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devRat
7y

-- How I succeeded turning a PHP/MYSQL app into Android app within a week --

Alright. So I wanted to grab your attention to what I'm about to write. If you are here just to read about the technologies I used, jump to bottom.

This is also a kind of rant; rant against the other fellow devs who demotivated me originally when I asked a question.

I'll not go in the details of my original question. Here's the link for those who are interested:
https://www.devrant.io/rants/366496
It's been days since I achieved what I wanted to but I thought someone might learn from my experience. So here it goes.

Why FREE?
Well, it was an important client. I worked on his website and he asked for an app for the same website and told me he won't be able to pay me anything for the app. I was, somewhat, under the impression that he might be testing me. If not, then I would end up learning something new. It wasn't a bad deal for me so I didn't hesitate to took it.

Within a week, I was able to pull the job and finish it. I felt so much better (and proud of myself) when I finished the app within the week and client approved it. What did I get? I got a GOOD BANK CLIENT in my pocket now. Got a lot more worth of projects from the same client. If I were being paid for the app, I might not have pulled the job so much better.

So the moral of this story is never to give up. NOT EVERY DEVELOPER SELLS SHORT ONLY FOR "MONEY". Some enjoy learning new things. And some like me love to accept new challenges and are not afraid to try something new everyday.

In case, someone is interested in knowing the technologies I used, here they go;

PhoneGap
Framework7
Template7
Apache Cordova

I wrote an API for the interaction between the web services and the app.

Also, Ionic Framework seems promising but it had a learning curve and time was of the essence. But I'm gonna learn it anyhow.

Comments
  • 2
    Awesome!
  • 2
    🖕 is for all the people that gave you shit 😉
  • 4
    Congratulations!
    But I honestly think that everyone who said it isn't possible is a bad dev, since devs should know: Everything is possible. It's only a matter of tools, knowledge and time.
  • 5
    @filthyranter that's my thing when people ask if something is possible. I'm always like "Yeah probably, it'll take a little research I figure out if it's cost effective for you though."

    Just because you aren't sure how it can be done, doesn't mean it can't be done.
  • 5
    First, congrats. You seem happy. Celebrate. Yay.

    Second, wtf. You're ranting about the devs who gave you sound advice? Most in the original thread gave you answers to accomplish your goal. Stfu and thank them.

    The others in the thread pointed out that you shouldn't work for free. When you work for free, you lower industry pricing and create a rat race to the bottom that no dev can survive on. You learned something new? Awesome, you could have done that w/o working for free. If you call the customer your client, there needs to be a transaction. Doesn't have to be monetary, but what you get from it should be value the CLIENT added in exchange for the value you provided. The only value you got here was experience, which the client didn't provide. Got a bunch of new projects from this client though you say? Could have bundled a couple projects together and cut a lower price to begin with so you still got paid.

    ...
  • 6
    ...

    You do what you want, but this rubbed me the wrong way. Don't do spec work and then rant about devs who point that out to your inexperienced self.

    Fuck. Had to say it. Happy weekend everyone
  • 1
    Kudos for having the courage of your convictions and pulling it off!
  • 1
    @darkcode can't agree more, doing work just to prove you can do it is a shitty strategy
  • 0
    I just don't really understand this. You see happy because you learned something new which is great but why couldn't you just do that on your own time?

    I have never worked for free but I have made the mistake of giving discounts to clients and it never works out. I've found the clients that don't want to pay what it's worth are the ones that annoy the shit out of you and constantly change the scope of the job. They waste your time and cost you money.

    I had one client that I gave a discount to ask for a bunch more stuff and I told her my real hourly rate and that's how much it would cost and she almost seemed offended. "But last time you only charged us X" and I told her that that was a discount. This is my normal rate and things just went downhill. Then she wanted me to always do more than agreed upon.
  • 2
    @doz87
    I think it's just bad practice. If you want to learn something new, do it in your own time.

    There is no reason why you need to do jobs for free for new or existing clients. It also tells the client that you are willing to work for less than what they paid you last time. You will inevitably find the client questioning your next quote or the one after that.

    I also think the devs in the previous rant did give good advice. If you are running a business or freelancing, put some value on your skill set.

    I've charged people for jobs where I had to learn something new, there's nothing wrong with it.

    You should also think about everything else that that client buys/sells, do their other suppliers give them product for free, so they sell their service for free and do their staff turn up some days and say "I don't wanna get paid for today".

    I think not, this is business, you need to respect it.
  • 1
    @doz87 he seems to have overlooked the fact that to learn a specific tech and produce something with it is as much a development job as using familiar tech
  • 1
    @Qchmqs
    Yeah it seems he has his priorities mixed up and like other devs have mentioned, it undercuts the industry. We all want to get paid well for the skills we possess and the things we can create and no offense to the OP but this kind of behavior in a commercial environment hurts that. The more people undercut each other to just get a job then diminishes the value that we put on ourselves.

    If its for a mate or there is a quid pro quo then that's fine but in a commercial arrangement it makes me angry.

    I don't think there would ever be a good enough reason to work for free.... unless you are a charity.
  • 0
    I used Framework7 for a little project I did. It's pretty useful if you have no prior knowledge of how to build native apps. I found it when I was under a tight schedule and had to make the app fast. So I googled "the quickest way to make an android app" and somehow landed on Framework7's page. Haha.
  • 1
    All I'm pretty much hearing is waa waa waa......
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