DEV Community: Tannu Daral

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Tannu Daral — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 18:01:40 +0000

Hacktoberfest 2021

Tannu Daral — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 03:13:08 +0000

Hacktoberfest is a yearly event to encourage people to contribute to open source in October. It’s a celebration of community, learning and giving back—topped off by DigitalOcean thanking participants. You can read more about the festivities—and the thank yous—on the official site.

This was my first year participating in this event. There were some trash repositories (luckily, they don't get included).

But many good ones too. Hunting through those with the pressure of scoring well in mid-terms was tough for me. Because anytime I went ahead to find a repository with hacktoberfest label, there were 100s of DSA related repositories which stopped my way and I felt like I am wasting my time on those. So, on October 30, 2021 at 10PM (too late, but better late than never), I opened GitHub and thought to myself that there's at least one issue I can resolve with my current knowledge. And I found something. I went to explore section. Looked for a repo with hacktoberfest label, found issues with that label and after some looking and analysing, I made my first PR and it got merged, I felt like I am unstoppable now. :p

On October 31, 2021, I completed and hit the 4 pull requests mark.

Till now, I had only used GitHub for sharing my code and for collaborating with my college peers, I knew I can contribute to other repositories too but never knew how to but hacktoberfest really helped me find my way through. I will keep on making more contributions. Thanks Digital Ocean for conducting this event! :)

My next post will be resources from where I learned how to work with Git and GitHub. Check out my previous blog for finding the difference between the two.

Thanks for reading!

My First Flutter Application

Tannu Daral — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 05:51:29 +0000

Continuing with my love for development, I have decided to learn flutter. I have also started building apps and here's first of the few apps I have built :

GitHub repo link here !

"Flutter is a free and open-source mobile UI framework created by Google and released in May 2017. In a few words, it allows you to create a native mobile application with only one codebase. This means that you can use one programming language and one codebase to create two different apps (for iOS and Android).

Flutter consists of two important parts:

An SDK (Software Development Kit): A collection of tools that are going to help you develop your applications. This includes tools to compile your code into native machine code (code for iOS and Android).
A Framework (UI Library based on widgets): A collection of reusable UI elements (buttons, text inputs, sliders, and so on) that you can personalize for your own needs."

From what I have heard from people in tech, flutter documentation is one of the best resource to learn flutter. I personally have been referring to it whenever I get stuck and I have mostly been successful in debugging the code till now, hope this keep going haha.

From next week onwards, I'll be writing blogs about different data structures that I'll be learning each week and some development related blogs, here and there.

Are Websites and Web Applications Different?

Tannu Daral — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 03:21:45 +0000

Yes, absolutely. Certain characteristics set one apart from the other.

1. Interactivity

A website provides visual and text content that the user can see and read, but not alter in any way. While in the case of a web application, user can read the page content and manipulate the data on this page. The interaction can take place in:

User clicks a button or,
User submits a form and gets a response from the page. This response may take a form of a document download, online chat, electronic payment and more.

It is rare to find a website today without any evidence of interactivity. The majority of modern websites contain small web application elements. For example, on a restaurant website, a Google Maps widget may show how to get to the restaurant. However, the ratio between informational content and interactivity tends to be biased towards the former for websites. It is rare for a website to have many interactive elements, and people typically just read, watch or listen to information. Web applications are the opposite since their core functionality is based on interaction.

2. Aunthetication

Authentication is the process of entering a user's login and password to gain access to a system. It is a must for web software that requires any personal information. User accounts must be secured to prevent unauthorized access and leakage of sensitive data.

The majority of web applications require authentication since they offer more options than websites. Take social networks, for instance. You receive a unique identification number when you register, along with an account. If you use a weak login or password, the system will warn you. If you leave them unchanged, hackers might gain access to your account, steal your information, and annoy other users with junk emails.

3. Complexity

The website will only display the collected information and data if the user searches that page.
Web applications have higher and more complex functions compared to websites.

Conclusion
The process of creating a website is relatively simple. But creating a web application requires a deeper understanding, more experience, and more planning.

How to host a website using GitHub pages?

Tannu Daral — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 06:40:52 +0000

Here's the video tutorial and if you like the video, please leave a like, thank you :)

What are Cookies?

Tannu Daral — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 01:45:15 +0000

When browsing social media, shopping, or doing almost anything else online, you might have seen a websites requesting permission to collect and use your cookies. Like many people, you probably clicked on the "approve" button and continued to do what you wanted to do. But did you ever think about what cookies are, and what companies and websites are actually collecting from your device? Why are they even needed?

Let's dive in...

What are Cookies?
In short, cookies are tiny pieces of data stored on a device by a web browser. They are usually text files, and they are most commonly used to identify your device on a network, like an identification card(like the Aadhar card number for Indians).

