Author: ryanfitzpatrick25@outlook.com

I’ve spent some time this week improving the IOS automation process and setting the project up to handle new platforms. We’ve also agreed to look into Windows and Mac now, and I plan on refreshing Android as well. I got started working on the USB licensing tool, however it’s taken me some time to familiarize myself with the licensing project so there’s still work to do for that. I’ve also started on some dashboard tickets, however the website is written using react and redux which I’m unfamiliar with so there’s been some learning required there.

I was able to find several options for automatically generating data for IOS apps, unfortunately all these options require funds so we decided to hold off on adding any of them to the process for now. I’ve spent a lot of time improving the rest of the code for the IOS automation so it’s ready for integration. I’ve also been given permission to look at some tickets for our internal statistics website which our team manages, so I’ve been familiarizing myself with that code base. In addition to that I’ve been asked to make a tool that will be used by our customers to handle some common licensing and USB related tasks which I’m excited about.

I was able to get most of the functionality for the IOS automation done this week which was really cool. However, there was a problem with one part of the process involved in generating data with the apps. Technically there were several problems with this part, I was able to fix most of them until I was completely stumped. I’ve been looking into possible alternatives howeer it looks like we may not be able to automate that part of the process for IOS. I’ve also asked my manager about working on additional projects; the automation work has been awesome, but it would be nice to learn some new things.

I’ve done a lot of research into the IOS automation project so far. I’ve also been in close contact with our dedicated data generation specialists who have provided with several different iPhones to play around with. I have some general ideas of how the process will be setup; I just need to start doing some tests to verify that they all will work. I’ve been using the existing android setup as sort of a guide on how to set everything up, so far it’s going well and I’m really enjoying it.

So far I’ve been working on some minor bug fixes and improvements for several internal tools. These tools usually revolve around automation the process of comparing different app versions as well as managing these apps. I’ve gone through most of improvement tickets in the epic for these processes so I’ve been put in charge of some spikes which involve finding out ways of automating the whole app update comparison functionality on different platforms. There’s already been some ideas put forward for Mac and Windows, and something basic already exists for Android, so I decided to research methods of automating the IOS workflow

I’m starting to get more accustomed to how things work around here now. The team I’m on uses a kanban style for agile development which I’m very used to from my time at Canadian Tire. They work on and manage a lot of different projects though so there’s a ton of different code and processes to learn. I’m starting to get more comfortable speaking at daily standups though and talking to the different teams. Everything was a little intimidating when I first started but it seems so natural now. I’m really impressed with Magnet’s on boarding process as it made everything so smooth and simple when I started. I feel like I’ve hit the ground running so far and I’ve been to close several simple tickets so far.

My first week at Magnet was very exciting. Mostly it was spent doing different training exercises and going to different workshops. I tried my best to be a sponge and learn as much as possible about the code base, my team, the company, and all the different projects and employees. So far I love the feel of this company and I especially what they’re trying to achieve and the product they work on. The team I’m on feels very dynamic so event though my title is an SDET coop, I’m not exactly sure what I will be working on or what my responsibilities are just yet

This week was my last week and I can honestly say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here at Sheridan. I went in to this term wanting to improve my communication skills and my overall knowledge of OOP and Java and I can definitely say that I have achieved both goals, as well as the added bonus of learning a lot about web development. I really enjoyed being a teacher and loved watching someone learn and improve under my guidance, however I will admit to missing programming regularly. This week all of the other co-ops had a really nice potluck lunch which was awesome and our supervisors all gave us these really nice cards. Overall my week was an average one, I had some appointments for last minute review and assignments, as well as a lot of students coming in to say thank you which was nice. I had a lot of fun here and I believe I learned a lot of valuable skills.

We had our third and final exam cram this Thursday! This one was just as successful as previous crams and we had another huge turnout which was awesome. We got plenty of great feedback from the students. They really enjoyed this last exam cram and we received a lot of feedback about how much we had helped them over the semester which was awesome. It was nice being to see a lot of the students for last time and here about how much they appreciated our help. Everyone has exams next week but most students said they feel pretty confident thanks to these exam study sessions and the help they received over the semester. Besides the exam cram this week was just like all my other weeks recently. My last week is next week and once again I’m fully booked.

This week we again filled with a lot of GUI and final project help, way more than usual actually; I barely had any appointments for web or C or anything else. Some students have also been tasked with solving a version of the knight’s tour problem which is really cool. I’ve been getting a couple questions about that which is nice, as well as some java collections questions, both of which give me a welcome break from GUI for a brief moment. I’m still fully booked usually and I think I’m close to being fully booked now for the rest of the term which is crazy, but also really good.