It’s Been a While….Node.js kept me away

Robby Bourne
Jul 30, 2017 · 2 min read

Back again sorry for the delay. I was supposed to catch up with you all on Wednesday but this week in backend fundamentals has kicked my butt a little. We have been thrust into the world of server side JavaScript using Node.js and it has provided a mixture emotions from accomplishment to idk what I’m doing.

What I really like about Node so far are all of the different packages that are provided through NPM and Yarn. We have mostly used mustaches and express thus far. Mustache is an awesome package and I like how easy it makes connecting backend JavaScript to the front-end HTML and CSS. I like this method a little better than the api calls using fetch()/ appendChild because it makes it a little easier to mockup the page for how I’d want it to look. The syntax is awesome as well using “{{}}” to inject it into the HTML. Express on the other-hand is more of a challenge. While I kind of get what it is used for I am not quite as comfortable with it just yet. I am hoping to grab a better understanding of it during this next week of classes.

The last time I blogged we were in the midst of our final front-end fundamentals projects and I promised a working link to show off. Well here it is : http://ocho-tunes.surge.sh/. My group-mates (Javi, Bree, Miguel, Cody and Garret) and I used the fetch() function to use the iTunes music api from their websites and create a searchable database. Basically you can input your favorite artist or song and play a 30 second clip of it exactly alike what would play in the iTunes music store. I also got to play with and learn how to create a favorite and unfavorite button which will populate you favorite songs into a query and you can view them but clicking the favorite list button. You can also unfavorite music too if you’d like. We haven’t really learned how to store these preferences just yet so your favorites wont stay if you exit the web page. It is also responsive so you can view it on a desktop laptop and tablet. Anyways, we are excited to present this finished product to all of you.

Thanks for reading again and let me know if you have any questions or ways to help my learning. We are already at the half way point basically in The Iron Yard and while it is exciting to almost be done I honestly don’t want these classes to end. I have really enjoyed learning programming these past couple of weeks! I will get back to my regularly scheduled blogging on Wednesday. Until then have a great week you all!!

Robby Bourne
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