Below are some useful commands when working with Terraform, KubeOne, Kubernetes and EKS: Terraform Note that the default AWS credentials…

Below are some useful commands when working with AWS Elasic Beanstalk (EB): eb init --profile profile_name_here Initialises the EB…

I answered a question on the Udacity Knowledge platform about what to use when testing React. I have reposted it below for reference…

I am a huge fan of Cypress ! For someone that had never done end-to-end testing before, I find it both familiar, and intuitive. Which is…

Cypress is a fantastic tool for running end-to-end test on your applications. If you are running your app through Docker, you can set…

If you are in the Johannesburg area and have the benefit or flexibility of working from a distributed or remote office, I highly recommend…

If you have a service or module that you need to mock for tests, you can easily do this with Jest . Mocking a Service In order to mock one…

Following on from yesterday's post, in addtion to getting WordPress, MySQL and phpMyAdmin running from one docker-compose up command, I…

Brad Traversy has a great introductory video to running WordPress, MySQL and phpMyAdmin within a Docker container. In short, he shows you…

Auth0's " silent authentication " feature enables you to automatically log users back into SPA's (single page applications) after a page…

I first came across the Roost Laptop Stand after reading a blog post by Felix Krause where he mentioned it (see the section titled "Did…

Flask-RESTplus comes with built-in Swagger integration. It is however, not entirely obvious how to specify what Authorisation is required…

It is often useful to nest models when working with Flask-RESTplus . Let's say that you ultimately wanted your JSON output for a…

Something a little different for today. For the past year or so, I have been wakeskating more or less regularly (excluding winter). While I…

Last year I came across a blog post by Michael Herman titled ("Flask for Node Developers") https://mherman.org/blog/flask-for-node…

When working with Docker, it can be a bit of a chore to have to pass your environment variables in from the command line. Fortunately Docker…

To test API endpoints that sit behind Auth0 authorisation you can use your Auth0 "Test Application" to generate auth tokens. This will…

Auth0 , in short, is "authentication-as-a-service". When building an app or service, you let Auth0 handle the user registration, login…

On a recent project, I have been using Flask-RESTplus for building and auto-documenting an API. Flask-RESTplus comes with Swagger…

When working with Pytest , it is tempting to keep re-using the same old commands. However, there are some really useful options you can…

When working with Docker, it is a good idea to keep on eye on your space management. If you are building and running numerous images…

Pytest is an intuitive and easy to use testing library for writing Python unit tests. One incredibly useful feature for streamlining your…

In life, it is a good idea to wash regularly, brush your teeth, clean and iron your clothes etc. In coding, it is much the same. Code…

Just a quick one today, when using GitLab CI/CD for managing your pipelines, be sure to validate your .gitlab-ci.yml file before committing…

Welcome to 2020! Postman is an immensely useful tool for working with, documenting and testing APIs. Collections Firstly, it is advisable…

Some useful examples on basic SQL usage: Based on the following ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram) All. SELECT * from orders; Column…

Today I began a new nanodegree from Udacity: the Full Stack Web Developer Nanodegree . After successfully completing my React Developer…

Now that I have some experience creating React end-to-end (e2e) tests with Cypress, I have been looking into ways of doing the same with…

A few thoughts on Expo and Jest: Expo. When using Expo with React Native applications, I have found it best to use the LAN option when…

The Ionic team has announced Ionic React ! While Ionic has long been known as an "Angular" framework for building mobile apps using web…

If you are looking to learn Flexbox, this is quite a fun game for getting the hang of it: Flexbox Froggy Granted, it seems very oriented to…

Build Tools and Package Managers. When it comes to Package Managers, I doubt you would get very far in the modern JavaScript world without…

I came across Adam Golab's "React Developer Roadmap" some time ago, however, having spent the past few weeks deep-diving into React, I…

I went wakeskating today again for the only the second time this season. The past few weeks have been tricky for me, I have had some…

I really like Lodash. Granted, there might be some who would prefer to write the necessary code from scratch, and this certainly is a good…

Here is some quick and easy Cypress to get you going: The following will grab the an input, enter the text "my text goes here" into the…

A real "Today I Learned" for a change: Occassionally you may get NPM shouting at you about access permissions. If you do, try running the…

If you have not tried Cypress.io , I would suggest you give it a shot! In short, Cypress.io is a JavaScript-based library for writing end…

As part of the Udacity React Nanodegree course, the section on Redux has students building a basic implementation of Redux. The app is a…

Today I started learning some Redux. As I understand it, Redux, in short is a predictable state container for JavaScript apps with the…

The Udacity React Nanodegree's first project is a simple application called "My Reads". Effectively, the app involves you adding and moving…

