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Module 14

Goals:

Improve UX by adding a cancel icon to the dream post form screen

Complete avg($post) function and selectDreamCard($average) function in order to select the proper dream card for each dream post

Display dream card by 

Issues covered/Response from advisor:

Pass the $post (id) into the avg function

avg($post) function, using a collect method after taking the values of the dream keywords and mood, pushing them into an array

the avg($post) function then will be stored in $average, passing that into the selectDreamCard function

the selectDreamCard function stores the $id, so the proper dream card can be selected and displayed

Overthinking IS part of being a developer! Who knew?

Goals for next week and onward:

Displaying the dream card by utilizing the show method in the controller

Tweak UI issues

Get Favorites logic to work

Create a landing page for dreamtracer.io (domain has been registered)

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Module 13

Goals:

Reconsider dreamCard function

Fix conditionals within dreamCard function to return the ID of the user’s dreamCard

Pass userDreams() function into Dashboard view

Issues covered/Response from advisor:

Include the “average” variable on either side of the && conditional

Rename the dreamCard function to “selectDreamCard”, as that’s all what we are trying to do

Consider pulling just the ID from the dreamCard function

Goals for next week:

Prepare Final Presentation

Continue to work on dreamCard logic pending instructor feedback (always so valuable)

Cleanup any feasible issues

Evaluate what needs to be completed moving forward, especially moving into final semester at AAU

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Module 12

Goals:

Create a modal for when users submit a new post

Implement backend logic for earning a dream card

Implement Share to Facebook button on Dream Posts

Issues covered/Response from advisor:

Bring dreamCard() function to helpers.php

Utilize post id when sharing a post to Facebook

Move forward with keeping stored keywords and their dream definitions for the sake of the dream card function

Use laravel’s avg method to grab the average of the keyword and mood values in order to select the user’s dream card for the post

Goals for next week:

Continue to work on dreamCard logic pending instructor feedback (always so valuable)

Continue to work on Sharing feature, need some more clarification on data-href url

Add Keyword CRUD, informed by A/B testing research in WNM810

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Module 11

Goals:

Fix keyword definitions, last remaining issue for the keywords section

Make sure the keyword items link correctly to their respected modal within the single post page

Issues covered/Response from advisor:

Suggestions: Add a Keyword CRUD for adding user’s own keyword definitions

Include a Credits section for dream definitions

Goals for next week:

Decide whether or not to keep dream definitions and add a credits section, or add a CRUD feature for users to add in their own dream definitions to each keyword. Going with the latter would lead me to question whether or not it should be a “definition” or more of a “notes” section for each keyword

Discuss Dream Card system with instructor

Work on some more UI and front-end issues

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Module 10

Goals:

Continue to get keywords system to work; add new keywords that don’t already exist and display the keyword definiton/# of times it has been used in a modal

Add @empty directives to render a message for when there is no data (posts or keywords) in the view

Add a pseudo-selector ":focus-within" to form fields for when user is typing in the inputs, however there already is a style for that built in with the class "form-control", provided by Laravel

Issues covered/Response from advisor:

Suggestions: Utilizing an empty state for User Experience

Add a Keyword CRUD for adding user’s own keywords to database

Project update and tweaks with added helpers.php file to create arrays for keyword handling

Goals for next week:

Figure out how to get the custom keywords to add, while the existing keywords to update to the post and display the dream definition

Continue to update and tweak UI

Introduce Dream Card system to instructor

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Module 09

Goals:

Get keywords to display right in the Select2 Multi input field

Get keywords that the user has entered in their posts to display right in the keywords screen

Fix Auth error

Issues covered/Response from advisor:

Auth error was caused by my user name being created from before the user_id column was created - had to make a new user account

Instructor needed to see if I wanted my users to be able to add in a keyword that WASN’T already a part of the keyword database

A lot of back and forth with all these complex issues, including ambiguity between my project version and the one that my instructor edited to correct my issues. Taking more time than I had hoped.

