I started a blog at the end of 2020 to create a place to log my journey as a Web Developer. Even if I am the only one that will ever read it, I think it will be interesting to see the posts years from now and how I felt when new challenges came up or something good happened.
Background
For my post here today I want to talk about the Project that I have been working on for the last 4 weeks at Lambda, our Labs project. Even though I have been hired already and I am teaching Web Development that doesn't mean I don't deserve to get my endorsement through Lambda.
The project that we are working on is for Human Rights First, but more specifically it is about asylum cases. When someone seeks asylum in the US there is a process that they must go through to be granted or denied asylum.
The idea behind our project is to have a searchable database of uploaded (redacted) case files for representatives to go through. How often has Judge A granted asylum for Group type X.
When I was assigned the project I honestly had no clue what it was about and was kinda worried about it. Can I do this project justice not knowing anything about it? I don't know anyone that has asked for asylum, or at least I don't believe I do, so how could I possibly work on a project like this?
Well my team is amazing. From the Web Developers to the Data Scientists we have all been putting in our 100% best. Turns out knowing what the project is about isn't as important as understanding what the stakeholder is looking for and turning their wishes into functions....so to speak.
Groups, the good bad and....
Working in a group isn't always a good experience. However it should always be a learning experience. I got lucky during my labs experience and was paired up with some amazing folks. Both the fellow Web Developers and the Data Scientists we all amazing to work with.
On the Web Developer side we had quite a few challenges to over come. The biggest one that we chose to take on for the front end team was the upload button. We realized that with the project ahead of us having the ability to upload the case files for others to search through was important. Working on the display of things was equally important as well so we split our time between everything.
In working on the upload button and functionality we realized that it was going to be a bit more complicated that we first thought. The Stakeholder wanted to have the ability to add tags to the form that would add the file and parameters to the database. Not generally a problem until we realized the complexity of the tags. What we ended up needing was going to be a kinda hierarchy of sorts where we would need to pick a main category, which will then show its sub categories. Once that is chosen a list of tags would be shown as well as an option to add a new one. We understood the reasons for having this but that didn't mean it was a function that would be easy to replicate.
We didn't fully solve it only due to some bugs in the backend, however we did leave some good detailed notes so that the next team that works on it know what we did and what needs to be done.
The end has come .... now what?
Well now that our time to work on the project has come to a close, it's time to present the project to the Stakeholder. What works, what doesn't, things like that.
What works is that the visual aspect of the site looks much better. We went from this:
To this:
Makes it look much more inviting but also is more responsive.
Before we started working on the project the upload button was shown on the page, but it wasn't connected to anything. Now we have this:
Although not connected to the backend to be able to save the files or submit the form, but it has functionality and that is important.
For the next team we have set them up so that they can connect the backend to the upload button as we set it all up it just needs to be wired. Other features that will need to be worked on will be a download button, as well as a way to save searches. The biggest issue I can see that the next team encountering would be in the download. Will it download just the file or will there be other material downloaded as well?
Not my project so how can it help me?
Now here is something that I asked myself when I first started labs. This project wasn't something that I would have worked on or came up with but the experience that I gained both in working with a diverse team and with a code base that was already started and had some bugs is more than worth it. I can not describe how beneficial working on a project can be.
My final thoughts
I am grateful for everything that both Labs and Lambda has shown me and taught me.
If you want to follow my blog here is the link:
https://blog.melissa-longenberger.com
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