I completed the first course's materials in the Udacity React Nanodegree program today. After spending the first few sections getting up to…

One thing I have noticed so far in this course is that, having sections to read through, as well as videos to watch is that I find that the…

Today I took the leap and signed-up to the React Nanodegree course on Udacity . At the same time I pledged to take up the…

With my recent dive into Airtable, I have been looking into options for using Airtable data for a potential use case. First off, Airtable…

I have slowly been getting back to using WordPress. My interest has been re-kindled for the following reasons: Considering the ever…

I started experimenting with React earlier this year and then a few weeks ago, decided to really dig into the topic. I was interested in the…

While I have not been posting regularly of late, a lot has been going on. It has been a real rush of mixing and matching ideas, services and…

Using .reverse() Using .reduce() Using for... of Using a for() loop Using a while() loop Tests.

While I have been a longtime user of Google Sheets. My usage has not been very deep. Mostly just making lists of things I like to keep track…

.nvmrc I have been using .nvmrc files to keep track of which Node version I am using in an app. The thing is, the VS Code Terminal does not…

Cheat Sheet. These are some of the basic Heroku commands to keep in mind once you have the Heroku CLI installed: heroku -v // provides you…

Faker. Faker.js is a really cool utility library for generating, you guessed it! Fake data. This is especially useful when working on…

As part of my experimentation with Glide Apps (and by extension Google Sheets), I asked myself whether I could bring RSS data into my app…

I have been experimenting with Glide Apps over the past few days. Basically, Glide offers the opportunity to generate mobile apps using…

After my build and formatting failures yesterday , I started working with a sense of positivity despite the setbacks. As it turned out, my…

Modern web development services such as package managers (i.e. npm), CLIs (command-line interfaces) and code editor features like plugins…

While doing research yesterday on how to improve my surf pop-up, I came across this image of the Performance Pyramid. At the base lies…

The other day I was having a conversation with a surf instructor, I asked him whether, for someone like me that is just starting out in…

The other day I was watching a video on YouTube by a guy called Ben DeGros. He has a YouTube channel where he posts skateboarding videos. He…

Over the past few months, I have significantly increased my level of physical activity. I originally started jogging on a regular basis to…

Yesterday I went to a climbing gym called CityROCK in Cape Town. This place is amazing! As you walk in, the facility looks fantastic…

These are the podcasts I have been listening to of late: TechMeme Ride Home. Being a web developer, and having more than a passing interest…

Over the past few months, I have been listening to the audiobook series version of Game of Thrones. Mostly, in anticipation for the now…

As is often the case, Fred Wilson put up an article yesterday regarding schooling in the US and the increasing number of charter schools…

Eating habits are a strange thing. Habit, being an operative word. How much of our eating is dictated by habit? I would say: all of it. If…

I recently discovered The Bike Park in Constantia. Situated on the Uitsig wine farm. The bicycle park consists of a number of trails made…

When I was young, I used to skateboard. I really enjoyed it, and through the years, I went through some phases were I would get back into it…

When the going is good you need to get going! Or better yet, make hay while the sun shines! This is a concept that has been on my mind for…

I am currently in Muizenberg in the Western Cape. The goal coming down here was to learn to surf. Muizenberg is one of the best places for…

The JBL Charge 4 is a great portable speaker. About the length and half the height of a regular toaster. It packs a pretty good punch when…

For the past few days, I have been in Langebaan, down on the west coast of South Africa. I came here to do a kiteboarding course. I have…

Considering online security is becoming increasingly important, and the fact that I am currently on a trip, on which I will often be using…

Android. ng build // must ng build first so capacitor can wrap the app ionic capacitor add android ionic capacitor copy android ionic…

Matthew Panzarino has a good overview of how Apple Card works. The whole piece is interesting, but what I really like is this - Panzarino…

I have been a great fan and listener of Audible since 2015. I am currently busy with my 44th title. If you are not a customer, the way it…

For the past two months I have been wakeskating. Similar to wakeboarding, but without the bindings. Essentially, it is skateboarding on…

While I was working at my previous job, my morning routine was as follows: Wake up at 4:55AM, shower, change, brush teeth and leave for work…

Blogs have been a huge part of my online and learning experience over the years. I still read an enormous amount via RSS feeds of my…

I am a big fan of online, video based learning. In a field such as programming, I find it works very well. One, being programmers, we…

Despite my renewed interest in design work, I have experienced some "design block" the past few days. I have been working at design, but I…

I first started using Audible in 2015. Since then, I have completed listening to 42 titles amounting to a staggering 1 month, 1 day, 6 hours…

