Forem: Neeraj S

Post-SSLC Project: An Electromagnetic Web-Shooter Prototype

Neeraj S — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:23:02 +0000

Web-Shooter: A Post-SSLC Electromagnetic Prototype 🕸️⚡️

I developed a Web-Shooter based on the principles of Electromagnetic Induction, started right after my SSLC examinations. The core inspiration for this project came from the movie: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

The project is currently a firmware-first prototype, focusing on the logic required to trigger a solenoid launch sequence using an ESP32.

Current Progress

I am currently iterating on the hardware implementation, specifically focusing on:

MOSFET Power Stage: To handle the high current required by the solenoid.
Back-EMF Protection: Implementing a flyback diode to protect the ESP32 from inductive spikes.

Open Source

I have officially published the releases and licensed the project under the MIT License.

Check out the Repository

You can find the full source code, firmware logic, and documentation here:
👉 https://github.com/serial-commit-dev/Web-Shooter

Built a Login Page as Prototype: A Vanilla JS Project

Neeraj S — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 06:33:32 +0000

I built a login page prototype from scratch, using a minimalistic Figma template as a visual reference, to focus on front-end structure and vanilla JS validation logic. This is a demo/learning project to practice DOM manipulation and client-side form handling.

You can view the full source code here:

https://github.com/serial-commit-dev/Login-UI

My First Month of Portfolio Analytics: Tracking a 600%+ Traffic Boost & a Big Engagement Mystery!

Neeraj S — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 10:19:51 +0000

Hey everyone! 👋 As a beginner developer, launching my portfolio a month ago felt like a huge step, but what came next was even more exciting: diving into the analytics! I immediately set up GA4, and after spending the first few weeks building and tweaking, I started a focused effort to get eyes on my work.

This post is a mini-case study of my first-month data—the incredible highs, some puzzling lows, and the analytical lessons I'm learning along the way.

1. The Overview: Big Wins for a Small Site!

This month, after some initial days with zero traffic, I focused on a few simple promotional strategies, including sharing project updates on LinkedIn, posting a link in a relevant Discord server for feedback, and subtly mentioning it in my online developer community interactions.

The results for a small, new site have been super motivating!

Key Metrics Snapshot:

Active Users: 43 (A massive +616.7% over the previous period!)
Views: 137 (An incredible +1,270.0%!)
User Engagement: 20m 01s total time.

It just goes to show that even a little effort in promotion can lead to huge percentage gains when you're starting from scratch. Keep at it!

2. Geographical Discoveries: Who's Visiting?

It’s truly wild to see that people from all over the world have visited my portfolio! This map clearly shows where my first 43 users came from. My strongest audience seems to be in India and the US, with some presence in Europe and other parts of Asia/Oceania.

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any insights you might have!

The fifth fundamental data type: string, number, boolean, null, and jason

Neeraj S — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 05:32:19 +0000

[Boost]

Neeraj S — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:53:18 +0000

10 Developer Habits That Separate Good Programmers From Great Ones

TheBitForge ・ Nov 18

#webdev #programming #productivity #javascript

"My Portfolio Got 17-Minute Average Engagement - Here's How It Happened"

Neeraj S — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 12:51:21 +0000

My Portfolio Got 17-Minute Average Engagement. I'm 16. Here's How It Happened.

About 3 months ago, I shipped my first developer portfolio using GitHub Pages. I added Google Analytics on a whim, just to see if anyone would ever visit.

Yesterday, I checked the report and my jaw hit the floor.

Average User Engagement: 17 minutes, 5 seconds.

I'm a 16-year-old developer from Kerala, India, and this is the story of how it happened—from the first mysterious user to the analytics deep dive that revealed everything.

The Humble Beginning: What I Built

My stack was simple:

HTML & CSS for the structure and style
Vanilla JavaScript for a contact form
SheetDB as a backend to save submissions to Google Sheets
GitHub Pages for hosting
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to track everything

The portfolio itself features my projects, which are a mix of web development and Arduino hardware builds, like VigiLight (a motion-activated visual alert system for the hearing impaired) and the IntelliToll System (an automated toll gate).

I didn't use any fancy frameworks. I just built it and put it out there.

