Chris Achinga

My First Open Source Contribution

For the self-taught developer and (or) pretty much all developers, we use open source projects in our daily code, with or without knowing. For real though, Open Source (OS) projects have made our work easier and surprisingly fun. TL;DR My First Open Source Contribution It is always hard to find what open source projects you’d love to contribute to, especially when you are a beginner, well that’s why we mostly end up fixing the typos and eventually, making impressive contributions with time. ...

I Blog, because ...

Hello world! I have been attending @Hashnode Bootcamp III and I have more confidence and reasons to keep blogging. TL;DR I blog because … 1. Community Motivation. because I’d love to give back to the community. I had always wanted to write a blog ever since I started writing code, but it was hard for me to start initially. But since I prefer written tutorials to video ones, I came to learn of many great writers who share great content with the community for free. ...

My Developer Profile & Branding

Your Brand is what people out here talk about you, so it’s up to you to make it good or bad, or beneficial to your career. There are a lot of outstanding Developer profiles that we admire and look up to them for guidance and most importantly, our personal growth. There are too many articles and videos on how to market yourself as a developer, creating outstanding Resumes, and become influential on social media platforms. ...

My Current Project(s)

TL;DR I started focusing on projects that would land me my first ever software development job this week. So I have been dealing with creating applications with functionalities that introduce me to the most commonly used features throughout the industry. So I have been working on payment integrations and re-designing my portfolio. I love following the ‘Build as I Learn’ technique, so I started two projects, one called ’ Fundraiser ’ and the other one ’ Community Space ‘. ...

What Is React Native, Building With React Native

TL;DR React Native - Simply an Open Source framework (React) used to create applications that run on multiple devices (Android, Web, iOS …) using JavaScript. React Native Docs To get started with React Native, it is advisable to have basic knowledge of javascript (es2015) and React components and props, just the basics of all these will set you ready. Native Components: Components that can be used in iOS and Android devices. ...

Facebook Page Like Button

Do you have a Facebook Page and would love to promote it over your website or any site at all? A Like button is all you need. No technical procedures, just click and copy! Let’s make one in few simple steps: Go to Facebook developer’s site Facebook developer: You will find all tools and stuff you could utilize provided by Facebook open source and APIs. ...

Working with React Components + Props

What are props? In simple terms, they are data passed into components. When to use props? When building a react application, the UI is divided into smaller parts called Components. Some of these components are re-used in various pages or parts of the application, of course with different data/messages/content. For this to be effective, props are used. For example, a simple react website with two pages, all share a common <Head> element: ...

How I made my first website using an API 😎

A year ago, I was struggling with using APIs to creating a simple website. After some tutorials online I made a simple website that displays the statistics for covid-19. It is not a fancy or unique site, but it did its purpose, TEACH. Which API did I use? I used coronavirus-monitor from Rapid API platform. The API returns an array of countries with average statistics on the number of total infections, deaths, number of people in critical conditions, and number of people recovered. (and many more) ...

Tech Communities in Kenya

An Updated article (2023) Developer Communities in Kenya Growing as a Developer (Software/Web Developers) requires much effort and persistence. I can’t stress enough how important Tech Communities contribute to one’s growth. I made a list of some of the most known Tech communities in Kenya that you can join and start growing your skills. The order of the list doesn’t favor any community. FaceBook Developers Circle: Developer Circles are communities of innovators, where aspiring and experienced developers receive free tools to build new skills, grow ideas and boost their careers. - https://developers.facebook.com/developercircles/ ...

Creating a React & Bootstrap Template

This is an update to the previous article I wrote on React & Bootstrap Starter Template Why a Template? It’s because they save time. The process of setting up a project can be always frustrating and it’s always repetitive. That’s why I have a template for almost every stack I do. React & Bootstrap I love using Bootstrap because of the almost Zero configuration and the hustle of designing a responsive web layout is taken care of so I just focus on how a site would look. ...