Challenge Overview

The goal of this challenge is to build a simple PVWatts calculator in bootstrap/angularjs/nodejs.

Challenge Requirement

You are building a single nodejs page with following requirements :

- Use ExpressJs/AngularJS/Bootstrap default theme to implement requirements.
- Add a form for the user to input their full address and a button they can press on to "Submit".
- - The address value is similar to the address used in google geolocation service that converts the address to lat/lon.
- - After pressing this submit button the user will see a validation error if the input is not a valid address.
- - Use google geocode api service for auto complete and validating the address.
- Using the retrieved lat/lon in previous step use this PVWatts API to retrieve the climate data. We are only interested in the first weather data from the returned list from the API.
- Render a Google map below the address form with a pin/marker of the user address dropped in the map.
- - It should be in “Satellite” imagery mode so user can see her building roof.
- - Add a button("Calculate Usage") below the map.
- - Scroll the page so that the map is centered and “Calculate Usage” button is visible to user.
- Add a custom layer in top of the google map to show user how “Draw Your System”.
- - Refer to this page. It is a built-in PVWatts calculator, insert a US zip code for a residential address, then click on “System Info” tab. You will see a screenshot like this one.
- - Click on the google map thumbnail in above screenshot will open up a google map with a custom layer showing how to “Draw a System”. What you are going to do is to show similar custom layer in the google map we are rendering in the homepage to tell user how to draw their system.
- - Add option to user to set this pop out not to appear again by checking a "Got it! Not show this message again" checkbox.
  - - To understand how to draw a polygon and calculate system capacity you can refer to measureAdd and measureCalc in maps.js file in pvwatts calculator page http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php
- Add ability for Users then will draw their system, same as done in PVWatts draw my system page referenced above.
- Users can press on "Calculate Usage" to get detailed results as to how much the system will generate and cost each month at the bottom of the page.
- - This API will be used to calculate usage.
- - We are replicating how user can see the results in “Results” tab in this page http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php .
- - The variable API request parameters we will pass to this api :
  - - address (entered by user)
  - - the first climate data id, will be passed in file_id.
  - - system capacity calculated from drawn system in the map.
    - - To calculate this value you can refer to the JS function (measureCalc) in http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php
- - For this functionality, we will store the default values of the API request parameters to be used in the calculation in configurations. The request parameters we will configured are :
  - - api_key
  - - system_capacity
  - - module_type
  - - losses
  - - array_type
  - - tilt
  - - azimuth
  - - timeframe
  - - dc_ac_ratio
  - - gcr
  - - inv_eff
- - Other fields needed by the API not listed above are not needed.
- - For the configured request parameters default values you can use the values set under System Info tab in PVWatts calculator page http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php
- Render the response of the API below the google maps with same structure as in “Results” tab in PVWatts calculator page.
- - The structure should match the pvwatts results structure :
  - - yearly result
  - - monthly result
  - - Display the Warning icon and Cautions message in top of location info as it is currently displayed in the PVWatt page.
  - - location info
  - - PV system spec
  - - Initial economic comparison
- - Add a button “Reset” to clear/hide the calculation result output and take user to address form (add focus on the address field).
- All sensitive information should be configurable.
- - Don’t expose any API keys in the frontend JS side.
- Calling PVWatts api should be from nodejs side.
- Create a README file to configure, setup and deploy the app.
- Your API backend design should expose endpoints where each endpoint is self-contained functionality.
- Your code should properly use logging, validation, and error handling.
- - Use watson for logging, use INFO for method entry/exit, DEBUG for parameters/response, and ERROR for errors.