BoxWorks Hackathon
Three of us arrived at Moscone in the morning. One of our teammates had to work and joined us in the afternoon. The room for the hackathon was small and it was full. So, we skipped the pitchfest in search of a comfortable spot to work. We found a quiet corner, rolled in a round table and some chairs from a storage area nearby and even dragged a beanbag over to our spot. We had the best hackerspace!!
We realized early on while discussing the data model again that it was unlikely that we were going to be able to finish our MVP today. So, we shifted our focus to getting the data model in place and working on the Box platform integration. Along the way, I won an Amazon Echo in a prize drawing!
Eventually, one of the product managers from Box came to our table and asked how it was going. We discussed our plan, and one of the gals mentioned that I wanted some help with the Box API platform integration. Eventually, an engineer from Box, who works in python, came to our table. My teammates proceeded to continue working on the data model and he worked with me.
After I showed him the problem, he wanted to check and make sure that I had configured the app properly. We checked it and ran the code but it still did not work. So, we double checked the post in the developer forum to make sure my modifications were okay. They were. We tried a few other things, but it still did not work. He admitted that he did not know why it was not working – and told me to use their SDK instead. (I was a bit miffed — I followed the Box directions for a custom integration because I was unsure if the SDK would do everything we needed.)
Thankfully, the first API call using the SDK worked. We then talked about next steps. Also, he asked for the link to the post in the developer forum, because he wanted to add a note to point people to the SDK instead. He did make the comment in the developer forum. So, I potentially helped others….
We continued to work on our data model and I continued to work on API calls using the SDK. We grabbed some dinner and some cool Box swag…
michdcode 