Since watching the incredible Free Solo , a documentary about climber Alex Honnold's free solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite. Something…

For the past few weeks, I have been getting back into some long lost hobbies of mine. Namely, wakeskating (like wakeboarding, but without…

It has been slow-going since I started designing my app. Getting back up to speed with Sketch has gone well, however, getting up to speed…

Now that I am getting going with Sketch again. Below are some notes on my setup: Sketch Version. I had long since upgraded my version, as…

I used to work a lot in Photoshop, and in later years, I taught myself Sketch. I did not used it heavily, but I was comfortable enough to…

Today is officially "Day One" for me in a new career as an independent software designer and developer. Waking up this morning, I had two…

"Day One" is officially done. I am mostly happy with how the day went, however, there are a few lessons I have learned: Keep Your Laptop…

Over the years, I hope that I have learned a thing or two. Mostly from making mistakes, and hopefully learning from them! Work according to…

I started a newsletter! The first post is titled "This Is It. Motivations for Change". You can read it here: This is It.

I have been trying out Substack . In short, it is a subscription email newsletter/blog service that enables you to write and publish…

Over the last few days, I have had several interactions with 'support' services from various companies. The interaction with phone support…

GraphiQL (which you can pronounce as 'graphical') is the user interface for interacting with a GraphQL API. It is more or less equivalent to…

Environment variables are an important part of any codebase. I have found using dotenv to be particularly useful. Effectively, you would…

It suprising to me how effective the little coloured circles are on the Activity Tracker on the Apple Watch. Ever since I bought the Apple…

Some of the times the thoughts, ideas and lessons come easily and you can write about them. At others they don't. Leaving work today, I was…

When it comes to habits or routines, my feeling is it is best to do what you need to do first thing! First thing might mean first thing in…

I have been a fan and user of the Insomnia REST Client for quite some time. Initially, I was a regular Postman user, but when Postman…

Last week I started working towards building a basic microservice in Node.js. I have been following along with the Node.js Microservices…

Here are some PM2 commands: pm2 start ecosystem.config.js pm2 stop all pm2 delete all pm2 show id-of-process pm2 env 0 pm2 log pm2 monit…

Working on difficult, unstable projects can be demotivating. When builds break unexpectedly and the codebase seems to reveal new, unexpected…

In the teams I work in, I expect the follwing when it comes to bug reporting: Clear description of the bug Clear, defined steps to…

The feeling of progress can be elusive in development. Many days it may feel as if you are sitting and banging your head against something…

Microservices are certainly a hot development topic at present. One of my current projects is in early planning stages for moving from one…

Lodash is a great utility library for working with data in JavaScript. Combined ES6 functionality, Lodash really helps in making your code…

I have been a longtime reader of Fred Wilson's blog, AVC . Over the years, it has started to become one of my favourite reads and I look…

Documentation has a bad reputation amongst developers. This needs to change. If you think "documentation" means a Word document attached to…

Development is not easy. Sometimes you get stuck. Sometimes you miss things which later seem obvious. Sometimes you need that Github Gist or…

I have worked with various text editors throughout my career. I started out using Macromedia Dreamweaver, then moved onto Sublime Text and…

At work, I often work on the front-end of Java projects. Oftentimes, this means setting up Java projects eventhough you only need to work on…

I have been avoiding this. Ever since I first encountered the binary tree in the Daily Coding Problems, I have been procrastinating on this…

These are some tips when coding with React: Components When creating components, use the component first before implementing it. That is…

The past few years, working with JavaScript, the for loop was the go-to tool I used for iterating and working on collections. Over the last…

I have become a big fan of Markdown! It's the de-facto standard for readme files, and having spent a considerable amount of time working in…

Despite the GUI interfaces provided for working with Git by VS Code and IntelliJ, I tend to stick to the command line when working with Git…

Today I needed to skip Daily Coding Problem 3 and moved onto problem 4 because: I first need to learn more about binary trees before…

After the relative failures in my coding problem yesterday - I decided to attempt the "Possible Improvements" suggested. Having understood…

In my previous post , I said that "I feel that algorithms and mathematical-type programming is something I need to improve on". That was an…

I recently subscribed to the Daily Coding Problems email newsletter. As they put it: Get exceptionally good at coding interviews by…

Having now spent some time over the past few days getting more familiar with React, here are some more thoughts on the topic: Use npx…

Simple React Snippets is a VS Code Extensions by Burke Holland which, in a manner similar to Emmet enables you to tab out shortcode into…

I have started a new online course called Mastering React by Mosh Hamedani. I previously completed his The Complete Node.js Course which…

