Fix Inconsistent JS Selenium Tests with element.isEnabled()

I’ve been writing automated regression tests at work over the past month, using Jest and Selenium WebDriver, and have really been struggling to get my tests to pass consistently. I began to suspect that methods like wait(until.elementIsVisible... and wait(until.elementTextIs... did not actually do what I expected since I was getting so many inconsistent failures. I began searching for a way to determine if an element is clickable with Selenium WebDriverJS. This is possible in other languages (I think Python and Java at least), but it’s not available for JavaScript. But it turns out you can make it work.

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Flask Mega-Tutorial: Converting OpenID to OAuth

With this blog post I hope to provide some help to those who are trying to combine Miguel Grinberg’s Flask Mega Tutorial with his other tutorial titled OAuth Authentication with Flask.  I have a repo that has a working version of his Mega Tutorial through chapter 5 that uses OAuth instead of OpenID.  You can find it here https://github.com/JasonMFry/Flask-Mega-Tutorial-With-OAuth 

The ‘F’ Word: Failure

Looking back at my 3+ months in class at General Assembly, I did a lot of good work, I learned a ton about myself, about developing, about how to learn efficiently, I made good friends, and I networked my butt off.  But I also had some significant failures, which I’ll discuss in a future post.  But for now I want to talk about failure, and how to fail well.

My Fullstack Project with General Assembly

Once we finished our first project, we were immediately launched into learning the backend.  Since I had experience with JavaScript, functions, objects, and OOP, the frontend unit was a bit easier for me, but learning backend proved to be more difficult.  We moved at a furious pace (as always), and covered MongoDB, Express, and Node.js (they saved Angular for it’s own unit, Unit 3, which we’re currently in), passport, handlebars, and more in 2 short weeks.  Week 3 was project week.

My Frontend Project with General Assembly

Connect Four or Blackjack

After 3 short weeks of frontend (JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and jQuery), our instructors decided we were ready to strike out on our own and create something from scratch.  How kind of them :)  We had the choice between creating blackjack or connect four, and I chose connect four, mainly because I had already created a blackjack game and felt it would be dishonest to do that again.

Learning Frontend at General Assembly

Unit 1 at General Assembly was all about frontend.  We covered terminal, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, jQuery, Chrome Dev Tools, Git and Github, User Stories, Task Tracking, and probably a dozen more things they slipped in that I didn’t take note of because my head was spinning.  It was a busy 3 weeks.

Choosing a Coding Bootcamp

As I mentioned in my previous post, in July when I decided I wanted to attend a coding bootcamp, I got into “Research Mode.”  I found Course Report, which helped a lot, but their information is not as complete as I would have liked.  For instance, I wanted to find fully immersive web developer bootcamps online, but you can’t search for fully immersive, so I had to weed through a lot of non-immersive courses.  That’s about the only complaint I have with Course Report, otherwise they are an excellent resource and I suggest you use them in your search for a coding bootcamp.

Changing Careers

60wpm at 9 Years Old

My first experience with a computer was the family computer in the late 80s.  We had Reader Rabbit, and some other educational games.  Boy were those fun!  But the best part of all was that, when I got grounded for my numerous shenanigans, I was still allowed on the computer because it was just an educational machine for us.  And that’s why I could, at the ripe old age of 9, type at 60wpm.  You see, my mom still had her old typewriting books from high school, so I spent hours teaching myself to type because there was nothing else to do: couldn’t go outside, couldn’t play Nintendo, couldn’t watch TV…ugh!  But what a blessing in disguise :)