Annyce Davis

Davis Technology Consulting

GR8Conf US 2016 Recap

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This was my first time attending GR8Conf and it was a really great experience. I primarily focus on Android Development now, but I enjoy dabbling in some API Development when I find the time. This conference was very inspiring and I plan on investigating many of the new things that I learned. Here are a few highlights of the event:

Overview

So the event took place at The University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was my first time in Minnesota, it’s a very beautiful city. I was especially impressed with the Skyway System, which allows you to walk between buildings without going outside. I took it on as a personal challenge to find the Target store from the main conference building and make it back on my own.

@brwngrldev basically, didn’t see people, discovered they walk around like gerbils in these walkways all day

— Annyce Davis (@brwngrldev) July 28, 2016


The conference is focused on the technologies related to the Groovy ecosystem, such as Grails, Ratpack, Gradle, and Spock. Despite “the hate” that I sometimes hear about Groovy, I’m a big fan and was excited to have the chance to be a part of the conference.

Takeaways

So there were a few sessions that I derived a ton of value from, one was the “Grails Keynote”. It was delivered by Graeme Rocher, the Grails Project Lead. He discussed the many enhancements in Grails 3, such as:

  • Being Based on Spring Boot
  • Using the Gradle Build System
  • The Use of Profiles

He showed how simple it is to use the rest-api profile to create REST applications in Grails. I was really impressed with how quickly he was able to get an application up and running. He also demonstrated some of the upcoming features in GORM to support reactive programming, it was all very exciting to see.

Then during the “Documenting RESTful APIs with Spring REST Docs” talk, by Jenn Strater I really enjoyed learning about the various options available for making sure you have proper documentation for your REST APIs. She showed several examples of using Asciidoctor to generate documentation snippets. I had never seen that approach of using tests to ensure documentation was written before. I would love to see something similar for Android libraries perhaps.

Learning about Spring REST Docs with @codeJENNerator, documenting your API. #gr8conf pic.twitter.com/G4HpAflFxb

— Annyce Davis (@brwngrldev) July 28, 2016


I also really enjoyed the information shared during the “Feeling Groovy” talk. Ken Kousen brought up several compelling points about the perception vs. reality of the Groovy ecosystem. Specifically he spoke on how some perceive Groovy as being “in trouble”, yet it’s an extremely stable language backed by a very engaged community. He also showed several examples of how Groovy as a language shines in comparison to Java. The talk ended with a rallying cry for those in the community to share their positive experiences with others. It was truly well done!


Further, it was really great to meet people in real life that I only knew from Twitter, like Ken and Jenn.

.@devlifehax I got to finally meet @kenkousen and you’ll be happy to know we left our capes at home 😉 #gr8conf pic.twitter.com/yp8sAjMz9K

— Annyce Davis (@brwngrldev) July 29, 2016


This was my first time giving two talks at one conference. It was a little stressful, I admit, but I’m glad I stepped up to the challenge and had the opportunity to meet such friendly, interesting people.

 
Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter to keep up with my Speaking Adventures. Until next time…

Talk: Gradle Plugin Goodness

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If you find yourself copying and pasting code from your application’s build.gradle file every time you start a new project, then it’s time you learn about creating Gradle plugins. In this presentation you will learn what it takes to create a custom Gradle plugin for use in your Android/Java applications.

It covers:

  • Plugin Structure
  • Key Plugin Components
  • Testing
  • Publishing

Materials:

If you would like to view some of my video content, I encourage you to check out my video course and bite-sized tutorials available on Caster.io.

Talk: From Grails to Android

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One of the key new features of Grails 3 is the use of Gradle for its build system. The Android Framework also uses the Gradle build system to build, test, run and package applications. In this talk, learn how to move from developing applications for Grails 3 to Android.

 

It covers: 

  • Project Structure Similarities
  • Use of Gradle Commands
  • User Interface: GSP Pages vs. Android Layout XML Files
  • Dependency Injection: Spring vs. Dagger

Resources

 
If you would like to view some of my Android related video content, I encourage you to check out my video course and bite-sized tutorials available on Caster.io.

