As a recent graduate (2019) of the Flatiron School’s Online Software Engineering Bootcamp, I was determined to continue to code so I wouldn’t forget all the fabulous skills acquired during the program and because I had unfinished business with my Final Project. While I had a successful assessment, there were a number of things I wanted to refine or fix that were just a constant annoyance in my world of perfection. As you know, no App is ever finished. There are always things that can look better, increase functionality, and enhance the user experience.
At the beginning, the idea of building from start to finish a Rails backend with a React/Redux frontend seemed insurmountable—so many pieces of the puzzle, so many unknowns. However, when you approach this Project methodically with a clear plan and an understanding of your data, the building blocks allow for success.
Sometimes simple is best, other times it’s just easier, but other times the journey to make something simple, is just not worth it. My project structure is complicated. There are 4 models: User, Exposure, Credit and Transaction with many relationships and a variety of attributes that are entered either with dropdown menus or just plain text. As I’m using “secure_password” to encrypt my passwords, a must in this need to keep “data private and secure” world in which we live, I had not realized that creating a simple input form in js would present problems I had not anticipated at the start.
As I reached the time in the curriculum to begin my Rails Project, I thought about how best to design my way into a Ruby on Rails Application. Before even starting any coding, I did lots of organizing using an excel spreadsheet and drawing many diagrams. I wanted to make sure I understood what I wanted to accomplish and the requirements of each step. I defined each model, each attribute for each table, the associations between models, and what Class Scope Methods I wanted to include. It is at that point that I started to code.
Of all the things I could have picked for my Sinatra Project, everyday life occurrences, sports involvement, etc. I ended up creating an app that goes back to my days in Public Finance– spending my career in the Bond Insurance Industry.