Full Stack Foundations

Beginners: Udacity's free Full Stack Foundations course teaches building a webapp with Flask and SQLAlchemy

How can I make sure my work is up to production quality standards?

Hey /r/webdev, I've looked through a couple of forums and other subreddits, and I couldn't find posts that answered this question, so I'm hoping this is an appropriate place.

So, my experience with programming and professional development is limited in certain areas, and I was hoping I could get some advice on the topic. I'm a self-taught programmer, and I only recently started taking formal programming classes (in my 5th year of college). Prior to this, I've had to use programming in courses like Numerical Analysis, but it has become excruciatingly apparent that mathematical programming is vastly different from programming for production (although I am now catching up through a CS minor, so hopefully that will fill in the details somewhat).

I have been doing data analysis for a small company for a little while now, and through that process, I have been picking up a little bit of web development just to bridge the gap between my work and the employees of the company. Basically, I've just used Flask to allow for a basic interface with various tools and databases located on a remote server they can use for marketing purposes. Nothing pretty or complex, but it works.

Recently, I started applying what I learned there to develop a small web app for my cousin's shirt printing business (I mean, everyone has a cousin who does screen printing, but still), and it has been going well enough, utilizing flask, html, css, and javascript pretty heavily to make a somewhat polished product (that is still in development).

Last week, his barber mentioned a service he wished existed (which probably does, but that's beyond the point), and he explained what I was doing and how I can build what he wants (which I believe I can), so I'll be meeting with him next week to discuss those details.

Now, this is all good, but I'm not confident in my understanding of these things to be able to say I am a professional by any means. At this point, my game plan is to develop the backend in python using flask and deploying it through Google's Cloud Platform.

My problem is I don't know what bases I have to cover. My inexperience with formal programming and my lack of understanding of web development make me wary about things like security, scaleablity, reliability, etc., and I'm having a hard time finding resources that discuss the process in a more complete manner (especially with less documented stuff like flask).

Is there any resources/books that I can use to make sure I have everything covered? I figured online courses are probably my best bet, and I was looking at this 'Full Stack Foundations' course offered by Udacity for free, but I don't want to invest the time if it's just going to teach me the stuff I know without discussing deployment (the option being Udacity's Full-Stack nano-degree program, but that's expensive/time consuming, so I'd rather avoid that route for now).

Is there anything I'm missing here? Any books or online resources worth checking out? Thanks for any help or advice you guys can offer.

Which of these directions should I take as an aspiring webapp developer. (js/python/rails?)

Hello. So I've been pursuing a desire to become a programmer, specifically webdev, even more specifically probably backend/full-stack developer (still a ways away from that).

I started out by learning ruby, and after a while of taking online classes and doing daily challenges I decided to start learning Ruby on Rails by taking a Lynda.com course. It was actually going very well, i was really getting the gist of it until I hit a wall with html/css, which I had NEVER used and the course assumed prior knowledge of. SO I stopped, completed the html/css courses on lynda.com and the first 2 courses on codeshcool for HTML and CSS. I'm still a beginner in these, but at least now I understand them well enough to not be oblivious if they come up as a pre-req in a different course.

But now I've kind of hit a wall, what should I learn from here? The options I'm thinking of:

• Javascript - for the obvious front end utility, as well as eventually moving on to web frameworks such as node.js and angular.js which seem very popular.

• Python - I found this and this course on udacity which seem really cool and can give me a good starting point for learning all this. But they both require python as a pre-req which I haven't used ever. I assume that if these 2 courses require it, python must be a popular language for backend web apps?

• Ruby/Rails - Should I just continue practicing ruby and continuing to learn rails? I've heard that STARTING with such a framework as rails can be bad since it's so particular in its methodology, that I should learn the "vanilla" way of doing it first, then move on to rails. Would it be better to start with something more streamlined/simplistic?

• HTML/CSS - As someone that wants to focus more on backend, I imagine I won't need to master html/css, but maybe I should? Should I become very competent at these before moving on?

• Something else? - Any other recommendations? Maybe I should learn SQL before moving on to work on complex projects? Or some other language/framework i haven't mentioned?

I would love to hear your opinions and I really appreciate your help.

Thanks!

I'd like to learn more about databases, what can I do?

Hi, I am in my last year of university and I really enjoyed working with databases during my studies, so I think this is something I wouldn't mind if I worked with after I graduated. So I'd like to explore this field a bit more.

I have taken two database courses at the university, and been a teaching assistant in one of them. Learned a lot of sql, a lot of theory, but not so much practical, for instance don't know how to set up a database, or how to make a database work together with a programming language such as python, java etc. Furthermore, I am not even sure what most people who work with databases actually do each day, so I am kinda not sure what is the next step to take

Does anyone have any suggestions what I could learn, and any useful resources for learning it ?

Would a MOOC course like this be useful?

https://www.udacity.com/course/full-stack-foundations--ud088

Entry-Level Job hunting

Hi, I just graduated June this year and started studying web development since then. I followed a course about becoming a full stack developer on Udacity and I'm close to finishing it. I now know basics about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python and PostgreSQL.

Is it enough to land an Entry-Level Developer job? Is there a minimum requirements for qualifying as a dev? I asked this cause i rarely got replies on my email application(could be my resume tho). and also is it worth changing language as most jobs here in my country wants PHP instead of Python. Here are the lessons on the course on Udacity. I would also appreciate it if you could suggest another course to follow or take to help me become better.

Part 1: Developer Tools

1. Shell WorkShop
2. Git & Github - Part 1, Part 2
3. HTTP & Webservers
4. Networking For Developers

Part 2: Databases with SQL & Python

1. Intro to Relational Databases

Part 3: Servers, Authorization, and CRUD

1. Full Stack Foundations
2. Authentication & Authorization
3. RESTful APIs

Part 4: Deploying to Linux Servers

1. Configuring Linux Web Servers

Extracurricular Material

1. Web Accessibility
2. Javascript Design Patterns
3. Intro to AJAX

Interviewing

1. Full-Stack Interview Prep

Im now at "Authentication & Authorization"

To build on what you said here are some resources:

Free:

Python Flask Full Featured Web App: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTs4UjLw5MM6OjgkjFeUxCYH

Python Flask Mega Tutorial: https://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-i-hello-world

HTTPS and Web Servers with Python: https://www.udacity.com/course/http-web-servers--ud303

Authentication using OAuth in Python: https://www.udacity.com/course/authentication-authorization-oauth--ud330

FullStack Foundations Working with CRUD in Python: https://www.udacity.com/course/full-stack-foundations--ud088

Designing restful APIs in python: https://www.udacity.com/course/designing-restful-apis--ud388

Paid:

Rest APIs with flask and python $12.99: https://www.udemy.com/course/rest-api-flask-and-python/

Advanced Rest APIs with flask and python $10.99: https://www.udemy.com/course/advanced-rest-apis-flask-python/