Episode 2: Trials and errors

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Hey there, so we meet again! Welcome back to my Outreachy journey, and I can't wait to tell you all about it :) I'm thrilled to have you here to witness all the ups and downs that have come my way. So, let's dive right in! 😄

Just to jog your memory, I'm Nitya Pasrija (an IT undergrad at IGDTUW), currently interning with Palisadoes organization as part of the Outreachy May 2023 cohort.

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The initial weeks were filled with wireframing and scouring through the Docusaurus site showcase for inspiration and feature updates. But then, a new assignment landed on my plate—the automation of website documentation.

Now, let me give you a quick rundown. The Talawa project consists of four repositories: Talawa-API, Talawa, Talawa-docs, and Talawa Admin. To automate documentation, the Talawa repository, built with Flutter, required Dart doc workflows to generate documentation automatically from inline comments. Additionally, I had to fix a minor bug in that workflow and ensure UI consistency with the main documentation website. Oh, and don't forget about creating the entire workflow for Talawa-API using Typedoc!

As a frontend developer, the design part comes naturally to me. However, creating workflows was a whole new ball game. Enter GitHub Workflows. I had heard a lot about them, and have even waited eagerly for all the checks to pass without any errors when contributing to an open-source project. But little did I know that generating a workflow for automating docs would be quite the challenge!

In case you're wondering, GitHub Workflows are the secret sauce behind continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. They make automation a breeze by executing specific tasks within a GitHub repository. In my project, these workflows handle the automatic generation of documentation and the seamless transfer of folders to the Talawa-docs repository, to enable a smooth rendering of the documentation.

Let me tell you, it was a bumpy ride at first. Failed attempts were a common sight, and frustration often crept in. My mentors were my saving grace here. They were patient as I was struggling with the aspects of the workflow and held countless meetings (google-meets) to address my doubts.

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Initially, it was tiresome! You can see the number of times my attempts failed...

Finally, I got my breakthrough and my happiness knew no bounds when the successful checks began :)

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To conquer these workflows, I dove into various online resources and even took ChatGPT's help xD But, GitHub's official documentation on workflows became my trusty companion (https://docs.github.com/en/actions). And of course, multiple video chats with my mentors helped me unravel the mysteries of workflows too.

In a nutshell, this journey has been a rollercoaster of emotions and learning experiences. Apart from workflows, this whole incident was a reminder that in open source, there's always room to grow and ask questions :) Cuz we all start somewhere.

As I continue my Outreachy internship, I'm excited to see where this path leads. Will meet you in the next blog :) Until then, happy coding <3

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You can connect with me on the following platforms:

• Nitya's Twitter

• Nitya's LinkedIn