I am a strong believer in not being afraid to fail. Failure is how we learn and improve. If you are not facing failure, then perhaps you are not pushing yourself hard enough. It is difficult to grow as an individual and certainly as a software developer if you are not pushing your personal limits. Pushing the limits of what you are comfortable with will inevitably mean failure at one point or another. It is important to know that failure is perfectly acceptable, and learning from your failures helps you to grow.

I was relieved to learn that the ideas presented in Hoover and Oshineye’s Apprenticeship Patterns aligned so well with my personal thinking. The Breakable Toys pattern specifically mentions not being afraid to fail, and gives advice on creating a safe environment to try things. Because it would be dangerous and risky to do your experimenting at work, Hoover and Oshineye recommend creating a safe space. What you create in your safe space should be relevant to your work as an apprentice, and similar in toolset but smaller in scope.

While I have made quite a few of my own programs just messing around to gain familiarity with a particular subject or idea, the specific nature of these programs makes them lose relevance quickly. They are abandoned shortly after they serve their purpose of familiarizing me with an idea. I like the solution presented by Hoover and Oshineye to create software such as a wiki, game, blog, or IRC client. These types of software will not lose their relevancy, as they can be continuously used and further developed. New features can be added that not only serve practical uses, but allow for new opportunities for learning and practice.

Creating software for personal use is far less risky than playing around on company time. If you do it right, you may even get something useful in addition to the knowledge you gain from your failures. I am looking forward to attempting to develop one of the suggested tools suggested in the Breakable Toys pattern. While I do not think I will be writing any software that lives up to Torvald’s breakable toy, I can certainly appreciate the value in trying, and also in failing.

From the blog CS@Worcester – ~/GeorgeMatthew/etc by gmatthew and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

As part of my continued efforts to not lose all of my hard work, I’m implementing tools to help me track changes and have decided to use version control to do it. I’ve chosen to use Git because of my relative familiarity with the tool.

For a bit of background, my web server is running Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS and the latest version of WordPress at the time of this writing, version 4.9.4. Because GitLab allows for free private repositories and the nature of the project makes a public repository undesirable, it was chosen over GitHub. One thing to note about this setup is that I have full shell access to the server, allowing me to install programs and edit properties as necessary to get things setup. When the website is eventually migrated to its permanent hosting location, some changes may be necessary to the following setup to accommodate the server implementation. Many shared hosting providers do not allow shell access, and a new strategy would need to be considered in this case.

I started the setup by performing a bit of housekeeping with

sudo apt-get update

and then performed the initial Git installation with

sudo apt-get install git

I then performed the usual Git setup, uploading my SSH user’s key to GitLab and setting my username/email with

git config –global user.name “Your Name”

git config –global user.email “youremail@domain.com“

After cd’ing to the directory of the website files, I issued the command

git remote add origin git@gitlab.com:MassHOSA/masshosa-website.git

An important step here is to make sure that no sensitive files are tracked by Git. I did this by adding a .gitignore with the following:

#————————

#  Main ignored items

#————————

/../wp-config.php

/wp-config.php

.maintenance

versionpress.maintenance

/.htaccess

/web.config

/wp-content/*

!/wp-content/db.php

!/wp-content/index.php

!/wp-content/plugins/

/wp-content/plugins/versionpress/

!/wp-content/mu-plugins/

!/wp-content/themes/

!/wp-content/languages/

!/wp-content/uploads/

!/wp-content/vpdb/

#————————

#  Log files

#————————

*.log

error_log

access_log

#————————

#  OS Files

#————————

.DS_Store

.DS_Store?

._*

.Spotlight-V100

.Trashes

ehthumbs.db

*[Tt]humbs.db

*.Trashes

at this point it was safe to issue a

git add .

and commit with

git commit -m “Initial commit”

and finally push changes with

git push –set-upstream origin master

And that’s all there was to it. I’m now tracking all of the changes that I’m making to theme and plugin files. These are the only files that I really care about reverting and recovering changes that I’ve made. Everything else is backed up regularly using Updraft.

From the blog CS@Worcester – ~/GeorgeMatthew/etc by gmatthew and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

As part of my continued efforts to not lose all of my hard work, I’m implementing tools to help me track changes and have decided to use version control to do it. I’ve chosen to use Git because of my relative familiarity with the tool.

For a bit of background, my web server is running Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS and the latest version of WordPress at the time of this writing, version 4.9.4. Because GitLab allows for free private repositories and the nature of the project makes a public repository undesirable, it was chosen over GitHub. One thing to note about this setup is that I have full shell access to the server, allowing me to install programs and edit properties as necessary to get things setup. When the website is eventually migrated to its permanent hosting location, some changes may be necessary to the following setup to accommodate the server implementation. Many shared hosting providers do not allow shell access, and a new strategy would need to be considered in this case.

