This project focuses on learning how to use Node.js along with express, CORS, and body-parser to write async JS. The goal was to make a web app that would recieve input from the user, fetch data from an API based on the user's input, post said data to the server, then update the UI with all the data recieved.
I made a basic HTML skeleton that would be easily styled with CSS, and easily updated with JS. Not much flourish here. The tricky part for me was making the 'form' element work like I wanted it to without it pushing me around with all its default behavior. I would have added/modified some things had the project requirements not been so strict.
Since the UI is supposed to be a weather journal, I made the styling imitate a tranquil sky & sea. I'm no graphic artist, but I had fun with it still. Nothing fancy here either as I wanted to focus on the JS, which is the core of the project.
The goal was to make a server.js file which served the main project foler 'website'. In the server I required the above packages, set GET and POST routes, and made an object to store all data posted to the server. Surprisingly, the server was the easiest part for me. The app.js file was much harder for me to make work correctly. Once I had the basic structure down, I also added some conditions which allowed the user to continue only if their inputs were acceptable. This wasn't required in the rubric, but I think it should have been.
The instruction for this particular Udacity project was not the best. The instructor breezed over a lot of things that would have been very important to explain and make clear. He also spent quite a bit of time fleshing out the parts of examples that were not helpful. There were also numerous errors in the written content. All of this made for an unpleasant and largely frustrating learning experience. I had to do quite a bit of research and digging apart from the instruction, which I know is a good skill to have, but I still think should have been more intentional on the instructor's part.