This post is the final part of an 8-part series going in-depth into how to build a robust real-world frontend app data layer. See the previous parts here: Part 1: Intro Part 2: Setting up React and Redux Part 3: Login Part 4: Backend Data Part 5: Offline ... more
This post is the seventh part of an 8-part series going in-depth into how to build a robust real-world frontend app data layer. See the previous parts here: Part 1: Intro Part 2: Setting up React and Redux Part 3: Login Part 4: Backend Data Part 5: Offline ... more
This post is the sixth part of an 8-part series going in-depth into how to build a robust real-world frontend app data layer. See the previous parts here: Part 1: Intro Part 2: Setting up React and Redux Part 3: Login Part 4: Backend Data Part 5: Offline ... more
This post is the fourth part of an 8-part series going in-depth into how to build a robust real-world frontend app data layer. See the previous parts here: Part 1: Intro Part 2: Setting up React and Redux Part 3: Login In this post we’ll switch from ... more
This post is the fifth part of an 8-part series going in-depth into how to build a robust real-world frontend app data layer. See the previous parts here: Part 1: Intro Part 2: Setting up React and Redux Part 3: Login Part 4: Backend Data Before we get ... more
This post is the second part of an 8-part series going in-depth into how to build a robust real-world frontend app data layer. See the previous parts here: Part 1: Intro In this post we’ll set up the React/Redux app that will serve as the basis for our ... more
This post is the third part of an 8-part series going in-depth into how to build a robust real-world frontend app data layer. See the previous parts here: Part 1: Intro Part 2: Setting up React and Redux Starting in this post, we’ll connect our React/Redux ... more
This post is the first part of an 8-part series going in-depth into how to build a robust real-world frontend app data layer. This first post sets the stage for where we’ll be going in the series. The series will start May 20th and one post will be released ... more
In Part 1, we discussed what made GraphQL an attractive technology for one of our client projects. We ended up learning a good amount about the technology. Here’s what was great, what was okay, and what was disappointing about the experience. What worked ... more
TensorFlow kicked off their 3rd annual summit with a lot of new developments and releases. We have new updates on almost every aspect of TensorFlow. If you are new to TensorFlow, it is an open source collection of libraries and tools from Google for ... more
You Should Have a Test Suite Software tests improve confidence in an application’s behavior, make it easier to grow and maintain, help identify breaking bugs and can even serve as a form of documentation. For a developer practicing TDD, writing tests ... more
From React to Vue: Re-Vue-sable Components For many developers, the most beloved part of any modern front-end framework is the ability to create clear and modular components. React took off like a storm by celebrating its “Just JavaScript” roots, bringing ... more
To 2019, and Beyond! Technology is always growing and improving, so it’s always good to know what new things are around the corner. In the spirit of the new year, I’d like to share some of the things I’m excited to learn more about in 2019. What Was Will ... more
When React Native Makes Sense There are three versions of the React Native story. One says that React Native is a silver bullet that allows you to ship two apps for the price of one. Another would have you believe that React Native is the same, disappointing ... more
There was a brief era when everything had “Flavor Crystals:” chewing gum, deodorant, sports drinks mix, toothpaste, air fresheners, whatever. If you had a product, it could be made more compelling with flavor crystals. When the term “Cloud” was first ... more
React Native apps are native apps. It’s a heck of a coup they’ve pulled off, and while I have my concerns around adopting the technology, “Is it native?” isn’t one of them. But what is “native”? I suspect whether you agree with me hinges on what we each ... more
Part 1: State management for modern frameworks If you have used modern front-end JavaScript frameworks. You have probably heard of Redux or Vuex at some point. Why they all end in “x”, I can’t tell you… I can tell you what they have in common. They are ... more
The Growth of JavaScript There is no doubt that the web is one of the most influential platforms of our time. The power and impact of the web in recent years can largely be attributed to the explosion of JavaScript. Its expansion out of the web browser ... more
JavaScript Project Structure JavaScript developers don’t have the benefit of frameworks with common structures like Ruby on Rails or Django. This can lead to inconsistent projects which reduces the ability of a team to onboard new members or find critical ... more
One of React’s strengths is the simplicity of the code it allows you to create. There’s one part of React code that has always seemed overly complex to me, though: event handlers in class components. Event handlers in React are passed as simple functions. ... more
Google announced a really exciting feature at this year’s Google I/O that allows developers to perform background tasks that would traditionally require detailed knowledge of various API levels and the background task libraries available for those APIs. ... more
The State of JavaScript 2017 survey says that the two most popular JavaScript testing frameworks are Mocha and Jasmine. They both use the same peculiar API: describe() , beforeEach() , and it() . What’s up with this? Why not just call your tests test() ... more
As consultants, it is part of our job to recommend technologies to our clients for use in their projects. React Native is one such technology we consider to reduce development time and save clients money. React Native is great for certain use cases, ... more
Sooner or later, your React web app will probably accept file uploads—perhaps to change out a user’s avatar or share images on a social site. In modern browsers, the story for working with binary data is downright impressive thanks to objects like File ... more
In the last post, I promised to tell you how breadth-first object traversal came into play testing React Native apps. Today is the day! As it turns out, unit testing React Native code is really no different than testing any other JavaScript, especially ... more
Love it or hate, JavaScript is everywhere. Recently, I took another step toward assimilation by attending the Big Nerd Ranch Front-end Essentials bootcamp. And… all biases aside, IT WAS GREAT! I began the week with two goals: How to even modern CSS? ... more
In Part 2 of this series, we automated downloading front-end libraries using npm . Once they were downloaded, we automated copying them into our Public/ directory using laravel-mix . This is a great start, but as you add more front-end dependencies to ... more
In part one of this series, we added some JavaScript (JS) and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) files to our Vapor web app. We also manually downloaded some third-party front-end libraries. In this part, we’ll look at automating that download using a package ... more
It has always been possible to use Kotlin on the server. Numerous Java server frameworks happily run any JVM bytecode, whether the code was originally written in Java, Kotlin, Scala or even JRuby. But if you are an Android developer who wants to build ... more
Mockito, the popular Java test double library, got a major version bump when it moved to 2.1 last fall. It’s been changing quickly—we’re currently at 2.8.53 at the time of this writing. We’ve been watching those changes, and are excited about a lot of ... more