w5d4: Independently made Rails App!
Yesterday and today, I have been making my own rails application. I got super into it. I'm very attached. It's kind of like my baby. I keep thinking of how to make it better. Feature wise and code wise.
My app is a dress sharing app for Dartmouth students. I created validations to check and only allow Dartmouth emails to sign on. I also made small parts of web applications more sophisticated. For instance in the application controller, I check for whom the current_user is and whether or not the user is logged in. So the app is overall more secure. You can only add and edit dresses if you're signed on and the dresses are your own. It also automatically signs you on if you just signed up for DressShare.
I also implemented all types of forms. I started using form_for and then switched to simple_form_for. Simple_form_for has very interesting and easy to use options. For instance, I had to make two new tables and models to make a many to many relationship between dresses and body types. (It's like a Tag to Article relationship.) I could make the user associate the body type with dress by having the dress's simple_form_for's association. Simple_form_for was also easy to use with bootstrap. I could simply select the options of check_boxes or radiobuttons and automatically it formatted things to look nicely.
I'm glad I chose to add challenging and more complicated features even though it meant that I would have to deal with more stuff in order to call the application done. I think that made the app more usable and valuable for the user.
For instance, I actually was inspired to make this app because my sorority has been emailing about how we should have a GoogleDoc of dress sharing information. But it would be so much better if I actually make a full scale web application. I have certified users and secure authentications. I have the users owning dresses and editing and adding dresses. They can even post pictures. I hope I can get done fast (I still need edit pages for controllers) and update it to be more smartphone friendly.