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When we're learning how to develop web apps, we need to practice as much as possible. Tutorials are limited in their scope since they can only put so much in a book or blog entry.
Also, we need to be able to solve problems ourselves. Therefore, we need to come up with some project ideas for writing practice apps that'll enhance our knowledge.
Below are some examples of apps that you can build to improve your web development skills.
Countdown Timer
By writing a countdown timer, we can practice using timers by using the setInterval function.
We can also use practice using built-in JavaScript date methods to calculate dates and display them on the screen.
For instance, we can add features like setting the time to count down from, and then display warnings when the time is getting close to 0. Also, we have start buttons to start the count down and a pause button to pause count down if we wish.
If we want more practice, we can save the paused time so we can continue later, so we use things like cookies or local storage.
We can also add more features like multiple countdown timers and things anything else we can think of.
Playing with Images
We can create an app to let us pan and flip images so that we can practice using the JavaScript canvas and images.
Also, we can add other features for fiddling with images like flipping them, rotating them, add filters and much more.
When a user tries to add an image, we can check if it's actually an image before putting it on the canvas.
Notes App
A notes app is great practice for writing applications since it lets us practice saving and opening files.
We can also save data to a database and retrieve them from there.
If we want to get fancy, we can also add account management to let people save private notes.
Also, we have to let people edit and delete notes.
When the user closes the browser, it should save the data, and when the user opens the browser, it should show the last edited note.
Conclusion
These practice app ideas provide plenty of practice for create applications. They involve retrieving, saving, editing and deleting data. Also, we get to manipulate images on the HTML canvas.
Finally, we get to practice using timers and date functions by practicing creating our own countdown timer.
Top comments (7)
Learning to code is just around 20-30% of work. Rest 70-80% work is how to use that knowledge and that can only be tested by making projects. Projects play an important role in the learning process. They go hand in hand together.
I have previously made Countdown Timer and Notes but never considered Playing with images. Thanks for the great suggestion. Will start working on that soon.
Projects actually requires problem solving capability, which makes you understand how to code and solve problems.
Thanks for reading.
Agree.
Hi John,
I couldn't agree more with you, the best way to improve and learn is by doing. A project gives goals and purposes and it makes us challenge ourselves and helps improve our problem-solving skills.
When we leave our comfort zone our experience increases and we gain skills such as agility finding solutions, patience and management time.
Yea. I couldn't learn how to program any other way.
One of the best ways to start off with JavaScript programming and practice it.
Yes. Writing code is the best way to learn programming.