My Developer Journey : 2019
My Projects
January 2019:
What I built: A portfolio website to showcase my experiences and projects.
Why I built it: Like many other programmers, I wanted my own personal website to act as my own digital resume and showcase my skills.
How I built it: I mostly watched tutorial videos on YouTube and looked at various websites for inspiration. Other than that, it was trial and error as I mostly experimented to see what worked and what didn’t.
Technologies I used: HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap 4.
Result: Since this was my first project, I was very satisfied when I “completed” it. This project would be beneficial as I could proudly display it to my friends and potential employers.
It was fairly easy to stick to my goal of at least one commit a day as it was my first project of the year and it would showcase my skills to anyone who visited my new website.
Github repo and live preview.
February 2019:
What I built: A web application to help a leadership conference with their check-in process and gamification system.
Why I built it: The leadership conference had previously purchased software to fulfill this need so I decided I would challenge myself to develop a better and cheaper product.
How I built it: I was given a list of requested features ahead of time so I knew exactly what features I needed to develop. During the development process, I used previous knowledge, Google and Stack Overflow to implement the requested features.
Technologies I used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap 4, Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, and Embedded JavaScript Templates.
Result: This was my first “full-stack” project that involved both the front and backend. This was the largest and most rewarding project I had worked on at that point. For the entirety of this project, minus a few days, I was able to fulfill my goal of daily commits. This project was easy to stay motivated as this was my first “real world” project with an actual use. Once I completed the project, the leadership conference used my software and everything worked well. It was an amazing feeling to see my effort pay off and it allowed the organization to save money by not having to buy another product.
March 2019:
What I built: A website to takes notes while I read.
Why I built it: I enjoy reading and wanted an easy way to take notes while I read on my computer or laptop. It was also a way to track my reading progress and motivate me to read more.
How I built it: Using my previous knowledge and using create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations, I developed the website similarly to my previous websites.
Technologies I used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap 4, Node.js, Express.js, Passport.js, MongoDB, and Embedded JavaScript Templates.
Result: I reused my previous knowledge to build a note tracking website. This project was satisfying to complete because this was the first project that I built completely for myself and I still use even to this day.
August 2019:
What I built: A single-page application that displays news.
Why I built it: I wanted practice with Angular and TypeScript and using a third-party API, so I built a news website that incorporated all 3 technologies.
How I built it: I had very little experience with Angular, so I mainly watched tutorial videos on YouTube and self-experimented to build a better understanding of Angular and single-page applications in general.
Technologies I used: Angular, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap 4
Result: I developed my first single-page application (SPA) that used a third-party API. After I “completed” this project, I better understood how to utilize third-party APIs and the advantages of a developing a SPA versus a regular website.
Github repo and live preview.
September 2019:
What I built: A informational website for a college organization.
Why I built it: I wanted to improve my web design skills, so I offered to build a website for a college organization that I was previously involved with. I wanted to challenge myself and design a modern and minimalistic website.
How I built it: Similar to my first website, I mainly watched YouTube tutorials to gain a better understanding of web design and mobile responsiveness.
Technologies I used: HTML, CSS, jQuery, and Bootstrap 4
Result: I developed a multi-page website with an emphasis on responsive design. After “completing” the project, I had a much better understanding of Bootstrap 4 and responsive web design.
September 2019:
Ticket Marketplace
What I built: A proof-of-concept website to sell and find football tickets
Why I built it: This was a just a small, fun project that I started for a friend. It was mainly just a proof of concept to show my friend how a ticket selling website would operate.
How I built it: I mainly used previous knowledge and YouTube to develop the features.
Technologies I used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap 4, Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, and Embedded JavaScript Templates.
Result: I developed a simple website that had the basic features of a ticket selling website. This project was different from my other projects as I built this for my friend to showcase how it could solve a real-world problem.
December 2019:
What I built: A web application that allows users to register for events and allow the administrators to have an easy-to-use interface to track all details related to the events such as how many people registered, basic attendee info, etc.
Why I built it: I wanted to challenge myself and build a more involved web application than I previously had built.
How I built it: Similar to my book note taking website, I used that previous knowledge and also expanded my knowledge by reading articles and looking at other similar projects to begin this project.
Technologies I used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap 4, Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, passport.js, and embedded javascript templates.
Result: I developed a web application that allowed for users to register for our organization’s events and allow administrators to view the event information in an administrator dashboard.