Goals for next week:

Bring some changes over from WNM810, such as the Share feature

Figure out why the keyword name is being inserted into the keyword_id (Integer) column in the keyword_post intermediate table

Begin to introduce other issues to the instructor, such as the Dream Card function, which is likely the main concern for the remainder of the semester

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Module 08

Goals:

Create slideshow presentation as well as a screen recording of it

Solve, or work towards solving my keyword issue

Solve the Auth error within the Post Controller

Improve some UI with flexbox

Incorporate a withCount( ) method to display the number of dreams in the user dashboard

Issues covered/Response from advisor:

I got a lot of feedback from the instructor, helping me update my User, Post, and Keyword models, as well as my Keyword and Post Controllers and some of the views. But after making edits in order to get my Keywords to work properly, I couldn’t move forward any longer due to an Auth error in the Post Controller

Goals for next week:

Continue to work on Keywords system

Figure out how to get the withCount method to work, as well as displaying the number of moods.

Continue to improve UI, making decisions that are informed by the UX course

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Module 07

My goals for this week were to move forward with correcting my keywords system in the MVC model of my project. I didn’t get any response from the instructor this week, so I worked on improving some of the UI via HTML5. While I’ve reached a standstill in that aspect, I have been working on learning more code approaches and improving my skillset through creating an image carousel with pure vanilla javascript. There was a lot of different ways to approach this, but I found a solution that is a pretty powerful carousel using the data-target attribute and targeting that with a querySelector in JS.  I have also been continuing working with the ReactJS framework, Gatsby. 

Aside from learning as much as I can about Javascript, I’m looking forward to getting more feedback on my Laravel project so I can begin to tackle other issues, mainly getting my Dream Card system running.

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Module 06

Well it appears as though I looked over or completely missed the notification of the instructor requesting my database export earlier this week. Therefore I wasn’t able to get any feedback for the gigantic hurdle of a keyword MVC issue. 

But I didn’t let that stop me from tweaking some of my project features, and moving ahead the best way I can. Through my UX graduate directed studies course, I made an informed decision to get rid of my Reminders section in my app, and replaced it with a Favorites section. I decided that I could still add a reminders function, but maybe I will keep that option available in the user dashboard. So I added that new heart Hero Icon to my bottom nav bar. I also created a Favorite model and Favorites Controller in preparation of adding that function to my code. Another thing I did to prepare for my Dream Cards feature, was create a Card model, as well as a Card Controller. There’s a lot that I need to learn and figure out in terms of how to get my Dream Card system working. But I at least got a flexbox grid going as a placeholder, even though I think I will be most likely using a @foreach to display all of the user’s cards. 

Lastly, this week I discovered Mozilla Firefox’s dev responsive mode, and unlike Safari’s, it has an iPhone X breakpoint that I can truly use as a reference. I have to choose one breakpoint to develop for at this point, and it makes the most sense to me to use a relevant screen size in the iPhone X. Next week, I plan on digging in even more, hopefully getting some clarity on how to fix my Keyword system, and most likely compiling a Midterm progress presentation. Module 7 is midterm, right?

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Module 05

This week I got some more feedback from my instructor about my Keywords system. To be specific, the error I’ve been receiving is “ErrorException: Trying to get property 'keywords' of non-object". In my Post model, I changed my public keyword function from belongsToMany to hasMany. And in my Keyword model, I changed my post function from belongsToMany to belongsTo. Unfortunately with the other solutions that were suggested for me, I experienced some uncertainty about where to put in some of the code. 

One of the things we are trying to do is eliminate the need for an intermediate table, which I had in “keywords_post”. Ultimately, I sent my instructor my project packaged in a zip file. What I’m experienced is a complex issue that is wrapped up in my framework. It’s easier for someone to take a look at evaluate what needs to be done other than sending single pages or chunks of code back and forth. 

