We are going to learn about JQuery, CouchDB, Data Serialization, Remote Data Access and RESTful Web Services, Data import/export, CRUD: Data Management and Cross-Platform Testing.
The goal is to build a Data-Driven App with Mobile-Oriented Web Services.
Project 1: Project Architecture
In the first assignment we were tasked to build the scaffolding of our app starting from pre-production. The deliverables included a mind map with the application information architecture roughed out, develop our initial wireframes. The last deliverable was to create a project template to utilize throughout the month this was built with the jQuery Mobile framework.
For this project I used mindmeister for mind mapping and Balsamiq for wire-framing. Both are very easy online tools to use.
Mind Map
Wireframe
Project Template
Project 2: Use jQuery to Future-Proof Your App
Ready to recode? Well this was an interesting assignment take the functioning JavaScript localStorage CRUD that we had developed in the previous class and recode the functionality using jQuery calls and selectors and create static JSON and XML files to pull back into the app with AJAX calls.
I spent more time on this assignment than any other one so far. It really took some deep digging trying to figure out how to get everything to work. I fell into the rabbit hole and spent a ton of time on trying to get my dynamic pages to work right. It payed off in the end even though this was not one of the main requirements (make sure you get all of the requirements done before you go on a tangent). Have a few issues with getting all of my CRUD to work perfectly.
Project 3: Build a Self-Hosting App
Hello CouchDB! Installed CouchDB locally to get familiar with the administration interface Futon. Learned about non-relational databases with key-value storage. Installed the CouchApp plugin for Eclipse.
Our goal was to breakup our app into individual documents and migrate it into a CouchDB database. Refactor our CouchApp to pull its data from the CouchDB documents we create using the CouchDB REST API.
After creating our CouchApp locally making sure it was fetching data with AJAX propertly we created an account on Cloudant and replicated the app to the cloud. Fairly easy week for me I was able to get the app functioning properly locally and on Cloudant.
Week 4
Ugh this week kicked my ass! I thought this one was going to be a breeze based on last week but I was sadly mistaken. The easy part for me was getting the dynamic listviews and dynamic pages to work. I had a heck of a time with all of my CRUD functions. Create and Read we working good, my Update and Delete single records was giving me a challenge. When you keep hitting a wall over and over after extensive research on Google, stackoverflow, the Couch, Cloudant and jQuery Mobile docs, limited interaction with the teacher and then you find out the plugin that was provided in the class does not work!!!! arghhhhh, at least I didn't need a haircut this week because I pulled all of it out.
This week made me question my decision on a degree that is 100% online. I mean if it was a business degree no problem but coding and development is an entirely different situation. There are times you need immediate help, a little interaction to try and figure out what you are missing and when you have a teacher who is MIA for most of the course it is a bit disconcerting. If I was not paying for school and just learning online by myself then no complaining and just figure it out. I have been looking at a lot of the different coding bootcamps out there and thinking this might be a good way to go, do a 9-12 week immersive coding bootcamp....not sure yet, maybe.
Okay my rant is over, this was the most frustrating week of my degree so far....everyone has to have a few right? Onward to the next class!
