Coding skills needed for pack development

Developers Central
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Hi,

I’m relatively new to Coda and I have a decent background in Python, SQL and database development. I wanted to start developing packs and from my understanding having a basic understanding of code, APIs and Javascript should be good to get started.

I’m sure there are plenty other things to consider which are not apparent to me and I wanted to know:

  1. What are some of the other things/skills to know before getting into pack development
  2. Am I on the right track and are the things I’ve mentioned above relevant to pack development
  3. Any links, blogs or courses that can point me in right direction apart from the Coda Pack SDK

Thank you for any help you can give me way!

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Hi @Kushal_Upadhyay - Your background sounds perfect. Experience with JavaScript is a plus, but if you know Python it’s not too hard to translate concepts into JavaScript.

Besides the Pack SDK documentation, I know that @Scott_Collier-Weir did a webinar recently on how to build Coda Packs, and he may be able to share the recording.

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Welcome @Kushal_Upadhya!

I’ve been thinking that Coda Pack Studio should also support Python. Until they do, you’ll likely have a pleasant experience building Packs in Javascript.

Best advice - start with simple objectives. I recently published the source to a Pack that retrieves Google search results from theSerpAPI. It’s really simple and easy to use as a starting point for a Pack that reaches out to an API.

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Here’s some of my materials on starting with packs. It’s a part of one of the lectures I did on my experimental live course last January:

(talking about packs starts at ~1:30:00)

Knowing modern JS is a huge plus, but to start you don’t have to learn all of it. If you know any other language, the concepts are largely the same (JS syntax is different from Python though — get used to curly brackets to mark block starts and ends). Generally, in the beginning it’s more about following the patterns you see rather than knowing every single config parameter.

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Thank you so much @Eric_Koleda @Bill_French @Paul_Danyliuk! These are all really great resources and advice. Seems like familiarizing myself with Javascript is the way to go before getting into pack development.

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Or, BY getting into Pack development. :wink: Just build a pack and let your brain catch up.

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Also great advice thanks @Bill_French!

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Thanks for pinging me @Eric_Koleda ! - the coda school recently led a training teaching how to build a pack - aimed at non developers!

Before I started building packs I took an introductory course on JavaScript from Codecademy - highly recommend that course or something similar. They may even have something free

Here’s a doc with the resources from the training as well as the recording!

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Thank you @Scott_Collier-Weir!