When you browse the web on your computer, small pieces of information are stored. These pieces range from saved usernames and passwords to the likes and dislikes you left on the page.

One analogy that I can provide you for visualizing what cookies are is imagine yourself visiting your school canteen, where you visit quite often. When you enter, the canteen worker will probably already know that you favorite food is samosa, you are a fan of their pastries, and you like to sit on that table in the corner. They do not know these facts about you by reading your mind, rather, they know it because you have done these things before, multiple times.

These are how cookies work. Over time, as you repeat actions and visit websites, the data from stored cookies can be used to create a virtual profile of you. Your likes, your dislikes, your family members, your pets, what you need, what you want can all be inferred from the cookies.

How are Cookies Sent and Stored?
Cookies are created whenever you visit a website. When you visit a website for the first time, the server the website is hosted on sends back the webpage you requested and a small text file, known as a cookie. The next time you visit the website, your browser will send a request for the website along with the cookie. These cookies identify who you are, and provide whatever data that the website may want or need to function properly.

These cookies are all stored locally on your device, and are only sent to the web server when a website requests it. These cookies are stored as dictionaries, or key:value pairs. That way, whenever a website requests a specific piece of data, the data can be identified and sent as quickly as possible.

All cookies are stored locally, which means that your data is only stored on your computer. However, this data can be sent to any website whenever they request it, which is what all the privacy scandals are about- sending enough user data to a website to learn enough to breach someone's privacy.

What are Cookies Used for?
Cookies have many uses, most of which you should be aware of. The three main uses of cookies are below (via Kaspersky)

Session management cookies are cookies stored only for your web browsing session (from when you open your browser to when you close it). These cookies allow websites to have auto-login features and save user preferences, for example, whether or not you turned on dark mode the last time you visited Reddit.
Personalisation cookies are cookies that store user data, more specifically, user data on what you have searched up on the web. These cookies are most commonly used to provide personalized advertisements.
Tracking: Shopping sites use cookies to track items users previously viewed, allowing the sites to suggest other goods they might like and keep items in shopping carts while they continue shopping.

Problems with Cookies

Cookies are essential to the internet today, but they still have problems. Below are some of the most common problems.

Since cookies are stored locally, if an attacker gets access to the raw text cookies on your device, they can get an authorization for certain websites allowing them to log in as you. This is the same concept by which "keep me signed in" buttons work, allowing a user to send a cookie with an authorization instead of logging in again.

When a website receives a request/action in the form of cookies, the server cannot distinguish whether the user requested this action in the current session or whether the cookies saved on the user's computer has requested it. Due to this, an attacker can simply change the content of the cookies so that the user's computer will be sending requests to the website that the user did not request for.

The model of you that can be made using your cookies is extremely advanced and specific. This data is worth a lot, and can be sold to advertising agencies to create targeted advertisements.

You can find read further about cookies in some other blogs such as the one by Kaspersky.

Happy Coding! :)

5 Tools to Create Color Palettes for Your Websites and More - II

Tannu Daral — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 02:26:55 +0000

This is the extended version of my last post. Here are some more of my favorite tools for finding the ideal color palette for the websites. Let's get started:

ColorsWall
It is the place to store your color palettes. Brand color codes. Generate Random colors palette. Design colors combinations and more...
You can find it here.
ColorSpace
Here you can find the perfect matching color scheme for your next project! Generate nice color palettes, color gradients and much more!
You can find it here.
Canva Color Generator
The easiest place to get colors from your photos ... Want a color scheme that perfectly matches your favorite images, use this!
You can find it here.
Muzli Colors
One of the best resource out there, helps you create Beautiful Color Schemes that works!
You can find it here.
Colormind
Colormind is a color scheme generator that uses deep learning. It can learn color styles from photographs, movies, and popular art...
You can find it here.

Those are my magic recommendations, if you have some more, do share them in the comments!

Happy Coding!

5 Tools to Create Color Palettes for Your Websites and More

Tannu Daral — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 16:05:29 +0000

Here are some of my favorite tools for finding the ideal color palette for the websites. Let's get started: ^_^

► COOLORS

The super fast color schemes generator! Here you can create the perfect palette or get inspired by thousands of beautiful color schemes.
You can find it here.

► Adobe Colors

Color wheel (or image in Extract Theme tab) can be used to generate color palette, which can be saved into Creative Cloud.
You can find it here.

► Khroma

Khroma uses AI to learn which colors you like and creates limitless palettes for you to discover, search, and save.
You can find it here.

► Huesnap

Huesnap let's you create customised palettes. It snap colors from your uploaded images or use the color wheel to create a customized palette.
You can find it here.

