Welcome to Phase 2, where we’ll be learning about back end development. Topics we’ll cover include:

• Python and object-oriented programming
• Building web applications with Django
• Working with a relational database

📅 Today’s topics

• Running Python
• Syntax differences between JS and Python
• Python
  • variables
  • if statements
  • while loops
  • Input and output with input and print
  • Functions

✅ TODO today

1. Make sure your dev environment is set up, using our guide.
2. Complete the first part of this Python tutorial, through the ‘Functions’ section.
3. Configure VS Code to use LiveShare. Test it out with a buddy to make sure it is working.

🐍 Code Break

Try working with input and output

🎯 Project

We’ll begin Python the way we began JavaScript, with some exercises and tests you can run to keep you on track. We’re going to use an awesome free online tool called Exercism.

Please sign up using your GitHub account (getting started instructions) and choose the Python track. There are two ways to use Exercism, in Practice Mode or Mentor Mode. Either one is fine for our purposes, but Practice Mode is less setup.

Work through their command line setup walkthrough to install Exercism on your computer.

To run the tests, you will need a testing library called pytest installed. Run:

pip install pytest pytest-cache

In the Python track, complete the following exercises:

1. Hello World
2. Two Fer
3. Raindrops
4. Scrabble Score

Be sure to read the instructions for each exercise carefully. Here is a guide to running the Python tests on Exercism.

For each exercise, follow the instructions on Exercism to upload your solution. You will then need to mark it as complete. At that point you will be given the option to publish it. You must publish your solution in order to submit your homework.

To submit your homework, paste your solution urls into this form.

If you get through all four of these, please continue with other exercises that seem interesting or fun to you. There are lots to choose from!

🔖 Resources

Python

• Beginner Tips for Learning Python
• A Byte of Python -> Use this as a reference, starting at First Steps. DO NOT follow the installation instructions to download Python – you already have Python installed!
• Official Python docs
• The Python Standard Library

📓 Jupyter Notebooks

• RealPython: Using Jupyter Notebooks (video)
• RealPython: Jupyter Notebook: an Introduction
• Setting Up Your Python Development Environment: Jupyter Notebooks section

Asking Questions + Getting Help

• Julia Evans, How To Ask Good Questions
• Our Student Guidelines: Getting Help
• Rukia Sheikh-Mohamed, 5 Steps to Getting Unstuck

🦉 Code & Notes

• Notes
• Intro to Python notebooks (Notebooks 1-5)

This week we will review, reinforce, and test our understanding and assumptions about JavaScript. We’ll do some live coding in class together. We’ll also practice reading errors, debugging, and getting back on track when it feels like you’re not making progress.

In-class Project: Team Programming Exercise

We’re going to live code together in class using a practice called mob programming. This is like pair programming, with more than two people but still only one computer. We create an application as a group, and everyone participates in figuring out how to implement features and writing the code.

Find your team assignment and the link to your team’s repo below.

Team Merlin

👉🏾 All Team Merlin members clone this repo

• Quinten
• Emily
• Roan
• Brian

Team Peregrine Falcon

👉🏾 All Team Peregrine Falcon members clone this repo

• Logan
• Ellie
• Joe
• Wendy

Team American Kestrel

👉🏾 All Team American Kestrel members clone this repo

• Dee
• Sara
• Robert
• Greg
• Shaune

💫 Did you know?

There are 3 species of falcons in North Carolina.

🎯 Week-long Project: iTunes Search App

This project is due on Friday of this week. You’ll work on it incrementally each day this week.

Link to project assignment

🐣 End-of-phase Technical Presentations

Team 8 developers will each talk about some code they have written at the end of this last week of Phase 1.

We’ll talk more about this on Thursday. For today, read the information about how technical presentations work.

Today’s topics

• Using Fetch to create, read, update, and destroy data (CRUD)
• HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT/PATCH, DELETE
• HTTP status codes

🎯 Project: Your first web application: a single page note-taking app

Link to assignment invitation

🔖 Resources

• json-server documentation
• MDN HTTP Overview
• HTTP status codes
• Using the Network Tab in Chrome Dev Tools
• Eloquent JavaScript: HTTP and Forms
• More detailed primer on Fetch

⭐️ EXTRA/TMI

For more information about how the internet works and the mechanics of a request over HTTP, check out this comic by the always brilliant Julia Evans!

• Julia Evans zine on networking
• Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) explained by Julia Evans
• MDN Web Guide: AJAX
• HTTP Basics - This is more detail than you really need right now, but it has some instructive diagrams
• reqres.in API for playing around with different HTTP requests

🦉 Code & Notes

• AJAX notes
• Example code

Today’s topics

• Using JSON for data
• Basics of HTTP requests
• Make GET requests with Insomnia client
• Make GET requests using the Fetch API and display response data on a page

🎯 Project: Currency Converter

Link to assignment invitation

🔖 Resources

HTTP

• MDN: HTTP Messages

APIs

• Illustrated Dev: Meet the Robowaiter APIs Serving Us Data
• Insomnia client
• GitHub API Docs

AJAX, Fetch, & JSON

• AJAX explained by analogy
• MDN AJAX
• MDN Fetch API
• MDN fetch() method
• CSS-Tricks article on using Fetch
• MDN Working with JSON

⭐ EXTRA/TMI

Fetch requests use JavaScript promises to handle responses. Promises are a much bigger topic than we will get into right now, but if you want to know more about what a promise is and how to use it beyond the context of AJAX requests, you can start with the MDN documentation about it.

• MDN JS Promise

Today’s topics

• Introduction to the object data structure in JavaScript
• Storing data in and retrieving data from objects

🎯 Project: Build a customer directory

Link to assignment invitation

🔖 Resources

• MDN JavaScript Object Basics
• Eloquent JavaScript, chapter 4: Objects and Arrays
• blog post on JS objects

⭐ EXTRA/TMI

• Rebecca Murphey on using objects to write more concise code (short video)
• Podcast on learning to code with the founder of Code Newbie, Saron Yitbarek
• Lodash
• Moment.js

🦉 Code, Notes & Videos

• notes on js objects