Building an online presence

• Introduce the importance of building an online presence and ‘learning in public’

• Discuss the benefits of maintaining an up-to-date LinkedIn profile

Introduction to CVs and the Elevator pitch

• Understand the importance of building and maintaining an up-to-date CV

• Understand the the concept of an ‘elevator pitch’

• Learn best practices when pitching yourself

Learn how to manage asynchronous tasks and send HTTP requests using JavaScript.

Workshops

To be completed on Monday

• Node & npm introduction workshop. Repo name: Work08_Node_YourName

• Node and Express HTTP Server. Repo name: Work09_NodeAndExpress_YourName

To be completed on Friday

• Intro to testing. Repo name: Work10_IntroTesting_YourName

• Build a testing library. Repo name: Work11_TestLibrary_YourName

• Unit testing workshop. Repo name: Work12_UnitTesting_YourName

• Integration testing workshop. Repo name: Work13_IntegrationTesting_YourName

• TDD workshop. Repo name: Work14_TDD_YourName

Execute Program

• Execute Program Basic Typescript

Topics

• Introduction to commonJS modules

• Introduction to testing

• Introduction to Express

• Intro to testing, Build a testing library, Unit testing, Integration testing and TDD workshops

• Elevator pitch workshop

• Project presentations

• What is a web server? General background info on how servers work

• npm for absolute beginners Kevin Powell's video (Just ignore Astro recomendation at the very end)

• HTTP topic intro

• How DNS Works A comic explaining what happens when you type a URL into your browser.

• HTTP Overview - MDN Describes the HTTP protocol in a lot more detail. May be useful if you like learning exactly how stuff works under-the-hood, but may also be overwhelming.

• First-class Functions How functions and callbacks work in JavaScript. Based on a workshop from this week's curriculum.

• What the heck is the event loop anyway? (video)

• TDD changed my life

• Behavior Driven Development and Functional Testing

• Test Coverage

• Make Your Test Fail Good testing practices so you can be confident your tests are working.

• The advantages of the template element A comparison of creating DOM elements manually versus using the <template> element. Useful technique if you're dynamically rendering lots of stuff with JS.

This is a guide to what you should be doing for homework each week. Please reach out to your CFs if you are unsure of what to prioritise between sessions.

• Complete LinkedIn profile

• Complete the Express and Dev Tooling workshops

JavaScript

• Write code that executes asynchronously

• Use callbacks to access values that aren't available synchronously

• Use promises to access values that aren't available synchronously

• Use the fetch method to make HTTP requests and receive responses

• Configure the options argument of the fetch method to make GET and POST requests

• Use the map array method to create a new array containing new values

• Use the filter array method to create a new array with certain values removed

Node.js

• Set up a Node.js environment for web development

• Use environment variables for managing secrets and sensitive keys in Node.js

• Use npm to manage project dependencies and scripts in a Node.js environment.

• Understand server-side development using Node.js.

• Modularise code by creating reusable modules in Node.js, improving code organization and maintainability.

APIs

• Integrate external APIs into a web application.

• Learn to make server-side requests to APIs and handle responses effectively.

• Understand the principles of client-server interaction and how to manage data exchange between them.

Testing

• Check that passing a given input into our tests returns the expected output

• Write tests to mimic the behaviour of a user performing different actions

• Design functions for common testing patterns, like checking for matches, equality or inequality

• Organise tests using descriptive names and groupings to clarify their purpose and outcomes

• Implement custom messages in test assertions to provide specific feedback for pass/fail outcomes

• Write modular, single-responsibility functions that are easy to test in isolation

Asynchronous JavaScript

How does JS handle asynchronous code?

Questions to consider

1. What's the difference between "synchronous" and "asynchronous" code? Why might synchronous code be called "blocking"?

2. What are the event loop and the call stack?

3. How do callbacks and promises help us?

Testing methodologies

How do different testing methodologies try to improve the way we write tests?

Questions to consider

1. What is Test-Driven Development (TDD)? Can it help us write better code?

2. What is Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)? How do we translate user requirements into automated tests?

