I started my Sinatra final project at the end of September/Early October, hoping to be done within a week or two. Boy was I wrong…
I was also in the middle of moving, so I decided to freeze my account for a month. It really relieved a lot of the stress of having to juggle multiple important things.
However, when I picked up the project again in mid-November, I quickly realized that I didn’t leave myself comments on what I was attempting to do. It had been a while since I finished Fwitter and the NYC lab and was starting to really regret that freeze.
I did some Sinatra review before diving right in, and I tried for a while to get my project to work but when I managed to fix one thing, it led to another problem. I barely remembered how I even began to build the app and the forms, so I decided to just start over. Maybe this wasn’t the wisest choice, but it seemed to make the most sense for me.
Fortunately, I was able to create version two relatively quickly, as I already had much of the code from my first go-around. I did simplify the structure a bit, knowing I can always develop it further later. I started by setting up all of the files, making sure my environment, config, and rakefile were all in working order. Once I got my ActiveRecord and Models set up, it was a lot of trial and error between my Views and my Controllers. Following the patterns of my older project, Fwitter, and other labs, I successfully completed my CRUD project.
My project keeps track of camping trips I have been on. In the future, I would like to develop the app more by adding more detail about each trip, but for now, I’m just glad it’s in working form. It’s usually easier to build on later. I even added a few design elements to enhance the look and feel.
Lesson learned: Leave yourself plenty of comments and don’t be afraid to start fresh – if even just for the review.