Question about Tribute Page project

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So, I’m up to the point of the Tribute Page project and now it has me completely discouraged.

I’ve been doing great up to this point, understanding JQuery, and the CSS and HTML (which I’ve previous experience in). However, I slammed into a brick wall with the Tribute Page project, which is just dropped on you completely out of the blue.

What’s throwing me off is that we’re not supposed to use any custom CSS, but only bootstrap stuff. Well, I’ve looked at the bootstrap site for a reference or something, but the site is a mess, with just a single mile-long page of a ton of information. It seems like unnecessary complication for what could otherwise be a more straight-forward exercise.

With straight up custom CSS, I could do this project pretty easily, probably within an hour, and everything would be correct. I suspect others would have similar experiences.

But with the “no custom CSS” rule, and having to rely on what is, I feel, I poorly organized resource (the bootstrap site), I feel like my hands have been tied behind my back and I’ve been blinfolded, and it puts me in what I consider an unrealistic situation. Most of my time is going to be spent hunting down which specific class name I need for a result I could type up myself in under a minute.

Shouldn’t the project’s intent be to show that you understand the concepts shown thus far, about page layout, use of styles, etc? Why does it have to be specifically bootstrap stuff?

My impression is that bootstrap is a kind of “helper”, with ready-made styles that save people the time/effort of having to type up everything themselves. I’d think the goal is to prove you understand CSS itself before using something like that. It’s kinda like using Dreamweaver and letting it code the HTML for you, instead of showing that you understand how to code HTML yourself.

Not a fan, at all, of the way this project/challenge is just dropped on top of you, completely out of the blue, with such arbitrary restrictions, and after such little preparation. It seems a bit more like a “gotcha” than a learning exercise.

Anyone else get this feeling from this project?

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The project is not poorly placed in the course, it is the simplest project in the FCC program. Yes, it does throw you into the blue, and that is exactly the point. You learn the best when you apply skills to knowledge and figure things out for yourself. I will admit that if you only did the challenges, and no tutorials elsewhere, you might be confused. But put yourself into it. Try to copy the example project, and search for help on stackoverflow, etc.[quote=“Mitovo, post:1, topic:62054”]
What’s throwing me off is that we’re not supposed to use any custom CSS, but only bootstrap stuff.
[/quote]

Who says you have to use bootstrap? A lot of campers do not use it. Bootstrap is a “helper”, but the reason it is presented early in the course, is because it simplifies things for newer students. This may change in the future, as I believe that in the upcoming update (will be hopefully before next year) that the curriculum will focus more on vanilla css. You in no sense have to use bootstrap.

Again, it is not specifically about bootstrap. And it does not show that you understand html and css. It is made to make you understand html and css.[quote=“Mitovo, post:1, topic:62054”]
Not a fan, at all, of the way this project/challenge is just dropped on top of you, completely out of the blue, with such arbitrary restrictions, and after such little preparation. It seems a bit more like a “gotcha” than a learning exercise.
[/quote]

Again, more challenges are coming soon that will help prepare students better. FCC is not an “all-in-one” course, you should try out other places too like books, udacity, codecademy, etc. Again, there are no such restrictions. You do not have to use codepen or bootstrap. The project is challenging, and rightfully so. I really loved it, because it stretched me a lot, and make me think for myself not just follow some simple challenges. Hope this clears things up a little. If you have problems with the project, please do not just complain - ask! That is what we are here for :slight_smile:

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Hi, Isaac.

My complaint was based on my (perhaps incorrect) understanding that the project needed to be done using the tools/skills taught up to this point in the course. That’s usually how courses are laid out, etc - they teach you specific skills, and then test your knowledge/understanding of those skills. It seems to go heavily on bootstrap, so it seemed to me that they wanted you to use that.

My issue was that, if you’re going to test someone on their knowledge/understanding of something, it should be based on their actual knowledge of the material, not on how to use a system set up to bypass it.

Again, I’d think the challenge is to show you can use CSS to get the results you want, not that you can find the right combination of ready-made classes to do so. I’d added a Dreamweaver analogy into my post, perhaps after you were already responding, to explain what I meant.

Anyway, if my understanding of the challenge was incorrect, and we’re free to complete the project with or without relying on bootstrap, etc, then that’s all moot, and it actually seems more reasonable to me now.

Thanks.

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Hell0, Mitovo.

The point of the challenge is to make a web page similar to the page displayed. From what you have learned. Do you remember `div class=“container” ?

The .container class is a bootstrap class. Thus we have learned bootstrap. Bootstrap classes are mostly CSS. And you can alter the bootstrap how you see fit. I’m not sure what bootstrap site you visited but this one is pretty good. http://getbootstrap.com/css/ Once you visit the site you will see that we have spent a lot of time with bootstrap.

Edit:
If you would like a more structured site that offers examples, you can try this http://www.w3schools.com/bootstrap/default.asp