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Virgo Clarity
Virgo Clarity

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Um, What's Next

Well, I guess this will be my first post. Woot Woot.
What better way to start than to share what I've been working on and gather direction/feedback as well.

What have I been working on?

Basically, a friend presented me with the opportunity to work on an app over the course of 8 weeks. Sure, I love to challenge myself so I'm game. Plus, we would have a team of 4-5 so that will be extra support. Over the course of the weeks, things change and now it's just the two of us (friend and I). NO worries, let's keep pushing for these two weeks.

We are working on an app that's a digital registry. This is where I decided to build the app with Python Flask and use SQL Alchemy/ MySQL as the database.

Get to the point

The app portion is built and tied to ngrok in order for my partner to see it. Her speciality is front-end so... what do we do now?

I've worked with front-end on a solo aka local end. My dilemma is the collaboration portion.

  1. What would my partner need to work on the front-end?
  2. ngrok is only for display or preview purpose, correct?
  3. Where do we go from here?

The great thing is progress has been made for this challenge, even if it will not be put out on a mass scale. Major kudos for making this far with two more weeks to go.

Um, what's next...crickets in my mind

Top comments (13)

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

ngrok is only for display or preview purpose, correct?

Yeah. Search “Deploy flask app to Heroku” and follow the steps to get it “live in production”.

For collaboration, you should be using git, which is a local tool and GitHub to send things to a shared space online. You might already be part of the way there but I’ll say this in case.

Search through the git tag on this site for plenty of material on how it all works.

git is not the most beginner-friendly thing but just fumble around copying from the tutorials and you’ll figure it out.

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enigmaticsoulrg profile image
Virgo Clarity

Thanks so much.

I was thinking about Heroku and tried to deploy it via Heroku to Github... lost a lot of time and became frustrated.

It'll be a challenge but I'll try it again, especially since you mentioned it too. Lets me know my thought process was in the right direction.

Thanks a million.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Yeah, I think knowing it’s the right direction can help you get over the hump.

There are literally hundreds of Heroku alternatives, but I think it’s probably the right choice for you.

Do lots of searching, on this site and elsewhere, read the error messages and then Google them and try more stuff.

And if you never figure it out, you can go back to the drawing board. I promise you have bigger projects in your future.

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enigmaticsoulrg profile image
Virgo Clarity

You've encouraged me tremendously! Grateful for all of the wisdom you're sharing.
I will put it all into use.

Thank you. I'm feeling better about it already.

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redcaptom profile image
Red Cap Tom • Edited

I've had the literally same discussion with a friend the other day, and made the exact same recommendation. Heroku takes care of most of the nuts and bolts for you, and can get you going quite fast for the price of a couple of coffees per month.

If you're diving off the deep end of development and this is a learning project, though, I propose attempting to set up a Linux box yourself and deploying to it. It will teach you so, so much, and is the main way I learned systems engineering (I'm an SRE by trade, since that's now a cool term for "people who tinker with systems and make sure they work"). It's surprising how much power Linux packs out of the gate, if you only take the time to properly learn it.

This tutorial is good: youtube.com/watch?v=YFBRVJPhDGY

However, if it gets too complicated too fast, drop it and use Heroku. The best teachers are production apps gone rogue - and in order to have a production app gone rogue, you need to have a production app. SHIPIT! 😄

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enigmaticsoulrg profile image
Virgo Clarity

Love it. You've just given me a project to embark on.
Great suggestion. I've never even thought about setting up a Linux box but love learning, a challenge, and more ways to help myself and others. I will give this a go.
Thanks for the tutorial link as well.

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redcaptom profile image
Red Cap Tom

Of course.
If you'd like to pair on it, live-deploy and record the session (I've got a YouTube channel), I'm game!
Could make for a great dev.to article too.

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enigmaticsoulrg profile image
Virgo Clarity

Hey, I love that idea.
Let me work through the current project first and then I will reach out when I'm ready. Love the idea and think it will be pretty cool.
Love the way you're thinking and your kindness. Thank you.

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redcaptom profile image
Red Cap Tom

Fo sho. By the way - and not to put the heat on - but if failing in the open frightens you (which is perfectly rational), remember that failing in the open is exactly like failing indoors - you still fall on your face.

But in the open, there are often lots and lots of people to put you back up, dust you off and push you in the correct direction again.

Keep on pushing, we got ya. :)

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enigmaticsoulrg profile image
Virgo Clarity

Aww, so kind and motivating.
Thank you for this. It means more than you know.
It can often feel like a solo journey but I'm glad you all are here to help.
And I will help in the ways that I'm able to as well.

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thisdotmedia_staff profile image
This Dot Media

Such a fun article 😁 Loved reading this. Congrats on your first post and it seems like you've been given lots of great advice that we also agree with! All the best to you 🙏

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enigmaticsoulrg profile image
Virgo Clarity

Thank you so much. It felt great to publish my first post. I'm grateful that you read it and thanks for the support and positivity. Blessings to you.

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thisdotmedia_staff profile image
This Dot Media

Our pleasure! 😊 And yes, you should. We're all here for you. Have a wonderful day