Tag Archives: code

Title X

Leave a reply

Working on my final project has been interesting. I was able to work through most things and make sure I got the assignment done. Once I was done, I wanted to make the site live. I tried everything and I was able to do it. My local site was working normally, but when I tried to run the live site, my CSS was not showing. I think the issue is with my database but I can not figure out where exactly the problem is. Greg and I tried to work through it but still it was not working. I moved the files from local to the live on FileZilla but when I ran the site, still nothing was showing up. As a next step, Greg suggested I get a new domain and host. I got a new one and logged into the new site on FileZilla then I moved the files from the local to the live. When I tried to run my domain, nothing was showing up. I compared the two files (local and live) and they matched but on the browser it was not showing up. I am going to work on this a little more to try and run the file. I am not sure where things went wrong but I know that I mistakenly deleted the file and when retrieved it, something was messed up.

As I think about where we are right now, I feel very grateful to have taken this class. I am not sure if I am going to continue in this field of work. I might in the future, but for the time being I am happy I got exposed to such tremendous information. I am able to understand the basic codes on a minimal level and get around when it comes to inspecting a site or understanding web development.

I do not need to code things at my current job, but sometimes I need to update the website and need basic knowledge of the back end of the site. For example, I need to update the website with new information of an upcoming event. The site is made up in a way that I need to embed the image of the event into the body. I do so by sourcing the text and embedding the code of the image into the text. The body of the text is HTML and I need to know where to put the code. I was comfortable handling such task because of my experience from this class. I am excited of what the future has to bring no matter what next steps I take.

More and more everyday

Leave a reply

This past week, I worked a lot on one of my plugins. I wanted to make sure I have that done and ready so I am able to work on the other plugin and child theme. The “post types” page that Greg shared in class has been very helpful to me. There are a lot of different features that WordPress offers. I have been learning through trial and error, which has been helpful to figure out what works and what does not.  

While working on my final project and personal website, I wanted to add as many features as possible. One idea that I had was to add my LinkedIn feed to my website. It would pull in my posts on a regular basis. I wanted to start posting on LinkedIn on a daily basis, in which case it would show up on my website. I want to customize my daily posts on LinkedIn and include daily advice and tips on how to optimize social media content.

I want to create a strategy and a vision for my website. What am I trying to gain out of the website? Am I going to focus on conversion rate, brand awareness, business growth? Am I going to try to promote my business on social media platforms? I also need to modify my social media platforms to make it more professional or I could launch new ones that reflect my business and work. 

This week, I also want to reflect on how helpful this class has been the past three months. While I do not have a lot of deep knowledge of coding, the general knowledge that I have gained from the languages and my ability to somehow make sense of a code when I see one has been really helpful in my job. I am able to inspect pages and figure out where links go and where the information on the site goes. I am also able to to understand when people talk about embed codes and the back-end of a site. This has been helpful in carrying out conversation even if basic and I have been happy about that. When I started class in January I did not even know the different languages of coding and now I am much more knowledgable even if at a basic level.  I am not sure whether or not to continue the learning process, but maybe I will delve deeper into it in the future.

Midterm Developer Profile

Leave a reply

I was introduced to Mutsm through a friend because he thought Mutsm had a unique and an interesting path. He was born in Amman, Jordan in 1994. He grew up bright with so much potential and future ahead of him. During my conversation with him, he opened up about his background and family and how it shaped the man he is today. Both his parents are engineers and most of his family members were either engineers or doctors. There was a lot of pressure on Mutsm to take either route. According to his parents, it would have been a waste of his abilities if he decided to go another route, different from the scientific field. He did well in school his whole life and his parents were always very proud. When he got to high school, his parents made him take all math and science courses and advanced courses, in order to end up in a scientific field in college.

Mutsm got accepted into a Biomedical Engineering program at Johns Hopkins University, which is among the United States’ very best. He learned about Johns Hopkins from a mentor at his high school and then he came across the program when he did more research about it. He realized it was a very competitive program and could offer him a lot of opportunities. He decided to apply because of the potential this program could offer. It seemed interesting and had a great network. He also did not know what he wanted to do with his life, so it was an opportunity to explore options.

His first couple of months at the school were not as exciting. He was not as happy and his classes were not fulfilling his hunger for knowledge. He, then, remembered taking an Alice program during his senior year of high school, which he loved. He decided during the second semester of his freshman year at university to take a coding class for biomedical engineering where he worked with Python and Matlab. He really enjoyed it and did really well. This is when his interest in coding was first sparked. The following summer, he started doing coding on his own and learned how to solve problems on Project Euler. He also started taking more classes like Data Structures and Algorithms at university. He started applying programing into his biomedical engineering major. He wanted to switch majors, but he would have lost his scholarship and his parents opposed such a change. He agreed to continue doing biomedical engineering, as long as he got to work in the software development field after. During his senior year of college, he decided he wanted to do more coding and less biomedical engineering. He started applying to jobs in that field and doing his own projects, such as building an Android app to do note taking.

