COMP1531

From Ideation to Income:

Building real software

Presented by The Growth Hunting Company

In this lecture

A lot of software engineering is applying the SDLC on existing systems. "All software development is maintenance".

Today I'm going to talk about building a system from scratch using the tools that you've learned in COMP1531.

This lecture is in some ways a revamp of a previous lecture "Building an MVP".

Don't take it too literally

More or less the same

The Growth Hunting Company

https://www.growthhunting.com.au/

We believe in the transformative power of education to unlock human potential and drive positive change. Our mission is to empower individuals, organisations, and communities through continuous learning and development.

My Pressure Story

My Pressure Story

Where we're at in April 2025.

Rewind, back to August 2023

[DISCOVER] Ideation

It all starts with an idea.

From paper to PDF: Digitising my pressure story

[DISCOVER] Requirements engineering

Take the time to understand what problem it is you're trying to solve and why it's worth solving.

Dogfood before you build

Drafting a UI design with Figma

[PLAN] Create an initial design to scope out requirements

Sometimes the best way to figure out what to build is to go and build it, and get it wrong.

Getting the team together: Startup land

December 2023

[TEAM] Project Kickoff

Teams' operation is a function of their context. Figure out what works for yours.

Architectural & API design

27 Dec 2023

[PLAN] Decide on your system design

Initial commit

27 Dec 2023

[BUILD] Let's get coding!

Building real software in JavaScript

Express HTTP Server

app.post(
  '/mps',
  validateAndAuthenticateBuckets,
  async (req: PressureStoryRequest, res: any) => {
    try {
      // Call update function
      await updatePressureStoryBuckets(req.body)
      res.send('Success')
    } catch (err: any) {
      console.log('❌ Error updating pressure story buckets:', err)
      res.status(500).send('Error saving data')
    }
  }
)

Building real software in JavaScript

Package management with NPM

{
  "name": "gzgs-api",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "app.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start:local": "npm run build:ci && npm run start",
    "start": "node dist/api/src/app.js",
    "dev": "nodemon --watch src --exec ts-node src/api/src/app.ts",
    "build": "./build.sh",
    "build:ci": "tsc",
    "test": "jest",
    "lint": "./node_modules/.bin/eslint src/**/*.ts*",
    "lint:fix": "npx prettier -w . && ./node_modules/.bin/eslint src/**/*.ts* --fix"
  },
  "author": "sneaky-patriki",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "@react-email/render": "^0.0.15",
    "@types/node": "^20.10.5",
    "antd": "^5.17.4",
    "bcryptjs": "^2.4.3",
    "cors": "^2.8.5",
    "dotenv": "^16.4.7",
    "emailjs-com": "^3.2.0",
      ...
  }
}

Building real software in JavaScript

Dynamic verification with Jest

Building real software in JavaScript

Static verification with TypeScript

Building real software in JavaScript

Linting with ESLint & Prettier

At some point, we'll fix these warnings, but it's not the most important thing... right now

Building real software in JavaScript

Persistence

export const CauseBucket = sequelize.define('CauseBucket', {
  orgId: DataTypes.STRING,
  cause: DataTypes.STRING
})

export const AppearsBucket = sequelize.define('AppearsBucket', {
  orgId: DataTypes.STRING,
  appears: DataTypes.STRING
})

export const ReasonBucket = sequelize.define('ReasonBucket', {
  orgId: DataTypes.STRING,
  reason: DataTypes.STRING
})

Sequelize: A NodeJS library that allows you to interact with a database engine

PostgreSQL: A database engine that allows you to create relational models and store data persistently

Building real software in JavaScript

Authentication & Authorisation

export const authenticateMPS = async (
  userPassword: string,
  salt: string
): Promise<{ sessionToken: string } | null> => {
  const adminPassword = process.env.MPS_ADMIN_PASSWORD
  if (!adminPassword) {
    throw new Error('Admin password is not set')
  }
  const hashedActualPassword = await bcrypt.hash(adminPassword, salt)

  if (userPassword !== hashedActualPassword) {
    return null
  }

  const adminToken = jwt.sign(
    { orgId: null, isAdmin: true, timestamp: Date.now() },
    JWT_SECRET,
    { expiresIn: '48h' }
  )

  await MPSSession.create({
    orgId: 'admin',
    sessionToken: adminToken
  })

  return { sessionToken: adminToken }
}

Building real software in JavaScript

LLM Integration

import OpenAI from 'openai'

const modelId = 'gpt-3.5-turbo'

export const aiWritePressureStory = async (
  pressureStory: string
): Promise<string | null> => {
  const result = await openai.chat.completions.create({
    model: modelId,
    messages: [
      {
        role: 'user',
        content: pressureStory
      }
    ]
  })

  return result.choices[0].message.content
}

const getPrompt = (topic) => {
    topic = topic.toLowerCase().includes("effect")
      ? topic.toLowerCase().includes("on me")
        ? "EffectMe"
        : "EffectOthers"
      : topic;
    const prompt = `Write a concise paragraph in first person.
              Begin with ${promptMessage[topic]} and include ${prev.join(", ")}.
              Do not give suggestions only expand on the prompt.
              Do not duplicate the content.
              Use natural sentence casing.
              Make the paragraph flow naturally.`;
    if (topic === "Strategy") {
      return `${prompt}. Use "I need" language.`;
    } else if (topic === "Support") {
      return `${prompt}. Write from the perspective of the support I need from those around me is...`;
    } else {
      return `${prompt}. Don't talk about how I am working through/navigating this pressure.`;
    }
  };