JobsTrek app – new dashboard and styling

A big issue with my job tracking app for jobseekers was the terrible colors. “Just build an MVP, don’t worry about aesthetics,” was the vibe that led me to the weird green background color.

But that’s gone, now that a slick new ‘skin’ has been applied — the Argon dashboard for Django, an open-source package.

There are still a lot of other issues to be fixed, but that was a very pressing one which I think adds some momentum.

The Argon dashboard is installable via pip, so it’s easy to integrate. I wish I had used it from the beginning, because it kinda took over my routing — it assumes you want to use its login page (it has a password reset link and other bells and whistles which I’m not quite ready for yet). A few adjustments to urls.py and it was fixed.

It also comes with a lot of icons that I don’t need and will have to tweak. Overall it’s quite a robust package. If and when I get more users, I’ll pay for the commercial license, where there is also a bit of support via Discord.

Next is mapping the data points on the line graph correctly!

Side project, JobsTrek, YouTube channel

Oh yes, I am officially a YouTuber (cue fanfare.wav). In case you missed it: here’s a video walkthrough of the JobsTrek app. (Discussion of the code starts here.) I was a bit sleepy when I made this one, so let’s just says it’s not exactly electrifying YouTube. But I did enjoy making it! Someday I’ll invest in a proper video editor and make some cuts to these videos.

simple demo of the JobsTrekker Django app

It’s possible that I’ll relaunch once I’ve added an expanded dashboard. I had also started adding a chatbot using the Crisp.ai app integration, so I may again get to work with the OpenAI API…stay tuned.

Working with the Nucamp grads and prospective students again is also rewarding — they are a good group of folks trying to better their lives for their families, and seeing them help one another in the community is awesome.

Deciding whether to go further with the YouTube channel, I was able to host another couple of career workshop sessions for some job training clients from Goodwill NYNJ this month. It’s great to be able to offer my skills and just share my experience with what not to do!

The J.O.B. search continues — is there an app for that?

The fun-employed phase has lost its luster; I’m not quite at the soy-sauce-over-rice-for-dinner stage, but let’s just say it’s crunch time. Now firing off apps left and right, sending LinkedIn DMs, and contacting recruiters and former co-workers is the daily grind.

In side project news, I’ve abandoned SelfWars and all those Vuetify components. Also, I’m finally digging in to SQL joins (studying via Kickstart Coding,) after avoiding it like the plague for so long.

Lately been building a job search progress bar web app in Django. Fun, fun, fun! Wanna take a sneak peek?

“Your search will take approximately 8 weeks”

Step 1: register — I know, I know (a user story for anonymous sessions is on my plate)

Step 2: add some jobs you’ve applied to, using the simple form

Step 3: view your interview rate percentage and offer rate percentages on a handy pie chart (more graphs are planned)

See if your interview rate is around at least 15%, and see approximately how long your search will take. Based on lovely research from TalentWorks.

I know I said ‘progress bar,’ but for now it’s in the form of a pie chart; hey, who dun’ like pie?

I realized I was giving all this ‘daily grind’ advice out to Nucamp students, but when folks see in starkly-presented numbers just how long their job search could take at a certain pace, I think it’s got the potential to be an illuminating kick in the pants.

Chatbots: Overcoming Errors Using the Rasa NLU Starter Pack in Windows

So I got invited to join a team building a chatbot, exciting! When I am able to say more I’ll definately post. I decided to do a bunch of reading and research in my free time. Ironically it was machine learning which originally attracted me to Python and coding a couple of years ago, and I’d given up on that due to employment options in my area.

I looked into a few options and it seems the best choice for keeping your data to yourself and not using external APIs is an open-source package called Rasa. They have a starter pack you can play with. It comes with a nice video guide, but this is running on Linux. I came across a lot of errors during the install process; hopefully this post will help someone else using Windows.

