Today focused entirely on integrating our newly developed PHP/Laravel backend with the existing frontend interfaces. This integration work required careful coordination to ensure a seamless user experience while transitioning between architectural approaches.
The main challenge was adapting our frontend JavaScript code, which was originally designed to interact with Google Apps Script web endpoints, to instead communicate with our new Laravel API. I began by creating a comprehensive API documentation using Laravel’s built-in tooling, which provided a clear reference for all available endpoints, their expected parameters, and response formats.
Next, I modified our frontend AJAX calls to point to the new API endpoints. This required careful attention to authentication mechanisms, as we’ve transitioned from Google’s authentication to a token-based JWT approach in Laravel. I implemented a client-side authentication handler that manages token storage, refreshing, and inclusion in API requests, maintaining the user’s authenticated state throughout their session.
A particularly challenging aspect was handling file uploads, which worked quite differently between the two systems. Our previous implementation used Google’s file picker and Drive integration, while the new system needed to handle direct file uploads to the Laravel backend. I implemented a new upload component using Dropzone.js that provides progress indicators and preview capabilities while communicating with Laravel’s storage system.
For real-time features like shift updates and notifications, I had to replace our previous approach (which relied on Google’s server-side events) with a more robust solution. I integrated Laravel Echo with Pusher to enable WebSocket-based real-time updates. This actually improved the responsiveness of our interface, as updates now propagate immediately rather than requiring polling or page refreshes.
I spent considerable time ensuring form submissions work correctly with the new backend. This involved updating validation handling, error displays, and success messages to work with Laravel’s response format rather than the custom format we used in Apps Script. The new implementation provides more detailed validation feedback and better handles edge cases like network errors or timeout conditions.
Testing was a crucial part of today’s work. I developed a comprehensive test plan that verified each interaction between the frontend and backend, paying special attention to authentication flows, form submissions, and real-time updates. This testing uncovered several subtle issues in how data was being formatted between systems, which I was able to address before they would impact users.
By the end of the day, I had successfully integrated the core user interfaces with our new backend. The transition is now seamless from the user’s perspective—they interact with the familiar interface while behind the scenes, their requests are being handled by our more robust Laravel implementation rather than the original Apps Script services.