CS50W Final Project - Promises

• CS50W Final Project - Promises
  • Overview
  • Distinctiveness and Complexity
  • File structure description
  • How to run the application
  • Features I would like to improve/add

Overview

It is common for politicians to make promises to the public as a way of campaigning for office and attempting to gain the support of voters. These promises can cover a wide range of issues, from policy positions to specific initiatives or programs that the politician plans to implement if elected. However, it is also not uncommon for politicians to fail to follow through on their promises once they are in power.

There are a number of reasons why politicians might fail to deliver on their promises. One reason is that the demands and realities of governing can be very different from what was anticipated during the campaign. Politicians may find that it is more difficult to implement their ideas or policies than they had anticipated, or that they face unforeseen obstacles or resistance.

Another reason is that politicians may make promises that are simply unrealistic or unsustainable. In the heat of a campaign, it can be tempting to make grandiose promises that are not feasible in the long term, in order to appeal to voters. Once in office, these politicians may find that they are unable to follow through on these promises, either because of a lack of resources or political support.

Finally, some politicians may simply be more interested in getting elected than in fulfilling their promises once in office. They may make promises that they have no intention of keeping in order to win votes, and then neglect to follow through on those promises once they are in power.

Distinctiveness and Complexity

I have designed and developed a web application using Django, REST framework, and Bootstrap to fulfill the requirements of the assignment. I developed this project based on a personal need and believe it will be useful for all Dominicans.

The web application has a database of promises made by politicians. These promises are entered by users or admins collected from public statements made by politicians.

Each promise can have following status:

STATUS	DESCRIPTION
COMPLETE	The promise is mostly or completely fulfilled.
IN PROGRESS	The promise is in the works or being considered.
STALLED	Could occur due to inaction by administration or lack of support from legislative branch.
BEHIND SCHEDULE	No progress, perhaps due to financial limitations, opposition from lawmakers or a change in priorities.
INCONCLUSIVE	Every promise begins at this level and retains this rating until evidence of progress or proof that it has been shelved.
UNSTARTED	The promise is accomplished only in part, but has succeeded at least in part consistently with the goal of the promise.

• Users of the web application can search for promises by politician, by keyword, by date, by evidences or by status.
• The web application provides reports for the users to track on the progress of a promise, such as by evidence of progress or fulfillment.
• The web application also provide a dashboard for tracking the performance of politicians and party over time, such as by displaying graphs showing the percentage of promises and their status.
• To ensure the accuracy and impartiality of the information on the web application, it would be moderated by a team of independent fact-checkers and admins.
  • Fact-checkers / admins are the ones able to accept the promises and evivences.

Overall, the goal of this web application is to provide a transparent and accountable to track and report on the promises the politicians have made to the public.

The web application uses 7 models (Promise, Evidence, Party, Position, Politician, User, Rating) and utilizes Django REST framework to support front-end functionalities.

Method	Endpoint	Result	Chart type
GET	/promises/party	Retrieve the list of all parties and promises count	pie chart
GET	/promises/politician/	Retrieve the list of all politicians and promises count	bar chart
GET	/promises/politician/id	Retrieve a politicians and promises rating	pie chart
GET	/promises/party/id	Retrieve a party and promises rating	pie chart

The web application is designed to be mobile-responsive using the Bootstrap CSS framework.

• Your web application must be sufficiently distinct from the other projects in this course (and, in addition, may not be based on the old CS50W Pizza project), and more complex than those.
  • A project that appears to be a social network is a priori deemed by the staff to be indistinct from Project 4, and should not be submitted; it will be rejected.
  • A project that appears to be an e-commerce site is strongly suspected to be indistinct from Project 2, and your README.md file should be very clear as to why it’s not. failing that, it should not be submitted; it will be rejected.
• Your web application must utilize Django (including at least one model) on the back-end and JavaScript on the front-end.
• Your web application must be mobile-responsive.

