Tri 2 PPR Blog

Personalized Project Reference (PPR) - BinaryOverflow Blog

Introduction

For my Create Performance Task (CPT), I developed the BinaryOverflow Blog, a community-driven website where users can create and interact with posts. This project involved full-stack development, including frontend, backend, authentication, and API integration.

As part of my PPR submission, I will be highlighting:

  • A List (Data Structure) - Used to store blog posts.
  • A Procedure (Function) that Manipulates the List - Retrieves posts for frontend display.

List - Storing Blog Posts

User Management Screenshot

Backend Pic


class BinaryOverflowContent(db.Model):
    id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
    _title = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
    _author = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey('users.id'), nullable=False)
    _date_posted = db.Column(db.DateTime, nullable=False, default=datetime.now(timezone.utc))
    _content = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)

Explanation

  • This is the database model for blog posts.
  • It stores and organizes posts submitted by users.
  • Key elements:
    • id - Unique identifier for each post.
    • title - The title of the blog post.
    • user_id - Connects each post to the author.
    • content - Stores the actual post text.
    • date_posted - Establishes a relationship between posts and their publish date.

Procedure - Retrieving Posts for Frontend

Code Screenshot

Post Retrieval Procedure Screenshot


class fetch_frontend(Resource):
    def get(self):
        posts = BinaryOverflowContent.query.all()
        json_ready = [post.read() for post in posts]
        return json_ready

Explanation

  • The function fetch_frontend() retrieves all blog posts from the database.
  • It queries the database, retrieves stored posts, and converts them into a JSON format for easy use in the frontend.
  • How It Works:
    1. Calls query.all() to fetch all stored posts.
    2. Uses list comprehension [post.read() for post in posts] to convert the data into a structured format.
    3. Returns the processed posts in JSON format.

How This Improves the Program

  • Abstraction: Instead of manually fetching posts everywhere, this function simplifies data retrieval into one reusable function.
  • Efficiency: Converting posts into JSON ensures fast frontend rendering.
  • Scalability: New posts automatically appear on the frontend without additional logic.

Challenges & Future Improvements

  • Authentication Bugs: Originally, users could post without being logged in. I fixed this by requiring JWT authentication.
  • Post Update: After posting, you need to reload the page to see your post. In the future, I will implement another GEt function built in so there is no need to reload.

Conclusion

Completing the BinaryOverflow Blog helped me develop strong full-stack skills, including database management, API integration, and frontend optimization. This PPR has helped me reflect on how lists and procedures play a crucial role in managing large-scale web applications.

MCQ Recap

After taking the Tri 2 MCQ I would say I have made progress since the previous MCQ done eariler this trimester, but am I not where I want to be by the end of the year.

MCQ score

MCQ Breakdown

Worst topic rates

Identifying and Correcting Errors was my lowest preforming topic.

EX q1

Ex q2

To improve on this topics, I will study how to break down and analyze code blocks and find how why they would/ would not work. Example such as the question above that I had gotten wrong would help as they not only show the correct answer, but also state why the chosen answer was incorrect and what it would change instead.