Last week, I finished up my first JavaScript application using NodeJS for the backend and vanilla JavaScript for the front end. It was a great learning exercise, especially since I completed my first application with authentication (local and Facebook login). If you want to check out the code, head over to Github here.
I’m moving on to another front end project using Rails and AJAX. I’m going to be focusing on Ruby and Rails going forward – instead of jumping between other frameworks. It’ll be beneficial to tailor my focus into one framework instead of jumping around; especially when I kickoff the job search late this summer.
The new app is going to be a live baseball scoreboard (ala ESPN’s scoreboard), using purely local storage to populate the page. At least in concept, that is what I’m going for. Based on a few articles I’ve read, this should be totally doable using Rails and CoffeeScript (AJAX). And it should also decrease load time since I won’t be pulling from a database.
Anyway, that’s about it on the coding front. Work is still going well. I’ve transitioned more towards a true project manager role – helping my boss build out pm templates in Smartsheet and creating a RACI chart to prioritize our departments projects. All in all, I’m learning tons on the IT infrastructure, support, and even applications side of things. I keep saying I’ll be back to update sooner, but let’s be realistic. It’ll most likely be one or two weeks before I update again.