Learning Blog

For week 13, I worked on the backend for our Simkl integration. I created routes to make requests from Simkl's public API which should return our user's watchlist movies and ratings from their account. I also created Simkl tasks which are called from within our Simkl routes. The tasks process data included in responses from Simkl, and run SQL queries to request our own user data, compare it to the data coming from Simkl's public API, and update our database accordingly. I added functions to our frontend api.js file which will be called to send requests to our flask backend Simkl routes. The plan for next week is to have the backend part of the integration done, and to create our Simkl frontend React components and helper functions within those files. These functions will connect with the functions in our api.js file mentioned above. No challenges this week. No instructor assistance is needed at this point.

Had to help take care of a family member this week, so haven't had enough time to get started coding on the Simkl integration like I planned. So for now, I'm focusing on continuing to review the current codebase where I'll be making changes. I'll be adding features on an existing project, and many files have hundreds of lines of code already. I think it will be good to take a closer look at how the current backend works to make sure my future changes don't break anything. The plan for next week is tentative depending on how my mom feels. Hopefully I can start coding. No challenges development wise. Still taking care of my mom this week, so that's taking up my time right now. No instructor assistance needed at this time.

This week during our group meeting, we decided to have Nathan work on the AI features (LlamaIndex, RAG, etc.). He has a head start with these technologies since he recently started working on something similar at work (he's a full-time software engineer). Duy and I will be working on integrations with external services, and other requested UI features. I'll be working on the Simkl integration myself. Simkl is a service that helps users track what they're watching. It's fairly popular, and has an API that can help us synchronize our users data with data their Simkl account. Currently I started reading through Simkl's API and looking at existing integrations to see what I'll need to create to add this feature. I started writing some of the model fields we will need (to keep track of what movies are Simkl imports). The plan for next week is to start coding on the rest. No challenges coding wise, but my mom had surgery this week. She had mobility issues before so sh...

In week 10 I created the file for the data connector last week and this week I've been trying to test it on our database. I was able to connect to the database because I see our project's SQL tables and columns when I query them with the data connector. I'll have to check with Nathan to see if it's not a permissions issue. Also it could be that I'm querying the wrong way even though there's a connection there. The plan next week is too see if I can figure this out by looking through the docs again. I'll check with Nathan for some possible solutions since he's familiar with the database (this is his existing project). Besides this, and maybe assignments from another course, no major challenges. No instructor assistance needed at this time.