Back2Bassics

A full-stack web application that connects to the Spotify API to display album information, track details, and user interactions such as likes, ratings, and reviews.

Built using:

• Python (Flask) for the backend
• HTML/CSS/JavaScript for the frontend
• SQLite for the database
• Spotify Web API for album and track data

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How to Run the Project Locally

You will need two terminal windows (or tabs) open.

1. Start the Flask Backend

In the first terminal:

python dev/backend/partC/app.py

This will start the backend server at: http://127.0.0.1:5000

2. Start the Frontend Server

In the second terminal:

cd dev/frontend
python -m http.server

This will start a basic HTTP server for the frontend at:

http://127.0.0.1:8000

3. Open the App in Your Browser

Visit:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/login.html

From there, you can sign up, log in, browse albums, view tracks, leave reviews, and more!

Environment Setup

Before running the app, ensure you have a .env file at the root of the project containing your Spotify API credentials:

SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID=your_spotify_client_id_here
SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET=your_spotify_client_secret_here

(Do not include your Spotify access token — it will be auto-generated at runtime.)

You must have the following Python packages installed:

pip install Flask flask-cors python-dotenv requests

Features

• User authentication (sign up / login)
• View albums with real-time Spotify album covers
• View track details
• Like albums and tracks
• Rate albums and tracks
• Leave reviews on albums and tracks
• Fully automated Spotify API token refresh

Notes

• The project uses dynamic access tokens from Spotify and does not require manual updates of tokens.
• Album and track images are fetched from Spotify and cached to minimize API calls.
• .env should never be committed to version control — make sure it is listed in .gitignore.