Start researching core AWS services for the E-commerce project: Cognito, S3, serverless web architecture.
• Refine and standardize the proposal to match the target of finishing before Week 12.
• Lay the technical foundation: backend vs. no-backend, ORM, database choice, and Clickstream direction.

Tasks to be carried out this week:

Week 8 Achievements:

1. Solid team alignment and clarified working model

• After more than a month working only online, the team had its first in-person meeting.
• This meeting clarified roles, task ownership, reporting style, and the shared commitment to finish the project by Week 12.
• It marks the transition from “loose collaboration” to a more structured, project-like working mode.

2. Project infrastructure set up on GitHub and GitHub Pages

• The GitHub repo became the central place for code and documentation.
• The proposal was reviewed for content consistency and quality.
• GitHub Pages was prepared as a potential public-facing site for documentation or project overview.
• From Week 8 onward, the team has a single, authoritative source of project truth.

3. Foundation in Cognito and S3 for a serverless web approach

• The team gained working knowledge of Cognito user pools, authentication flows and token handling.
• S3 was studied as the primary place for static content and product images.
• This learning is the technical basis of the “no dedicated backend” decision and supports a scalable, serverless web model.

4. Key architectural decision: no dedicated backend service

• Instead of building an extra backend (Node.js/Python), the team decided to rely on AWS services (Cognito, S3, potential API Gateway/Lambda, or managed DB like Supabase/PostgreSQL).
• This significantly reduces complexity and development time, while still aligning well with cloud-native best practices.
• It frees capacity for focusing on integration, observability and analytics rather than reinventing a traditional backend.

5. E-commerce web development bootstrapped

• The team selected an existing UI template, which accelerates the front-end work.
• Initial structure for the main flows (view products, cart, purchase, login, etc.) is in place.
• The project officially moves from “design and planning” to “building a real, working application”.

6. Initial deep dive into Clickstream tracking

• The team investigated how Clickstream-style tracking works end to end:
  • How events are captured on the frontend
  • What kind of data is sent and why
  • How this data can be integrated into a pipeline for later analysis
• Although identified as difficult, doing this early gives the team a head start for future analytics features.

7. Drafted the first version of the system architecture

• The architecture diagram was updated to reflect the latest decisions: no standalone backend, Cognito and S3 as core components, and an E-commerce-centric design.
• Even though it is just v1, having a concrete picture helps everyone reason about the system in the same way.
• It also provides a baseline to iterate on in the following weeks.

8. ORM behavior and structure understood

• By reading and understanding the ORM layer in the template, the team reduced future risk around database integration.
• It will be easier later to connect to a real database (PostgreSQL/Supabase/AWS RDS) without rewriting large parts of the data access code.
• This is a long-term productivity gain, established early.

Week 8 Summary:

Week 8 is the week where the project truly “starts moving”:

• Team structure and workflow are clarified.
• GitHub/GitHub Pages is set up as the central project hub.
• Key technical decisions are made, especially around serverless architecture and no backend.
• The web app is actually being built.
• Research into Clickstream and ORM prepares the team for upcoming advanced features.

The foundation laid in Week 8 enables the following weeks to be more execution-focused and technically coherent.