DEV Community: Mohamed Asif Iqbal

Redis x Dev Hackathon 2022 - A newbie's journey 🌱

Mohamed Asif Iqbal — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 10:09:47 +0000

On 23rd July 2022, I published my portfolio website [1] ✨ I felt a sense of pride. It was my declaration to the world - "I am now a web developer" 😎

Now that I had something to show for my skills as a developer, I felt sure about landing a job and reached out to my network seeking new opportunities.

Days gone, I had no word back. Nothing. I felt down - that's when negative self-talk starts creeping into your head. But at that point in time, I had a thought of clarity.

focus on the things that are in your control and under your area of influence.

And that's exactly what I did.

I was looking into ways to improve my portfolio; either I -

contribute to open-source projects on GitHub using my current skills. (or)
learn a new skill that can complement my existing skill set.

😮 Stumbling into Redis X Dev Hackathon 2022

In the first week of August 2022, I was browsing about making open-source contributions on GitHub via firsttimersonly.com [2] ✨, a website dedicated to helping newbies enter the world of open-source contributions. Down the rabbit hole, we go... I came to CodeNewbie [3] ✨ and then to Dev Community. I was already part of the Dev Community but I wasn't into visiting it every day.

On Dev Community is where I found the article for the Redis X Dev Hackathon 2022. I tend to shy away from hackathons because they felt very intimidating.

this translates as my mindset being - ‘the only way I gain something from hackathons is when I win it’.

Still, I decided to read the entire article about the hackathon simply out of curiosity. And yes, I was intimidated. I was reading through an article containing a lot of stuff that I do not know or have not even heard of.

❗I decided to participate; but why?

I have never come across Redis Database until I read the article about the hackathon. I am a newbie as a Backend Web2 Developer. My skills, at the time, were Python, Flask & MongoDB.

In the article for the hackathon, I was impressed with their section -

“Why Participate? What's so interesting about Redis beyond caching?”

Talk about a cachy <pun intended> introduction. That’s what it was. I was sold on the idea of using Redis. Considering I was just starting as a backend developer, I figured it would be advantageous to have Redis as a skill under my arsenal.

One line caught my eye

I was reading through the project categories and came across

MEAN/MERN Mavericks: Build a new (or port an existing OSS) MEAN/MERN stack app and use Redis in one of the following three ways.

Use Redis along side MongoDB as a frontend database (“Write-behind” or “Write-Through”) in front of MongoDB (i.e. do all the CRUD operations directly with Redis and asynchronously send the updates back to Mongo for storage).

Believe me, I was no MEAN/MERN Maverick by any means. I had to look up MERN/MEAN.
But one of the ways of implementing this idea had me intrigued 💡 I was like ‘I can do that or at least teach myself how to do that’. I had already worked with MongoDB while creating a Flask server for my portfolio website. Also, they were practically walking us through the idea. They were pointing us to helpful resources on how one might achieve this.

My mind was set,

💭 Let’s do this. This would make a very good project. I have a whole month to work on this.

I always have this saying for myself “I am doing it, I might as well do it right”

While I was contemplating this hackathon, lots of ideas were born inside my head, some being new possibilities for the project. The more I thought about this, the more it seemed doable.

And one thing became very clear. From the time I started to read the post about the hackathon and by the I had finished reading it, I had cultivated a new mindset to approach hackathons.

👍 Seeing hackathons in a new light

A hackathon is similar to a limited-time event in a video game.

In the game, during the limited-time event, if you complete all the objectives; you are awarded in-game goodies such as -

experience points towards your level-up,
in-game currency,
in-game items,
in-game customizations,

And if you do really well and get a high score; you are awarded a special item.

A hackathon’s in-game item equivalents are

you get to explore new technology (in-game items), learn about it and discover new ways of complementing your existing skill set.
as you progress through the hackathon; networking with people or simply sharing your experiences, you increase your visibility as a developer (in-game customizations)

Needless to say, the entire process of participating in the hackathon is gaining experience points towards your level-up.

