Engineering Principles

Trailhead adheres to modern engineering standards to ensure clarity, modularity, and long-term maintainability.

Core Principles

Principle	Explanation
Separation of Concerns	Rails API and React UI are fully decoupled. Each layer does one job well.
Single Source of Truth	All park and recreation data is owned by the Rails API + PostGIS layer.
Stateless API Design	JWT tokens provide stateless authentication for all clients.
RESTful Architecture	Standard Rails REST conventions: index, show, create, update, delete.
Abstraction & Encapsulation	Service objects handle external API calls and business logic.
Extensibility & Scalability	PostGIS enables powerful queries without redesign.
Predictable Data Layer	Serializers provide consistent JSON structures for the frontend.
Declarative UI	React + Deck.gl define UI via immutable props and composable layers.