Files Structure Description

|   .gitignore : git ignore files
|   db.sqlite3 : data base
|   manage.py : generated by django
|   README.md : instructions for project
|   requeriments.txt : packages required to run the application
|
+---data -> test data for importing
|       party.csv
|       politician.csv
|       position.csv
|       promise.csv
|       rating.csv
|       user.csv
|
+---media -> media files for parties logo and politicians profile photo
|   +---parties
|   |       Logo_del_partido_Fuerza_del_Pueblo.png
|   |       Partido_Reformista_Social_Cristiano.png
|   |       PLD_Dominican_Republic_logo.png
|   |       PRM_LOGO.png
|   |
|   \---politician
|           220px-Faride_Raful.png
|           220px-Faride_Raful_VjsqLhe.png
|           itobisono.jpg
|           luis_abinader.jpg
|           PRM_LOGO.png
|           WIN_20220620_12_24_10_Pro.jpg
|
+---promesas
|   |   asgi.py : generated by django
|   |   settings.py : generated by django, added logic for login url, media location and installed apps
|   |   urls.py : generated by django
|   |   wsgi.py : generated by django
|   |   __init__.py : generated by django
|   |
|
+---promise_tracker : main app folder
|   |   admin.py : customized fields, list, search and filters for models all models
|   |   apps.py : generated
|   |   forms.py : class forms for Promise and Evidence models
|   |   models.py : define all the models in the project with customs decotor properties
|   |   routers.py : define PromiseViewSet routers for the API endpoints
|   |   serializers.py : define class Serializers for Party, Promise, and Politician models
|   |   tests.py : generated
|   |   urls.py : project urls and endpoints
|   |   views.py : define function and class based views also viewsets to managet get requets
|   |   __init__.py
|   |
|   +---static
|   |   \---promise_tracker
|   |           chart.js : JavaScript for the management of the charts and the elements that interact with them
|   |           datatables-simple-demo.js : javascript library to build beautiful functional datatables
|   |           materials.js : usefull lib for icons and better UI
|   |           script.js : site look and feel management
|   |           style.css : CSS file
|   |           variables.js : func for requesting the endpoints data and the inicial load
|   |
|   +---templates -> contains all application templates and the class based views templates
|   |   +---party
|   |   |       party_confirm_delete.html
|   |   |       party_detail.html
|   |   |       party_form.html
|   |   |       party_list.html
|   |   |
|   |   +---politician
|   |   |       politician_confirm_delete.html
|   |   |       politician_detail.html
|   |   |       politician_form.html
|   |   |       politician_list.html
|   |   |
|   |   +---position
|   |   |       position_confirm_delete.html
|   |   |       position_detail.html
|   |   |       position_form.html
|   |   |       position_list.html
|   |   |
|   |   +---promise
|   |   |       promise_confirm_delete.html
|   |   |       promise_detail.html
|   |   |       promise_form.html
|   |   |       promise_list.html
|   |   |
|   |   \---promise_tracker
|   |           index.html : dashboard with the charts
|   |           layout.html : base layout of all the templates
|   |           login.html : user login template
|   |           register.html : user register template
|   |

How to run the application

Clone Sources

$ git clone https://github.com/gmarte/promesas.git
$ cd promesas

Install Modules using a Virtual Environment

$ python -m venv venv
$ .\env\Scripts\activate
$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Migrate Database

$ python manage.py makemigrations
$ python manage.py migrate
$ python manage.py runserver

Create Superuser

$ python manage.py createsuperuser

Start the APP

$ python manage.py runserver

Follow in order:

• Access the admin section
  • Load data/users.csv in users section (using import/export feature)
  • Load data/rating.csv in rating section (using import/export feature)
  • Load data/position.csv in position section (using import/export feature)
  • Load data/party.csv in party section (using import/export feature)
  • Load data/politician.csv in politician section (using import/export feature)
  • Load data/promise.csv in promise section (using import/export feature)
• Access the HOME - PROMISES
  • Charts should be displayed with data
  • Website should be alive with data

TODO List