Over the past few days I have been going through several 'official' introductory tutorials. Ionic Last week I spent some time doing a basic…

These are some Redis cheat sheet notes: Installation wget http://download.redis.io/releases/redis-5.0.3.tar.gz tar xzf redis-5.0.3.tar.gz cd…

These are some notes I made while working through the official React Tutorial . React components (except for function components) define…

In recent time, I have found it immensely valuable to, in detail, go through the official "Getting Started" guides/tutorials and…

In order to enable easy Node.js debugging of your Nest.js app from VS Code, do the following. In the root of your project, create a nodemon…

When pasting your JWT token here . Remember to enter your 'secretKey' in the provided blue input in the "Verify Signature" block (bottom…

As far as I can remember, each time I have used the npm module bcrypt I have run into installation/running errors. Typically these are…

My Postgres cheat sheet: Add this to your .bash_profile to ensure psql in on your path (Mac): export PATH="/Applications/Postgres.app…

Ionic is a cross-platform framework for building mobile applications. It sits on top of Cordova. Up until version 3, Ionic served Angular…

Below are a few thoughts and notes on using MySQL with TypeORM. MySQL The default location for MySQL installation (on Mac) is: /usr/local…

As part of the learning process, I have recently been spending some time looking into Vue.js and React.js. My initial thoughts are: Vue.js…

After much reading of documentation and GitHub issues I have realised the following: Personal GitHub account/GitHub pages do not have…

Since my site runs on Gatsby, and the setup of my source branch in respect to my GitHub page was not ideal, I set about to update this setup…

My GitHub page runs on Gatsby, currently, I use a deploy task to push my published HTML pages to GitHub, this however, has lead to my repo…

Sourcerer is a'visual profile for software engineers'. Effectively, it is a service and command-line app that scans your Git repos and…

We host one of our applications on an Azure App Service. The project is deployed manually (not ideal). As a result, I have been looking into…

Having spent the better part of the last year working on one project that is completely reliant on a third-party API. As well as another…

As we reach the end of the year, and work slows down that little bit, we have a brief moment to reflect, reset and refocus. For me, that…

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries should be required reading for any person contributing to the creation of software (or other) products. While…

While I missed posting about this earlier this year (this post has been backdates and manually entered after the fact), I wanted to make a…

I spent some time today getting to grips with the pricing structures on Azure in terms of putting together a proof of concept for running a…

My first Medium comment! see here

How do you measure or represent your ability to do your job? In thinking through this question and reading up on some sources, I came…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2018/06/04. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Just some…

In my journey from front-end developer to full-stack developer, coming to grips with API creation and functionality is a major part of the…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2018/05/15. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. With the…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2018/05/14. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Google CEO…

Unit tests seem to be like flossing - everyone says you should do it... but do you really? Unit testing has been on my development todo…

In the spirit of reflection on the year passed. (This post has been backdated and added after the fact.) I made my first (tiny) commit to…

First day of a new month. It seems to me that while we are adopting agile, we are still very much in a waterfall mindset. I imagine it will…

We are going to be getting a Java developer to do some work with us next week, as result I needed to prepare an environment for him to…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2018/01/29. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. While Amazon…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2018/01/25. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. It seems that…

We finish our first sprint tomorrow. As explained earlier this week, we are running a 1 week sprint since we are a small team. I completed…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2018/01/24. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Mike Wuerthele…

I used to have a printout of this on the office divider at my desk: Link Read the Roman Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times…

As the saying goes "Assumptions are the mother of all ^*&#-ups". The difficulty, at least in building software, is that the specific…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2018/01/22. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. In the spirit…

Our team has very recently begun using Jira. Our current setup is that we have a Backlog (Kanban style) and a Sprint board. This week is our…

I have been pushing myself hard since November of last year to one again revisit my skills as a developer. Setting high goals with a…

Late last year I resolved to unlearn and relearn my skills as a developer. While I have done this at various points in my career, what was…

Why does installing MongoDB require the installation of XCode? Before you say 'Hold on there buddy! You can run Homebrew on X Code's…

npm i busboy azure-storage --save In your Express Generator app/controllers/home.js: (Note that this is just a basic example without login…

When deploying Node.js to Azure, the default entry file is server.js. Make sure to set the port in your app to something like: const port…

Check the OS and architecture in PowerShell: 2 Ways to check which version of Node is running on Azure: Open the Kudu Console (via…

Add static resources to Node.js server Modularize your routes, for example, in /routes/index.js: Then in your main app.js Setup CORS for…

Nodemailer-express-handlebars is a useful plugin for Nodemailer that allows you to use Handlebars templates in your HTML emails | Link…