The "Aha!" Moment: The User from Tucson and the Ghost Submission

The first sign that something was working was when I saw a form submission from a user in Tucson, Arizona, USA. I was ecstatic... until I checked my Google Sheet and the data wasn't there.

This began a frantic debugging session that taught me my first big lesson: always use a <form> tag.

My original contact "form" was just a collection of <input> fields and a <button> with an onclick handler. It worked most of the time, but if a user's browser blocked scripts or the connection was slow, it would fail silently.

The Fix:

<!-- Before (The Problem) -->
<section id="contact">
  <input type="text" id="name">
  <button onclick="postData()">Submit</button>
</section>

<!-- After (The Solution) -->
<form id="contact-form">
  <input type="text" id="name">
  <button type="button" onclick="postData()">Submit</button>
</form>

This small change stabilized everything. The form was now a proper HTML form, and my JavaScript fetch function to SheetDB worked reliably.

Cracking the 17-Minute Engagement Code

Once the data started flowing consistently, the real story was in the GA4 dashboard.

Here's what the data showed for this month:

👥 21 Active Users
⏱️ 17m 05s Average Engagement Time
👀 107 Views
🖱️ 255 Event Count

My first thought was: "This has to be a mistake." Who spends 17 minutes on a simple portfolio?

But looking deeper, it made sense. My Arduino projects were the differentiator. They weren't just another To-Do app or calculator. They were unique, physical projects with a story. People weren't just scanning; they were reading.

The data showed users were viewing ~5 pages per session, exploring multiple projects and reading the detailed descriptions.

What I Learned: The Real Takeaways

Build Unique Projects. In a sea of web app tutorials, a hardware project like an Arduino-based alert system stands out and creates a genuine reason for people to stay.
Analytics Are Your Best Teacher. Without GA4, I would have never known what was working. It turns guesses into data-driven decisions.
Just Ship It. I didn't wait to learn React or build a perfect full-stack app. I used the tools I had (HTML, CSS, JS) and put my work online. The feedback and traffic became my motivation to learn more.
The Fundamentals Matter. That missing <form> tag caused a major bug. Understanding the basics of how HTML forms work is more important than jumping to the latest framework.

My Stack & Tools That Made It Possible

Frontend: Pure HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Backend/Data: SheetDB.io (turns a Google Sheet into an API)
Hosting: GitHub Pages (free and perfect for static sites)
Analytics: Google Analytics 4 (free and incredibly powerful)

What's Next?

I'm now diving deeper into JavaScript and React to make my projects more interactive, while also beginning my journey into backend development with Node.js. Understanding the full stack will let me build more complex, full-featured applications. This entire analytics-driven experience has been the best motivation possible.

I'd love to hear from you:

What's one thing I should improve on my portfolio?
How do I turn this engagement into real opportunities?
What should I learn next?

You can check out my portfolio here: My Portfolio
The code is, of course, open source on GitHub.
Thanks for reading! This is only the beginning.

Forem: Neeraj S

Post-SSLC Project: An Electromagnetic Web-Shooter Prototype

Web-Shooter: A Post-SSLC Electromagnetic Prototype 🕸️⚡️

Current Progress

Open Source

Check out the Repository

Built a Login Page as Prototype: A Vanilla JS Project

My First Month of Portfolio Analytics: Tracking a 600%+ Traffic Boost & a Big Engagement Mystery!

1. The Overview: Big Wins for a Small Site!

2. Geographical Discoveries: Who's Visiting?

The fifth fundamental data type: string, number, boolean, null, and jason

[Boost]

10 Developer Habits That Separate Good Programmers From Great Ones

TheBitForge ・ Nov 18

"My Portfolio Got 17-Minute Average Engagement - Here's How It Happened"

My Portfolio Got 17-Minute Average Engagement. I'm 16. Here's How It Happened.

The Humble Beginning: What I Built

The "Aha!" Moment: The User from Tucson and the Ghost Submission

Cracking the 17-Minute Engagement Code

What I Learned: The Real Takeaways

My Stack & Tools That Made It Possible

What's Next?

[Boost]

Welcome Thread - v351

Sloan the DEV Moderator for The DEV Team ・ Nov 12