Project
Poplog.
A fullstack media journal where users can log and track their favorite movies, TV shows, video games, and books.
Overview
A centralized home for tracking entertainment across every medium.
Poplog was born from a simple frustration: keeping track of favorite movies, television shows, games, and books across multiple platforms. I wanted a single destination where users could discover new content, record their experiences, and build a personal archive of the media that matters most to them. The result is a fullstack application that combines content discovery with organization.
Key Features
Created to make media discovery and collection management effortless.
Secure authentication system with protected routes and JWT-based session management
Personalized journal that allows users to save titles, record ratings, and revisit past entries
Trending content hub powered by multiple third-party APIs for movies, TV shows, games, and books
Backend data synchronization that transforms and stores external media information for faster access and consistency
Challenges and Lessons Learned
Engineering a unified experience across multiple data sources.
One of the most demanding aspects of Poplog was integrating four separate APIs, each with its own response structure and data conventions. Creating a consistent user interface required transforming and normalizing incoming data before it could be displayed or stored. I also had to account for rate limits and performance concerns, which led me to implement caching strategies that reduced unnecessary requests and improved responsiveness. This project marked my transition from primarily frontend and design work into fullstack development. Building the backend API, constructing the database schema, and managing data flow between the client and server gave me a much deeper understanding of how modern web applications operate end-to-end.