DEV Community: Waithaka

Postman API Virtual Event: An appetizing expert guide on getting started

Waithaka — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 14:17:04 +0000

Introduction

What's good my fellow tech people?! It's been a minute, but I'm back to deliver you an intriguing article about a past virtual event I attended. This event as you can see in the title was about Postman API's. It was held virtually by Technical University of Kenya's GDSC team.

Hosted by Technical University of Kenya's own GDSC Lead and Postman Student Expert Kurtis Bengo, this event took place on the Thursday of April 20th, 2023, on Zoom. In this virtual meeting Kurtis briefed us on what an API is, uses of API's, What Postman is and how to interact with an API in Postman.

What is an API?

Application Programming Interface in full or API serves as a middleware between multiple disparate computers or services and allows them to communicate with each other.

Over time, software has grown increasingly intricate and collaborative. No longer are developers required to build every service from scratch. API's provide developers the ability to retrieve data from services like Bing or Spotify without any prior knowledge of how the codebase has been implemented.

Uses of API's

This screenshot above is from Kurtis's presentation during the meeting. Here he uses the example of Instagram to explain how an API assists us to share our media in the application.

In order for our followers to see our post on the app a middleware has to fetch that photo from your phone to send it as a request to the server. Once approved by the server it will be shared to your followers.

Meaning once you make the request to upload the photo, it will go to the Instagram API, where it will take it and share the photo to the server. After receiving the photo, encoding and decoding it and interpreting it, the photo will be shared to your account page and its followers.

What is Postman?

Postman is a collaborative API development platform that simplifies creating, using, and testing APIs with a UI.
Big names companies such as PayPal, Uber, Walt Disney, Comcast use Postman.

How to Interact with an API in Postman?

Kurtis discussed two major topics when explaining the practical way of interact with an API in Postman. The first, making a request. This procedure consists of three critical ingredients: method, address/endpoint and path.

An API method is a mechanism for a client to use an API, which is a collection of guidelines that describe how systems communicate with one another, to access a service at the backend.

Paths are the endpoints (resources) that your API exposes, like /users or /reports/summary, and operations are the HTTP methods used to work with these pathways, such as GET, POST, or DELETE.

When two systems are interacting, an API endpoint serves as the channel's opening. It describes the points at which an API and a server interact.

The other topic was methods and endpoints, Kurtis provides us an illustration of how to make a request in Postman in the picture below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfmbZ_rMsV4

Check out this YouTube video below if you'd like to see how a full interaction with an API is above. Feel free to drop questions in the comment section if you have any.

That wraps up my summary of Postman API's session. Hope you enjoyed, see you next time!

No Ethernet Port Laptops: Wireless Connection is the New Wave

Waithaka — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 11:43:21 +0000

Definition and Importance of the Ethernet Port?

"The RJ-45 port" or " The Ethernet Port" the renowned term applied by most computer users today is an access port used to connect your laptop to the internet from another network device like a router by plugging in an Ethernet Cable.

Ethernet ports are usually located either on the left or right-hand side of your laptop. This component of a laptop provides instant connection from the cable to the port without the need of a password.

The current state of internet in the world

With the world now moving in the direction of Wi-Fi thanks to improved wireless connections and more compatible devices the need for ethernet ports is reducing day by day. However, places like hospitals, government parastatals, school offices and other big companies use both Ethernet and Wi-Fi just in case one of two becomes disconnected for a period of time.

In an office or library type setting Wi-Fi can introduce security issues and even connection issues for a large number of users. Wi-Fi networks can be more easily hacked into than Ethernet cables. When many users are connected to one Wi-Fi network at the same time it can lead to high network latency on laptops and other mobile devices during simple web browsing on Google Chrome, watching videos on YouTube or downloading files from the internet.

Solution to the Problem

The newest version of laptops these days now require their users to purchase Ethernet Extenders to connect to Ethernet. This Ethernet Extender has a USB cable on one end for connecting to your laptop and an Ethernet Port for Ethernet Cable.

Conclusion

Although the removal of Ethernet Ports is big loss, it's not end of the world. Throughout time we have adopted new ways to connect laptops to the internet such as Wi-Fi Tethering, Personal Hotspot, USB Tethering and more.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, I hope you have enjoyed it. See you next time.

Chat GPT: The newest and coolest Q&A Tool

Waithaka — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 09:24:14 +0000

Labelled as the next big thing in technology , the most new cool prototype out in the market or even a potential competitor to Google , it goes by the name Chat GPT. Chat GPT was launched and gifted to us in November 2022 by Open AI, an AI research and deployment company in San Francisco, California (USA).

You can converse with a chatbot in a manner akin to that of a human being using ChatGPT, a natural language processing tool powered by AI. The language model may assist you with things like creating emails, essays, and code as well as provide answers to your concerns. Because ChatGPT is still doing research and gathering user input, usage is presently available to everyone without charge.

By visiting chat.openai.com and registering an OpenAI account, you may easily use ChatGPT. You can start chatting with ChatGPT as soon as you log in. By posing a question, you can easily start a dialogue. You are able to use ChatGPT and ask as many questions as you'd like because it is still in the research stage.

In the two screenshots above I did two small sample searches on how to grow hair and defects severity index a software testing metric in software quality engineering. The model displays its responses in an organized manner also elaborating the purpose of the search you have made.

The incredibly sophisticated chatbot ChatGPT has the ability to improve people's lives and help with tiresome daily tasks like sending emails or searching the internet for solutions. Before it is extensively used, however, a few technical elements must be worked out in order to avoid unfavorable effects like the propagation of false information. The majority of the time, training and fine-tuning are required for AI and ML models to perform at their best.

