This is suppose to be a post about the technologies we are using: What we like, what has been tough, what we’d do differently. Because we came into a project that was already started, we didnt get much choice in most of the technologies being used, so I want to take an approach that comes from this different approach.

This is the first time I have been involved with a project that required deployment. It is also the first time I have had to use Flask. Also the first time using postgreSQL, psycopg2 and auth0. Not to mention that javascript is not my strong suit. So jumping into a project that uses all this, is over 1000 files total and had very little communication with the previous development team made for an interesting learning curve.

Understand how all the parts are moving together has been… stressful. Dealing with errors popping up left and right and barely understanding where to begin, let alone knowing where the things you are looking for are is a battle. For example, understanding why some local builds work but other builds give errors like:

Every good search gives a handful of different reasons why, but no solutions that work for your specific issue. Learning has been slow and painful, but at least I can say I am coming out the other side with some new knowledge.

Probably my favorite new tidbit I have learned is getting my hands dirty with cursors in psycopg2. How that interacts with databased, how commits work, when to use rollbacks, etc. It has been probably the most positive growth I have gotten from this project and expect it to play a bigger roll as we get into building the data entry part of the project.