A simple to-do list app.
Can be viewed here (mobile only - use dev tools if you're on a computer).
The last project that I worked on was my dynamic chore rota. That project was my first server-side dynamic web page, and a brilliant learning experience.
Throughout the middle of 2022 my personal projects took a backseat as I was travelling with my partner in North America. As this came to a close and I found myself with more spare time, I sought another personal project to refresh my skills and knowledge. Conceptually I stayed quite close to my previous project, but where that had been quite narrow in scope, focusing on a set group of tasks, regenerated on a rotating basis, the new project would be more general. This is how I settled on the to-do list. The concept was similar to my last project, so that I could refresh my knowledge of the tools I had used and recycle some of the ideas, but had enough new features to also make it a challenge.
I really felt the benefit of my last project when completing this one. I had a much easier understanding of how my app was actually operating on the server side, and how that connected to what was delivered to the client. I was much quicker to get the basics of the app set up, and I was pleased at how familiar it all felt.
I encountered a problem when I was working on the feature that allowed new tasks to be added to the list. Tasks were being added correctly to the database, but they were only showing up on the page after it had been refreshed, and I didn't want to have to refresh the page every time I added a task. I butted heads with the problem for days and I searched endlessly for a resolution, but I had hit a wall. I was sure that the solution was out there somewhere, I just couldn't find it. I had wanted to solve the problem myself and my pride was standing in the way. I reached out on StackOverflow and my problem was solved within 10 minutes. I think the instinct to solve problems independently is valuable - it equips you with valuable hands-on experience that can't be taught. However, as important as it is having the right skills, it's equally important to know when to use them, and I wish I had recognised sooner the need to ask for help.
Something I have noticed on forums, StackOverflow etc. is that the same packages and libraries seem to appear everywhere, and I'm realising that there is a reason for this. When I first started learning JavaScript, I would see people mention Node everywhere - and it's only now that I understand why. Same for Express, Mongoose and so on... There is a reason that popular packages and libraries are popular - they solve problems that are popular too! Having started to dabble in React on other projects, I think that it will help with the problem mentioned in the paragraph above, as the problem was related to updating the UI based on changes to the underlying data.