Just over 6 weeks in, I have to admit this is much harder than I expected. I knew that I’d have to carve out some time, but I haven’t been doing that too well recently. Running a startup and trying to learn a new skill on the side don’t go too well together. Especially a skill that requires blocks of time like learning to code. Here’s what I covered in the last month.
Steps Taken
-Got my MVC system set up and working, minus a lot of the meat in the views code.
-Configured the admin interface for Django and added some solid dummy data to my database to play with.
-Played around with views, templates, etc. until I got a few simple pages pulling content from the database.
-Set up a basic CSS file to add a header at the top and work with the templates.
-Decided that I have no interest in learning how to use chrome extensions to modify the DOM of gmail and would much rather play around with a self-contained site for now.
Learnings
- When you’re starting out, syntax issues suck. If it wasn’t for good examples, I’d still be trying to fix some of the issues I ran into with displaying dynamic content from the database. Good documentation is also huge. If I ever make an API, I better remember how important good documentation is.
- The feeling you get when you solve something that has been foiling you for hours is truly special. It took me forever to get some specific data showing, but when I found that you could join tables in a single function it was a mega-eureka moment [e.g. recipients = Recipient.objects.filter(sentrecipient__sent__template__campaign__exact = campaign_id)]. Getting stuck sucks, but that feeling when you figure it out almost makes it worth it.
Next Up
Up until now I’ve just been pulling data from the database and displaying it dynamically on the pages. I want to complete the cycle and implement writes to the database as well.
I also want to get more advanced in how I display data. Right now it’s pretty ugly (lots of <ul> and for-loops) and it bugs me considerably. My goal is to get both of these figured out in the next two weeks, so if all goes well expect another post in the first week of July.
Check out my other posts on learning to code:
-Learning to Code as a Startup CEO: Getting Started
-Learning to Code: A Couple Months In
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