Create a web application to provide exhibition space for artists, to showcase
their work and connect artists with the community. The application maintains a database of art items and supports two types of users: patrons and artists. Patrons can browse all the information on the site, add reviews and “likes” to artworks, “follow” artists and join workshops. Artists can add new artwork or host a workshop. Artists and patrons are considered “users”; their accounts different features.

The overall design of the web application prioritizes scalability, responsiveness, and maintainability. Architectural choices, such as adopting the MVC pattern and asynchronous programming, contribute to the success of the project. The inclusion of extra functionality enhances user engagement and provides a more dynamic user experience. The design decisions aim to strike a balance between simplicity, security, and user satisfaction. The web application follows an effective use of RESTful design principles, use of proper HTTP status codes, error handling, traditional Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, utilizing the Express.js framework for the backend and Pug for the frontend (view). MongoDB is used as the database to store user data, artwork information, and other relevant data.

The design decision made for this project was the use of MVC. Model-view-Controller as an intermediary between the model and the view, facilitating communication and delivering functionality and responses. When an end user initiates a request, the controller, intricately connected to the database, intercepts, and processes the submission. There are many advantages of using MVC for the RESTFUL API. Those advantages are separations of concerns, using MVC separates the application's three components, making the code easier to read and a lot more organized. It creates better testability, when trying to debug or find a mistake in the code, it is a lot easier to find it. MVC improves scalability, Implementing the MVC architecture in the Express.js framework for a RESTful API enables seamless horizontal scalability, allowing the application to efficiently expand by incorporating additional servers. And finally, The MVC architecture offers considerable flexibility in designing and developing applications. Developers have the freedom to select various frameworks and libraries for each component based on their specific requirements and preferences.

github: https://github.com/PavleVujicic/WebDevProject