Today I Learned - How to Get Started as a Steemit Front-End Developer - Part 1
It's a new beginning...
It been now almost 2 years that I work from home as a marketer/wordpress developper. I like it, I work hard and have a great lifestyle. But I've kind of hit a plateau in my professional development. I'm not learning as much as when I was just getting started with our clients.
I've been on Steemit.com since May and I've had my share of ideas that I would love to implement. The thing is that, as a marketer, it's tough to find a developer and not be afraid of him running away with it because you can't code.
This is why, I decided to take a 6 months membership to CodeSchool and started looking into how to develop apps on the steem blockchain.
I hope you will enjoy my learning journey.
** If you are more knowledgeable than me that you would let me know if I am making mistakes!
How Does One Get Started?
I'm still figuring it out right now but thanks to the help of @ontofractal and @krnel, I was able to have the basic for me to get started.
The very first thing I needed is a place where I can learn how to code. I chose CodeSchool because I already had an account there and I really liked how they turned their learning environment into a game.
Since I already have a good base in HTML/CSS, I'm going to get started on the Javascript Path and eventually jump on REACT JS.
Today, they had a crazy discount for Cyber Monday...so I jumped on it like a fat kid on a smartie.
A Cool Text Editor for Coding
There are many text editor to chose from. Many would simply take the notepad that comes with windows. I wanted something a little more rich. I went for Atom, the text editor created by the people over at GitHub.
Finding mentors
Running around looking for information on the internet when you don't even know what you are looking for is a sure way to get frustrated. I found few guides that could help me along the way. They don't need to be world class level, if they only know where to get the golden nugget of resources and help me narrow down my search or ask the right questions, they are the most valuable asset in my quest to learn how to code for Steemit.
Documentations and Libraries
Here is a few of the essential resources for someone who want to get started coding on the steem blockchain and build user interfaces.
The Steem API Documentation
The following API documents provide details on how to interact with the Steem blockchain database API which can get information on accounts, content, blocks and much more!
Node.JS for installing and managing node module
The key to this server-side JavaScript revolution is Node.js® — a version of Chrome’s V8 JavaScript runtime engine — which makes it possible to run JavaScript on the server-side. Using NPM — a tool that makes installing and managing Node modules — it’s quite easy to add many useful tools to your web development toolkit.
SteemJS
npm install steem --save
Once you are in Node.JS command line tool. You go to the folder you want to have your project in and then npm init and then npm install steem --save
This should install the SteemJS in your folder.
ReactBootstrap
React-Bootstrap is a library of reusable front-end components. You'll get the look-and-feel of Twitter Bootstrap, but with much cleaner code, via Facebook's React.js framework.
Again, in the command line of Node.Js, go to your project folder and install ReactBootstrap npm install react-bootstrap --save
A Project To Sink My Teeth Into
Now I have tools and education. But the one thing I believe is most important when it's time to learn something is to have somewhere to apply it. I'm going to get started with just building a page with different stats for my own account and learning how to interact with the Steem Blockchain in a beautiful graphic interface.
That would give me the lay of the land and a place to apply what I learn in CodeSchool. I'll make sure to send some SBD to people who help me find shortcut in my learning so that I don't spend all my time looking for answers or ressources.
Conclusion
This is not an exhaustive tutorial on how to get the basics setup. I may make one in the future so that it's stuck in my head forever. I also think that there are many of us on steemit who would like to learn how to code and play around with all the wild possibilities that Steem can afford.
SteemOn!
Excellent post, I too have a similar background, in that i have been a web designer and joomla designer but have not learnt much coding. i am wanting to learn how to use/code on the blockchain so i am interested to see your progress. upvoted and followed
Rock the casbah! Rip it up. hehe ;)
You'll find answers and questions to almost anything over at stackOverflow. It's a great resource for developers of any level or language, just be sure to search first before posting a question ;)
I'll definitely take your word for it. :-)
Kudos for taking the time to learn how to code. When you said:
You took the words right out of my mouth. I have a sales and marketing background and see ways to apply my knowledge to Steemit and have some ideas to go with it, but don't know much about coding beyond HTML that I learned building WordPress sites as you have too.
I think it's smart to begin as you said:
I would love to see your future progress once you "sink your teeth into it".
hahaha, so I'm not alone :-)
I will do my best to keep you in the loop and maybe help other not get lost in the meanderings of learning how to program for steemit. Cheers!
Perhaps you'll get really good at it and we can merge our skills into some new apps. You're on my radar and I'm wishing you the best.
I started using Code School a few years ago but stopped. It was fun how they gamified it. I was living in Cancun at the time and it was too tempting to go outside and hit the beach everyday as opposed to staying inside coding.
Coding is like solving a puzzle, and it can be a lot of fun. These days, it is easy to get help when you are stuck, by just searching online. Most of the time you will find an answer on StackOverflow or elsewhere. Maybe you can publish your code somewhere, so others can see it and maybe add to it! Best wishes!
What a great idea! I hope you learn some useful coding skills. Maybe you'll create us a killer app!
Very cool!
Great article, I stated recently to learn Javascript with the aim to create nice steem related apps myself . I will follow your progress.
A good application of 'if you want anything done as you would dream of, do it yourself' :)
No python? If interested, I can show you what I recently coded to extract data from the blockhain.
This is interesting... I too would like to be able to code some day... Thank you for sharing!
On a side note.... I would love to hear some of your best marketing ideas for how to really get Steemit.com rocking :)