3. What is test coverage? Can this tell us about the quality of our tests?

1. You are going to create a chatbot that you will deploy in a Discord channel

Discord Preparations

Core user stories:

1. Project Setup with Libraries: As a back-end developer, I want to set up a new Node.js project in VS Code with the discord.js and openai libraries using require('discord.js') and require('openai') after installing them with npm, so I can start building my bot with all necessary functionalities.

2. Secure Configuration: As a back-end developer, I want to configure my bot securely by using require('dotenv/config') to load my API keys from a .env file, ensuring they are not hard-coded into my project, using a .gitignore file.

3. Bot Initialisation: As a back-end developer, I want to initialise my Discord bot and log in to Discord using the new Discord.Client() constructor and client.login method with my Discord token, to start listening for messages.

4. Message Handling: As a back-end developer, I want to handle incoming messages by setting up a message event listener using client.on('messageCreate', callback) to process messages received in Discord and respond to them with a “hello” message.

5. Optimisation: As a developer, I want the bot to optimise its performance by efficiently handling events, so that it does not consume excessive resources. This may involve writing efficient callback functions for client.on and client.once, ensuring they execute tasks quickly and without unnecessary resource consumption.

6. OpenAI Chat Integration and Response Generation: As a back-end developer, I want to integrate OpenAI into my bot and send chat prompts to the API to generate responses. This would involve using the openai.chat.completions.create() method with my OpenAI API key. I aim to pass conversation history and other necessary parameters to this method to receive context-aware chat completions. This will enable the bot to generate dynamic, intelligent responses based on ongoing conversations, enhancing user interaction and experience.

7. Response Management: As a back-end developer, I want to manage the OpenAI response returned by openai.chat.completions.create() using either fetch or async/await and sending the response back to the Discord channel.

8. Command Processing: As a back-end developer, I want to process commands directed at my bot by using string matching or a command prefix to distinguish between general messages and commands meant for the bot.

9. Error Handling: As a back-end developer, I want to implement error handling in my bot interactions using either .catch or try...catch within my fetch or **** async functions to manage exceptions and provide error messages if something goes wrong.

Stretch user stories:

1. Messaging Users Directly:

   Hint: Utilise the user.send() method in Discord.js to send direct messages to users. Retrieve the user object through events or commands that the bot receives.

2. Dialogue Boxes and Interactive Responses:

   Hint: Implement Discord's message components like buttons and select menus using MessageActionRow and MessageButton or MessageSelectMenu classes from Discord.js. Handle interactions with client.on(Events.InteractionCreate, callback).

3. Creating Private Chats (Channels):

   Hint: Use guild.channels.create() to create new private channels and manage access using permission overwrites in Discord.js.

4. Automated Moderation Features:

   Hint: Monitor messages for specific keywords or patterns using client.on(Events.MessageCreate, callback). Implement moderation actions like message.delete() for removing inappropriate content and guildMember.timeout() for muting users.

5. Multimedia Responses (Images, GIFs, Audio Clips):

   Hint: Send multimedia content using message.channel.send() with the files option. For audio, explore Discord.js voice modules for handling voice channels and streaming.

2. You are going to integrate testing into your Discord chatBot project.

The following user stories are designed to guide you as you integrate testing into your Discord chatBot project. If there are some which are not appropriate to your project, you do not have to integrate these. You can create your own tests that are relevant to your project.

Possible user stories:

As a back-end developer, I want to...

• verify Discord.js integration by creating a test function that creates a new Discord client

• ensure that the OpenAI library is correctly integrated by creating a test function that attempts to use the OpenAI API to create a simple chat completion or query

• test that my bot securely loads API keys from the .env file, confirming that no sensitive information is hard-coded

• ensure that my bot initialises and logs into Discord successfully

• simulate receiving a message and verify that my bot responds with a "hello" message, testing the message event listener's functionality

• simulate commands directed at my bot to check if it accurately processes these commands from general messages

• introduce faults or exceptions in bot interactions to verify that my bot's error handling mechanisms effectively manage and log errors

• mock the process of sending responses back to the Discord channel, verifying that my bot formats and dispatches messages correctly

• ensure my bot can send direct messages to users, testing the user.send() method's functionality

• test my bot's ability to send multimedia responses under specified conditions, ensuring it can handle images, GIFs, and audio clips effectively

Repository naming convention

Please name your repo following this template: PRO02_Name1_Name2_Name3_Name4