# Technology Stack Document
Generated: Tuesday, September 16, 2025

## Frontend Technologies

* **Framework:** **Angular**. The boilerplate is built on the latest stable version of the Angular framework, chosen for its robustness, component-based architecture, and suitability for large-scale, enterprise applications.
* **Language:** **TypeScript**. As a superset of JavaScript, TypeScript is used for its strong typing, which improves code quality, maintainability, and developer productivity.
* **Styling:** **SCSS**. SCSS is used for its advanced features over standard CSS, such as variables, nesting, and mixins, allowing for more organized and maintainable stylesheets.
* **UI Framework:** **VMware Clarity Design System**. This comprehensive design system provides a set of accessible, high-quality UI components and a consistent visual language, which accelerates UI development.
* **Core Libraries:**
    * **RxJS:** Used extensively throughout Angular for reactive programming and managing asynchronous operations.
    * **Zone.js:** A signaling mechanism that enables Angular's automatic change detection.

## Backend Technologies

* **Backend Agnostic:** This is a frontend-only boilerplate and is not tied to any specific backend technology. It is designed to communicate with any backend that exposes a RESTful or GraphQL API.

## Database Technologies

* **Not Applicable:** As a frontend project, the boilerplate does not include a database.

## Infrastructure & Deployment

* **Web Server:** The built application consists of static files that can be served by any modern web server (e.g., **Nginx**, **Apache**, **Caddy**).
* **Hosting:** The project can be deployed to any static site hosting provider, such as **Firebase Hosting**, **Netlify**, **Vercel**, **AWS S3**, or **GitHub Pages**.
* **Containerization (Optional):** The application can be easily containerized using **Docker** for consistent deployment environments.

## Development & Build Tools

* **Build Tool:** **Angular CLI**. The command-line interface for Angular is used for creating, building, testing, and deploying the application.
* **Package Manager:** **npm**. The Node Package Manager is used for managing all project dependencies.
* **Version Control:** **Git**. Git is the standard for version control and source code management.
* **Testing:**
    * **Unit Testing:** **Jasmine** (framework) and **Karma** (test runner) are the default tools for unit testing in Angular.
    * **End-to-End (E2E) Testing:** The project can be configured to use **Protractor** or more modern alternatives like **Cypress** or **Playwright**.
* **Code Formatting/Linting:**
    * **ESLint:** Used for identifying and reporting on patterns in ECMAScript/JavaScript code.
    * **Prettier:** An opinionated code formatter that enforces a consistent style.
    * **EditorConfig:** Helps maintain consistent coding styles for multiple developers working on the same project across various editors and IDEs.

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## TECH STACK UPDATE - 2025-10-15 12:34:13

## Frontend Technologies - Detailed Usage
Generated: 2025-10-15T12:35:00.000000
-   **NgRx Implementation:**
    -   `Store`: Centralized state management for application-wide and feature-specific states (e.g., product filters, shopping cart items, user session).
    -   `Effects`: Handle side effects such as API calls, external interactions, and complex business logic, ensuring clean separation from components.
    -   `Reducers`: Pure functions that define how application state changes in response to actions.
    -   `Selectors`: Optimized functions for querying specific slices of state from the store.
-   **Routing Strategy:** Use Angular's `RouterModule` with lazy loading for feature modules to minimize initial bundle size and improve load times. Implement route guards for authentication and authorization.

## Backend Technologies - Detailed Usage
Generated: 2025-10-15T12:35:00.000000
-   **FastAPI Features:**
    -   `Pydantic`: Extensive use for request body validation, response model serialization, and data type enforcement, ensuring robust API contracts.
    -   `Dependency Injection`: Leverage FastAPI's dependency injection system for managing database sessions, authentication (JWT token parsing), and injecting services, promoting testability and modularity.
    -   `Background Tasks`: Utilize FastAPI's `BackgroundTasks` for non-blocking operations that don't need to be part of the HTTP response cycle (e.g., sending welcome emails after user registration).
-   **SQLAlchemy with Alembic:**
    -   `Declarative Models`: Define database schemas using SQLAlchemy's declarative base for Pythonic object-relational mapping.
    -   `Alembic`: Manage database schema migrations, ensuring controlled evolution of the database structure as the application develops.