After college, he moved back to Jordan because he wanted to make a difference in his home country. He took a job at a startup called Mixed Dimensions, that built a marketplace for 3-D prints from games. He did not like the work or the little impact it had on the Jordanian community. He decided to join the new Expedia office that opened in Jordan, where he currently works as a software engineer, contributing to the expansion of US companies in Jordan.

Mutsem is starting a master’s in computer science at Georgia Tech this fall. The program is online, so he will be participating in it while still living in Jordan. The reason he joined the program is that he thinks it would help to have a structured approach to learning that he was not able to do on his own. Doing this degree would offer him discipline as he aspires to gain as much experience as possible.

His most recent work is doing open source projects. He created an Alfred workflow to get keyboard shortcuts for applications and websites. He actively maintains an open source project with 27 stars and 3 other contributors on GitHub, incorporating requests for support for more apps from active users. Each app and its shortcuts were stored as a Python dictionary and merged into a Pickle file to optimize for performance. The workflow was customizable so users could add their own apps locally and override default shortcuts. He worked on Firefox Open Source Contributions, where he increased Jest test coverage for Firefox Debugger by 2.5% of lines in React.js. He fixed UI issues for Firefox Content Server in Backbone.js. In terms of MeteorJS Open Source Contributions, he fixed issues with frontend miniMongo database to closely match it to MongoDB behavior. He also fixed backend authentication issues.

He has been extremely happy with the decision he had made in taking the software development path. He is now a mentor at his high school to help young students interested in software development and figure out their passion at an early age.

 

What’s Next — Future Plan

1 Reply

Now that we’ve wrapped up the class and I have been able to take a moment to reflect on everything we learned, the trials, the tribulations, the blood, sweat, tears, even shingles diagnosis, I’m really happy I took this class. In looking to the future, I am looking forward to taking some time off from school, class, and code. On Monday, I finished my Capstone class, and I feel pretty brain dead.

With that being said, I don’t want to let Three Cheers Four Food or my new coding skills go to waste! First, I paid for both–to learn and to host the site. Second, I think it’s a pride thing right now. So, below is my plan for the next six months for continuing to learn code and update my site.

[Take a two-week break to do more reflecting and mostly to sleep! This time will be used to give my brain a break from the work and school life, and let myself get reenergized for what’s to come!]

Month 1-2: Refresh myself on the following languages:

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • PHP
  • I want to focus on these three languages because they are the languages that I primarily used in the development of my site.

Month 3-4: Start website updates:

  • There were several comments that my classmates made about updates I could make to my site and I want to be able to do complete these. These include:
    • Updating the navigation bar
    • updating the colors and fonts for the custom post types
    • revisiting the custom post type code and getting the information to echo
    • adding pictures to my recipe page
    • creating a plan for content creation
      • for this, I have a personal plan of doing weekly updates.

Month 5-6:

  • Continue learning new languages. I’m interested in learning more about Python as it’s a commonly used language that I’ve heard the web developers use at work.

In conclusion, as hard as the semester was, I don’t want to lose the skills that I’ve gained over the semester. I like the challenge and I think that now that I have more time that I’ll be able to dedicate myself (and with a different mindset). Like learning a new language, you have to practice or you’ll lose everything you’ve learned. SO, that’s my plan! I hope that my classmates can hold me to it.

And here are some pictures of my cat, because she’s magical (Sorry they’re blurry, it’s Apple’s fault):

The Final Stretch

1 Reply

This week I found myself feeling satisfied and relieved to be taking a break from coding my final project. I went into the last class knowing that I wanted to complete a few tweaks to my WordPress site, wanted to collaborate with my classmates on figuring out the final pieces of code, and coming to terms that I don’t fully understand why my code doesn’t always work. I found myself Googling more than I had anticipated that I would be, and I relied heavily on a number of PHP and CSS code testers to be test my code. At times, I was confused as to if I was making updates to my local or live site…I have a case of “too many tabs open at one time” syndrome. In a way, it was good. It forced me restart my thinking from scratch and gave me a minute to walk away from the code.

Admittedly, I have grown frustrated with the Final Project. I had a feeling I would. I spent SOOOOO many hours trying to get all of the custom post types to work, then getting the meta boxes to work. The frustration quickly turned to anger. I’d be ecstatic if someone could look at my code and find how to improve it so it could echo the information correctly (or at all) the actual post.

Another major shout out to everyone in class the other day. Thanks for helping answer all of my questions!

I’m happy to be able to take a step back from the code. My plan is to quickly jump back into my WordPress site and continuously develop the site, content, and my coding skills. I hope to be able to go back to Code Academy and re-work on the lessons at a slower pace to allow me to soak in the information.

Onward and upward. I hope everyone enjoys the site.

Github: https://github.com/amaliaks/Final_Project_Amalia

Site: http://threecheersfourfood.com/