React/Redux Portfolio Project — Flatiron School Retrospect

I am currently an online student of Flatiron School for Software Engineering in the “self-paced” program. As of today, I just completed the React/Redux portion (also the final portion) of the curriculum. During this portion, I learned how to utilize Redux middleware to respond to and modify state changes as well as how to build more reactive and seamless websites. This combined with my knowledge of Rails made this project very fun and challenging. My project is called MyFitnessApp which allows a user to generate a random workout (similar to my last project). The app requires a user to create an account and be logged in order to access the features. Once logged in, the user can navigate to the workout tab and input a split and number of exercises they wish to complete. The app then creates a todo list of a randomized workout based on the user’s inputs. The list of exercises also have links to videos of rundowns of the corresponding exercises. There is also another tab that allows the user to see all the exercises within the database.

Throughout this project, I found answers to so many questions that I didn’t have going into it. I am extremely happy with my progress and have much more curiosity that I am ready to explore when it comes to React.

One of the major things that stumped me throughout this process was authentication. I knew how to run authentication in the backend, but communicating that between 2 different servers was foreign to me. After a lot of research and referencing other articles, I was able to bring it all together. My knowledge of Redux grew dramatically once I did too. I was trying to call states in too many locations where it didn’t really make much sense. Using Redux is huge for my project. Since everything is so simple, I can essential run a single state of splits throughout my code to be used in multiple locations.

Communicating information between files proved to be more difficult than I remembered too. After becoming more acquainted with Redux, I was able to put the pieces together that it was mostly organization that keeps the app running smooth, which is right up my wheel house.

All in all, I am very happy with what I have done with this project and I am super excited to continue my learning. There are so many things I want add and learn. I have been losing track of time because I am having so much fun.