Determine the version of PowerShell you are running: $PSVersionTable.PSVersion Determine the execution policy on PowerShell (this is…

Recursion - Generally, recursion can be up to 10 times slower than looping. However, recursion can be more elegant, as such, the programmer…

As 2018 begins, one of my primary goals for the first quarter is to improve my JavaScript coding abilities. I have been building websites…

Exercise 2 from Eloquent JavaScript Exercise 3 from Eloquent JavaScript Exercise 4 from Eloquent JavaScript Exercise 5 from Eloquent…

Completed the videos for Ultimate Angular Typscript Fundamentals and AngularJS Performance | Link ng-repeats through large data…

ps aux | To show processes running kill -9 processId | processId being the number of the process you want to kill Node.js fs and querystring…

npm i --save-dev gh-pages | Link Add RSS to Gatsby | Link Completed the Ultimate Angular 1.x Pro videos

You can access the command line arguments in node.js using process.argv console.dir, console.error 200 badges on Treehouse! Link 200 OK…

Node.js. Mind. Blown. | Link nodemon app.js | Link Nodemailer | Link Azure Logic App with SMTP - have not yet found a way to make this…

If you are working behind a corporate proxy, first setup Git for this: git config --global http.proxy http://username:password@proxy:port…

Use | as an alternation in regex patterns The past few days I have been working through some tutorials, one on React and the other on…

You switch locales for AngularJs by including the necessary i18n locale file | Link | Link Install a specific version of a NPM package…

mkdir folder name && cd $ . mkdir -p sub folder name/{sub sub1,sub sub2,sub_sub3} && touch filename.js Switch Chrome tabs on Windows with…

Completed the React Basics course at Treehouse. Install the React Dev Tools Chrome extension, then in chrome://extensions make sure to…

When you run into a code problem, bug or challenge - here are some steps to try get you out of your bind: Acknowledge that you will find…

If you get a grey area on first load of your Ng-Map, try this | Link I had to do a fairly large merge with many conflicts today. My…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/12/14. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Sarah Perez…

If you want to exclude a specific folder from a blanket redirect rule in Web.Config and this to your < condition > When using the AngularJS…

Impostor Syndrome and Expert Beginners . Great article by Erik Dietrich on the expert beginner: Expert beginner Ring a bell? If it did, let…

If you need to overwrite an absolutely positioned element to the other side of the container If you use Microsoft OneNote you can…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/12/12. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Apple Confirms…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/12/12. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. It seems the…

VS Code auto format code: ALT + SHIFT + F AngularJS $state.current to get the current route AngularJS $stateChangeSuccess for UI-Router <…

More Gatsby | Link console.log in a Node.js/React.js context may mean the terminal Ctrl + C to quit the task: gatsby develop Thoughts on…

Last week I was investigating how to display Arabic from right-to-left for a project I am working on. During my investigation, I found a…

npm i -g npm | To update npm Major.Minor.Patch. Breaking changes. Features backwards compatible. Bug fixes backwards compatible. ~ Major…

Git tag | Link Enable Emmet in .jsx files | Link

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/12/07. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. The launch of…

Create variable in Postman: postman.setGlobalVariable("variable", "value"); Discovered the Insomnia App | Link Create multiple terminals in…

Git Log | Link curl -i yourUrlHere | Gives you data and headers for the provided URL curl -o output.txt yourUrlHere | Stores the response…

Generate a CSR from the command line by: openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout yourdomain.key -out yourdomain.csr VS Code…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/12/04. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. I have been an…

Launch VS Code from the command line | Link VS Code key binding for moving a line up or down is: Alt + Up or Alt + Down I started…

This is my first blog post using Gatsby, React and Markdown!

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/10/09. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. I have had the…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/10/02. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Frederic Filoux…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/06/06. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Apple TV is the…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/05/23. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. As a kid…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/05/23. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Great article…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/05/21. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Game of Thrones…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/05/20. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Almost as if on…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/05/15. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. Farhad Manjoo…

Note: This post is a transplant. First published on 2017/05/11. It was written by myself on another site and has been moved. What will…

Amazon has announced the Echo Show , the recently rumoured Echo device with a screen. Video link removed as video is no longer available A…

In 2008, Steve Job's said in an interview with Betsy Morris for Fortune : Things happen fairly slowly, you know. They do. These waves of…

Microsoft continues to release what looks to be impressive hardware in an attempt to pick-up on the high-end customers that do not use a…

The Amazon Echo Look - an always on camera in the bedroom is an interesting product announced by Amazon. Despite being kind of creepy…

It is intriguing to consider some of the challenges that come along with bringing a true edge-to-edge (horizontal and vertical) iPhone to…