I have a django application created by a developer that I have to pick up and figure out. He basically left me in the lurch, but even if I have to hire another developer, I do feel that I need to understand it, and how to work with it.
Currently the code is on bitbucket. The developer set up a test server where I can go and run the app. The problem is I have no way to see what is happening with the code. Could anyone help me out?
I need a way to figure out what he had done with this app, and how to test it. It is basically an app that process text using NLP. Our relationship fell apart and the app continued to produce poor output with no way to examine what the code was doing and why it was failing.
What’s your level of comfort with Python and Django? Figuring out how the code works isn’t fundamentally different for something like this as for any other project - even one of your own that you haven’t looked at for a year or two.
The amount of work you’re facing is going to depend both upon your knowledge and experience and the quality of the code you need to examine. (Some code is easier to read and follow.) If the bulk of the work being done is being handled by third-party publicly available libraries, you’ll have a better chance of finding known and tested code than if your former developer tried to do this all from scratch.
I feel your pain - I’ve been there. If you’re not comfortable doing this kind of work, I hope you find someone who can help you.
Ken
Thanks Ken for your response. My comfort level with python/django is not high. The hard part, I guess, is knowing if this app is worth trying to save, or is just a $3K mistake on my part.
3K? That to less than a week’s worth of time for an experienced developer. That’s just “getting started” money for any real development effort. If you’re trying to get a full site/custom app built, you’re probably off by a factor of 10.
Ken
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I guess that is why my results are so bad. The app just doesn’t have the potential income to justify 30K in development costs.