If you already have Python installed (whether by PyCharm or Anaconda or some other bundle,) open a terminal/command line (cmd.exe) and check to see what version you have by typing:

$ python --version

(Only type everything after the $, at the command prompt.)

You might want to also search for any instance of ‘python.exe’ on your PC.

‘python’ is not recognized as an internal or external command / Can’t find python.exe install folder

When you see “‘python’ is not recognized as an internal or external command” in the terminal, but you know for a fact that you have Python installed (perhaps, um, several different versions in several places,) you might think you are an idiot. But you’re not!

WHY IS THIS THE DEFAULT INSTALL PATH FOR PYTHON ON WINDOWS? WHY APPDATA. WHHYHKLJASLJKHJHKLASDHJKDSAKLadj,sfgjklmbn,dasfkl USE PROGRAM FILES pic.twitter.com/CvtrE2hXBF— CrashBash-Kun (@CrashBash000) July 2, 2017

(frustrated user tweet)

After some web searching, I tried setting the Python path in Advanced System Settings>Environment Variables. But that default install directory was too deep (ideally we want it in a top-level folder,) and it is a hidden system folder to boot, so I was really wondering where it installed to.

The easiest way to fix that is to reinstall Python using the graphical installer. Run the installer as administrator. BE SURE to click the little ‘Add to PATH’ checkbox, or all this will be for naught!! This is a lot quicker than manually adjusting the path in environment variables.
Then choose “Custom install location.” Clicking “Install for all users” should automatically change the install path to the C:Program Files folder.

You may also be able to do this without a full reinstall by selecting Modify/Repair under Control Panel>Programs and Features.

‘$ pip install spacy’ command finishes with murmurhash…MS Visual 14.0 C++ required

Rasa can use spaCy, Tensorflow, or other tool packages to parse text. For some reason, Rasa on Windows requires MS Visual Studio Build Tools. I’m sure there’s a fascinating reason behind this, but for now we just have to accept it. Their user forum and Github page has addressed the issue, and you can download and install the needed bits here. (The link provided in the error message — http://landinghub.visualstudio.com/visual-cpp-build-tools — doesn’t work anymore.)

“access denied” error returned in cmd

Retry the command, but this time run cmd.exe as Administrator (Start menu, type ‘cmd’, right-click the icon and select ‘Run as Administrator.’) I forgot to do this more than a few times.

error: could not find version that satisfies requirement Tensorflow

Turned out I had Python 32-bit installed (issue raised on GitHub here). I uninstalled it via the Programs and Features dialog and installed Python 3.6.8, 64-bit version. I also installed Anaconda because after all the errors, I was getting frustrated with the whole install and just threw the kitchen sink at it. Honestly I’m not quite sure which fixed this error! If I figure it out I will update.

How do you run ‘make’ to train the model?

Unless you install third-party tools, you can’t run the ‘make’ command in the Windows 7 command line. Copy the code from inside the Makefile and paste into the command line:

$ python -m rasa_core.train -d domain.yml -s stories.md -o models/dialogue

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘rasa_core’

I got this after running the rasa_core.train command above. So I ran ‘pip install -U rasa_core’ (again, don’t forget to run as administrator like I did!) This led to the next error:

ERROR: rasa-nlu 0.15.0 has requirement future~=0.17.1, but you’ll have future 0.16.0 which is incompatible.

After a short web search, I just ignored this error because I was getting ready to chuck my laptop out the window. But the code still worked in the end. If you care to share any insights on it, please comment!