I started the setup by performing a bit of housekeeping with

sudo apt-get update

and then performed the initial Git installation with

sudo apt-get install git

I then performed the usual Git setup, uploading my SSH user’s key to GitLab and setting my username/email with

git config –global user.name “Your Name”

git config –global user.email “youremail@domain.com“

After cd’ing to the directory of the website files, I issued the command

git remote add origin git@gitlab.com:MassHOSA/masshosa-website.git

An important step here is to make sure that no sensitive files are tracked by Git. I did this by adding a .gitignore with the following:

#————————

#  Main ignored items

#————————

/../wp-config.php

/wp-config.php

.maintenance

versionpress.maintenance

/.htaccess

/web.config

/wp-content/*

!/wp-content/db.php

!/wp-content/index.php

!/wp-content/plugins/

/wp-content/plugins/versionpress/

!/wp-content/mu-plugins/

!/wp-content/themes/

!/wp-content/languages/

!/wp-content/uploads/

!/wp-content/vpdb/

#————————

#  Log files

#————————

*.log

error_log

access_log

#————————

#  OS Files

#————————

.DS_Store

.DS_Store?

._*

.Spotlight-V100

.Trashes

ehthumbs.db

*[Tt]humbs.db

*.Trashes

at this point it was safe to issue a

git add .

and commit with

git commit -m “Initial commit”

and finally push changes with

git push –set-upstream origin master

And that’s all there was to it. I’m now tracking all of the changes that I’m making to theme and plugin files. These are the only files that I really care about reverting and recovering changes that I’ve made. Everything else is backed up regularly using Updraft.

From the blog CS@Worcester – ~/GeorgeMatthew/etc by gmatthew and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

In light of what happened last week, I decided to make coming up with a strategy for backup a priority on the Massachusetts HOSA website. After all of the work that I put into the design the first and second time around, I do not want to risk losing it again. In many regards, I am thankful that losing the data happened when it did. It has allowed me to improve my habits and develop in a more efficient and sustainable way.

The first thing that I made sure to do once I had restored the design of the website was to make an initial back up of the files and database. Although there are more efficient ways (I’ll explore some of these later), I chose what was easiest at the time and copied the files from the web server to my local hard drive through an FTP client. Through an SSH session, I dumped the contents of the database to a .sql file and transferred this file to my local computer, again through FTP. I am now far less paranoid making changes, because I know that I have this backup to fallback on should I mess anything up beyond repair. This backup contains the entire base site, with all design completed per original specifications.

After meeting to discuss the next steps, I will undoubtedly be making more changes to the site. Rather than having to initiate these backups manually each time using the process I described above, I would like to have some way of automatically backing up changes on some sort of a regular schedule. After researching plugins that could accomplish this, I found UpdraftPlus. I wanted to use a plugin rather than something server-side because we will be migrating the WordPress installation to a different server following development. By using a plugin rather than some sort of cron job or script on the server I would eliminate the need to completely reconfigure the backup service after the migration.

After initial setup, I ran a forced backup using the UpdraftPlus plugin. Despite a few files that the tool was unable to backup due to incorrect file permissions, the backup ran smoothly and stored all of the pertinent website data, including a database backup, on my Google Drive account. The only thing that has to be done at this point is to transfer the backup location to someone who will be able to access them if needed following development. I’m very happy to have found a solution to the problem of backing up, and looking forward to not worrying about breaking the website.

From the blog CS@Worcester – ~/GeorgeMatthew/etc by gmatthew and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I’m typically not much of a long-term planner. While I have defined some goals and aspirations, they sometimes seem more like rambling dreams than achievable objectives. Although I may know what I want, defining actionable items for getting there is a different and far more challenging accomplishment. I like to make the most of every day, doing the best that I can and hoping that hard work and positivity will take me somewhere amazing, wherever that may be.

Much like the story told by Desi in the Draw Your Own Map pattern in Hoover and Oshineye’s Apprenticeship Patterns, I have begun my Information Technology career in a sort of hybrid role in Systems/Application Administration. The differences between my experiences so far, thankfully, have been far different from those described by Desi. Rather than facing pressure to concentrate only on furthering the interests of others, I am encouraged to create a valuable experience for myself.

While I am well aware that it is not the responsibility of anyone else, employer, professor, or colleague, to give me a hand out, I am extremely grateful for all of the support that I have received in that regard. I feel as though I have a good sense of my career position  and potential options for the future because of the support that I’ve received and the experiences that I’ve had.

Although I see absolutely no need to consider other paths at this time, the Draw Your Own Map and the stories shared by Desi and Chris were somewhat reassuring. It is comforting to know that even if there comes a time when it may feel like it, you are never really stuck. I feel extremely grateful to currently be in a position where my goals and desires for professional advancement are not only heard and considered, but seem to be top priorities. I am in a supportive, flexible environment, where I’m encouraged to set and work to achieve goals for personal and professional growth, development, and learning. Right now, the possibilities and prospects seem to be wide open. The next step for me is to use this opportunity to discover the values that are important to me.

From the blog CS@Worcester – ~/GeorgeMatthew/etc by gmatthew and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

After last week’s post I made a simple click that I’ve made probably hundreds of times before when I updated WordPress on the MassHOSA website. The difference this time, however, was that I wasn’t only updating the WordPress core but also the theme that was currently being used on the website. Depending on the update, you can sometimes get away with updating themes without losing customizations. If, however, the update includes changes to say styles.css, for example, your customizations will be obliterated.

