Category: Projects

I am currently going through an AWS Developer Associate course on Udemy. I find it hard to retain knowledge if I don’t have practical application. This project is a way for me to apply the skills I’ve learned!

The inspiration of this project came from myself losing items all the time. I spend a lot of time driving to different locations trying to find items I have lost, I have always wanted to just be able to go online and see all the lost items at a venue.

I wanted to be able to use as many AWS products I could. Although this may not be the most optimal set up considering vendor lock in, I just want to be able to show that I can integrate AWS with applications that I can make.

Step 1: CICD

One thing a lot of Solo Developers don’t think to do until the end is setting up a proper pipeline for development, I wanted to be able to create this first. Although I want to focus on AWS cloud, I used GitHub Actions because it is more agnostic and a wider array of companies use it over its AWS alternatives. Also it is free!

Check it out here!

Check out the repository!

One thing many people don’t know about me is that my family is full of real estate investors. They do not have much of an online presence so I decided to help them out!

They let me have free reign over how to create the website as long as it functions properly, has minimal costs, and being able to update it occasionally. I decided to use this as an opportunity to fully flesh out my AWS Skills. The goal of this website for me is to connect all the pieces together and to learn what it takes to deploy a project to a production AWS environment

Step 1. Designing using v0.dev?

Designing web applications has never been easier with Tools like v0.dev from Vercel. I am not the best designer in the world so tools like this really help me make user friendly products. I got my inspiration for this website from Thach Nguyen; a real estate influencer that is the real deal. I love the way his website looks!

Step 2. Setting up WordPress with GraphQL as a CMS

I primarily used the WordPress REST api when making this blog website but I definitely should have used GraphQL. Although I first tested this out locally.

Step 3. Creating CI/CD pipeline and setting up Production Environment

There are two approaches you can take for self hosting: git cloning to run docker compose up or pulling images from docker hub.

Step 4. Making it come to life using AWS!

This part is where the project really comes to life. Hosting a project is easy but actually making it visible to users is the hard part. As much as I love companies like Vercel and Netlify, a whole generation of developers have no clue how how to deploy applications without them. It really is taking advantage of people who are just trying to make a better life for themselves. I myself was stuck in this front end developer trap for a long time. I am just learning these new skills and it makes a world of a difference in terms of job opportunities. In the words of the Primagen, you have to be more than a React Andy in order to get ahead.

I learned about this architecture through a youtuber named … His project was just hosting a basic website through s3 but the ideas of making it more accessible through CloudFront is what stuck with me. It really got me thinking not about just simply having my projects out there, but showing employers that I can understand and help a business with more than just basic tasks.