General Assembly Web Development Immersive; Week 11
Today we started off with adding to our final project specs on Basecamp. I was able to get my specs, wireframes, and user stories done on Friday, but Tim had us add to them to get them up to his standards.
Like I have said, the class is broken up into 2 groups; Angular and Rails. Charles is leading the Angular Crew, Tim is heading up the Rails crew.
After lunch, we had a deep lecture on Rspec. For our rails project, we have to write specs for at least 50% of our project. A few weeks ago I was completely clueless on how to write a test, and today doing it, it all came together. Progress, no matter how small, is key.
After our Rspec lecture, we were surprised with a trip to see the Steve Jobs movie! Although the reviews were not very good at all, I thought that Ashton Kutcher nailed it. He did a great job, the writing was maybe a little weak, but he himself, fucking nailed it.
After the movie, pretty much everyone left, but myself and a few other people stayed around to work on our projects. I ended up working with Delmer again, and he patiently took an hour out of his time to help me get my server configured. I managed to set up the server, started writing tests, added the home page, and added routes. Not too shabby.
Today we started off the day with Tim lecturing the whole class (Angular & Rails) about html5 canvas feature and adding some javascript functionality. We animated a box to add some lines to it, and looked at examples of people/companies/projects using it. To see some of the 3D examples is amazing, and to think that it is not written in C++ is even cooler.
Afterwards, we got to have some pizza while we listened to a lecture for the second week in a row from the UCLA professor. The lecture was on system architecture, servers, map & map reduce, and how to scale large systems. It was a great high level view lecture.
After that, we had another lecture with Tim about Rspec. A requirement with our final project, is that 50% of our app has to be written in tests. I am actually getting a fairly solid understanding of it.
I ended up leaving a little earlier tonight; I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open as I type this. Time for bed.
This morning, we started off the day with a great code challenge by Tim. The challenge was incredibly creative; he wrote tests in Rspec on an example git repo, and had us clone into it on our computers, and write the code to make it run! It was a great challenge,
After lunch, Baxter gave us another code challenge; this time, it was about Mustache.js. The reason why, is another requirement for our final project, is at least 1 page has to user javascript templating. The challenge was great, and I already know what page I will be using it for and how I will implement it.
When that was over, we then got the chance to work on our projects. I was able to end writing all the Rspec tests for my Routes, and am currently working on the tests for my Models and Features.
I also have a mock technical interview tomorrow, and before our interviews, we have to complete a code challenge. It is parsing data from a ruby file, into a single file. Looks like this is my new task for the rest of the night.
Ahhh, today was indeed a good day. Today, we started off the day with finishing up the code challenges for our mock interviews. I got to interview with a familiar face, Jeff Dickey, who has been our substitute teacher and has spoke to the class a couple times.
The mock interview with him went really well, and I now know what I need to work on; CSS. My understanding of core ruby, could indeed be better as well, but CSS is kicking my ass right now.
After the mock interviews, we had the rest of the day to work on our projects. For whatever reason, some people were having some type of event on the outside patio, and a couple people from class mingled with the UCLA Business School Grads.
I worked on my project for most of the night, as I personally do not drink. I am really getting the hang of Rspec, and have gotten 3 different tests to pass. The only test I have left to do, is the "feature" test, which will be testing the ability for a user to list a book.
Sounds easy, but before anyone can list a book, you have to sign in/sign up to the site, so I have to configure Capybara DSL with a helper method in the Spec Helper so I can call a certain method to allow it (the capybara bot) to login.
Still can't figure it out, and it's 9, so I should probably go home. Nice list of things to do tomorrow.
Today we started it off finishing up the Rspec code challenge with Tim. After we finished that up, we were given pretty much the rest of the day to work on our projects. The part of my project that is taking me the longest, are definitely the RSpec tests.
By later Friday afternoon, I got most of the tests to pass, and even figured out messaging. I added a couple more views, and as a part of the BDD/TDD methodology, I am only developing the site to get my tests to pass. It is an interesting way to build a site, and once you get the hang of it, it is quite satisfying to watch the tests turn green when they pass.
Today was another hot day. General Aseembly has been having optional Saturday classes at our other office in Santa Monica (the launchpad LA office). Today was advanced javascript, but I stayed up too late working on my project.
I ended up getting some coffee down the street from my apartment, and because my roommates were not home, I was able to have a couple hours to add to book monkey, and even got more tests to pass.
Now, for Labor Day weekend, is a time to relax. Tomorrow and Monday will be much deserved days off, and I have already planned to go to the beach with my friends. By the time class starts Tuesday, I will be on my last week, and will have 3-4 days left to finish my project. Let's do this.
