Project 3 Multi User Blog

I know this long due as I've already completed this project as well as the fore-mentioned Tournament project but I figure I'd post my thoughts I wrote down of working on it at the time. Enjoy
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             I'm at the half way point of the Udacity Full Stack Nanodegree. I am currently working on the tournament project. I expect to finish the nanodegree close to the end of this month.

                 I will go over my overall impressions of the nanodegree as well as my progression. So far I've faced a lot of difficulties within the previous project, the Multi-User blog. This project consumed most time thus far. This was probably due to my introduction to back-end programming. I had little to no experience to working with back-end programming with the exception of the small copious amount dealing with CouchDB (All back-end programming done with couch was done locally and I focused more on the front end aspect so this will be the first time dealing with live online persistent data). When taking on this project, I definitely felt the difficulty curve with learning and understanding the complexities of Google App Engine and its version of SQL language called GQL (Google Query Language). While learning, I relied heavily on forums of Udacity Full Stack and Google App Engine documentation (I suggest you do the same to understand GQL).  This was a big step for me jumping into back-end development from front-end developement. With back-end programming, I was not able to see the action/code executing in front of eyes like front-end programming. What took up the majority of my time during this project was the troubleshooting. When working the back-end, the errors are not so obvious and can even sometimes point to a piece of code not even in the python file I created. Through some googling and reading the Google App engine documentation, I solved some errors which I believe really cemented my understanding of the way code works in Google App Engine.

                 After completing this project, I definitely feel accomplished. The learning curve was steep but I was able to climb it and understand the material. This project truly humbled me and really brought me back to how it was learning a programming language for the first time and the frustration that comes with it. But now, I can confidently say that I understand GQL language and back-end programming.


Here are some snapshots of the Multi-User Blog app in action:

You can actually view the live version of this site at the following link below:
http://multi-userblog.appspot.com/blog