Inspiration
The project was primarily inspired by the need for smarter, proactive personal finance tools. We aimed to move beyond basic spreadsheets by integrating generative Al capabilities. The core goal is to provide conversational savings advice grounded in secure, user-specific data.
What it does
The application currently provides a complete, secure foundation for future financial features. It manages all user authentication, handling both registration and login via JWTs. This foundation allows the application to be instantly scalable and ready for secure API access.
How we built it
The backend utilized Spring Boot with Spring Security for enterprise-grade performance and secure password hashing. The frontend was built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS for a fast, modern user interface. Crucially, communication is secured using a JWT filter and enforced through a custom Next.js reverse proxy.
Challenges we ran into
The primary challenge was establishing flawless communication between the different local ports, which constantly triggered CORS security errors. This required diagnosing tricky dependency injection issues in the Spring security configuration. We spent significant time implementing the Next.js proxy to bypass these complex network barriers successfully.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We successfully built a production-ready, secure JWT authentication pipeline from Java to JavaScript. This security framework is the most challenging architectural part of the MVP and is fully functional. We are proud to have resolved all major configuration and network hurdles to establish a stable, connected environment.
What we learned
We learned the essential role of specialized environment fixes when coupling decoupled applications, specifically the power of the Next.js proxy rewrite. This process reinforced the necessity of disciplined file structure and meticulous dependency management in the Java ecosystem. Our confidence in tackling complex security and network protocols for future features is greatly increased.
What's next for SP
The immediate priority is completing the Core Data Management layer with CRUD operations. This involves creating the protected TransactionController.java endpoints on the backend. Once the data management is ready, the next focus will be integrating the Gemini API for intelligent financial analysis and advice generation.
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