Food Allergy Shield

A cool cross-platform application for managing food allergy information, built with Kivy and CoPilot.

🏗️ Project Structure

FoodAllergyShield/
├── src/                           # Source code
│   └── foodallergyshield/        # Main application package
│       ├── __init__.py           # Package initialization
│       ├── __main__.py           # CLI entry point
│       ├── app.py                # Briefcase entry point
│       ├── food_allergy_shield.py # Main application logic
│       ├── database_manager.py   # Database operations
│       └── food_allergy_shield.kv # UI layout (Kivy)
├── assets/                       # Static assets
│   ├── icon.ico                  # Application icon (Windows)
│   ├── presplash.png            # Splash screen image
│   └── img/                     # Other images
├── data/                        # Data files
│   ├── food_allergies.db        # SQLite database
│   ├── food_allergies_export.csv # Sample export
│   └── sample_data.csv          # Sample data
├── docs/                        # Documentation
├── archive/                     # Archived original files
├── build/                       # Briefcase build output
├── dist/                        # Distribution packages
├── logs/                        # Application logs
├── tools/                       # Development tools
├── run_dev.py                   # Development runner (Python)
├── run_dev.bat                  # Development runner (Windows)
├── run_dev.sh                   # Development runner (Unix/Linux)
├── pyproject.toml              # Project configuration (Briefcase)
├── requirements.txt            # Python dependencies
└── README.md                   # This file

🚀 Quick Start

Development Mode

Windows:

# Double-click or run:
run_dev.bat

Python (all platforms):

python run_dev.py

Unix/Linux/macOS:

chmod +x run_dev.sh
./run_dev.sh

Packaging with Briefcase

Automated Build (Recommended)

Use the provided build scripts that handle both building and DLL copying:

# Windows Command Prompt
scripts\build_complete.bat

# PowerShell (more detailed output)
.\scripts\build_complete.ps1

Manual Build Process

# Development testing
briefcase dev

# Create/update build
briefcase create

# Build executable
briefcase build

# Copy necessary DLLs (required for Windows)
.\scripts\post_build.ps1

# Run executable
briefcase run

# Create installer package
briefcase package

Note: On Windows, the build scripts automatically copy necessary SDL2, GLEW, and ANGLE DLLs to fix runtime issues. See scripts/README.md for details.

📋 Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Kivy 2.3.0+
• Briefcase (for packaging)

Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install briefcase  # For packaging

🔧 Development

Making Changes

1. Edit files in src/foodallergyshield/
2. Test with python run_dev.py (automatically copies database from data/)
3. For packaging: briefcase update && briefcase build

Database Management

• Development: Database automatically copied from data/food_allergies.db to src/foodallergyshield/ when running development scripts
• Distribution: Database (food_allergies.db) is included in the MSI package
• Data Directory: Sample data and main database stored in data/

File Structure Guidelines

• Source Code: All Python code goes in src/foodallergyshield/
• Assets: Images, icons in assets/
• Data: Database files, CSV data in data/
• Documentation: Markdown files in docs/

Key Files

• src/foodallergyshield/app.py - Main application logic
• src/foodallergyshield/database_manager.py - Database operations
• src/foodallergyshield/food_allergy_shield.kv - UI layout
• pyproject.toml - Briefcase configuration

📦 Distribution

The project creates:

• Windows: Food Allergy Shield-1.0.0.msi installer
• Executable: Food Allergy Shield.exe standalone

🐛 Troubleshooting

Development vs Production

• Development: Use run_dev.py for quick testing
• Production: Use scripts\build_complete.bat or briefcase build + scripts\post_build.ps1

Common Windows Packaging Issues

• "DLL load failed" errors: Use the build scripts in scripts/ folder - they automatically copy required DLLs
• "'NoneType' object has no attribute 'size'": Fixed in current version with proper error handling
• Application won't start: Run scripts\build_complete.ps1 for detailed build process and error checking

Build Scripts

The scripts/ directory contains automated build tools:

• build_complete.bat/.ps1 - Complete build with DLL copying
• post_build.bat/.ps1/.sh - DLL copying only (after manual build)
• See scripts/README.md for detailed usage instructions

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.