Building GoGreen 1/n
Tags: dohackathon
Published: 2020-12-12 10:44:38

--- 
series: Building GoGreen on DigitalOcean App Platform Hackathon Series
---

## What I'm building

Codename: GoGreen

I'll reveal what I want to build as soon as I solved the blockers. If I cannot solve the blockers fast enough, I may have to abandon the approach altogether.

### What I've done so far

* ✅ Create an app using DigitalOcean’s App Platform that falls under one of the listed categories (I chose "Build for Biz")
* ✅ Fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdHljGT15tIBAl6awNWh1-s3LCP3HMPPgZX5WE9LgHISp6Oiw/viewform?usp=sf_link) to get a $50 credit for DigitalOcean, good for 60 days from the date of redemption.
* ✅ Setup a private Github repo
* ✅ Use one of the following permissive licenses for your code: MIT ✅, Apache, BSD-2, BSD-3, or Commons Clause.
* ✅ Create the first of N number of DEV posts for this series of DO hackathon 2020-2021 (Well, you're looking at it now, aren't you? 😁 )

### Getting GoGreen working in DigitalOcean App Platform

The product I'm thinking of building involves heavy use of Docker. Though I might eventually abandon that if it's too complicated.

And as part of the overall value, I cannot use DigitalOcean's App Platform (henceforth I'm calling it as DOAP. I pronounce it as "DOPE!". As in SOAP but with a D) default of having the Dockerfile being in the root of the repository. 

Which means I need to 

* ✅ install doctl and doctl access my DO account
* ◻️ setup the App Sec as a Yaml file accordingly in my GitHub repository

... amongst possibly more steps.


### Blockers and Papercuts

As a typical Singaporean 🇸🇬 , ~~complaining~~ giving constructive criticism is in our blood.

This section covers all the obstacles ranging from absolute roadblocks to minor annoyances I face as I work towards this hackathon.

I'll give 4 categories to describe the potential obstacles I face in each post.

* 🛑 Absolute Blocker: I cannot get past this (yet?) and it's critical to building the app
* 🚧 Critical Slowdown: I took more than 10 mins to figure this out and it's critical to building the app
* 🦟 Annoying Mosquito: Took more than 10 mins or unsolvable but not critical
* 🧘🏻‍♂️ Zen: Solved in less than 10 mins and not critical


#### 🧘🏻‍♂️ Zen

Now that I think about it...  is it worth mentioning non-critical obstacles that are solved in less than 10 minutes? 🤔


#### 🦟 Annoying Mosquito

* Cannot use the full GitHub flavored Markdown in DevTo to create checkbox 

  I mean, what era are we living in already? Anyway, I gave up and used emoji like ✅ and ◻️

* Not clear how to trigger series inside DevTo

  Is it 

  1. `series: [series name]`
  2. `series: ["series name"]` which was what's given at the DEV article on this hackathon
  3. `series: "series name"` OR 
  4. `series: series name`? 

  Oh, I need to wrap that between two lines of `---`? 

  Don't tell me in words. Show me! 😕

By the way, the answer is, right below where you put the main image, type

```markdown
--- 
series: Building GoGreen on DigitalOcean App Platform Hackathon Series
---
```

#### 🚧 Critical Slowdown

* Searching for answers on how to change the default path to the Dockerfile in the repo for DOAP 

This is way easier provided you know the concepts of `doctl` and `App Sec` which I didn't at first 🤷🏻‍♂️

#### 🛑 Absolute Blocker

None so far, and hopefully, none that I'll ever meet.

### Conclusion

Up to now, I have spent about 3.5 hours on this. More than half of which is to write this up. Anything to avoid doing real work, am I right? 😁 

And since this is a side project, I have to stop now.