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘named win32api’

This appeared after I tried to run the model test with ‘python -m rasa_nlu.server –path ./models’. A web search led me to this solution:

$ python -m pip install pypiwin32

It installed and said ‘successful,’ but the terminal was frozen with no prompt. I started another terminal and re-ran the model test command and…

terminal hangs at “Starting factory <twisted.web.server.Site object”, nothing happens

I thought that nothing happened, but really that was the command to start the server on port 5000. It had been hours since I read through the readme file, and I’d forgotten there was any mention of a server. And I’d seen so many obstacles I didn’t know what success looked like! In the Rasa forums there was a similarly confused poster, and an answer which suggested checking port 5000, but without any mention of HOW to check that port. I went back to the video and found the command:

$ curl XPOST localhost:5000/parse -d '{"query":"Hello", "project": "current"}'

It will need to run in a new terminal window. (When you’re finished you can kill the server in the first terminal window with Ctrl+C.) If you have GitBash installed or if you are using Windows 10 you can run curl. Change “Hello” to “yes”, or “I am Suzy”, and see the different results!

PythonAnywhere and Flask for Beginners

2時間のコースは数日間ぐらいかかったけど 大丈夫です 。仕事の しながら やってたので 、 遅かった。 「初級者 のための Python フラスク」(講師: ジュリアン・セキエイラ) というコースは とても 速で簡単なので 自分に自身が あるようになった。
 virtual environment (バーチュアル エンバイロンメント)を作って、そこにフラスクをインストールする 。 そして .pyファイル, html のファイル, CSS のファイル を作る 。 ちょっとずつ易しく説明されてるけど 、 Python Anywhere (どこでもパイソン ) の案内図みたいのページも 助かった 。

 

python flask web app called "JahTime", running on pythonanywhere.com

 

もうちょっと勉強して 、やり直すと思うので この 年齢 カルキデータ はなくなる かもしれない 。このコースはデータベースを 教えていないので 、 パイソン エニウェア のMySQL 案内ページ を使って 勉強を 続く 。。。 
—–

So it took me a few days to get through this 2-hour course, that’s ok! LOL Hey, I do have a day job!
Python Flask for Beginners by Julian Sequeira of PyBit.es is a quick and easy course, which was a good confidence booster for me, to actually be able to finish a course on Udemy for once.

Basically you have to create something called a virtual environment, then install Flask there. Then you create a .py file, an HTML file, and a CSS file. The instructor (@_juliansequeira) goes through this setup step by step, but I found it helpful to also read PythonAnywhere’s walkthrough.

python flask web app called "JahTime", running on pythonanywhere.com

I’ll probably play with more little web forms, so this age calculator will be replaced with whatever I practice next. The course doesn’t get into databases at all, so I think I’ll go through the latter half of the PythonAnywhere walkthrough, which shows how to set up a MySQL database using their service.

Bubble.is — I Made a Thing

Bubble.is helps people with limited coding skill to produce apps. I had played around with it a few months back but the other day I spent the entire day (I know, I know,) figuring out how to build a little web app which calculates one’s age in what I call JahTime. It’s kind of like how 1 dog-year is about 7 years to a human, instead it’s based on 1 God-day being equal to 1000 human years (according to the Bible).

Desktop browser screengrab of JahTime

So anyway, I have to buckle down and decide which language I will REALLY study thoroughly for the next few months. I was really bouncing around quite a bit between Python, JS, and Java, and therefore not going deeply into any of them! Listening to a podcast at Codenewbie.org, I was reminded that it’s important to pick a language and focus on it for a few months. 

Python, R, and C++ are top choices for machine learning, which I am interested in learning about in the future. I’ve already started on Python. (BUT…a little detour never hurt, right? Famous last words and all that — I’m going to keep playing with Android Studio with London App Brewery via Udemy.)

So here is my Python version of my Bubble JahTime app. But I don’t (yet) know how to make Python interact with HTML in order to build my own web app from scratch…

