First post of 2023 - fleshing out a bit of my mind
It has been quite a while since I last decided to update something on my very own place… Well, these have been challenging months (years?) for me, just as for many others everywhere. The constant battle against our worst nemesis, the Intrusive Man, the Imposter…. Our very own self!, is a tiring one… But fighters gonna fight, that’s what we love to do in the end, some days we win, some days we lose, but we can’t ever stop fighting. That’s what I like to believe, that I am a fighter as well, both figurative and a bit literally (* cofs Muay Thai*).
But enough of these thoughts that are more spent from sharing online than my shoes… Let’s turn to some more interesting stuff!
First, I have been keeping myself busy with a Web Programming course, and finally I understand a little better of how stuff that I have done before (even in this ‘webpage’ of mine) works. Those were some fun and boring 6 months, like in many things with lessons, but overall, I am glad I did it. Learned new languages, exercised my mind a bit and tried something I never did much before, being a bit creative (nothing too crazy though!). Which is what I want to showcase today.
Showcase time - or a small disappointment for any high expectations
Since the course was about Web Programming/Development/whatever, of course the creation of sites was a part of it. And towards the end there were 2 of my creations that I really enjoyed doing. One I ended up registering in a domain (1 year free…free real estate) and will do a little bit of improvements whenever (some of my friends were kind enough to have a look and leave me some feedback and will be happy to work on that :D).
But first the one that I like a little bit more (the unofficial favourite son). In this one the topic was very clear in my mind, one of my most favourite topics… Muay Thai of course!
So, this one is built mostly with PHP with a bit of CSS and javascript for style and dynamics…. surprise surprise, the class was all about PHP! There is also a MySQL database… very amateur one, but still counts!
It isn’t the most beautiful and most efficient page in the world, but it works nicely, and I managed to put into practice pretty much all that was learned in class: creation of a data base, creation of a data model class for easily manage the data according to CRUD. Lazy generation of HTML with PHP (still believe it is the main reason of existence of this language!!) and of course as mentioned adding some styling to the page. Even got to do a very rustic user register/login implementation.
To note that this isn’t a plubished site and some of the picutres are shamelessly screenshoted from the internet, in case with this publication I am in infringement of any rights I will immediately take measures such as take this publication down if it comes to that. All of it was done in a purely educative context and no gain is pursued with the sharing of the same. Another reason why I will not publish the site and just wish to showcase how it looks like with some content.
With nothing else to add, here is long-ish demo of the functionalities I implemented, running in localhost:
What about the other page?
Well, as for the other, it is simpler looking, but it is also a bit more refreshing. This one does not use a database but interacts with biorxiv API. The goal was again to practice what was learned in the classes and in this case mix with another one of my most beloved topics: Science.
This page interacts with biorxiv’s API to retrieve some of the latest submitted prints. Additionally, also added the possibility to either search for specific DOI or by date range. If anyone is feeling indecisive or frisky, there is a fun random search as well!
For the next year, at least, you can find it here (I am also always happy to get more feedback! :D): Prints Please
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