React/Redux project Final Thoughts - Software Engineering Program of Flatiron School
Wow! Time really has flown by so fast since the start of the Flatiron Software Engineering boot camp. I have learned so much in the past four months and just about finished up with the fifth and final month of the flatiron boot camp courses. Just to recap the previous phases and what I learned:
1. Ruby language and object oriented programming
2. Using Ruby and Sinatra framework to build dynamic web apps,
3. Learned Ruby on Rails, to build dynamic web apps focusing on the MVC separation of concerns and principles.
4. JavaScript language, DOM manipulation, asynchronous fetch requests
The list of things above doesn’t cover everything we learned, but a general recap of the main fundamentals we learned. Somewhere between phases two and three we did learn the basics of SQL. I almost forgot about it for a moment because ActiveRecord handles the SQL queries to the databases we created in Rails as well as the cohort I am enrolled in being a full-time program so we learned things very quickly and moved on to the next section one after the other.
This final phase we learned the fundamentals of React and using Redux to manage state of a React application, and learned to build apps using create-react-app to get up and running in no time at all. React was difficult for me to learn about at first, and once we finished the React basics, we moved right into learning how to use Redux, which threw a wrench in the works at the time. I was still trying to understand state and passing down state as props to the children components with React at the time Redux was introduced. I quickly became lost due to Redux’s ability to separate state from the parent component and make it accessible to any component with middleware, dispatches, actions, and reducers. It took me some time to understand the basic foundations of creating the reducer and switch cases to update state a certain way based on the action being passed from a dispatch. I do understand why we learned about React and Redux and the power and capabilities to build amazing apps quickly and easily. I still have a lot to learn and I am super excited to learn about much more than the basics with React and Redux.
My project for this final phase of Flatiron was another simple basic data posting app(for now). I came up with the idea of sharing haikus, short poems with a certain structure that I am certain everyone knows about. Thus, ‘Haikyou’ was born, a React app I built with minimal features to create haikus and share them on a ‘list’-like page. Here are the links if you are interested in seeing the project’s code and demo video:
Links:
Frontend:
https://github.com/wizbeck21/haikyou-client
Backend:
https://github.com/wizbeck21/haikyou-api
Demo:
https://youtu.be/WtLV_0hBcGI
Instead of reflecting on challenges I encountered in my project( I didn’t have much because it is a basic app as of writing this blog), I want to start turning my focus on my goals for the future after I complete the flatiron course programs and my plans to eventually land a job with my new found skills and continuous learning even after finishing the boot camp.
I hope to begin my job search in the following weeks after completion of the boot camp. I have a lot of practice and revisiting of material to further polish my newfound skills. Also, I have been paired with a career coach from Flatiron to help me find a job and be self accountable in planning my job search preparing everything I need to make myself a viable candidate for employment. I will be spending the next few months tailoring my portfolio, doing practice projects, and writing more technical blogs to further myself as a developer in preparation for the job market.
These next few months are going to be busy and exciting now that I’ve learned the basics of foundational software engineering concepts and principles and how to build applications with what I’ve learned; I will be furthering my education with self learning and practicing building projects, etc. I am excited to begin networking any way I can to help get my foot in the door in the new industry I will be entering soon.
I am thankful for all the support Flatiron provides during the program, and after with support from the career coach to guide me towards future employment. I am excited to start the next chapter in my life and continue moving forward with the beginner’s mindset(to always be learning).
I will be back soon with more technical content and my experience continuing my learning outside of the Flatiron program.
