How it started
In early 2018, I started learning android application development through Udacity’s free android development course. It was quite hard at first as I had a weak background in Java and application development principles. I finished the program and I considered myself to have improved, not because I built the Sunshine app, but because I found out loopholes in my programming knowledge. I began to aim for improvement by buidling something else, but with guidance too, to fill the holes.
I found @DSCUnilag on Twitter. I wanted to attend their Saturday meet-ups which I saw advertised on Twitter but I worked on Saturdays at that time. DSCUnilag held a remote coding program called #DSCUnilag20DaysOfCode for anyone who was interested in backend, front-end, or android development. I joined the group for android development.
How it went
For 20 days, each team was guided via mails on building their project. These mails included the task to be completed, online resources for unblocking, words of encouragement and who to contact if you had any blockers. Each member of the android development team was to build a not-taking application.
Once in a while, on Slack, we were encouraged to share our journey with others in the community.
What I built
I built my note-taking application using Java, Firebase. Users use the application to save and retrieve notes; a mini Google Keep basically. The app has support for offline retrieval of notes stored, and if a user signs in and stores notes, the notes are synced across the user’s devices on the app.
You can download it here.
What I learnt
Aside from gaps in knowledge being filled through practical applications of concepts learnt (View Model, Live Data, Room, Work Manager, Firebase) from the resources given during the program, I also learnt how to structure the work for a project to be built.
I learnt to transform user stories to UXs, algorithms, code and eventually what users will use. I also learnt to do research on my own to overcome blockers. I’ve found that documentation is golden and has become my first point of call, even before a Stackoverflow question.
I was awarded DSC stickers and a shirt for my completed work. I also received free airtime from the organisers for being consistent in delivering my tasks 😊.
What I regret
I didn’t network with others. If I could do this again, it’s what I’ll do with alacrity.
Conclusion
To the organisers, Benjamin Alamu and Oluwalolope Hope, 🙌!
You can find the source code for this project at sudo-kaizen/notepad