Current insights and exciting web development techniques in javascript, React.js, Node.js, HTML5 and other leading edge technologies
“It’s so rare that something actually comes along that really changes how we think about building stuff” - Michael Jackson
“For me personally, it changed the way that I code as much as jQuery did back in 2008.” - Michael Jackson
“OMG, This is really going to change the way that I work and how much I enjoy my job on a day to day basis.” - Michael Jackson
“What excites me about React.js is… it doesn’t care about your data model, you just use plain JavaScript objects… For my models I use: array, Object, Number, …” - Ryan Florence
“The new paradigm with React.js is we aren’t observing, we aren’t having a bunch of events, we are just throwing data at functions and then they return descriptions of UI” - Ryan Florence
“It’s hard to explain until you start doing it how big of a shift this makes in your user interface development, to not worry about your app over time; you’re not mutating the state of objects over time in your UI components” - Ryan Florence
“We get to use the solutions that JavaScript already provides like modules and scope… we don’t have to wait for the framework’s template language to implement a solution for that” - Ryan Florence
For me, one of the most awkward parts about #Emberjs is switching back and forth between Handlebars templates and component code. Any ideas?
— Michael Jackson (@mjackson) May 13, 2014“At Instructure, we bet on Ember… we were messing with it for almost a year and kind of weren’t shipping anything…” - Ryan Florence
“After an hour of using React.js, I had my face in my hands and said… I want to use this everywhere” - Ryan Florence
“After two hours I actually had something working, and that probably impressed me the most about React.js” - Ryan Florence
“I was never able to just pick up something as quickly as I was able to pick up React.js and build a router” - Michael Jackson
“Two guys who had no idea what they were doing (with React.js) were able to make something (ReactRouter) that worked and was useful for other people” - Michael Jackson
“Then I just threw all of my toughest problems that I had ever run into as a frontend developer at React.js” - Ryan Florence
“At Instructure we had this hack week, I encouraged a couple of my coworkers to use React.js for their projects… every single one of them came back and asked: When are putting this into our stack?” - Ryan Florence
“This is something that I really feel that the React.js authors have seriously nailed on the head, they’ll say they care about the community, and then they will show it by listening, participating, and working with us” - Michael Jackson
@ebryn @ryanflorence @mjackson At Stampsy, JSX enabled our designer to author, refactor and tweak components at crazy speed.
— Dan Abramov (@dan_abramov) September 28, 2014“I am just so impressed by the React.js community… everybody is helping and sharing, all trying to move our industry forward” - Jeff Barczewski
“The people I have found in the React.js community have been genuine. Their desire to help you understand is genuine. Their desire to learn is genuine. It’s been inspiring for me as well.” - Michael Jackson
Michael and Ryan have launched some React.js training starting this April. CodeWinds listeners can get a $300 discount to their San Francisco training this April 16-17, 2015. Use the link: http://codewinds.com/reactsf
The premier online course and community where you learn React.js by pragmatically building a real web app while applying TDD/BDD principles
Keynote on React.js and React Native from React.js Conf 2015
Today I will fill you in on the large project that I was working on, its launch, and my CodeWinds focus and content planning for the coming year.
The links and show notes for this podcast are available http://codewinds.com/14 as in episode 14.
First, I want to start with an apology, I left you, my community, hanging without any explanation for too long. So I wanted to give you a little of the back story and update you on where CodeWinds is going.
When I launched CodeWinds in 2013, my goal was to bring you the latest web developer news and training which I would deliver through my blog, podcast, and video courses. Well just after I started working on content, a local enterprise reached out with an ultra important need to rapidly build a scalable resilient platform for a large client. I didn’t even know the specifics of their client until the launch a year later. Well this enterprise was MasterCard. Our client turned out to be none other than Apple, and we were building the MasterCard ApplePay system. Wow.
This was such an awesome opportunity to apply my knowledge and skills to such an important project. When I joined the team, I intended to continue delivering CodeWinds content in my spare time, however the project demanded more of my focus than I anticipated, especially as we approached the launch. We poured our hearts into making sure that our platform was battle ready. And what happened on launch day? … well everything just worked.
It was one of those priceless moments when everything comes together, like a symphony of technology and collaboration. The launch was described by some the senior staff as being possibly the most successful MasterCard launch of all time. It was complex, involving so many partners, yet it came together beautifully. I was blessed to be a part of this amazing team.