## Database Technologies - Detailed Usage
Generated: 2025-10-15T12:35:00.000000
-   **PostgreSQL Advanced Features:**
    -   `JSONB`: Use for flexible schema storage, particularly for product attributes or customizable order metadata, allowing for efficient querying of semi-structured data.
    -   `Full-Text Search`: Implement PostgreSQL's built-in full-text search for efficient product catalog and order searching.
    -   `Triggers and Stored Procedures`: Utilize for complex business logic directly within the database for performance-critical operations or audit logging.
-   **Redis Data Structures:**
    -   `Strings`: For simple key-value caching (e.g., user sessions, individual product details).
    -   `Hashes`: For storing complex objects like product categories or frequently accessed user profiles.
    -   `Sorted Sets`: For leaderboards (e.g., top-selling products) or real-time analytics.

## Infrastructure - Detailed AWS Services
Generated: 2025-10-15T12:35:00.000000
-   **Compute:**
    -   `AWS ECS Fargate` (or EKS): Serverless container orchestration for Dockerized backend services, handling scaling, patching, and management automatically.
    -   `AWS Amplify` (or S3 + CloudFront): For hosting and deploying the Angular frontend, providing CDN capabilities for static assets.
-   **Networking & Security:**
    -   `AWS VPC`: Private network configuration for isolated and secure infrastructure.
    -   `AWS Load Balancer (ALB)`: Distributes incoming traffic across multiple instances of backend services.
    -   `AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall)`: Provides protection against common web exploits that could affect application availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources.
    -   `AWS Secrets Manager`: Securely store and retrieve database credentials, API keys, and other sensitive information.
-   **Monitoring & Logging:**
    -   `AWS CloudWatch`: For centralized logging, monitoring application metrics, and setting up alarms.
    -   `AWS X-Ray`: For distributed tracing across microservices to identify performance bottlenecks.

## Development Tools - CI/CD and Testing
Generated: 2025-10-15T12:35:00.000000
-   **CI/CD Pipeline (GitHub Actions/GitLab CI):**
    -   Automated build and test for both frontend and backend on every push.
    -   Automated deployment to staging/production environments upon successful tests and approvals.
    -   Docker image building and pushing to `ECR (Elastic Container Registry)`.
-   **API Testing:** `Postman` or `Insomnia` for manual API testing, and `pytest-httpx` or `requests-mock` for automated integration tests in Python.
-   **Container Security Scanning:** Integrate tools like `Clair` or `Aqua Security` into the CI/CD pipeline for scanning Docker images for known vulnerabilities.


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## TECH STACK UPDATE - 2025-10-15 12:35:15


# Technology Stack Document
Generated: 2025-10-15T12:31:51.000000

## Frontend Technologies
-   **Framework:** Angular (latest stable version, currently v16+), building upon the existing boilerplate.
-   **Styling:** Clarity Design System (integrated as per boilerplate), SCSS for project-specific custom styles and overrides.
-   **State Management:** Angular Services with RxJS for reactive data flow and local state management. NgRx (or similar) is considered a potential future enhancement for complex global state requirements.
-   **HTTP Client:** Angular's `HttpClient` module, enhanced with `HttpInterceptor` for global error handling and authentication token injection.
-   **Form Handling:** Angular Reactive Forms.
-   **Testing:** Karma (test runner), Jasmine (testing framework), Protractor/Cypress (for end-to-end testing).

## Backend Technologies
-   **Language:** Python (latest stable version, e.g., 3.10+). Chosen for its readability, vast ecosystem, and suitability for rapid API development and robust administrative features.
-   **Framework:** Django (latest stable version) for the core web framework, integrated with Django REST Framework (DRF) for building powerful and flexible RESTful APIs. Django's built-in ORM and Admin interface greatly accelerate development, especially for admin features.
-   **API:** RESTful JSON API.
-   **Authentication:** Django REST Framework's JWT (JSON Web Tokens) integration (e.g., `djangorestframework-simplejwt`).
-   **Task Queue (Optional, Future):** Celery with Redis/RabbitMQ as a broker for asynchronous tasks like email notifications or background processing.
-   **Testing:** Pytest with `pytest-django` and `pytest-mock` for unit and integration testing.

