Corrison API Update June 2025
The month of June has been busy. I am still putting the final touches to the site and can really appreciate how much flexibility I will have when building new sites.
During June I worked on all the apps in different ways
Backend and API - Mainly creating new ones and updating code. At one point I discovered that the old Django only urls file was interfering with the API urls so I removed them all except those using Django templates. The backend is complete. I only change things if something isn't working on the frontend. For July most of my time will be spent working on the frontend.
Blog - Needs a breadcrumb so people can get back to the blog page otherwise it is complete. I am not going to include comments.
Calendar API - Created a calendar and ability to add appointments. So now I can build custom made calendars. Read blog post
Checkout / Cart - This caused the biggest issues this month and took up most of my time. Getting the cross cookies to work with the two domains. Still working on the cart.
Course API - I created a virtual learning environment (also known as a learning management system) similar to the one I built for Stream English. Right now free content can be added. It needs to be updated to allow for people to enroll on courses.
Not sure if I will include the ability to add paid courses to the site right now. That's just more complexity
eCommerce - Created a homepage which is mainly hard coded Astro code. Need to convert that to use Django. Backend contains details. Wishlist took up a lot of time. Just getting it working so it would save and remove what was saved. Had to use javascript which I am not great at but got there in the end.
Linkhub - Added the ability to include a background image.
Pages - Created a landing page. Added to Django admin area so it isn't hardcoded. Need to create a landing page example during July.
I am on jury service for most of July so not expecting to get much done for the first two weeks. Between now and the end of jury service I will spend time learning more about Astro and spending time on content creation.
Lessons moving forward:
Whenever I use claude.ai I want something simple. It builds something complex. I end up taking apart what it has built for what I actually wanted in the first place. Need to improve prompting so it doesn't run wild when building something. I wanted a simple calendar. It built a multi-use calendar for staff members that never worked from the outset. I wanted a simple shopping cart. It built a multi-use shopping cart for digital and physical products that never worked. Eventually I changed it to separate physical and digital - couldn't get that working. I went back to what I know and just created a simple shopping cart for digital products. The main issue I need help with is the cross site cookies/authentication because a user who is not logged in and then logs in needs to carry over their session so it is recognised by Django.
Javascript has suddenly clicked for me. I have never been a fan of it and avoid using it. Relied a lot on claude to help with creating javascript but during the month something clicked. I just got how javascript was working. I still have a way to go but as long as I use comments to separate out what each part is doing it makes things a lot more manageable.
Project Details :
Started April 20th 2025 as a Django project
Updated from Django only to Headless (Django backend with Astro frontend) 5th May 2025
Promotion / Marketing from September 2025
Developer: Diane Corriette @ Djangify.com