Introduction.
I am thankful to Hashnode and the people who are part of it for giving me the opportunity to share my journey and what I went through in the year 2022. We not only get to talk about our experiences, but we also have the chance to compete for amazing prizes.
What I'm going to cover in this article:
My Journey To Getting Good at Reactjs.
Reactjs is a Javascript library that focuses on the creation of user interfaces, which are based on UI components. It has become a popular library for customers such as Netflix, Facebook, and Airbnb, and it is known for its large and supportive user community. After learning this information, I decided that it was worth my time to learn React.js.
Beginning in 2022, my main goal has been to become highly familiar with React.js, to the point that I can build any web-based application with the help of this particular JavaScript library.
After two months of not making much progress, my college suddenly went on strike, and that motivated me to take my life more seriously, devoting this period to learning React JS properly.
I registered on https://devchallenges.io/, a website where I can hone my skills by solving frontend challenges, there are fantastic frontend practice platforms you ought to try out too, frontendmentor.io and frontendpractice.com are great samples, these sites can take your frontend skills to the next level.
In any case, I completed three mid-level tasks from the https://devchallenges.io/ challenges and I am going to explain them in this article, as well as the user stories I was able to implement while working on this project.
- Todo app:
By building this web app I was able to understand the basic react.js hooks, the useState, and useEffect hooks especially and by adding an optional user Story to the task I was able to become familiar with how local storage functions. I'm glad to say I fulfilled all the user stories, for those who want to take a look at the web application and the GitHub code, I have provided the links below.
Preview: https://todo-reuben09.netlify.app/.
GitHub: https://github.com/Reuben09/mytodoapp.
Here are the user stories I accomplished while building this web app:
I can add a new task.
I can complete a task.
I can toggle between All, Active, and Completed.
I can remove one or all tasks under the Completed tab.
Store the data in local storage so that when I refresh the page I can still see my progress.
- WindBnb:
Building this web app wasn't too difficult as it didn't take much of my time, all I had to do was display my styling skills, and I even picked up the javascript filter technique while working on it. Here are the links to the website's preview and the GitHub code:
Preview: https://csb-11xn6c.netlify.app/.
GitHub: https://github.com/Reuben09/windbnb.
- Weather app:
This app was the most complex of the three web apps. Although I was not able to fulfill all the user stories that the website specified, I was still able to develop a fairly decent web app. For those that will like to preview the web app and the GitHub code, I've placed the links below.
Preview: https://weather-app-reuben09.netlify.app/
GitHub:https://github.com/Reuben09/weather-app-by-reuben09
Here are the user stories I accomplished as I created this app:
I can see city weather as default, preferably in my current location
I can search for city
I can see the weather for today and the next 5 days
I can see the date and location of the weather
I can see according to the image for each type of weather
I can see the min and max degrees each day.
After working on these intermediate projects, I became confident with writing react.js.
My Technical Writing Journey.
Technical writing, A type of writing where the author writes about a particular subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation.
To start my technical writing journey, I enrolled in the free Google Technical Writing Course. Additionally, another free option is the Digital Ocean Technical Writing Guideline, which is also superbly done. If one is interested in getting started in writing technical articles, these two free courses are the perfect place to start. After completing the courses, Hashnode is an excellent platform to begin creating content and finding an audience. All you have to do is concentrate on your content, and the rest will be taken care of for you.
Google Technical Writing Course: https://developers.google.com/tech-writing/overview
Digital Ocean Technical Writing Guidelines: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/digitalocean-s-technical-writing-guidelines
I was motivated to begin my first blog post after I encountered a difficulty while I was working on a project. The issue I encountered was that I could not give any stylings to the default radio buttons. I decided to do some research and I found out that it is not possible to give any styling to the default radio buttons, but there should be an approach to manage it right? Indeed. People, I present to you my first-ever article.
How to create a custom radio button with styled components
I have created multiple blog posts since then. For those who may be having a difficult time writing, or those just beginning technical writing, here's a piece of advice that has been beneficial for me: "Tell your story in a unique perspective with a voice and style that's all you".
Logic Before Design ( my trick to overcoming the curse of never finishing projects ).
Have you ever begun a task, only for it to not become successful in the end? This, the misfortune of incomplete tasks, was one of my major hindrances in 2022. So many excellent ideas that came to nothing.
I once started an e-commerce project back in May and spent the majority of my effort styling the web application, overlooking the logical aspect. The logical aspect which can also be referred to as user stories or features**.** When the time came for me to code the logical aspect, I was completely drained and my enthusiasm to continue the project completely vanished. To this day, this e-commerce project is still unfinished.
To address this problem, I identified my strengths and weaknesses. I realized that I am quite capable of styling pages for extended periods without getting bored. On the other hand, writing the logics was a different story. That's when the idea of the "logic before styling" motor was created. This means focusing on the logic component while the project is still fresh and while having the most energy, as this part is the most tedious and important part of a web app. Subsequently, styling becomes easier.
In general, It is beneficial to begin any project by assessing one's strengths and weaknesses. Give the most attention to your weak points, to begin with, and you will be able to prevent the problem of never finishing.
Conclusion.
Thank you for reading my blog post! I appreciate you taking the time to engage with my writing, I hope you found it informative and interesting, and I look forward to sharing more content with you in the future.