Explanation

Bloc chat was my second Web Developer project in Bloc’s program. This projects creation and design were done from scratch with minimal assistance from the curriculum guide. The majority of the development was in the HTML structuring, the CSS design, and the implementation of the Firebase database functions.

Problem

Create a list of all available chat rooms.

Allow the user to create a chat room.

Create a user account system that allows the username to display in the chat rooms. This system should be validated and the user shouldn’t be allow to progress to the main site without creating a username.

Send and list messages associated with each chat room using the username and the time the message was posted.

Solution

I began this project by sketching out the framework to give myself a visual blueprint for the project. With that blueprint as a guide, I began designing the chatroom with HTML and CSS along with inputting chat room information into the Firebase database. Implementing AngularFire and the UI-Bootstrap service, modals and controllers were created to inject the proper dependencies. A Cookies module was created and by using Angular, code was written to prompt the user to create a username.

Results

The initial structure and formation was the key to being successful in this implementation. Each step built on the previous step and ultimately created a fully function chat application.

Conclusion

This second project seemed easier to me than my first project in terms of my understanding the process and implementing the solutions. I felt that because I was starting this project from scratch, it was easier than trying to add on to an existing framework.