Wine Tracker Application - Sinatra Final Project
For my final project within the Sinatra section for Flatiron School, I decided to create a Wine Tracker Application. After traveling to France in September, I became interested in good wine, and I found myself forgetting which bottles/styles I had tried and which I liked or disliked. So, I thought this application would be perfect for tracking all of that data so that I would know what to purchase next and to start getting a better understanding of my palate.
HTML, CSS, and the Web:
What exactly is The Web? The Web is short for the World Wide Web which is an information system that allows documents to be shared and connected to other documents via hyperlinks. The web allows you to connect to millions of different webpages via the internet. Client computers send requests via the internet to a server computer which send the requested info back across the internet to the client computer. This is called the HTTP protocol; it is a request-response protocol.
'Cece n’est pas une pipe.'
Ruby is an object-orientated programing language. Everything in Ruby is an object - strings, numbers, etc. While this is an abstract thought, it is fairly simple to grasp. Viewing the objects as “containers” is quite helpful. Rene Magritte’s artwork “Cece n’est pas une pipe.” depicts an image of a tobacco pipe with the words “Cece n’est pas une pipe.” (“This is not a pipe.”) written bellow it. A picture of a pipe is not actually a pipe, rather it is a representation of that object. Similarly, in Ruby, we use data to create objects that represent the real world. You can create objects and give these objects properties and functions. For example, you can create a class called duck and give the duck class properties such as name or color (attributes) and give it functions (i.e. via methods) such as “quack!” From your duck class, you can create a number of duck instances and each of these instances will be a new duck object. As Ruby-ites say “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck…”
'Why I decided to learn software development:'
(1) I like writing code: About a year ago, I met a person who was just starting to learn code. She was learning it in her free time - a weekend hobby. She had no prior background in coding and did not consider herself a ‘tech’ person. I was so inspired by her, I thought, “If she can do, so can I! What is stopping me?” So, I went online that night and began to research more about web development, and then started a few of the free coding programs offered online. I love to problem solve and figure out puzzles, so I quickly enjoyed writing code. Coding allows you to be logical and creative at the same time. It is never boring! After a year, I was still interested, but with limited time between work and life, I knew I had to make a change in order to pursue this passion full-time. With the blessing of my supportive boss, I started to work from home and then went about selecting the best code boot-camp option. The reviews, learning style, career support, and the Women Take Tech scholarship helped me quickly settle on the best option - Flatiron School, and I signed up and started June 5th!