Also because of the time pressure (yes, that’s a game design pattern as well), procrastination gets kicked to the curb.

So, with this shift in perspective and having gained a new mindset, I decided to participate in Redis X Dev hackathon during the month of August 2022.

Do I still feel the same way after learning and working with Redis? Well... that’s a story for another time.

🔗 Spreading the good word

I find hyperlinks in the middle of the article distracting, hence I choose to highlight them in a separate section.

my personal website ✨
First Timers Only ✨ for all things related to open-source contributions
CodeNewbie ✨ a great site to check out for a budding developer

PS. If you have found this story share-worthy, kindly consider sharing it amongst your social circles. Thank you.

I hope I have earned the privilege of your time. 😄

Redis x Dev Hackathon 2022 - The Submission ✅

Mohamed Asif Iqbal — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 23:58:00 +0000

Overview of My Submission -

I built a "To Do" App using the Django-Python framework with Redis as primary database using Redis OM. The user models are implemented using the default SQLite3 database on Django to utilize the advantages of its built-in User Creation & Authentication modules.

Also, implemented elements of Bootstrap5 and Crispy Forms for basic beautification of the app.

Features -

• A “To Do” webapp which lets you create lists and tasks associated with the lists.
• Every list and task created is tied to a user account.

Architecture -

Data Models -

List Data Model

username: string type -> indexed
list_name: string type

Task Data Model

list_pk: string type -> indexed
task_name: string type
task_complete: Optional boolean type

My first hackathon ended up being a great learning experience. I look forward to more such events on Dev. Cheers :)

Submission Category:

Wacky Wildcards

Language(s) Used:

Python, HTML5,

Framework(s) Used:

Django

Database(s) Used:

SQLite3, Redis

Link to Code:

Asif-GD / a-django-to-do-list

To Do List to explore the Python-Django framework

A To Do List

A "To Do List" web-app created using Python-Django framework, and Redis as a primary database using Redis OM for Python.

App Screenshots

/home

/login

/register

/lists

/tasks

Data Models

List Data Model
- username: string type -> indexed
- list_name: string type
Task Data Model
- list_pk: string type -> indexed
- task_name: string type
- task_complete: Optional boolean type

How it works

The web-app uses SQLite3, the default django database for storing User models. I chose to do this in order to utilize the built-in django modules for User Creation & Authentication.
The primary database is Redis with data models implemented using Redis OM in Python.
The To Do Lists created by the user are tagged to them via their username and can be retrieved, hence the username field is indexed.
The Tasks are tagged to the list by retriving the list's primary key and storing it along with the…

View on GitHub

Additional Resources / Info:

Bootstrap5 -

Introduction · Bootstrap

Get started with Bootstrap, the world’s most popular framework for building responsive, mobile-first sites, with jsDelivr and a template starter page.

getbootstrap.com

Django Crispy Forms -

django-crispy-forms.readthedocs.io

Check out Redis OM, client libraries for working with Redis as a multi-model database.
Use RedisInsight to visualize your data in Redis.
Sign up for a free Redis database.

Redis x Dev Hackathon 2022 - A newbie's proclamation 📢

Mohamed Asif Iqbal — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 13:48:00 +0000

Since May 2022, I started skilling myself as a Backend developer. My tech stack, for now, is - Python, Flask, and MongoDB. I see this hackathon as an opportunity to explore & learn new technologies that can complement my existing tech stack.

Project Idea:

A music library app that’s built using Python-Django framework and uses Redis alongside MongoDB; as a frontend database in front of MongoDB. I will implement it using the Microservices architecture framework.

Why a music library app?

Because there are too many eCommerce apps out there.

Intentions vs. Outcomes:

Intentions:

By the end of the Hackathon, I intend to familiarize myself with

the Django framework,
Redis,
MongoDB,
the Microservices architecture,

and most importantly, submit a Minimum Viable Project for this hackathon.

Outcomes:

Declaring the project on a community forum will help me stay motivated throughout the hackathon. Also, it keeps me accountable.

My best wishes to all participants.