4 things to know before starting developing apps on STEEM blockchain
1. STEEM Devportal
It's a new documentation initiative by Steemit inc. Before that, you would need to search google for old Steemit posts and pray they were not outdated, or you would need to read the steemd's source code.
It's not perfect right now but it has a constant development and a great start point for developers.
2. Programming Language Selection
Picking the right tool makes a difference for Steem ecosystem. I advise Python or Javascript (Node) since both languages have good client libraries, documentation, more importantly, lots of good open source projects.
You can -of course- use other languages as a client, too. But, I can say that the best resources were the open-source projects. You can read the code, study, can see how they solved particular problems.
Also, you can consider developing the app client-side only. I have developed steem.rocks with python only, means that I didn't benefit the steem.js which made the page rendering, response times slower. Having a hybrid model also works well, but I strongly advise using Steemjs where applicable.
3. SteemDevs discord
It's a great discord server where developers around the STEEM blockchain (all the cool guys) hanging out.
You can ask questions, discuss things, get help with anything related to STEEM development. Even, some of the official Steemit Inc. employees have office hours here, where you can ask questions directly.
4. Having a private node is important
Little scripts or small things may do fine with public nodes. But If you're planning to build the next big decentralized app on STEEM blockchain, make sure you allocate some funds to have a private RPC node.
From my personal experience, public nodes are not stable all the time. You need to dance between nodes when things are bad - which creates additional operational work.
Any more advises for new developers around STEEM blockchain? Shoot in the comments if I forgot something.
5.setting up a dev environment is expensive, time consuming, impossible or all 3 combined
I'm much more comfortable with Python. Would you suggest using Node anyway? I'm sure Python would be fine for a bot or something, but I'm not sure if it's solid enough to do something like a full site on.
Of course, its solid. :) just make sure you use a hybrid model with js. Ex: if you want to just show user reputation, use steemjs on client side. (Browser) It feels much faster since it doesnt block the webserver process and response times. (doing a steemd call at backend blocks the server process).
A hybrid model with steemjs (on client side) and python for background (ex: custom apis of the dapps) works well.
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Can you tell me how to develop android application on Steem Blockchain.