Tech Trends

A full-stack application for analyzing and forecasting technology trends using patent data and market analysis.

Project Structure

tech-trends/
├── backend/          # Python Flask API for data processing and analysis
├── frontend/         # Next.js React application for visualization and reporting
└── README.md         # This file

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• Node.js 18+
• pnpm (or npm/yarn)

Backend

Setup:

cd backend

# Create and activate virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the Flask app
python app.py

The backend will typically run on http://localhost:5000

Key Files:

• app.py - Main Flask application entry point
• db.py - Database models and connections
• scraping_raw_data.py - Patent data scraping functionality
• cleaners.py - Data cleaning and preprocessing utilities
• family_members.py - Patent family relationship management

Frontend

Setup:

cd frontend

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Run development server
pnpm dev

The frontend will typically run on http://localhost:3000

Structure:

• app/ - Next.js app directory with main pages
  • forecasting/ - Technology forecasting visualizations
  • reports/ - Report generation and viewing
  • trend-analysis/ - Trend analysis dashboard
• components/ - Reusable React components
• lib/ - Utility functions and helpers

Features

• Patent data analysis and search
• Technology trend forecasting
• Market size and strategy analysis
• Competitor analysis
• International patent search
• IP valuation statistics
• Geographic patent protection analysis
• Advanced search capabilities

Tech Stack

Backend:

• Flask
• Python 3
• Data processing libraries

Frontend:

• Next.js 14
• React
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• Shadcn UI components
• Chart libraries for data visualization

Development

Code Quality

• Use TypeScript in the frontend for type safety
• Follow PEP 8 guidelines in Python code
• Keep components modular and reusable

Git Workflow

• Each folder has its own .gitignore file
• Commit messages should be descriptive
• Create feature branches for new work

Environment Variables

Create .env.local files in respective folders for local development:

Frontend (.env.local):

NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:5000

Backend (.env):

FLASK_ENV=development
DATABASE_URL=your_database_url