My first startup: Organising code snippets
Tags: php, startup, webdev, showdev
Published: 2019-06-15 10:05:21

As my first post on Dev.to I thought I would talk about my first product that I ever released into the wild! 🤓

# How it all started...
So back in my second year of university I was frustrated with not having an easy way to save useful bits of code so I could go back to them in the future; it could have been a config template for nginx/apache, my favourite way to solve a problem in JavaScript or that I just wanted to save a StackOverflow post in my own format.

I wasn't happy with the current solutions out there as most focused on being a HTML, CSS and JS sandbox. I didn't want that. I just wanted a simple, easy way to organise code snippets. So I decided to build my own platform. The start of my 3rd year was when I started building with a friend.

# Another Pastebin?
Some may ask why build another Pastebin type service and I want to explain why I think my project is different. I wanted to build a platform to focus on organising useful bits of code. We all learn differently and have different tastes. For example, we prefer different coding styles and programming techniques. So why not have a place to personally store all that?

I wanted to build on the Pastebin idea and iterate in my own way and attach a more social side to such a platform. One way that my service is different is that it uses a side by side code and notes editor to help you document/explain your snippet. I wanted it to become a code referencing book, because everyone learns differently, that was the focus.

# So, can I take a look?
You're interested? Great!

But before you take a look, its been a busy year for me, I launched in 2018 but haven't had time to work on this project for a while. I'm not abandoning it, I've kept it running since it went public. We launched by getting to a minimal viable product, not all the features are implemented and there is much more I'd like to add to set it apart from every other snippet saving platform.

So now that I have prefaced it, if you are curious, please take a look, maybe it will be useful for someone: https://CodeClippet.com 😆🤘

# Technical decisions and challenges
I started CodeClippet based off the knowledge I gained from college during one of my modules which was web & database technologies. CodeClippet is built using the LAMP stack. Since working with PHP at college I've always enjoyed the ease of use and support available, so there was so much material available on building a web app from scratch and how to scale them.

CodeClippet was my first ever serious web app I built from start to finish (MVP), so a lot was new to me; I was learning how to manage servers, databases, setup an environment to host and develop back and front end features. I was pretty much doing everything. It was very much a learn as you go experience, which I enjoyed as I was just diving into unexplored technologies for me.

Looking back, I'm happy with the technologies I chose to build CodeClippet. Its given me a really good foundation to built great things in the future!

One thing which was really challenging was designing the database, a lot of research was done to make sure we were following best practices, as we did with everything else. CodeClippet actually has its own custom PHP framework, in an attempt to help me learn at a low level how frameworks like Laravel might work. Currently, I'm working on v2 of the framework I built which will be based off SwoolePHP.