March 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
Since starting Better Simple, I have integrated a few web applications with Google Calendar. They all required the system to import events from Google Calendar into the web application and then export the appointments from the web application into the users’ Google Calendars. The benefit of this was that it allowed the users to manage their calendars via their phone. It also potentially allowed the web applications to integrate with other web applications by using Google Calendar as the medium …
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
As I mentioned in another post, I use Craigslist for finding some of my work. This post explains what I’ve done to make my project searches more efficient. I look at three sections on an individual cities Craigslist page, “software / qa / dba”, “web / info design” under jobs and “computer” under gigs. I chose these because they are where I have found most of my projects. I used to check “internet engineers,” but found that my target market didn’t post under that section often. And if there wer…
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
Like a classic developer’s blog, I’m back after a multi-year hiatus. Hopefully this time I’ll keep this up to date more frequently. Somethings that I’d like to discuss in the future are: My history as a freelancer. How to breakdown work. What I call “Unsung Developer Thoughts”, the internal questions and considerations senior developers run through for new work. My experience at DjangoConUS 2022. Breaking down my Django Debugging Tutorial into particular posts. If you’d like to he…
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
There are resources for how to have a positive experience at a DjangoCon as a first time attendee. The difference with this one is that I’m writing it as a part of my first DjangoCon experience. Before I get into, here’s my current background. I mention it because it influences my decision making, risk analysis and goals. I’m 32, male, white, married, happily employed, well paid, childless, an irregular open source committer and responsive on the Django forum and discord. You, the reader, m…
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
First things first. Here’s the code. Enjoy! from django.contrib import admin from django.core.paginator import Paginator, Page from django.db.models import Count, Exists, OuterRef from myapp.models import MyModel, OtherModel class AnnotatedPaginator(Paginator): """ Apply a dictionary of annotations to the page for the paginator. """ def __init__(self, *args, annotations=None, **kwargs): self.annotations = annotations super().__init__(*args, **kwargs) …
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
This post will go over my tutorial from DjangoCon US 2022. You can read more about my experience at DjangoCon here. For those of you who prefer to get straight to the fun stuff, browse to the GitHub repo: github.com/tim-schilling/debug-tutorial/. If you’d like to test your mettle, I encourage you to clone the repo and work through it. The documentation includes questions and walk-throughs on how I would solve it. Most of the solutions are implemented in the main branch except for those that …
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
First of all, big thank you to Dawn for suggesting people to write a year in review post. If you aren’t already following her, you should. Since I didn’t have goals set for 2022, it’s hard to qualify the year as anything other than itself. Looking back at it, I feel content and proud for the most part. To make things easier, here’s a table of contents for navigating this post. Personal 5 year anniversary Beef and Roland Curt’s sickness and death Volleyball sea…
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
If you’re looking for questions to ask a software company, then here are a few to get you started. Keep in mind, these are not meant as “gotcha” questions. The point of them is to understand the company you would be joining, so you can make the best decision possible. What does the team do to delivery quality software? Press for information on the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Ask what your role would be in each of these phases. The goal here is to know how the team writes software,…
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
First, I want to say I love djangopackages.com. I direct people to it all the time! It provides breakdowns on a variety of Django related packages. I struggle to keep up with all the new libraries folks are building or have built, but the site helps me discover them. Similarly, our community has a lot of published knowledge on the web. If we consider DjangoCon talks alone, there’s hundreds of videos out there. I would benefit immensely from having a categorized collection of those videos. Mix …
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 » Better Simple » [Archived Version]
This high-level post will go over how I design Django projects. The goal is to consider every action the application will need and determine what is needed to implement those actions. We’ll encounter some hand-waving around the details, but that’s fine. We can’t know everything. And if we did, why are we bothering with this? The benefit of this exercise is to realize a more complete understanding of the project and to create an outline of what needs to be implemented. An outline makes it much…
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