I have nobody to blame but myself for this mistake. I was fully aware that updating a theme could wipe out customizations, and WordPress even has a handy warning on the theme update screen:

But, I was not thinking and clicked update – and lost all of the customizations that I had made to the theme, permanently. Here lies another issue: backups. I should have been making regular backups of both the WordPress filesystem and SQL databases, since at this point I have put a significant amount of effort into both the design (stored mainly on the filesystem in CSS and PHP files) and the content (stored mainly in the SQL database).

While this incident was certainly frustrating, it’s not that tragic. I was able to restore the customizations (this time in a child theme) in a matter of a few hours, and am happier with the outcome this time than I was after my original modifications. Using a child theme forced me to do things a bit differently than the first time around, but at this point I already had a pretty good idea of the changes that needed to be made. I am happy to be doing things the right way now, as my original design would not have been sustainable. Making changes directly to the themes CSS files means that you cannot apply updates as they become available. While this would be fine if updates only ever contained feature additions or style modifications that you were not interested in, this is not advisable when some updates contain security patches. Given the choice between leaving my website vulnerable to attack and losing customizations, I would rather put in a couple of hours of doing customizations the right way than face the repercussions of a breach.

From the blog CS@Worcester – ~/GeorgeMatthew/etc by gmatthew and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

While money is certainly important, and should be a consideration – it should never be the primary motivator for choosing a particular career or even for choosing particular projects or roles in a position. Making decisions based on financial considerations alone is a quick way to end up hating what you do and having little opportunity to improve your situation. Making the correct choices about what you use at motivating factors to drive decision-making can help make software craftsmanship a more rewarding and valuable career. Following some of the advice given by Hoover and Oshineye in Apprenticeship Patterns should allow a new or aspiring software craftsman to identify the motivating factors that drive success in the position and lead to a satisfying career.

It is easy to stay motivated when things are going your way and you are working on projects that you find engaging, fun, and adequately challenging without being overly difficult. The problem that the Sustainable Motivations pattern is hoping to address, rather, is when things get a bit more difficult. Sometimes it becomes difficult to see the passion in software craftsmanship. For example, sometimes in the course of developing the necessary technical skills to become a master craftsman, the aspiring develop will be faced with hurdles such as ambiguously specified projects, or shifting and conflicting demands of customers. It’s times like these, argue Hoover and Oshineye, where the motivation and determination of the aspiring craftsman are truly tested.

While I feel lucky to be actively interested and continuously challenged by my current work, I am sure that my luck will run out at some time in the future. I will be presented with a project that I find tedious, frustrating, and maybe even exhausting. I am confident in my ability to remain focused and motivated on working towards the end goal of becoming a craftsman, however. I feel that as Hoover and Oshineye mention, if I ever begin to have doubts they will easily be overcome by a need to continue earning money or the desire to maintain a reputation as a technologist. These motivators should keep me in the craft until my situation improves and passion returns as my primary motivating factor.

From the blog CS@Worcester – ~/GeorgeMatthew/etc by gmatthew and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week marks the beginning of adding real content to the skeleton site that I have been developing for Massachusetts HOSA. The content was provided to me in the form of a word document, with titles to differentiate between pages and sections. The first thing I did upon receiving this document was break the document down into individual user stories. I then created a Trello card for each story and placed the cards on the product backlog list. During this process, I was reading and building an understanding of the product owner’s vision for the website, as well as attempting to come up with potential acceptance criteria. I was also informally coming up with estimates for the amount of time and work that each story would take, but decided not to include these as part of the stories as it would offer minimal return on investment with me as the only developer. I looked at this process as a sort of modified Scrum Story Time meeting.

The next step was Sprint Planning, in which I plucked some of the story items that I saw as most important and placed them on the Sprint Backlog list. During my modified Story Time, I had already, for the most part, broken these stories down into small enough pieces to be worked on as tasks. This was the simplest way to handle breaking down the requirements, and is allowable because I’m the only one that is working on these tasks.

Once I felt that I had taken enough stories from the backlog to keep me busy for a week, I began work. This involved adding content in the form of text and images to existing blank pages on the skeleton website, as well as creating new pages as needed. Some of the story items involved formatting things like the footer and sidebar to achieve the desired effect. Throughout development, various questions arose.

Each time that I encountered something that I needed clarification on, I added a comment to the Trello card. For this reason (and many others), I really like using Trello cards to represent user stories and tasks. Using Trello also allowed me to attach images, checklists, tags, and mentions directed at specific users. I like the idea of keeping all of the relevant information about a specific user story in a single place rather than scattering it across email, in-person meetings, and Trello. I’ve been attempting to document any information passed through other communication channels into Trello so as to have a complete log of interactions.

I’m looking forward to getting into some more specific development on the site. Next week’s post will include a review and retrospective for this sprint.

From the blog CS@Worcester – ~/GeorgeMatthew/etc by gmatthew and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.