E5 Reflecting on Assignment 2 Technical Essay

30 Dec 2022

E5 Reflecting on Assignment 2 Technical Essay

The purpose of assignment 2 is to expand upon the features and specifications of assignment 1. Before accessing the invoice page, you had to log in/register. I was also given the task of encrypting passwords. Upon registering, the user’s password will be encrypted before the registration data is saved. Passwords entered by users are to be encrypted and compared with encrypted saved passwords when logged in. Furthermore, a password had to contain a certain number of characters or use only lowercase characters on the login and registration pages. Please refer to the following link for more information click here

2. What did you learn from this assignment?

During this assignment, I found the login/registration part very informative. Logging in, navigating through a few criteria to ensure the data is correct, and then registering the account was a very interesting process. It was fascinating to see the code behind login and registration pages for websites and online stores. I also learned the importance of getting help and starting early. My hectic schedule prevented me from getting help early on, but if I were to take this class again, I would ask for help from the beginning. It was extremely helpful to have peers look over my program because they are able to point out mistakes more effectively than I could. Additionally, I learned to take my time and if I was struggling, I would take a brief timeout instead of becoming discouraged to regroup my thinking.

3. Did you work with a partner? Assign an estimated percentage on the amount each team member contributed to the assignment (including yourself).

My peers and Professor Port helped me a lot, despite doing the assignment alone. Apart from this, I also gained a lot of insight from previous assignments, labs, and WODs that was very helpful in Assignment 2

4. How did you get help when you needed it? What did you need help with?

In cases where my code failed to I accomplish what I intended it to do, my peers assisted me by providing feedback or verifying it. It was also very helpful to have access to previous class recordings. It helped me track down misplaced/mistyped code by having someone else look at it. The sticky values requirement and getting messages when there is an error were also requirements I needed help with. After I struggled to understand sticky values, one of my classmates suggested a manual. It would behoove future students to schedule a meeting with Professor Port if they have trouble.

5. How was developing this assignment different than assignment #1?

There are many differences between developing Assignment 2 and Assignment 1, but the most significant one is that Assignment 1 was written from scratch. Since Assignment 2 builds on Assignment 1, I had to fix the mistakes I made in Assignment 1. For Assignment 1, used GET instead of POST, so I had to make a lot of adjustments. There was a lot more time and effort put into Assignment 2’s development, including the use of sticky values and more server-side processing.

6. Estimate the % of time you spent (a) thinking about how to do something, (b) writing code (but do not include testing, (c) testing and debugging.

It took about 20% of my time to write code, 30% to debug and test, and 50% to think critically, plan, and research.

7. Describe what worked well with this project? What did not work well?

Although I had to submit Assignment 2 well beyond its due date, I was able to accomplish it by focusing and dedicating ample time to the task. Compared to Assignment 1, this assignment was more rewarding because I better understood how to begin. In addition, I had the experience from Assignment 1 that allowed me to solve most of the problems. However, understanding my individual requirements was an area where l struggled. I had a difficult time visualizing how I should implement the requirements. As it turned out, I had to spend more time and thought on this than I expected.

8. If you could go back in time and do things differently, what would you do differently?

If I could go back in time something I would do differently is get help earlier and to not get so fustrated if something doesn’t work out. If I could go back in time and do things differently, I would have reached out for help sooner. At first, when I had coding errors, I tried to look it up online on how to fix it. And although sometimes I was able to find the answer, there were times I just became more confused. For Assignment 3, I should start even sooner.