Goal

Accept a photo from the client (frontend), send to the Flask server (backend), process image (perform Optical Character Recognition) and return result to client

Design decision:

• should the client call DeepL API to translate or should the backend do this as part of image processing

Tech Stack

Expo frontend (React Native framework running with npm) Flask backend (b/c it's python)

Tutorials

1. Main tutorial (getting/sending photo to Flask backend from Expo app) https://narainsreehith.medium.com/upload-image-video-to-flask-backend-from-react-native-app-expo-app-1aac5653d344
2. Setting up python venv https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/#creating-a-virtual-environment
3. Installing python3 in gitbash on Windows https://programmingwithjim.wordpress.com/2020/09/08/installing-python-3-in-git-bash-on-windows-10/
4. Android Studio/Android 11 SDK https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/setup-sdk#get-sdk

Python Virtual Environment (backend/v_env)

Commands

source v_env/Scripts/activate deactivate

Running the App

• if there are errors, try npm install
• Need to install Android Studio or IOS simulator
• To support web, may have to run the command npx expo install react-native-web@~0.18.10 [email protected] @expo/webpack-config@^18.0.1 or call npm install on each module

Commands

Navigate to frontend/expo-app and run one of the following npm commands

• cd expo-app
• npm start you can open iOS, Android, or web from here, or run them directly with the commands below.
• npm run android
• npm run ios requires an iOS device or macOS for access to an iOS simulator
• npm run web