My Next Project: SimplePatrol Pro

When I do portfolio projects—things I actually intend to put in my portfolio—I work from project requirements, not a tutorial recipe. Maybe one of these days I can try forking an existing project, but I try to start from the ground up, me having to do it on my own.

My latest idea is to clone an app I used at a security guard job I had. I don’t have the code for the app, but I know there’s a mobile app for submitting reports and the browser-based or desktop client for admins to look over all the reports submitted and manage job sites and personnel assignments. It’s not cutting edge, but it’s something actually in use in a certain industry.

The Project This Time: SimplePatrol Pro

I got on ChatGPT to generate some ideas to name a security guard patrol reporting app. I sliced and diced and stitched together what I liked and came out with SimplePatrol Pro. It will have two essential components: a mobile app for submitting reports out in the field and a browser client to manage reports, job sites, and personnel assignments.

One framework and one set of software products will let me stay in Python. The mobile app will be done with BeeWare, a suite of programs that allows a Python program to run natively on any platform, PC or mobile. The browser client will be done in the Django framework, which will take me further into that framework and push me beyond what I accomplished in my bug tracker app.

Skills I’ll Be Developing

I’ll be working on building an API, dealing with images in a database, making submissions to a database from one application and accessing it from another, and working with a more complex user authentication setup within Django.

I’ll also be doing most of the code through ChatGPT to practice using an LLM to support coding. My first project proceeded slowly and painfully with a great deal of profanity. This time, I’m going to focus more on overall architecture and implementation of features.

A Few Thoughts on the Project: Building an API and More Database Stuff

This project became possible because I discovered BeeWare. Well really, I discovered Kivy but I liked BeeWare more when I looked into similar applications. I’d heard of the importance of practicing building APIs, accessing APIs within a project, all that, but I didn’t just want to do one more joke generator API type thing. When I learned it was possible to build a mobile app and stay within Python, I realized I would have to build an API to allow my mobile app to interact with the other projects in my software suite to be.

I guess this is mainly about getting an API going and doing more work with a database. I didn’t want to just build an API like that streetlamp in the middle of the woods in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: bright, illuminating, and totally out of place. Now that I have a space in which to use an API, I can get to work.