It’s a bummer that I’ve been held back by this one issue. Next week I’m hoping that my instructor can really get an idea of what I’m dealing with so that I can move on with my project. 

Another thing that I’ve been doing outside of my project is learning a bit more about the React JS library through the Gatsby framework. Gatsby is a framework that is suited for more static websites. Some projects I want to create to boost my portfolio, as well as deepen my toolbelt, will make Gatsby a great starterpack for getting to know React. I’ve got a lot on my plate. But for someone who is looking to get into Front-End web development, I really need to learn one of the most popular coding methods out there in React.

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Module 04

This week, I worked on my Keywords section after receiving some feedback from the instructor. Particularly, I’m trying to fix my many-to-many relationships between my keywords and posts. I’m hoping that my changes were meant for my Keyword Controller, under the index function that controls my keywords/index.blade file. 

Another task that the instructor gave me to do was get rid of the keywords_post table and simply add a post_id column to my keywords table. It was here when I came across a huge problem with my database. For some reason, my mySQL server would not start. It would turn green and then red. I did a lot of research and spent a few hours trying to figure this out. Ultimately, I had to initialize my database, which meant that I lost all my data! The biggest problem out of all of this was that I lost all my keyword data. Luckily for me, I’ve been collecting keyword definition info via a Google doc. So it’s just a matter of copying and pasting the info back into my table. 

Setbacks are completely normal in a process such as this. As for my other data, I just need to recreate some posts, and redefine my moods and mood colors. AND I need to get back to working on the issues that I initially started with. So for next week I’m going to continue to fix my Keyword section, and hopefully move on to a new issue such as my dream cards. 

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Module 03

For this week, I continued an evaluation on my project needs for this the technical implementation this semester. I’m also making some adjustments to the user experience in my other class, WNM810. I completed the week’s assignment, which was the JavaScript BUZZ exercise. I’ve done this a few times already, and it’s almost a bit weird to see straightforward JS in this format after working with Laravel for a while. I’ve been using PHP functions that are built inside of Laravel’s framework, so there isn’t any need to use JavaScript for things like loops and conditionals. 

Everything seems to be going well thus far with my project’s early state in the class, as my thesis presentation received positive feedback. So it’s time to pick something to work on and get more feedback from the instructor. 

The first task I’ll work on for my project is getting the Keyword index page to display the keywords that the user has chosen in their posts. It’s currently displaying every keyword that I have stored in the database. To clarify, the dream keywords will be chosen and stored in the database, and a user will be able to select their keyword from what exists based on a multiple-selection text field. As they type, their keyword should appear if it is a valid keyword to choose. Another option that would be great is if the user could store a keyword that isn’t already in the database. This wouldn’t be able to generate a dream definition for the keyword, but it would at least be able to link other dreams together if they chose that keyword for other entries. 

For next module, I hope to get some feedback on the keyword issue, tackle that, and then move on to something else. I think it’s a great pace for the semester to run on.

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Module 02

As the Fall Semester begins for the unprecedented year of 2020, I’m ready to unleash my progress made over the Summer (and prior to). In June and July, I got a lot done with the technical implementation of my dream journal app. I found a treasure chest of a tutorial that helped me figure out how to build a CRUD-like app with Laravel. While the tutorial is a few years old, I was still able to work my way around the version issues and constructed a decent foundation, while also familiarizing myself with a new web development framework.

For this week, I’m sharing my project in the form of a video screen recording. As of now, my dream journal project is completely local. Using the PHP Artisan feature of Laravel, I’ve been building on my home computer, while also adding content to the database as much as I can (particularly dream definitions). Making the screen recording mini-presentation boosts my confidence in talking about my project, and it feels good to show people this way rather than providing a link and/or typing out my thoughts and ideas.

I made a list of the main hurdles and roadblocks of my project. And while I understand that my thesis project does not need to be entirely functional, I really really want it to be! So for next week, I plan on starting by presenting one issue with my instructor, and working on that. Step by step.