## Database Technologies
-   **Primary Database:** PostgreSQL (latest stable version). Selected for its robustness, reliability, ACID compliance, extensive features, and strong support for relational data structures essential for e-commerce (products, orders, users, etc.).
-   **Caching:** Redis (latest stable version). Utilized as a high-performance in-memory data store for caching frequently accessed data (e.g., product catalog, categories) and potentially for session management.

## Infrastructure
-   **Deployment:**
    -   **Containerization:** Docker for containerizing both the Angular frontend (serving static files) and the Django backend applications, ensuring consistent environments.
    -   **Orchestration (Future Consideration):** Kubernetes for managing, scaling, and deploying containerized applications in production for high availability and complex scaling needs.
    -   **Local Environment:** Docker Compose for defining and running multi-container Docker applications locally.
-   **Hosting:** AWS (Amazon Web Services).
    -   **Compute:** Amazon EC2 instances for hosting Docker containers (backend API).
    -   **Database:** Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) for managed PostgreSQL.
    -   **Static Assets/Media:** Amazon S3 for storing frontend build artifacts, product images, and other static content, potentially fronted by Amazon CloudFront (CDN).
    -   **Load Balancing:** Amazon ALB (Application Load Balancer) to distribute traffic across backend instances.
    -   **Email Service:** Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) for transactional emails (e.g., order confirmations, admin notifications).
-   **CI/CD:** GitHub Actions or GitLab CI/CD pipelines for automated testing, building Docker images, and deploying to AWS environments.

## Development Tools
-   **Version Control:** Git (e.g., hosted on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket).
-   **Integrated Development Environment (IDE):** Visual Studio Code, PyCharm (for Python/Django), WebStorm (for Angular/Frontend).
-   **API Testing:** Postman or Insomnia for testing RESTful API endpoints.
-   **Code Quality & Formatting:**
    -   **Frontend:** ESLint, Prettier.
    -   **Backend:** Black (code formatter), Flake8 (linter).
-   **Documentation:** OpenAPI/Swagger for backend API documentation.


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## TECH STACK UPDATE - 2025-10-15 12:36:01


# Technology Stack Document Update
Generated: 2025-10-15T12:40:00.000000

## Frontend Technologies - Configuration Management
Expanding on the Frontend Technologies, environment-specific variables, particularly API endpoints, authentication keys, and other configurable parameters, will be rigorously managed within the `environments` folder as defined by the `analysis_document.md` "Business Rules (Architectural Principles)". This ensures secure and flexible configuration across development, staging, and production environments without code changes.

## Backend Technologies - Admin Interface Leverage
The selection of Django for the backend framework is significantly bolstered by its powerful, extensible, and built-in Admin interface. This feature directly addresses the `analysis_document.md` "Admin User Requirements" and `requirements_document.md` "FR-009: Admin Product Management" and "FR-010: Admin Order Management" by providing a rapid and robust foundation for all administrative CRUD operations on products, orders, users, and categories, minimizing custom development for these critical functions.

## Infrastructure - CI/CD Strategy
The CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions or GitLab CI/CD will be crucial for the e-commerce application. Its primary purpose will be to automate the entire software delivery process:
*   **Automated Testing:** Ensuring every code change passes unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to maintain code quality and prevent regressions, critical for a robust e-commerce platform.
*   **Consistent Builds & Deployments:** Guaranteeing that the application is built and deployed consistently across environments, reducing manual errors and accelerating time-to-market for new features and bug fixes.
*   **Rapid Feedback:** Providing immediate feedback to developers on the impact of their changes, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and faster iteration cycles.
This robust CI/CD strategy supports the NFRs for maintainability and performance, especially for frequent updates typical of e-commerce.

