Building my first web application using Python, Django, and Azure: Part 1

This series is meant to be a journal of my experience with building my first web application. Being someone with a non-technical background, but finding myself in a technical role, even now I can get lost in the code and technology. So, hopefully, my attempt to explain in simpler terms helps someone else getting started.

Background

In September 2017, my partner and I traveled to Vietnam. The Southeast Asian country is filled with pleasant people, fantastic pho, beauty galore, and enough moped scooters to compete with any Pride parade. It was literally life-changing, but not in the way you might think.

Of course, there was also Vietnamese coffee. Starting with a base of medium-good beans (actual coffee industry term), the dark roast, almost smoky flavor is masked by the creaminess of evaporated milk and sweetness of multiple heaps of sugar. Now, let me preface, this concoction is great for what it is. But it left me craving a ‘great cup of coffee’.

Problem was, I didn’t know what that meant.

I landed back in Seattle with a goal to find an answer. The data geek I am, I created an excel spreadsheet to log each tasting, coffee, and attributes — roaster, brew method, temperature, tasting notes described by the…