And so it begins

Today I got our first version of the homepage updated at https://legiportal.com.

It’s not much, but it’s a nice looking placeholder if anything. I haven’t started working on the portal pages yet as I’m still waist deep in getting the API up to snuff.

While I was looking through the data we were collecting it dawned on me that it would be great if we could see if Rep. L. Smith from NY is or isn’t the same as Sen. L. Smith in Congress. Congress themselves have a number designation system that gives every member of Congress an identifier from the BioGuide (https://bioguide.congress.gov/). However, the crux is that this system is only at the national level. Some states do have their own versions, but when a state representative becomes a federal representative (Senator or Congressman (Congressperson?)) there is no way to follow them across systems. There are some sites who’ve done this, but as noted in the last post, that is their data, so, I’m going to make my own (it sounds so easy as I type that out).

How am I going to accomplish this? I have no idea. So, tomorrow I start doing some research. This is starting to turn into the civics class I never took. Speaking of that, I’m trying to get as much done as possible before October 15th as that’s the first day of class for my Masters program.

So, until nextime. 🫡