Challenges, Growth, and Breakthroughs!

Yo! we’re back again. And yes! I’ve seen my share of what Nigerians call “shege” (which describes serious challenges) with my project, and guess what! I conquered! It took a village anyway, my mentors were super helpful to my learning and the breakthroughs I’ve had. Now let’s dive into what my first half of the internship has been about. I may be ranting a lot, brace up for that 😀. The good thing is, I've gotten better, so there’s the happily ever after 😂.

Finding My Footing

Although, I’ve been in the community since contribution phase and I have been quite excited about the project since I joined. It still felt like stepping into a new world, I got to decide meeting times with mentors and sorted some of the internship logistics in the first week. I took part in the outreachy chat as well, which was chilled. My primary tasks was to get access to a copy of the projects I’d be working on, I got one of them to build, and was like, “Yo! I’m ready!”.

The second week focused on understanding the project, how each part worked and fit together. I had to make use of the ODK-X App Designer to design my own custom app to take my specific survey and deploy it to a device, which turned out to be trickier than I thought. I spent some time there, I wasn’t exactly stuck because I was trying things but I was not getting to the goal😀. Crazy!😭 I didn’t know I had reached the point where I should call for help. Meeting with my mentors helped me solve the issue in like a couple hours. And bravo! I saw my survey live. Yay🎉. If I were to start all over, I would get a pen and make a personal checklist from the docs, then check them as I follow through, so I don’t get confused like I did this time.

Navigating Technical Hurdles

One would think the shege had ended, no! Here comes the premium tears! As I was done using the product, It was time to contribute, and now I was faced with build issues that no one else on the team seemed to be facing. I did all I thought I could, then I communicated it with the mentors, tried all the suggestions including upgrading Android Studio (Guy! I downloaded Android studio twice! 😭, with a very discouraging internet connection😪), re-fetching repositories, and others, but the problem persisted.

It was a really frustrating experience, but persistence paid off. I was thinking about what the mentors have said and decided to try one them in another way, and there! I got the fix🥳. That was not all, I was dealing with laptop crash issue with running the projects that were building as well. At the end, I got the premium tears wiped out and I was ready to really start contributing, which I did by taking time out to read through some parts of the code base, and asking questions on next steps from my mentors. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done differently because, I wouldn't have thought my laptop would crash or that a project folder location could be causing any damage. I’ll just say “If you don’t need it, clean it up!”

Diving Into PR Reviews

After all those issues have been put behind, I was assigned to review open pull requests (PRs) and update them as needed. This experience taught me how to read people's code objectively, decipher the writer’s thought process, and check if the work done met the requirements specified. I also got to optimize the code where necessary. While doing this, I had lots of questions, and the mentors were incredibly helpful in answering them, making the process both educational and enjoyable. By this time, according to my proposal, I should be rounding up my first round of “selected chunk” of tests, and here I am just starting.

Refining Through PR Reviews and Testing

Here comes the sixth week where I’m having more PR reviews, allowing me to deepen my understanding of the project codebase. I also started writing tests to improve the contributions which in turn improves the project’s overall quality. Writing these tests was not only about ensuring the code worked as expected, but also about identifying areas that could be refined further. This phase felt like putting the finishing touches on a painting, enhancing the project while solidifying my skills. The week has been a productive one and will sure be a fulfilling one😎.

And Yes! that is the happily ever after💃🏽, I am excited about the second half of the internship and like my mentor said, it’s only going to be better and faster from here. In the second half, I would have sorted out all the PR reviews and then write actual Android tests for the ODK-X tools.

Special Appreciation to my mentors

Till you hear from me again, 😀 Thank you for reading through.

Cheers 🥂🥂