Make sure to check out and try ChatGPT if you haven’t gotten the chance, don’t miss out on the experience. Thanks for taking the time to read this article, see you next time!

The 3 Types of Loops in Java

Waithaka — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 11:20:55 +0000

Meaning of Looping and Its Importance

Looping is the process of executing a block of code multiple times without frequently writing it.

Looping is important because of the following reasons:

It saves a developer a lot of time.
Fast execution of a Java Program.
Tasks are accomplished in a more accurate manner.

Types of Loops

For Loop:
(i) Definition - This is a repetition control structure that enables developers the ability to write a loop in an efficient manner to be executed a specific number of times.

(ii) Java Syntax -
Step 1(Initialization), in this stage a variable is declared then a value is assigned to that variable.

Step 2(Condition), this part checks to see if a program is true or false.

Step 3(Increment), this is the increasing of a value in a for loop.

Step 4(Statement), its job is to perform the task we give it in the for loop.

Syntax: 
for(initialization;condition;increment){
    //statements
}

 Program Example:
 // A program to display numbers between
 public class ForLoop{
   //for Loop
    for (int i = 40; i<50; i++) {
        //statements
   System.out.println("value of i:" +i);
    }
}
Result:
value of i: 41
value of i: 42
value of i: 43
value of i: 44
value of i: 45
value of i: 46
value of i: 47
value of i: 48
value of i: 49

While Loop
(i) Definition - This loop iterates a block of code an unknown number of times until the condition is met.

(ii) Java Syntax -
Step 1(Initialize the Expression), in this first step a variable will be declared then assigned a value.

Step 2(Testing of the Expression), this step will verify the expression. If true we will execute the body and go to the update expression, if false we will exit the loop.

Step 3(Statements) performs the task we give it in the while loop.

Step 4(Update the Expression), this step increments or decrements the loop variable by some value.

Syntax: 
// initialize expression
 while (test_expression)
{
  //statements
  update_expression;
}

Program Example:
//A program displaying numbers starting from 30 that are less than 40
 public class Test{
   public static void main(String args[]){
    //initialization of expression
    int n = 30;
    while(n < 40){
    //statement
    System.out.println("The following numbers are: " +n);
    //update expression
    n++;
    }
  }
}

Result:
The following numbers are: 30
The following numbers are: 31
The following numbers are: 32
The following numbers are: 33
The following numbers are: 33
The following numbers are: 34
The following numbers are: 35
The following numbers are: 36
The following numbers are: 37
The following numbers are: 38
The following numbers are: 39

Do-While Loop:
(i) Definition - This type of loop executes a block of code at least once. It either does or does not repeat itself depending on a Boolean condition at the end of the block.

(ii) Java Syntax -
Step 1(Initialize the Expression), in this first step a variable will be declared then assigned a value.

Step 2(Update Expression), in this step a statement will be printed, and the expression will either increment or decrement the loop variable by some value. Both operations will be performed in the do loop.

Step 3(Test Expression), this step will verify the expression. If true, we will execute the body and go to the update expression, if false we will exit the loop. This operation will take place in the while loop.

Syntax: 
//initialize expression
 do {
    //statement
   //update expression
}
//condition check
while (test expression);

Program Example: 
//A program to display numbers from 60 to 70
 public class DoWhileExample{
 public static void main (String args[]) {
 //initialization of variable
 int n = 60;
 do {
    //statements
    System.out.println("value of n" + n);
    n++;
    } while (n <= 70);
    }
    }

Result:
 value of n: 60
 value of n: 61
 value of n: 62
 value of n: 63
 value of n: 64
 value of n: 65
 value of n: 66
 value of n: 67
 value of n: 68
 value of n: 69
 value of n: 70

Closing Remarks

If you have any questions or comments regarding Loops in Java feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn at John Ndungu Waithaka , @ThakkaJay on Twitter or in the comments section below. Thank you for taking the time to read this article, see you in the next one.

VS Code Experience

Waithaka — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 13:46:03 +0000

What is VS Code?

VS Code or Visual Studio Code in full is an open-source code editor that can be used to view, edit, run and debug source code for websites or applications.

Created in April of 2015 by Microsoft, this platform enables a web developer or programmer(s) to code in various programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, C++, Python and more.

HTML, a markup language as well is available for use. CSS is not available on VS code, but you can write it using VS code.

How I found out about VS Code

My first encounter with Visual Studio Code occurred in 2019 when I was a 2nd year diploma student at KCA University.

Initially I took a break from it up until last year September, where I found it to be the most useful code editor when making a website from scratch for a class assignment for a unit called Web Programming in IT at Kabarak University.

Features

During the process of creating the website I took notice of the following amazing features that VS Code provides:

Live Preview - This feature allows a coder to preview the webpage for an html or JavaScript file.

Extensions - Is another feature in visual studio code that allows a coder to customize your project and improve the project’s productivity.
For example, extensions can program in java can be run and debugged through the use of extensions.

Intelli-Sense - Detects if a part of a code is incorrect or incomplete.

Advantages of Using VS Code

Debugging - VS Code inbuilt debugger assists a writer to accelerate his or her coding edit, compile and debug loop.
Customization - A programmer can customize a code any way he or she sees fit in a program.
Code Management Features - Features such as Peek Definition and Go Definition can be used to format javascript code as well as code of other languages.

Conclusion

So far Visual Studio Code is the simplest and most convenient code editor I have ever used.
I recommend it to beginners learning to code for the first time as well as veteran programmers in the tech realm.