► Eggradients

If you are looking for a twist, use gradient colors and this is the perfect place to create/find such palettes.
You can find it here.

Those are my magic recommendations, if you have some more, do share them in the comments!

Happy Coding!

Learning CSS3: A Challenge?

Tannu Daral — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 14:34:35 +0000

So, I have started learning CSS for a while now. I have taken the Introduction to CSS3 course by University of Michigan. I love the instructor, she seems like a great professor.

I also refer to MDN Docs and man, those are FOR REAL, AMAZING. I find all my queries answered through those and I am really liking web development(front-end), maybe, because it's easy? 😂

One thing, I have noticed while learning CSS is that, there are a lot of properties and there's a very high chance you will forget them, so I would suggest that when you learn about a new property, play with it, see what it does, what changes it brings!

Also, make small websites, like a website that lists top 10 Rock songs or something you like. Add styling to it. It's very simple but you will learn a lot through this process. So, go on. Have fun!

Also, if have already learnt web development, do share you tips in the comments. 😊

Happy Coding!

Best Free Resources (documentation) for learning Web Development

Tannu Daral — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 03:16:03 +0000

If you are looking to learn web development online, there are more than enough resources out there to teach you everything you need to know, which sometimes might overwhelm you but get into it. Here are some of my best picks:

‣ Mozilla Web Docs (MDN)

MDN Web Docs, previously Mozilla Developer Network and formerly Mozilla Developer Center, is a documentation repository and learning resource for web developers used by Mozilla, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung. The project was started by Mozilla as a unified place for documentation about open web standards, Mozilla's own projects, and developer guides. MDN Web Docs content is maintained by Mozilla and Google employees and volunteers (community of developers and technical writers). Topics include HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, Web APIs, Django, Node.js, WebExtensions, MathML, and others.

These are some really well curated documents and you should definitely refer to them while learning web development.

You can find them here

‣ The Odin Project

The Odin Project is a great place to jumpstart your career in web development with a full stack curriculum approach that is backed up by an open-source community. The curriculum is made up of a collection of online tutorials, blogs, and courses. For example, there is a web development 101 course made up of lessons that start and the basics and end with you building a practical web application. So you will have opportunities to build portfolio-worthy projects alongside a community of developers.
You can find it here.

‣ Shay Howe's Book for Learning HTML and CSS

It is a really well written book and I personally refer to it whenever I need any help related to HTML and CSS. It makes use of codepen.io.
You can find it here.

‣ w3schools

It is also one of the best resource to learn web development and master the concepts.
You can find it here.

My best tip for all the newbies would be that don't get stuck in tutorial hell and if you don't know what that is, you can read my previous article which you can find here.

Hopefully, these web developer resources can help you along the way. Feel free to share some of your favorite online resources in the comments below.

Keep Learning! Keep Coding!

IF YOU'RE A BEGINNER IN CODING, READ THIS

Tannu Daral — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 14:00:47 +0000

DON'T FALL IN TUTORIAL HELL. And, if you haven't heard of it, then you're at the right place at the right time. When many start out, they keep on watching tutorials on Youtube, attend their classes for some online course they enrolled in etc. But do you think that will be worth it? Just learning the concepts? Understanding them, but not applying them anywhere? NO. Never. Until you apply your knowledge in a project, it's a waste.

Computer Science is something that can be only learnt through practice and more practice. Start building something, do something. At first, you might make mistakes, make them, who's stopping you? If you feel like you need help, refer to StackOverflow or Youtube or your instructor. In these times, the best thing that has happened is that most of our doubts have already been someone else's doubts and therefore, there answers are readily available. You can easily find solution to your problems on the internet. If you need help with ideas, refer to google, geeksforgeeks has some amazing project ideas too or BE CREATIVE and make something that's unthought of before!

So, go on, build something! You can do this!
Keep Learning! Keep Coding!

What does Open-Source mean?

Tannu Daral — Wed, 26 May 2021 04:16:06 +0000

Open-source software(OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Let me put it in simpler words, open source is sharing your code with the world and receiving help/modifications from developers all around the globe. Now you might be thinking, it would become messy. Well, no. If you are the repository manager, you get a chance to choose which changes you want to see in your project and would help you out. And you can also revert back the changes if you don't like them. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

Some open source softwares are Microsoft's Visual Studio Code, code editor, Mozilla Firefox, the web browser, MySQL, open source database management software and many others.

Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. Any one can collaborate and make pull requests but make sure they are genuine. You can use GitHub, which offers the distributed version control and source code management functionality of Git, to be a part of the open source community. Other options are GitLab, Bitbucket, etc.

Keep Learning! Keep Coding!!