Chef Secret Recipes

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Chef Secret Recipes is a Python project designed to create and organize recipes with secret ingredients that make each dish delicious, unique, and special. This tool allows both novice and experienced chefs to add, delete, search for recipes efficiently with all data stored in a recipe.json file.

Additionally, users can search for a recipes based on ingredients they have on hand, making it easy to decide what to cook with what is already in the fridge.

Contents

• User Experience (UX)
• Features
• Design
• Libraries and Programs
• Technologies Used
• Testing
• Deployment
• Credits

User Experience (UX)

• User Stories

  1. Adding new recipes

  • As a user, I want to create new recipes and add them to the Chef Secret Recipes Book so I can easily access them later.
  • As a user, I want to add both ingredients and instructions in each recipe so that I know what to use and how to cook.

  2. Adding a secret ingredient

  • As a user and chef, I want to add a "secret ingredient" to my recipes to enhance their flavor and uniqueness.
  • As a user and chef, I want to identify which ingredient is the secret one when searching for a recipe.

  3. Searching for a recipe

  • As a user, I want to search for a recipes by name so I can quickly find specific dishes in my recipe book.
  • As a user with limited ingredients, I want to search for recipes by ingredient so I can make meals with what I have in the fridge.

  4. Managing Chef Secret Recipes Book

  • As a user, I want to display all available recipes in the Chef Secret Recipes.
  • As a user, I want to delete a recipes that I no longer need or have tried and did not like, so my recipe book stays organized.
  • As a user, I want to update recipes by deleting ingredients I do not like.

  5. Data Storage

  • As a user, I want my recipes to be saved in a file (recipe.json) so that I do not lose any recipes when I close the program.
  • As a user, I want all changes to be saved automatically, so I do not need to worry about manually saving them.

  6. User-friendly Interface

  • As a user, I want clear prompts when adding or searching recipes so I understand how to use each feature.
  • As a user, I want error messages when I enter invalid data (like an incorrect recipe name) so I can easily correct my input.

• Flowchart

The flowchart for Chef Secret Recipe Book visualizes the structure and main operations.

Features

Existing Features

Main Screen

The Main Screen displays title "Chef Secret Recipes" along with recipe book, styled using ASCII Art and redesigned in Gitpod. The main screen introduces the program's theme and lists available options, allowing users to easily navigate the recipe book. Options include adding recipes, adding a secret ingredient, searching by name or ingredients, displaying all recipes, deleting recipe or a specific ingredient.

Add New Recipe

The Add New Recipe feature allows users to input a recipe name, ingredients, and step by step instructions. Ingredients are separated by commas, and instructions are saved as numbered steps.

Add Secret Ingredient

The Add Secret Ingredient feature allows users to input specific ingredient displayed with * that make the meal unique.

Search Recipe by Name

The Search by Name feature lets users search for recipes using the name, with case-insensitive matching for ease of use. If the recipe is found, the program displays the ingredients and instructions in a clean, formatted layout.

Search by Ingredient Name

Users can search recipes by entering an ingredient they have on hand. This feature also matches recipes containing "secret ingredients" that are specially marked, making it easy to discover recipes that can use up specific ingredients.

Display All Recipes

The Display All Recipes feature shows a list of all stored recipes, providing an overview of what is available in the Chef Secret Recipes Book.

Delete Recipe

Users can delete entire recipe if no longer needed.

Delete Ingredient

Users can delete an ingredient from the recipe if they do not want to use it. After deleting an ingredient, the updated recipe is displayed to confirm changes.

Future Features:

• Recipe Categories
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Meal Planner
• Shopping List Generator

Design

• Lucidchart used to create flowchart.
• ASCII Art used to create a book drawing.
• Pexels used for searching a background image.
• Recipes are from my own collection.

Libraries and Programs

• Gitpod
  • The development environment where the project was created and tested.
• JSON
  • Module used for reading and writing recipe data to a recipe.json file.
• GitHub
  • Repository hosting service used for version control.
• Heroku
  • Cloud platform where project was deployed.
• Colorama
  • A library used to add color to the command-line interface, making it more visually engaging.
• OBS Studio
  • This software was used to record all project features on video.
• EzGif
  • As Gitpod does not support MP4 files, I used EzGif to convert the videos into GIF format.

