Explanation

Bloc Jams was my very first project in Bloc’s Web Developer program. It is a digital music player that has the capability to catalog music, and then play that music. It incorporates a player bar that allows users to play, pause, seek, and control volume. Bloc Jams structure started with basic HTML and CSS. Javascript was implemented after the initial template setup and DOM scripting was utilized to write some of the more complicated portions of the code. After the DOM scripting and initial function were set up, jQuery was introduced to streamline the project.

Problem

“Conjunction junction what’s your function?” The problem is that after this project, that song was stuck in my head. Functions can be complicated - or “Funtion”s as I once referred to them and spent 2 hours counting curly brackets only to find out that the error code was referring to my spelling and not my ability/inability to write code. Learning how to write and properly execute functions can be overwhelming at times. I felt like I was learning a foreign language and struggled with getting English to equate to code.

Solution

Practice, patience, and time. Learning to write code IS like learning a foreign language. I found that writing down the solution in plain English, taking those thoughts and writing pseudo code, and then writing actual code was a more effective method for me that just trying to start off writing the code from scratch.

Results

I was able to create a working music player with functioning play, pause, seek, and volume buttons. I was able to incorporate design elements such as fonts and images, as well as produce a well structured, easy to use web application.

Conclusion

As creating Bloc Jams was my first exposure to creating a web application, I was overwhelmed and frustrated most of the time. However, I learned more in a few weeks than I thought possible. I now have a finished project that I am very proud of and am excited about the possibilities this new learning will bring.