41 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
41 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: >
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Working backwards
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pubDate: 2023-07-25
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permalink: >-
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archive/2023/07/25/working-backwards
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tags: []
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---
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Today, I did a show-and-tell session with my team where I demonstrated an integration I've been working on for a few months and recently released to production.
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The simplified workflow is we collate some data, send it to a third-party system for translation, receive the translated file and import the translations into Drupal's translation system.
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## Where did I start?
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The first thing I did was not to collate the data and generate the file but to send a minimal, hard-coded version of the contents to the third-party system.
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I'd have started with the code to import the translated strings if I hadn't already done this in an earlier spike.
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This allowed me to send the file, check the response from the third party and ensure they could work with that file type and my proposed content structure.
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If needed, I could have changed direction and avoided investing much time. This wouldn't have been the case if I'd left this until the end of the process.
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I also have a working end-to-end test, and I can send a file and get the response I need.
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What if I'd written all the code and discovered something wouldn't work?
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## What next?
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Now, I can work backwards and start to make the content dynamic.
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I can introduce more authentic and complicated data, remove the hard-coded test data, and check that things still work.
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I still have the quick feedback loop, as I can always send the data to the third-party system and verify things work as I iterate on my implementation.
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With the main pieces of the puzzle in place, I can continue building and filling in the others.
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Once I have a complete feature with all the pieces in place, I can refactor as needed.
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I still have the same finished puzzle - I just built it in a different order.
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