# Maintainability Review - Pick'n'Play

## A) Current focus

This document tracks only active work. Completed work is intentionally omitted and can be reviewed in git history.

Active maintainability risks (priority order):

1. Frontend module concentration and global coupling (Critical)
- `wwwroot/js/ui.js` remains the dominant hotspot and owns rendering, modal flows, admin flows, and vote logic.
- Cross-feature coupling still exists via shared mutable state usage across UI/data modules (`wwwroot/js/ui.js:180`, `wwwroot/js/ui.js:401`, `wwwroot/js/ui.js:622`, `wwwroot/js/data.js:82`).
- Impact: high regression surface and expensive refactors even after removing global `window` bridges.

2. Legacy phase path remains in active code (Medium)
- `Reveal` is still present in `Domain/Phase.cs:6` and compatibility branches remain in `Endpoints/StateEndpoints.cs:102` and `Endpoints/StateEndpoints.cs:111`.
- Impact: extra cognitive load and more branches to reason about during phase-flow changes.

3. Unauthenticated 401 response shape is still framework-driven (Medium)
- Endpoint and filter unauthorized responses are standardized when app logic executes (`Infrastructure/AdminOnlyFilter.cs:15`, `Infrastructure/PhaseRequirementFilter.cs:15`, `Endpoints/SuggestEndpoints.cs:18`), but anonymous challenge responses remain middleware-controlled (`GameList.Tests/StateTests.cs:214`).
- Impact: clients must tolerate both app-produced problem payloads and framework challenge responses.

4. Static analysis and frontend lint guardrails are still missing (Medium)
- CI currently gates restore/build/test only (`.github/workflows/ci.yml:23`-`.github/workflows/ci.yml:29`).
- Impact: style drift and low-signal warnings can enter the codebase undetected.

## B) Active task list

[P1] Decompose frontend UI monolith by feature
- Problem: Severity `High`, Category `Architecture/Complexity`. `ui.js` still mixes rendering, form behavior, and mutation flows.
- Evidence: `wwwroot/js/ui.js:180`, `wwwroot/js/ui.js:401`, `wwwroot/js/ui.js:622`, `wwwroot/js/ui.js:903`, `wwwroot/js/data.js:82`.
- Recommendation: split by feature (`suggestions-ui`, `votes-ui`, `admin-ui`, `modals-ui`) and keep orchestration in a thin composition layer.
- Acceptance criteria (testable): UI behavior is preserved while feature modules own isolated responsibilities and no single file coordinates all vote/admin/modal/suggestion interactions.
- Effort / Risk: `L / Med`.
- Dependencies (if any): none.

[P1] Remove legacy `Reveal` phase compatibility branches
- Problem: Severity `Medium`, Category `Complexity`. Legacy phase compatibility logic is still present in runtime paths.
- Evidence: `Domain/Phase.cs:6`, `Endpoints/StateEndpoints.cs:102`, `Endpoints/StateEndpoints.cs:111`, `wwwroot/js/data.js:30`.
- Recommendation: remove `Reveal` from enum/transition logic and update affected tests/documentation.
- Acceptance criteria (testable): no runtime references to `Phase.Reveal`; phase transitions cover only `Suggest`, `Vote`, and `Results`.
- Effort / Risk: `S / Low`.
- Dependencies (if any): none.

[P1] Unify client handling of unauthenticated 401 challenge responses
- Problem: Severity `Medium`, Category `API/Contracts`. Fully unauthenticated requests can still bypass application-level problem shaping.
- Evidence: challenge behavior is exercised in `GameList.Tests/StateTests.cs:214` while app-level unauthorized shaping is exercised in `GameList.Tests/AuthTests.cs:164`.
- Recommendation: either customize cookie-auth challenge response to RFC7807 or explicitly codify dual-shape handling contract in API docs and frontend error layer.
- Acceptance criteria (testable): single documented 401 contract path, with tests validating response shape and frontend behavior.
- Effort / Risk: `M / Med`.
- Dependencies (if any): none.

[P2] Add static analysis and JS lint/format guardrails
- Problem: Severity `Medium`, Category `Tooling`. CI does not enforce analyzers or JS lint/format checks.
- Evidence: `.github/workflows/ci.yml:23`-`.github/workflows/ci.yml:29`.
- Recommendation: add .NET analyzer configuration and ESLint/Prettier checks, then enforce in CI.
- Acceptance criteria (testable): CI fails on analyzer/lint violations; local scripts are documented in root docs.
- Effort / Risk: `M / Low`.
- Dependencies (if any): none.

[P2] Externalize i18n and FAQ content from executable JS
- Problem: Severity `Low`, Category `Complexity/Documentation`. Translation and FAQ payloads are embedded in code.
- Evidence: `wwwroot/js/i18n.js:1`-`wwwroot/js/i18n.js:799`.
- Recommendation: move language dictionaries and FAQ markdown into versioned data assets with schema checks.
- Acceptance criteria (testable): `i18n.js` holds behavior only; assets load and render identical user-facing text.
- Effort / Risk: `M / Low`.
- Dependencies (if any): frontend module split is helpful but optional.

## C) Suggested execution order

1. Decompose `ui.js` by feature and keep orchestration thin.
2. Remove `Reveal` phase compatibility branches.
3. Normalize/declare unauthenticated 401 contract behavior.
4. Add analyzers + JS lint gates in CI.
5. Externalize i18n/FAQ assets.

## D) Guardrails

- Keep endpoint handlers transport-focused and move business rules into services/validators.
- Keep reads side-effect free and isolate all persistence changes to explicit command paths.
- Maintain one source of truth per validation rule (backend authoritative, frontend UX hints only).
- Prefer typed DTOs over anonymous response shapes for non-trivial API payloads.
