Back-Ends and Databases
Everything before this week disappeared when you refreshed. Let's fix that.
Hour 1 — Where data lives
- What a back-end is: code that runs on someone else's computer, not in the browser
- Server-side languages exist (Python, Node.js) — what you need to know as a director, not a writer
- Databases: tables you can't see — SQL (spreadsheet with rules) vs NoSQL (folder of documents)
- The full round trip: form → request → server → database → response → screen
- Designers and data models: the schema is a design decision (what fields does a "user" have?)
Hour 2 — Studio
- Exercise: Exercise - Add a DatabaseExercise - Add a Database
Make something that remembers
Everything you've built so far forgets on refresh. Build a small app where data persists — a guestbook, a class poll, an RSVP page, a tiny leaderboard.
Steps
Pic... — use AI to add persistence (e.g. Supabase) to a simple app: a guestbook, a poll, an RSVP page - Look at your data sitting in the database dashboard — it's just rows
Homework
- Sketch the data model of an app you use daily (what are its "tables"?). Bring the sketch.