How I learned Node.js, npm and Express, and their use with APIs, at the moment.

About me

I have a degree in photography and I still love to do it. Ideally I'd have a job developing software while taking photos for the content of the application. I do love photoshop after all. I completed a 12 week bootcamp at General Assembly and am currently looking to expand my portfolio and web presence before I start applying for jobs.

Why I wanted to learn Node.js, npm and Express, and their use with APIs, at the moment.

I thought this would be a good place to start to build full CRUD apps so I can write a variety of sites for my portfolio. I'm pretty familiar with them and I'm looking to REALLY understand them to I can look to learn something like REACT later. I understand the patterns as libraries and frameworks evolve.

How I approached learning Node.js, npm and Express, and their use with APIs, at the moment.

I started with online tools like codecademy and code school. FreeCodeCamp was another, then I finally dove into General Assembly.

Challenges I faced

There's always some roadblocks in this process, but patience is key. The 'ah-hah!' moments will always come, even when you're quite sure they will not. 'Typo.??? A typo?!?!' Things like this happen, for example. Reading documentation used to get to me, as it seemed tedious. It's mildly tedious I suppose, but it's certainly necessary and eventually becomes second nature and makes you a better developer.

Key takeaways

The breakthroughs are what I enjoy the most. The 'Ah-hah!!' moments I mentioned before. The further you dig into a certain technology and start to see how powerful they are is pretty cool. There are always a thousand ways to do something, and it's cool to see the difference in some of them and experiment.

Tips and advice

Try to stay active in a community and always practice. This will always seem pretty tough at first, and it is. Repetition is key. The things that trip you up for an hour at first like syntax will become second nature. Keep at it!

Final thoughts and next steps

right now I'm focusing on a portfolio of different kind of web applications that will show experience with different technologies. Next I'd like to work on different kinds of web apps, or even desktop apps as well. Eventually I'd like to start with some mobile tech as well, as it seems there will be room to grow there for the more than foreseeable future.