Environment Insight

A terminal based JavaScript application that allows users to record their ratings of environmental factors such as noise, light, temperature, and humidity. The program stores entries during the session and provides a summary.

Features

• Environment Ratings: Rate noise, light, temperature, and humidity on a 1–5 scale
• Notes: Add optional notes to each entry
• History: View previously recorded entries
• Summary: Calculate average ratings for each environmental factor
• Input Validation: Prevents invalid ratings outside the 1–5 range
• Interactive Menu: Add entries, view history, view summaries, or exit
• Terminal-Based: Runs directly in the command line

How It Works

The user creates an entry by rating four environmental factors:

• Noise: 1–5
• Light: 1–5
• Temperature: 1–5
• Humidity: 1–5

The user can also add optional notes.

The history feature displays previous entries, while the summary feature calculates the average rating for each environmental factor.

Note: The ratings are subjective user inputs and are not measurements from physical sensors.

Prerequisites

You need Node.js installed on your system.

Running the Program

Download the repository as a ZIP from GitHub and extract it. Open Terminal and navigate into the downloaded project folder.

From inside the project folder, run:

node src/sensory_tracker.js

The program will then run in terminal.

Use the Program

After starting the program, you will see four options:

1. Add Entry
2. View History
3. View Summary
4. Exit

Add Entry

Select 1 and rate each environmental factor from 1–5. You can also enter optional notes about the environment.

View History

Select 2 to view all entries recorded during the current session.

View Summary

Select 3 to calculate and display the average rating for each individual environmental factor.

Exit

Select 4 to end the program.

Demo Video

In this video, I go through options 1, 3, and 4

Sensory.Environment.Tracker.Demo.mov

What I Learned

This project helped me practice:

• JavaScript functions
• Arrays and objects
• Conditional statements
• User input with Node.js (readline)
• Calculating averages
• Building an interactive terminal application

Problems I Encountered

• Needed to learn how to collect user input in a Node.js terminal application. This is something new to me.
• Had to validate user ratings so that ONLY whole numbers from 1–5 were accepted.
• Needed to organize multiple environmental measurements into objects and store them in an array.

Development Process

I developed the project by first creating the terminal input system and then adding the rating validation, entry storage, history display, and summary calculations.

I tested the program using valid and invalid ratings, multiple entries, optional notes, and different menu selections.

Future Improvements

• Saving entries to a file so they persist after the program closes
• Adding timestamps to entries
• Adding visual charts or graphs
• Creating a graphical user interface
• Allowing users to customize the rating categories
• Creating a connection between this and my "Environment Sensory Sensor" repo.