Welcome to the Python Thursday Project!

python-thursday-blog

A blog built with Python and Django by the Python Thursday crew

This is the project for the CodeNewbie Python Thursday group. You can join the group on Slack. To get started, read the following, and if you get stuck, reach out to Phillip (github: @phillipgray, slack: @phillipg) the host.

About this project

We are building a blogging webapp to help us develop our Python and Django skills. We meet weekly on Slack in the "python-thursday" channel on Thursday at 9PM EST, so mark your calendars and stop by! There, we'll review the project, look at code together, and share what we learned.

In particular, we hope to:

• collaborate and learn together
• turn feature requirements into actual product features!
• get code reviewed by community members
• get experience working on a real app in a collaborative, real-world setting

Getting Started

Tech requirements

• Python 3.4+
• Django 1.8.x

Using virtualenv will make installing the dependencies easier. And it's highly recommended to start using this tool for your projects. See this link under the heading virtualenv for a quick explanation.

You'll need to have installed Python 3 to begin. The TL;DR instructions: head to python.org, download and install the latest 3.x.x version for your operating system. For more detailed instructions, links are provided below.

• Mac: here or here

• Linux: here or here

• Windows: here or here

Note: For Windows users, there is the extra step of setting your PATH variable. You can either do it from the GUI interface of the Windows installer from Python.org (recommended!), or using the command line (instructions).

You'll also need a Github account and some knowledge of git. If you're not comfortable using git, that's perfectly fine! Start by looking at the following resources:

• Github For Beginners: Don't Get Scared, Get Started An incredibly newbie-friendly introduction to the world of git and Github. Written by a non-developer, it's a great introduction to many of the common terms and concepts.

• Github For Beginners: Commit, Push and Go Part two of the above article, this post takes you through setting up a git repo and performing common commands in your repo. Open up your terminal and follow along to get the most out of this post.

• Try Git This course from Code School lets you try git from the browser. It's an easy way to practice the commands you'll use for the Python Thursday project.

• Feature Branch Workflow We'll be using the Feature Branch Workflow for these projects. This is a great blog post filled with awesome diagrams that show you how it works. Once you've familiarized yourself with git and Github, read through this to see how we'll use it in this collaborative setting.

• Have more git questions? If you've gone through the material above and want to walk through git concepts with a real person, send us a note hello@codenewbie.org and we'd be happy to setup some time to do it together.

Next, install virtualenv if you would like to use it for the project. Link

Finally, to install django and the other dependencies that we'll need to build our app you can use the following:

Note: If you're planning to use virtualenv, be sure to activate the environment for the project before running the setup.

pip install -r /path/to/requirements.txt

Skill requirements

You're welcome to start contributing at any level, but it's helpful to have some knowledge of Python. To get you started, go through one of the following tutorials first.

• Python 3 Cheat Sheet If you're coming from another programming language, or you're pretty solid with Python 2, this single page has syntax examples to get you up and running fast in Python 3.

• Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python 3

• How To Think Like A Computer Scientist (Python 3)

• Dive Into Python 3

• Test Driven Development with Python... Also referred to as "The Goat Book"

Once you're done, come back and get your code on!

There's a big gap between the knowledge you gain when you go through the tutorials, and the skills you need to be job ready. We hope to help fill that gap by working on collaborative projects like this. So if you're tired of doing tutorials and you're looking for some real-world experience, this is for you.

How to contribute

We use pull requests so you can get your code reviewed by others before merging it into the project. Code reviews are a great way to learn and collaborate. Here's how the process works:

1. Join our Slack community and tell your host @phillipg you want to join the project repo
2. The host will invite you to join as a collaborator. You MUST be a collaborator to join the project and pick up features.
3. Accept invite from Github to join as a collaborator.
   • Look through the issues list and pick a feature you want to work on.
   • Assign that feature to yourself.
   • Clone this repo.
   • Make a feature branch for the issue you're working on. The first part of the branch name should be your initials, like this: sy-allows-users-to-update-avatar
   • Push your branch to origin.
   • When your feature is done and ready to be reviewed, make pull request.
   • Copy and paste your pull request link to the #python-thursday Slack channel for review.
   • Once you get some feedback on your pull request and a final thumbs up from a community member, merge to master & close the branch.

Come to Python Thursday!

Join us at 9PM EST on Thursday to review code and talk about the project. Come with questions, code to show, and be ready to share what you're learning!

Community rules & guidelines

The purpose of this project is to learn by working on a real-world application. Use the code reviews as a place to ask questions, offer suggestions, and share your thoughts. When giving feedback, particularly on code reviews, please remember our community rules: be nice, be honest, be supportive. We're all learning, so let's make sure to be kind to one another.

For more details, see our full Code of Conduct. We're excited to learn with you :)