Building GoGreen 1/n

What I'm building

Codename: GoGreen

I'll reveal what I want to build as soon as I solved the blockers. If I cannot solve the blockers fast enough, I may have to abandon the approach altogether.

What I've done so far

• ✅ Create an app using DigitalOcean’s App Platform that falls under one of the listed categories (I chose "Build for Biz")
• ✅ Fill out this form to get a $50 credit for DigitalOcean, good for 60 days from the date of redemption.
• ✅ Setup a private Github repo
• ✅ Use one of the following permissive licenses for your code: MIT ✅, Apache, BSD-2, BSD-3, or Commons Clause.
• ✅ Create the first of N number of DEV posts for this series of DO hackathon 2020-2021 (Well, you're looking at it now, aren't you? 😁 )

Getting GoGreen working in DigitalOcean App Platform

The product I'm thinking of building involves heavy use of Docker. Though I might eventually abandon that if it's too complicated.

And as part of the overall value, I cannot use DigitalOcean's App Platform (henceforth I'm calling it as DOAP. I pronounce it as "DOPE!". As in SOAP but with a D) default of having the Dockerfile being in the root of the repository.

Which means I need to

• ✅ install doctl and doctl access my DO account
• ◻️ setup the App Sec as a Yaml file accordingly in my GitHub repository

... amongst possibly more steps.

Blockers and Papercuts

As a typical Singaporean 🇸🇬 , complaining giving constructive criticism is in our blood.

This section covers all the obstacles ranging from absolute roadblocks to minor annoyances I face as I work towards this hackathon.

I'll give 4 categories to describe the potential obstacles I face in each post.

• 🛑 Absolute Blocker: I cannot get past this (yet?) and it's critical to building the app
• 🚧 Critical Slowdown: I took more than 10 mins to figure this out and it's critical to building the app
• 🦟 Annoying Mosquito: Took more than 10 mins or unsolvable but not critical
• 🧘🏻‍♂️ Zen: Solved in less than 10 mins and not critical

🧘🏻‍♂️ Zen

Now that I think about it... is it worth mentioning non-critical obstacles that are solved in less than 10 minutes? 🤔

🦟 Annoying Mosquito

• Cannot use the full GitHub flavored Markdown in DevTo to create checkbox

I mean, what era are we living in already? Anyway, I gave up and used emoji like ✅ and ◻️

• Not clear how to trigger series inside DevTo

Is it

1. series: [series name]
2. series: ["series name"] which was what's given at the DEV article on this hackathon
3. series: "series name" OR
4. series: series name?

Oh, I need to wrap that between two lines of ---?

Don't tell me in words. Show me! 😕

By the way, the answer is, right below where you put the main image, type

--- 
series: Building GoGreen on DigitalOcean App Platform Hackathon Series
---

🚧 Critical Slowdown

• Searching for answers on how to change the default path to the Dockerfile in the repo for DOAP

This is way easier provided you know the concepts of doctl and App Sec which I didn't at first 🤷🏻‍♂️

🛑 Absolute Blocker

None so far, and hopefully, none that I'll ever meet.

Conclusion

Up to now, I have spent about 3.5 hours on this. More than half of which is to write this up. Anything to avoid doing real work, am I right? 😁

And since this is a side project, I have to stop now.