Developer training Developers!

Victoria Mutai — Thu, 25 May 2023 19:01:56 +0000

3 months went by so fast....
I recently started out as an instructor at techtenum for frontend web development.
Weirdly, I never thought of myself as a teacher or trainer. Yes this was my first official gig as a trainer.

My main role was to ensure students learn web development from 0 to 100. The students did not have any knowledge on web dev, they had never interacted with the IDE or even written their first line of code.

Our first class was introduction to the web and it was interesting to see how they yearned to learn more and become experts. We did a bit of UI/UX, an introduction to Version Control then went ahead to learn HTML, CSS and JS. We also introduced the students to webhosting on ghpages and netlify

The program included from theory, practicals and projects. This ensured that the students are able to apply what they learn practicaly and build real life projects.

Some of the projects the students worked on included a personal portfolio, a school website, a calculator, IG clone, EPL table clone(they love football) and two projects of their choice. This projects ensured that whatever they learnt in class was implemented.

My favorite parts of the program included....

Lesson Prep: This included coming up with notes for the next class. This made me learn more and more concepts, which I believe has even made me a better developer. For concepts that seemed complex I had to do before hand and hence making me an expert at it.
Implementation of JS concepts: This was quite interesting to see the students implement the concepts they didnt think they could use before. Eg creating a responsive navbar using JS.
CSS Layouts: I did not make lots of practice on CSS layouts before and after going through the session I felt am ready to go back to CSS and use it all the time. I literally learnt all over again.
Project presentation and Reviews: Our mode of reviews involved the students presenting what they worked with and everyone would give feedback on how they felt about it and changes they wanted to see.
Debugging: By the end of month one, the students owned the debbuging sessions and it was interesting to see the different approaches they take in bug solving.

Conclusion

The entire three months was impactful for me! I was both an instructor and learner. I would do this again and again. The satisfaction that come with seeing beginners become experts...
Huge shoutout to the students for taking time to learn and never giving up on the difficult concepts. I can't wait to see what the latest web developers achieve in the next few months and years. Thanks to techtenum for the opportunity to train!

Will I do this again? Yes and even much more better!

Thanks for reading through😊 Adios👋

Getting Started with Flask

Victoria Mutai — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 18:46:31 +0000

In this article, you will learn about flask, why you should use it, its features, and how to get started with it.

Introduction

Flask is a python framework that provides tools for building web applications quickly and more efficiently.

Reasons for using flask

It is lightweight, with minimal dependencies.
It is simple and easy to learn and use.
It is flexible.
It has very good documentation.

Getting started

Create a virtual environment for your project using the venv command.
python -m venv virtual-name
Install flask into your project using the pip command,after creating the virtual environment.
pip install flask
Create a new flask application. Create a new file called main.py and add code to start application. It is important to note that to create a new flask application, import Flask and use:
app = Flask(__name__)

from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def index():
    print('Lets learn flask!')

Flask Routes

To access the different pages, use the @app.route decorator. Routing accepts the different HTTP methods, GET is the default flask route. This is how routes look like:

@app.route('/login',methods=['GET','POST']
def login():

Flask Templates

Flask uses the Jinja2 as its template engine. Create a template directory to store your html files. To import use the render_template. With templates you can reuse common elements eg layouts.

@app.route('/')
def index():
    return render_template('index.html')

Conditional Formatting

Flask templates allow us to loop through different variables and also use conditional formatting.

Flask code

The sample code below passes a variable frameworks to the template and using the conditional formatting and html lists, it prints out the data on an unordered list.

@app.route('/')
def index():
    frameworks = ['Django','Flask']
    return render_template('index.html',frameworks=frameworks)

HTML code

<p>Different python modules: </p>
<ul>
    {% for framework in frameworks %}
    <li>{{framework}}</li>
    {% endfor %}
</ul>

Reusing Components

To reuse component eg layouts, use extends keyword. This ensures a consistent look and feel across all your web pages. Lets do this.
Create a layout.html file and put this code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <title>Flask Lesson</title>
</head>

<body>
    <nav>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
            <li><a href="/about">About</a></li>
            <li><a href="/contact">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
    </nav>
    <div class="content">R
        {% block content %}{% endblock %}
    </div>
</body>

</html>

On the index.html file, add the extends keyword and put the containt into the{% block content %}{% endblock %}

{% extends 'layout.html' %}
{% block content %}

<h1>Lets talk flask</h1>
<p>Different python modules: </p>
<ul>
    {% for framework in frameworks %}
    <li>{{framework}}</li>
    {% endfor %}
</ul>
{% endblock %}

To sum it up, Flask provides many useful features, including routing, templates, and support for various extensions, making it easy to build and maintain web applications.

In upcoming blogs, we will deep dive into some of the topics we covered in this blog.

Stay tuned to more flask content!

DEV Community: Victoria Mutai