I have always been dabbling in web development and I know the basic languages required to make a successful website. I would be fine with the easy ones such as HTML, CSS and Javascript. I also have been learning python (Udemy class 100 Days of Python which is the best €14 I have ever spent by the way), C and database structures like PostgreSQL, mySQL and SQLite. I could always create websites easily enough but never did one from start to finish. Making a website with clickable navigation buttons is one thing but creating a website with an login, register and account features is a whole different ball game. With the dawn of ChatGPT critical data analysis in ChatGPT4 , I began the task of making a website from scratch from a project I am interested in which is sport, I work at this most nights and it has taken up a great deal of time but I am learning loads such version control, requirements.txt, linking everything together, using JSON. Using an IDE platform like VS code is a course in itself. ChatGPT helps a little bit but you cannot rely on it as it is hard to prompt it to do exactly what you want. Frontend I am finding is a breeze because I am used to it. The backend is a whole different ballgame and a steep learning curve for me.
I use mostly python in my backend and I went with Flask to tie everything together but this created its first stumbling block for me as Flask is open sourced and different Flask app versions do not work well together. So when I updated one Flask element, it was creating a conflict with another. I spent a good month trying to get the register and login features to work for me , so much so that I became a bit of an expert on where I was fucking up every time. On top of that I had a branch assigned for a chatroom in another section and this was messing the whole site up and making it inaccessible. I was using socket.io for this and I was not able to even access the website on my dev sever for a month. I went on Fiver and got a nice chap to have a look at it for me and he recommended binning Flask altogether and using Django and he sent up a structure for me to work by. I have to say , it was a few pound well spent as I was wasting too much time on Flask version control problems. Django was more out of the box and found it much easier to navigate.
So from this stand point I am back up and running again and creating my logic for the next stage of the project. It is a sort of betting website with a difference but that is all I can reveal right now. I have no real deadline for the site to be up and running but March was my hope as Cheltenham takes place in March which is a major sporting event on the sporting calendar. Down the line on the roadmap there is a chance I can hook up Hive to it as a blogging section of the site but I want to keep away from the "crypto" side as everyone thinks crypto is one big pyramid scheme and maybe they are right.
My point is I do not know how the likes of Splinterlands and Leofinance have such good platforms. I would say it takes a good few devs to be building the sites for them. The work that goes into it and I am still at the start of my journey. I am thinking to outsource the hard bits after I have a go at them but there is so much to learn especially on the back end when you have databases to consider. Logic is also a thing here and how do you take an item and insert it into another part of the website. I am currently dealing with API's at the minute and learning how to web scrape which is fun. API's especially sports API'S are big business right now and using a site to take data could be highly illegal so you have to thread carefully.
Overall it has been a really good experience learning about the different kinds of problems and issues you come up with. The likes of CORS ,CSRF , CSS sass , Hashing passwords , session control systems, Redis , Apache, Git , Segmentation errors. You name it , I had an error but the thing is that all these things are solvable and the feeling you get when the bloody thing runs is amazing. I think I am hooked. Expect to see my subscription based betting platform up and running in 2025!!! With everything I have done so far I am still at the start. The website is looking fine but now I have to get it functional.
So if there are any Hive Devs that do a bit of backend on the side to review my code and help me out then I would be keen to chat to them and pay for their services. My expertise are still limited so I will need that professional dev to polish up the code a bit and work their magic. Until then I will plug away at it. One thing about me is that I am a stubborn little Irish man that will not give up until I found that bug which is why I think I like this sort of project. When the site is up and running I will launch it using the Hive platform and tiktok and see how it goes. I always wanted to do something like this so away we go.
