Choosing the technologies for PetDex
Let the fun begin, right?
Now that I decided that I was going to pivot from a CRM for freelancers to a CRM for veterinarians, it was time to choose the stack I was going to be working with.
To do so, it’s important to understand my programming background. I have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, as well as a technical certification in web design.
I got my certification in web design back in 2010, and have worked in the area ever since. With my degree in computer science, while I did learn all I needed to be a back-end developer, I really just consolidated myself as a front-end developer.
It’s what I like, and given that I’ve been doing it for over a decade, it’s what I’m good at. In fact, I’ve been in the area longer than most frameworks that are widely used today.
That said, in my day job, I am a full-stack dev. I work at a software factory, and I’ve worked on a lot of different projects with a lot of different stacks. But the stack I’ve worked with the most is Angular for the front-end, C# for the back-end, and MYSQL for databases.
And while this stack is great for enterprise-level projects, it seemed like overkill for what I needed. And besides, I’m not really a fan of back-end development, so I wanted something as similar to front-end development as possible.
Thank God for NodeJs am I right?
Enter the MEAN stack.
Due to my familiarity with the technologies involved, I chose to go with the MEAN stack.
MEAN stands for MongoDB, Express, Angular (formerly AngularJS), and Node. With these technologies, you can build a complete web app from front to end, and so it is called a “stack”.
I’ve worked with angular since it was in beta. So going with this stack was a no-brainer.
That said, I had never really used MongoDB. I’ve always used MySql, and it is what I know well, so this change has been taking some getting used to.
Something else I’d never used in-depth before was express, or node at all for that matter.
Still, technically it is JavaScript, so I should be able to pick it up just fine.
The takeaway. (I guess)
The idea is to have a stack that I am more or less familiar with, so I can easily jump into the development, but that can handle what the system needs. It doesn’t have to be the newest, shiniest tech on the market. As long as it gets me where I need to go it's fine.
If you want to see how that goes, and if my thinking process and choices were correct, follow Growing Pains and keep up to date with what it takes to build a product like PetDex.