Yet in all the success we had with this project, I failed you my CodeWinds community. I focussed so completely on the project that my content creation ground to a halt. I should have communicated with you, so you wouldn’t be left hanging and wondering what had happened. For that I am truly sorry, and ask for your forgiveness.
Fast forward to today, what’s in store for my future and that of CodeWinds. Well I am happy to say that I’m back. After much soul searching, I departed from the MasterCard team to work on CodeWinds fulltime. My desire is to bring you the best leading edge full stack web developer content.
In the past few months, I have been doing a deep dive into React.js and its family. I’m so excited by the development and innovation going on in the React.js community.
“I believe the ideas and technology developing from the React.js community will profoundly influence how we build web and mobile apps.”
I’m currently planning a course on React.js and then will follow it with other topics like ES6, Hapi, Node, building resilient systems, and using HTML5.
I’ll offer this material in a variety of ways, but the primary mechanism will be online courses with training videos and exercises that you can follow at your own pace or in conjunction with those in a class. These will be real world projects similar to that which you would build at your companies.
I don’t like the simple hello world style examples which are so far removed from our real projects that it is hard to see how you really would do things in practice. So these will be real projects solving real problems including proper testing and error handling. I’ll deliver these video lessons in bite sized chunks that build on each other, so you can go directly to a specific topic or learn from beginning to end. I’ll continue to blog and produce this podcast with related materials to complement all of these areas.
To be successful in this endeavor, I really depend on your input for the technologies and training you would like me to cover, especially the key topics or questions that you struggle with when building complex web applications. I just want to make sure I am working on the most pertinent topics for you. So if you could just spare a few moments, I would really appreciate your input, head over to http://codewinds.com/topics which will redirect you to a Google Doc.
Check out the major categories, questions, topics, and provide your own. If you see existing ideas that resonate and interest you, please add a +1 next to them so I can gauge interest and priorities. If you have ideas for the types of apps we might build, please add that as well. I’m open to all your ideas and needs, just add them to the doc.
I want to thank you for staying with me through this prolonged start and I am excited about what we’ll be able to accomplish together in the future.
I hope you are subscribed to my leading edge member list because you won’t want to miss the next episode of the CodeWinds podcast on React.js with Michael Jackson and Ryan Florence. We had a fantastic discussion about React.js and I think you’ll start to see why I am excited about everything coming out of the React.js community.
Michael and Ryan have launched some React.js training starting this April and for CodeWinds listeners you can get a $300 discount to their San Francisco training this April 16-17, 2015. Use the link: http://codewinds.com/reactsf
The links and show notes for this episode are available at http://codewinds.com/14
If you would like to keep up on the latest in web developer news and training, follow me on codewinds.com where you’ll find this podcast, tutorials, and video training covering javascript, React.js, and Node.js.
Nico Bevacqua, the author of JavaScript Application Design which is in early access at Manning, explains more about JS continuous development, integration, and deployment. We discuss build tools, module systems, component architectures, MVC, and finally the experience of writing a traditionally published book.
Published by Manning, currently available as early access edition - Purchase at Manning
Watch Nico Bevacqua’s JSConf talk on YouTube
Slides from Nico Bevacqua JSConf 2014: Front End Ops Tooling - Slideshare
Spike explains the different categories of Isomorphic apps and how this is accomplished. He mentions various tools for facilitating sharing across browser, server, and devices. He shares how Airbnb, Yahoo, Flickr, Facebook, Instagram are using some of these technologies today. Finally, he provides resources to help others learn and get started.
Watch Spike Brehm’s JSConf talk on YouTube
Slides from Spike Brehm JSConf 2014: Building Isomorphic Apps - Slideshare
JavaScript module loading has traditionally been difficult due to diverse module formats and difficult configuration. With so many competing standards it is hard to get everything to work well together.
Guy has come forward with a solution which simplifies loading and management of JS packages. This is a full workflow solution including both dynamic loading and capability to build bundles for production.
NodeSource is a professional Node.js software company. NodeSource provides enterprise-grade software products and educational and professional consulting services to empower companies to be effective and productive with Node.js.
Saul Maddox, a software engineer for PROS, joins me in this episode of CodeWinds to discuss his Hapi-Ninja boilerplate which helps developers get up and running with the Hapi Node.js web framework.
We discuss in detail the stack he has chosen and the reasons for selecting each:
Saul explains the file structure of Hapi-Ninja mentioning how to configure and get up and running with Hapi quickly and easily.
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