redux

Twitter Likes/Faves

development, projects

Now that Christmas is over I have decided to get on with my next project. Like the bookmarks tool I made, I am utilising another information source to create a tool for quicker/more visible development information. I have always used twitter as another source of information when it comes to programming/development work as it tends to highlight new and interesting updates in the dev world. Essentially I am going to gather the favourite/likes of a user to display via a user search.

To do so I have needed to apply for twitter API access. Luckily I was approved very quickly. However, it did take a bit of reading to make sure I got my application written correctly.

I intend to use bootstrap along with react in order to create a single page tool whilst gaining more insight with bootstrap as a CSS framework. First I’ll get it to search for a user’s likes and I may add extra features later if all goes well. For example, adding other people’s likes to my own account, therefore, saving for later reference.

Readable (extra-curricular)

projects

Having completed the last required project for the React course ahead of time, and gone through the extra git course, I decided to take on the extra React / Redux project. Essentially it is an anonymous post and comment app where the user can vote up or down on a post and / or comment and has features to create, edit and delete posts / comments. Oh, and of course I made sure it used responsive design to suit all screen sizes, like all my recent projects. (github)

Screen shot of Readable app home page displaying three category posts

This project was a little more open and detailed than the previous one, which meant I got a chance to use a few more hooks and really help solidify my understanding or React and Redux. All whilst challenging myself with a tighter schedule. I also made sure I incorporated styled components from the beginning, and again, helped me form a greater understanding of it’s use. Styled components certainly feels like it suits being used with React!

Being able to complete the project within the allotted remaining time and incorporating all the features I wanted has boosted my confidence using all the technologies involved. I learnt more about using the ‘useEffect’ hook by getting it to look for changes in specific data. Furthermore, using nested styles and passing props in styled components.

React Native flash cards

projects

I have now completed the Udacity React nano-degree by finishing and passing the react-native project. Although, as per usual, I went a bit further than what was required, so I could get as much out of this as possible. I successfully created a whole new section that displayed results for completed quizzes. Each result displayed: the category it related to, the highest score achieved, the date of that score, and how many times the quiz had been attempted. All of which is stored in the device via ‘async-storage’.

The use of styled components, transitions, and native platform specific material design was incorporated from the start. Some were required for the project and others were extras that I used to further my knowledge. There were also several new things learnt during this production, for example, how to actually nest different native navigation methods and the use of native specific react components.

I looked forward to this project in particular as I have been wanting to develop mobile apps for some time. Furthermore, being able to create such products using a widely used and accessible language makes it even more exciting and not too niche. Having said that, it is a little frustrating that I wasn’t able to simultaneously build it for iOS, due to not owning a mac. However, now I know the framework a bit better, once I have the hardware I will be able to take full advantage of React-Native.

(GitHub)

React / Redux, ‘would you rather’

projects

Straight after finishing the first React project I got on with the next section of the Udacity course. This part was all about including Redux and creating a single source of truth. I.E. holding data in a single place to avoid duplication or unintended changes which could create hard to solve bugs.

The project for this section asked me to create an app based around the game ‘would you rather‘. Using Redux, I would store user details and questions. The data also stored who had answered which questions and who created them. The user was also ranked based on the number of questions created and answered.

Creating this app proved to be a sound way to get my head around: reducers, actions and the implementation of basic UI transitions. After submission, I passed all the requirements and was given some great suggestions which I immediately refactored into the project, especially as I wanted to know the best ways of doing things. For example, separating concerns by not accessing a DOM element outside a component’s render function. I also found the way React updates the correct elements when the store state changes to be really interesting and a much more efficient way of doing things.

I managed to put all the required functionality in place well within the required / suggested time so went about adding extra features. For example, a sign up landing page where the user can log in to a previously created profile or create a new one. The signup form also had validation to make sure a new profile didn’t already exist. Ultimately, I learnt a lot from this project and it has given me more confidence to try new things moving forward.