Technologies

Language

• Python

Testing

Manual Tests and Results

• Testing completed on the below browser:
  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • FireFox
  • DuckDuckGo

	Test	Steps	Expected Results	Actual Results	Pass/Fail	Comments
1	Invalid Option	Choose an option number that does not exist on the Main Menu	Error message displayed	Error message received	Pass
2	Add a New Recipe	1. Start the app 2. Add a recipe with name, ingredients, and instructions	Recipe saved in recipe.json file	Recipe was added to JSON file, but disappears on restart	Fail	Fixed by using dump() to convert dictionary into JSON format before saving them to a file.
3	Add Secret Ingredient	1. Enter recipe name 2. Add a secret ingredient	Secret ingredient is added to the recipe	Secret ingredient added	Pass
4	Search Recipe by Name	1. Enter recipe name 2. View results	Recipe with matching name is displayed	Recipe was not found, when lowercase input was entered	Fail	The recipe names in JSON file are capitalized. To fix it I used title() to standardize input data.
5	Search Recipe by Ingredient	1. Enter an ingredient name 2. View results	Recipes containing the specified ingredient are displayed	Recipes was not found when uppercase input was entered	Fail	To fix it I used lower() to convert the input data.
6	Display All Recipes	Choose option to display all available recipes	List of all recipes is displayed	All recipes displayed	Pass
7	Delete Recipe	Enter name of recipe to delete	Selected recipe is deleted	Recipe deleted	Pass
8	Delete Ingredient	1. Enter recipe name 2. Enter ingredient name to delete	Ingredient is removed from the recipe	Ingredient deleted	Pass
9	Enter Invalid Data	Enter invalid recipe name or ingredient	Error message displayed	Error message appeared	Pass
10	Exit Program	Press 8 to exit	Program closes	Program closed	Pass

Validation

• HTML Validator

• CSS Validator

• Python Linter

• Lighthouse Testing

Bugs

1. New recipe not saved in JSON file after restarting program.

   • When adding a new recipe, everything appeared to work correctly. The recipe was added successfully. However, after restarting the program, the added recipe disappeared.

   • Solution

     • To fix this bug, I used the dump() function to convert the dictionary into JSON format, before saving it to recipe.json.

2. The recipe was not found, when recipe name was entered with lowercase letters.

   • When searching for a recipe by name, an error occurred if the name was typed in lowercase letters because the search function was case-sensitive.

   • Solution

     • To fix this, I applied title() to the input to ensure consistent matching.

3. The recipe was not found, when searching by ingredient name.

   • When searching for a recipe by ingredient name, an error occurred if name was typed in uppercase letters.

   • Solution

     • I fixed this, by applying lower() to the input.

Unfixed Bugs

• No unfixed bugs.

Deployment

Version Control

• The project was developed using the Code Institute Template, the Gitpod editor, and was pushed to GitHub in the remote repository Chef_Secret_Recipes.
• Git commands were used to push the code to the repository.

Deployment to Heroku

• The project was deployed to Heroku with the following steps:
  • Create an account and log in to Heroku
  • Go to the dashboard, click New, then Create new app
  • Navigate to Settings
  • Go to Config Vars, click Reveal Config Vars, and add PORT as the KEY, and 8000 as the VALUE. Click add
  • Go to Buildpacks, then click Add buildpack, in the following order:
    • Select python and click Add Buildpack
    • Select nodejs and click Add Buildpack
  • Navigate to the Deploy tab at the top
  • Click GitHub, then Connect to GitHub
  • Search for the repository you want to deploy and click connect
  • Select Enable Automatic Deploys or Deploy Branch

Link to deployed project

How to clone the repository

• Go to the https://github.com/Magda-R-bit/Chef_Secret_Recipes reposotory on GitHub
• Click on the Code button located above the project files
• Select HTTPS and copy the repository link
• Open your IDE, and paste the copied Git URL into the IDE terminal
• The project is now created as a local clone

Credits

• Special Thanks:
  • Spencer Barriball- For your mentorship. Your insights and advices were crucial to the success of this project.

Inspiration

• w3schools
• stackoverflow
• Julia-Wagner
  • This project inspired me to add background image and replace screenshots with GIFs to highlight the features.
• Love Sandwiches Walkthrough Project
• Amulya's Academy
• CS50's Introduction to Programming with Python
• Eric Matthes: "Python Crash Course"