Password Generator

Deployed on GitHub Pages: https://jessicablank.github.io/password-generator/

Description:

This was originally my second homework assignment during coding boot camp. I returned after classes ended to improve the user experience.

Project Story

MVP

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for this assignment required the following to generate a secure password for an internet user:

Upon clicking the Generate Password button, the user must set the password length of at least 8 characters and no more than 128 characters.
After confirming the password length, the user must choose lowercase, uppercase, numeric and/or special characters.
The input must be validated.
The password is either displayed in an alert or written to the page.

I added vanilla Javascript given starter code in HTML and CSS. The result worked as required. I received an "A" on the assignment; however, I wanted to add a copy button to copy the newly generated password to the clipboard. I decided to create an issue and kanban board for this project and return to it after boot camp classes were finished.

Refactored

Once I returned to this project, I realized I now had the Google skills and knowledge not only to add a copy button, but also to improve the user input methods to make this project more functional. I decided to improve the overall user experience while continuing to meet the project requirements.

Password Length: Originally the user was required to input a numeric value between 8 and 128 into a field. The user would receive an error message if the numeric value entered was outside of those range parameters. Changing this input method to a range slider eliminates the need for an error message,

Uppercase letters, Lowercase Letters, Numbers, and Special Characters: In the first version, users would click "OK" or "Cancel" on confirm boxes to set these parameters. If none were set, the user would receive an error. By switching to checkboxes, I could add code to eliminate the need for an error message. Now if the user unchecks three parameters, the final checkbox will be disabled and automatically become the default parameter for password generation.

Octocat: My favorite addition found through Google-Fu is a waving Octocat link to this GitHub repo.

Mobile-Responsive: Something AMAZING happened! ✨ Another Github user forked and reviewed my project. Sawyer noted the card was not mobile-responsive. Thank You Sawyer! I completed the Bootstrap styling implementation and removed unnecessary CSS to allow for mobile-responsive display.
User-Review: I sent the link via text to friends for their review. They graciously reported the interface as intuitive and functional. One user, Jameson, said:

I spent a sad amount of time trying to get it to make a real word at 8 characters and was not successful. So...it works!

All my test users agree this is not as fun as a random burger generator like the one over at https://secure-shore-09876.herokuapp.com/, but they agreed this is a useful application for quickly generating a secure password.

Local Installation

Ready to run in your favorite code editor. Fork, download, or clone.

Technologies and Resources

File Structure

├── assets
|  ├── copyBtn.js <--Handles Copy Button Functionality-->
|  ├── favicon.ico
|  ├── images
|  ├── pwGen.js <--Handles password criteria inputs and generates output -->
|  └── style.css
├── index.html
└── README.md

Questions

You can reach the author, Jessica Blankemeier, via jessicablankemeier@gmail.com

jessicablank/password-generator