Tackling Twitter

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So one thing people ask me a lot is: “How do I use Twitter?” What they’re really trying to find out is “How to use Twitter to stay in the know and promote themselves on the Internet.” This is a great question. A few months ago I asked myself the same question and ended up reading countless blogs and a few books on the subject of self promotion. Thus I’ve decided to expound on my current strategy for Tackling Twitter in this post. So keep reading…

The Basics

What is Twitter? It’s a social network that lets you find out what’s going on in your area and around the world in topics that you care about. It’s based on short messages called “tweets” that are currently limited to 140 characters. The tweets are presented in reverse chronological order, for the most part. Below is a snapshot of my Twitter home page. It contains your primary timeline with tweets from all the people you follow, basic analytics, popular hashtags, and more!

Twitter Homepage

With the “what” covered, let’s discuss the “why”. Why should you as a developer care about your presence on Twitter? In a word: networking. To expand on that, I’d say that Twitter is the best way to meet people who are interested in and actively involved in the tech community. I personally have established virtual relationships with hundreds of people in the Android community. This has enabled me to get answers to my development questions, receive encouragement to tackle new coding challenges, as well as expand my career. It’s also a way that I can give back to the community by doing the same for others.

So maybe you want to see some more tangible benefits. Here’s a listing of several opportunities I’ve directly had through interactions on Twitter:

  • Invited to connect with O’Reilly for a video course deal
  • Invited to speak at conferences
  • Invited to speak at meetups
  • Invited to do podcast interviews
  • Invited to write a guest blog post
 
And there are probably more things that I just can’t recall at the moment. So yes, very useful for expanding your career!

#Hashtags

So one of the major things that you need to understand about Twitter is its use of hashtags. Hashtags are essentially just a way to label tweets. With all of the content that is produced on Twitter every second it would be impossible to find what you’re interested in without them.


You can use hashtags in various ways:

  • To search for additional tweets
  • Find new accounts to follow
  • Participate in Twitter chats
  • Follow along with live events


Twitter Hashtag

Filtering Content

Once you start following a couple hundred people you will notice that your homepage is just a random mix of information. So in order to read specific tweets on a given subject I tend to create Twitter lists for myself to help with organizing the content. Below is a screenshot of some of the Twitter lists that I belong to.

Twitter List

Creating a Twitter list is very simple (see gif below). You have the option to make your list public or private. If your list is public then others can see your list and follow it if they desire, also when you add people they will be notified that you have added them. However, if you create a private list then it’s just for you. 


I like to use private lists for when there’s a specific group of people that I want to follow what they tweet closely. So maybe you really want to speak at a conference, why not create a private list of the conference organizers. Then you can begin your campaign to become “known” to them and increase your chances of having an opportunity to speak.

Adding Someone to Your List

Establishing “Relationships”

Ok, so up until this point, you’re mostly just consuming content. Now let’s discuss how you can evolve your interactions on Twitter by establishing “relationships” with others. No one wants to be seen as a walking billboard, just constantly spewing information. By interacting with the people on your list, by doing things like favoriting tweets or retweeting, you get the attention of those in your “Twitterverse”. Over time they will begin to recognize you and may return a similar level of interaction with your tweets. So like many things in life, it just takes time and don’t get discouraged if you don’t start to see immediate results from your efforts on Twitter.

Crafting Your Tweets

Another thing people often lament to me is that they don’t know what to tweet about. There are so many great things to tweet about! If you do anything related to your industry, like attend conferences, read articles or create your own content, you can find something tweet-worthy. 

Automation

Once you start tweeting regularly and building up a following, you may want to begin to automate some of your efforts on Twitter. I prefer to segment chunks of my day to optimize my overall output, so it’s easier for me to curate my tweets in advance. For this I use Buffer, a tool that let’s you schedule tweets. They have very useful tutorials and helpful staff if you run into issues.

Just Remember

Be nice! The Internet is full of trolls and just extremely negative people, so why contribute to that? Instead you can use your newfound Twitter prowess to spread positivity in the tech community. I can’t wait to read your tweets!
Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter where I’ll share my top 3 tweet templates. Until next time…

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