Projects, projects, projects…

Working on the Final Project for the Software Architecture class has been fun so far. During this initial week we had to figure out what are we going to do. I have paired with one of my classmates named Zac to work together. All we knew that the project was supposed to be done with the TypeScript and Angular framework. Well then what to do? We had no idea, at least at first, until we got the Databases class where again I have paired with Zac and we were supposed to do a project with databases and some SQL. That is where it hit us: “how about we combine both projects?”, what we meant is using Angular we can create a website that will connect and interact with a database through a REST API we learned about before. Genius I say, only problem was to figure out if that will be allowed, killing two birds with one stone, and guess what, it was ok.

So, with that in mind we went to work. First step was to figure out what database do we want to use, since that will decide on what shape rest of the project will take. That is where Zac came in, he is a very talented musician and he quickly found a free database online that relates to music, it had quite a few entries, but not too many so it will be fine working with it.

Great, a third the setup is done, step two create a Wireframe and write a proposal for both classes. Huh, a what? Well apparently, wireframe is a visual/conceptual design for a web app. Here is some explanation. That helped us so we went to work. I tell you what trying to design how a website will look is not that easy, me and Zac had to discuss few things before we settled on something. Version one is not very impressive and will most likely change but good enough for now. With it we had the conceptual work done.

Now all that is left is to make it a reality. Well easier said than done but that is why we are in school, to learn those kinds of things. We have started with the basics; can we use Java to talk to a Database? Luckily in that regard professor from Databases class helped. (here is the article about it) Ok so we can talk, let’s see if me and my teammate can do some simple queries with the REST API. YES, WE CAN! Ok we are in business. More fun will come next, use what we receive from the database and make it work with Angular, but I will talk about that later…….