{"id":6584,"date":"2018-11-13T11:24:37","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T06:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedevcouple.com\/?p=6584"},"modified":"2019-06-14T14:58:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T09:58:08","slug":"jamstack-theopendevcon-and-hacktoberfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedevcouple.com\/jamstack-theopendevcon-and-hacktoberfest\/","title":{"rendered":"#TheOpenDevCon 2018 \u2014 JAMstack & Hacktoberfest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year, Ahmad Awais<\/a>, Maedah Batool<\/a> and their team organize several meetups\/conferences aimed at upskilling the local community here in Pakistan. 2018 was no different as well, with the series of events starting from WordPress & JavaScript Meetup Lahore<\/a>, held in January. This October, they arranged another conference, #TheOpenDevCon2018<\/a>. It mostly revolved around JavaScript, APIs, and static Markup as well as celebrating open-source on the 5th edition of Hacktoberfest. The program also incorporated talks and a workshop about JAMstack.<\/p>\n

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\"\ud83d\uddd2\" Meetup Particulars<\/h2>\n

The University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore was the venue for this conference. The audience substantially comprised of CS, CE and EE students. Whether they were absolute beginners or developers with intermediate skills, there was something for every one of them to learn.<\/p>\n

\"\ud83c\udfa9\" Talk by Ahmad Awais<\/h2>\n
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\"Ezgif.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ahmad<\/a> started the conference with a brief introduction and told everyone why he loved teaching and delivering talks. He considers it his way of giving back to the community. Ahmad<\/a> is a hyperactive open sourcerer. He advocates open source wherever and whenever he gets the chance to do so.<\/p>\n

Building a project is good, but creating a community around it is even better. And there is no better way to do so than to open source. He shared why every aspiring developer should start contributing to open source right now. He even declared contributing to open source a life-changing decision of his life.<\/p>\n

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\"\ud83d\udcaf\" Git\/GitHub<\/h3>\n

Next, Ahmad<\/a> gave an excellent fundamental understanding of Git. He also demonstrated the primary commands and their usage. While maintaining an entertaining atmosphere by cracking silly jokes and puns, Ahmad also gave useful resources to learn Git. That being done, the audience was thoroughly educated about how to create a pull request, make the commits and push it.<\/p>\n

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\"Dsc<\/a><\/p>\n

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After giving the intro to Github\/Digital Ocean. He told the audience about the 5th edition of Hacktoberfest, a month-long celebration of open source. And how anyone can earn a free limited edition T-shirt and other goodies by creating five pull requests.<\/p>\n

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\"Dsc<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\ud83e\udd5e <\/span>JAMstack<\/h2>\n

The next part of the talk was about JAMstack. It is a web development architecture established on JavaScript, APIs and prebuilt Markup.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcbc JavaScript<\/h3>\n

“Why JavaScript? \ud83e\udd14” One of the biggest dilemmas of web developers is figuring out which language to learn. Ahmad<\/a> explained how Javascript is easy to pick up and fun. You can start coding it right inside your browser without setting up a developer environment, which is a reason beginners find it more comfortable.<\/p>\n

Moreover, it can also be used on the server-side with node. JavaScript is everywhere. All this, while still ensuring highly paid gigs in the industry.<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udcbb APIs<\/h3>\n

The section about APIs was really a fun part. Ahmad<\/a> shared why the concept of APIs was easier to understand but hard to explain. But he had a fun interpretation up his sleeve. Imagine you are ordering some food form a menu in a restaurant. There needs to be some link between the kitchen and your order. API is that critical link. It can’t be that simple. \u270c\ufe0f<\/p>\n

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  • “Kitchen” is the server.<\/li>\n
  • “Menu” includes requests to be made to the server.<\/li>\n
  • “Waiter” is the API here.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \ud83d\udcd6 Markup<\/h3>\n

    Markups are converted into HTML via build tools. Making sure that the attendees do not feel overwhelmed, Ahmad<\/a> performed a live project. Here<\/a> is it’s demo. It included building a simple static blog using Gatsby, Netlify, and MOAAR.<\/p>\n

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    \"Dsc<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \u2699\ufe0f Gatsby<\/h3>\n

    GatsbyJS<\/a> is a modern site generator for React. Credits to its impressive documentation and easy to find resources, you can build super fast static websites and much more. Ahmad<\/a> demonstrated all the steps from installing it to creating a Gatsby site.<\/p>\n

    Netlify<\/h3>\n

    Netlify<\/a> is a JAMstack hosting but a lot more than that. It delivers an all-in-one workflow to establish and control modern web projects. Some of its impressive features are:<\/p>\n

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    • \ud83d\ude2e Serverless functions<\/li>\n
    • \ud83e\udd16 Automatic deployment\/Cache invalidation<\/li>\n
    • \u26a1 HTTPS, Custom domain, DNS Management<\/li>\n
    • \ud83e\udd84 Authentication signups, logins, & pass recovery and so on<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      \"\ud83d\ude4c\" Personal Branding<\/h2>\n
      \"Dsc<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      Lastly, Ahmad<\/a> concluded the topic by emphasizing personal branding. Ahmad<\/a> likes to put forward real-life scenarios to make discussions more gripping. This time he mentioned a situation, which compared the approach of a nerd and a relentless brainstormer towards naming an assignment.<\/p>\n

      The purpose was to educate the audience about personal branding, and why a professional approach to branding yourself is critical. No wonder, “naming things” is regarded as one of the hardest things in Computer Science.<\/p>\n

      He showed how the tools as mentioned above could help set up a blog on a domain of your name. Undoubtedly, being known as a professional is one of the most significant advantages one can have today.<\/p>\n

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      \ud83d\udd25 Excited to be keynoting on #TheOpenDevCon<\/a> talking about #JAMstack<\/a> \u2014 @Gatsbyjs<\/a> with @Netlify<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      \ud83d\udcfa Keynote Slides: https:\/\/t.co\/c7vEANls7D<\/a>
      \ud83d\udc68\u200d\ud83c\udfeb Focused on EE, CE, CS, Students at UET LHR
      \ud83c\udfdb\ufe0f API Servers with       @Linode<\/a> + @DigitalOcean<\/a>
      \ud83d\udcef Conf Site:       https:\/\/t.co\/xqafVyXsr5<\/a><\/p>\n

      \ud83d\ude4c Retweet pic.twitter.com\/VlYcO6lKGV<\/a><\/p>\n

      — Awais.dev (@MrAhmadAwais) October 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n