shannon-nabors / frontend-crossword

CrossPost

Platform for constructing & solving crossword puzzles. Frontend is React-Redux; backend is Rails API. Styled with Semantic React.

Current features:

• Create a puzzle. You can choose from a set of standard grid sizes (5x5 up to 23x23) and toggle between shading/lettering before moving on to cluing. Progress is auto-saved and you can also save manually.
• A built-in search feature (using the Datamuse API) allows you to find words that fit with already-present fill.

• Access your created, saved and solved puzzles through your profile page.
• Solve puzzles created by other users.
• Key controls for both solving and creating puzzles are similar to other standard crossword apps (tabbing, backspacing, etc).
• Print out a formatted pdf version of a puzzle (using react-pdf)

In progress:

• Flesh out the options for the search feature.

Future:

• Add ability to check cell/word/puzzle as you solve
• Add a way to save different versions of a puzzle
• Add ability to collaborate on a puzzle with another user

Installation:

Not yet deployed; if you'd like to use the app, you can get instructions for installing and running the backend here. Please follow the instructions to set up the API before proceeding.

How to install:

git clone [email protected]:shannon-nabors/frontend-crossword.git

In the crossword directory:

npm i
npm start

frontend-crossword's Issues

SearchWord memory leak

Suggestions should maybe be moved into redux store

Loading issue when edit page loads first

When you navigate directly to a page for a saved puzzle, updatedPuzzle causes loading to turn off, but puzzles are still being fetched. If you click from the edit page to a user's page while they're still being fetched, the puzzles don't show up right away, but there's no loading screen.

Word suggestions

I want to build out some kind of helper that will propose words during the create process

• Ideally could be based off of highlighted word and plug in those letters already entered
• Most basic version would find and return words with wildcards in blank spaces (o _ _ o would return "onto", "otto", etc.). This could be done just by selecting the word in the puzzle.
• Next step would be to separate consonants and vowels (o # @ o would only return "ohio", "oreo", "olio", etc.) -- there will have to be some kind of separate rendering of the word at this point, maybe next to the puzzle, so that you can specify what restrictions you want without having to type it directly into the puzzle.