Okay, so let me tell you about this little project I tackled: “rodeo riders rewards”. It was a fun one, definitely had some bumps along the way, but hey, that’s coding, right?
First things first, I needed to wrap my head around what the heck “rodeo riders rewards” even meant. Turns out, the idea was to build a system that tracks rodeo riders’ performance and automatically calculates their rewards based on a set of predefined rules. Think points for different events, bonuses for winning, deductions for penalties – the whole shebang.
So, I started with the basics. I sketched out a database schema. I wanted to store rider information, event details, scores, and the reward rules. I ended up using a simple SQLite database because it was quick to set up and I didn’t need anything fancy for this initial go-around. I know some people hate on SQLite, but honestly, for prototyping, it’s a lifesaver.
Next, the backend. I chose Python with Flask for the API. It’s what I’m most comfortable with, and I can whip up something reasonably quickly. I defined endpoints for creating riders, adding events, submitting scores, and calculating rewards. Lots of GET and POST requests flying around. I used SQLAlchemy to interact with the database, which made life a bit easier – kept my code cleaner than writing raw SQL queries all the time.
Then came the tricky part: the reward calculation logic. This was all if-else statements galore. If rider wins a specific event, give them X points. If they have more than Y penalties, deduct Z points. If they’re a “junior rider”, multiply their total score by 1.2. It got messy real fast. I tried to organize it with functions and classes, but honestly, it was still a bit of a spaghetti code situation by the end. Definitely learned I need to think harder about a more elegant solution next time – maybe some kind of rule engine or something.
- I started with a simple `calculate_reward(rider_id)` function.
- Then I broke it down into smaller functions like `calculate_event_points(rider_id, event_id)`, `calculate_penalty_deductions(rider_id)`, and `apply_rider_bonus(rider_id)`.
- Still felt clunky, but it worked.
For the frontend, I went with React. I wanted something relatively interactive. I built forms for entering rider data and event scores. A table to display riders and their total rewards. Simple stuff. I used Axios to make API calls to the Flask backend. The biggest challenge here was just getting the data to flow smoothly between the frontend and backend. Debugging CORS errors always feels like a waste of time, but it’s part of the job, I guess.
I didn’t bother with any fancy styling. Just enough to make it look presentable. This was about functionality, not aesthetics.
Testing… yeah, I could have done better. I wrote a few basic unit tests for the reward calculation logic, but honestly, I mostly just tested manually by entering sample data and checking the results. Definitely need to prioritize proper testing in future projects.
Deployment? I just threw it up on a couple of Docker containers – one for the backend, one for the frontend – and deployed them to a small VPS I had lying around. Nothing fancy. Used Docker Compose to orchestrate everything.
The biggest lesson I learned? Plan better upfront. The reward calculation logic got messy because I didn’t fully think through all the different scenarios beforehand. I was coding as I was discovering requirements. Next time, I’ll spend more time on the design and less time refactoring spaghetti code.
Overall, “rodeo riders rewards” was a fun little project. It’s not perfect, but it works, and I learned a few things along the way. And hey, that’s what it’s all about, right?