# This program says hello, asks for user name, age, and returns age in JahTime
while True:
    print(‘Hello.’)
    print(‘What is your name?’)
    myName = input()
    print(‘Nice to meet you, ‘ + myName)
    print(‘How old are you?’)
    myAge = input()
    rounded_myAgeHrs = round(int(myAge) / 0.69)
    rounded_myAgeMin = round(int(rounded_myAgeHrs) % 60)
    myAgeJahHrs = int(rounded_myAgeHrs) / 60
    print(‘You are only ‘ + str(int(myAgeJahHrs)) + ‘ hours and ‘ + str(int(rounded_myAgeMin)) + ” minutes old in Jehovah’s eyes.”)
    cont = input(“Go again? y/n > “)
    while cont.lower() not in (“y”,”n”):
        cont = input(“Go again? y/n > “)
    if cont == “n”:
        break
ーーーーーーーーー
Bubble.is (バブル ・ドット・アイエス) というのは プログラミングあんまり知らなくても 、 アプリを作る助け なってる道具です 。
 数ヶ月前 バブル に登録したん だけど 先週 まる一日 遊んで 「ヤハ タイム」というアプリを作った 。 犬の人生の中 1年間 イコールズ リンゲンの 7年間 と同じ ように(聖書によると) 民にとって1日間 のは 人間 の時間 の 数え方で 1,000年間 となっている 。 自分は ヤハ タイムで何歳 だを 割り出すアプリだ 。
 これから どれの プログラミング言語を しっかり勉強 するのか を 決めなきゃいけないかなってと 思った 。Pythonか JavaScriptか Javaか のあいまいで、どれでも良く学んでいない。「コードニュビー」(コード初心者)と言うポッドキャストのアドバイスは一つ選んで数ヶ月間しかっり勉強しないっと。将来機械学習(きかいがくしゅう)を学ぶ興味あるので、Python、R、C++ はいいと思って、Pythonはもう勉強し始めたのでやっぱりPyだと思う。
今IDLE/SoloLearnでやっているけど、HTML + Pythonを使ってウェブアップの作り方まだわからない。。。

# This program says hello, asks for user name, age, and returns age in JahTime

while True:
    print(‘Hello.’)
    print(‘What is your name?’)
    myName = input()
    print(‘Nice to meet you, ‘ + myName)
    print(‘How old are you?’)
    myAge = input()

    rounded_myAgeHrs = round(int(myAge) / 0.69)
    rounded_myAgeMin = round(int(rounded_myAgeHrs) % 60)
    myAgeJahHrs = int(rounded_myAgeHrs) / 60
    print(‘You are only ‘ + str(int(myAgeJahHrs)) + ‘ hours and ‘ + str(int(rounded_myAgeMin)) + ” minutes old in Jehovah’s eyes.”)
    cont = input(“Go again? y/n > “)
    while cont.lower() not in (“y”,”n”):
        cont = input(“Go again? y/n > “)

    if cont == “n”:
        break
じゃあ、 Udemy.comでのパイソン•ブットキャンップ  の コース で頑張る と言ってしまった でしょね!
不可侵大変退屈な コース で とりあえず止めて もっと楽しいコース 探そう とした。脱落者(だつらくしゃ)になってしまうっと思ってたけど、実際にいろいろな勉強仕方があって、自力(じりきself-made)で行くよい点の一つだと分かるようになった。

YouTube で見つかったもっと楽しい 先生は シルベスター• モーガン (英語)という方です。彼は我流(がりゅうself-taught)デベロッパーで、色んな実際的なビデオがあるので、それでしばらくやって行くと思う。

Ok, so I did say I was gonna go all out and do the Udemy Python Bootcamp course. BUT…it turned out to be extremely dry and boring!  I felt as if I was being a quitter by abandoning the Udemy course. But now I’m actually enjoying my learning experience, because I realized that I don’t have to be tied to a single learning structure — that’s the joy of being self-taught!

So I found a much more fun teacher on YouTube: Sylvester Morgan.  He is a self-taught developer and he has all kinds of videos, not just function after function with no real-world usage.
So I’m going to try his videos out for a while and see how they work for me.

Here’s where I started in his Python series (I skipped a few). It’s quick and easy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMnoHsgNvNQ

I also discovered that watching “A Day in the Life of a Programmer” -type videos is also helpful and motivating. They often lead to other learning resources and can be a fun study break as well.