Intro
I’m excited to share with you my experience of participating in this year's Hacktoberfest. In this post, I will talk about the highs and lows, the growth, and the benefits of contributing to open source projects during this month.
Highs and Lows
One of the biggest highs for me was discovering and contributing to two amazing repositories: illa-builder and trello-clone.
ILLA is a robust open source low-code platform for developers to build internal tools. By using ILLA's library of Components and Actions, developers can save massive amounts of time on building tools. You can use natural language to define your agent’s logic, personality, and behavior, and then deploy it as a web app, a chatbot, or a voice assistant. I was fascinated by this idea and decided to try it out for myself. I created a personalized recipe generator based on user’s culinary preferences using illa ai builder.(Github PR) I also created an app on this platform, a random rgba color generator.(Github PR) It was a fun and rewarding experience to see my AI agent come to life and suggest delicious dishes for me.
trello-clone is a web app that replicates the functionality of Trello, a popular project management tool. It uses Next.js 13, React, Tailwind CSS and Prisma. I learned a lot about these technologies while working on this project. I helped fix some bugs such as adding adding focus on inputs and fixing the WYSIWYG editor text overflow.(Github PR1, Github PR2)
Of course, not everything was smooth sailing. I also faced some challenges and difficulties during Hacktoberfest 2023. Some of them were:
- Finding suitable projects to contribute to. There are so many open source projects out there, but not all of them are beginner-friendly or well-documented. I had to do some research and filtering to find the ones that matched my interests and skills.
- Understanding the codebase and the workflow of the projects. Each project has its own structure, style, and conventions. It took me some time to get familiar with them and follow the guidelines. I also had to learn how to use Git and GitHub effectively to fork, clone, branch, commit, push, pull, and merge.
- Dealing with errors and bugs. Sometimes, things didn’t work as expected or broke down completely. I had to debug and test my code thoroughly before submitting a pull request. I also had to deal with merge conflicts and code reviews.
However, I didn’t give up or get discouraged by these problems. Instead, I used them as opportunities to learn and grow. I adapted by:
- Asking for help from the maintainers or other contributors when I was stuck or confused. They were very friendly and supportive and gave me useful feedback and guidance.
- Reading the documentation, tutorials, articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. related to the projects or technologies I was working on. They helped me understand the concepts and best practices better.
- Practicing and experimenting with different solutions until I found the one that worked best for me.
Growth
I can confidently say that my skillset improved significantly during Hacktoberfest 2023. After working on these projects, I learned:
- How to use illa-builder to create AI agents and apps without coding
- How to use Next.js 13 to create fast and scalable web apps
- How to use Prisma to store and manage data
- How to use Husky to format all the files from each commit automatically
I also learned some soft skills that are essential for any developer:
- How to communicate effectively with other developers
- How to better collaborate on open source projects
- How to write clear and concise code comments and documentation
- How to write good bug reports and pull requests
Benefits
Participating in Hacktoberfest 2023 was not only a learning experience but also a rewarding one. Some of the benefits that I gained from it were:
- Contributing to open source projects that are useful and meaningful for me and others
- Connecting with other developers from different backgrounds and levels of expertise
- Earning some cool swag from Hacktoberfest organizers and sponsors
- Having fun and enjoying the process of creating and sharing
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