Fullstack

React, HTMX, and TanStack/Start

More and more UI frameworks are ditching JSON as the transfer protocol and going back to server-rendered markup injected into your app

HTMX – Server Components without React

Let's be honest: Half the APIs you write are for a specific purpose in a specific component on a specific page. Re-usable in theory but you've never tried. That's where Server Components come in ... but what if your server isn't JavaScript?

Why websites and webapps are different

The website vs webapp debate is at least as old as my career. And it keeps coming up. One camp says "React is too complex you don't need any of that", the other camp goes "I don't understand how you live like this". Both are right.

A pattern for composable UI in Flask

Turn your unwieldy Flask codebase into manageable, composable fragments with this UI pattern. Very close to HTMX.

Why you need a task queue

Task queues have been on my mind lately so here's a little primer on what they are, how they work, and why you need them when your project starts to grow.

The anatomy of a React Island

A coworker asked how React Islands work and I realized it's a technique I've been using to modernize monolithic web codebases for years, but never wrote down how it works.

A few thoughts on tRPC

Discover tRPC's potential in building end-to-end type safe RPC APIs in this insightful blog post. Perfect for developers seeking innovative solutions for server-client separation in webapp development.

Why PATCH endpoints matter

A painful lesson from production that brought several engineers almost to tears: *Please* add PATCH endpoints to your public APIs.

Over-engineering tweet embeds with web components for fun and privacy

A way to embed tweets in static sites with full pre-renders and live updates using just 9kB of client-side JavaScript, 2 HTTP requests, and full reader privacy ✌️

Move your business logic into data

The quickest way to simplify a complex function with lots of logic is to turn it into data. A lesson from production

You are allowed to invent HTTP status codes

A fun problem for RESTful APIs: Did you get 404 because your URL is wrong or because the resource wasn't found?

Better tooling won't fix your API

RESTful APIs are like Agile – everyone does it differently and if it isn't working, it's your fault for doing it wrong. 🤨

How JAMStack helps you ship

Common problem in engineering teams: Stepping on each other's toes. JAMStack can help.

Why NextJS /api routes are fab – CodeWithSwiz 6

In this episode of CodeWithSwiz, we tried NextJS's support for /api routes – code running on the backend. In a word – Wow

In 2020's, what is "frontend"? 🤨

"He's a frontend guy, is this even a fair question to ask?" The head of engineering was worried about our systems design question …

How GraphQL blows REST out of the water

Let's have a look at hyow GraphQL makes queries so much easier and more pleasant than REST

It's never been this easy to build a webapp

We live in exciting times my friend. It's never been this easy to build a webapp and make your first $1,000/month.

Is hot dog taco?

What if I told you modern tools let you build and launch a small webapp in 30 minutes? Complete with SSL, a .com domain, a database, a documented API, CDN hosting, fast static initial loads, and a hydrated SPA? That's the challenge I posed at Silicon Valley Code Camp this weekend. The audience didn't believe me, so it was time to perform some magic. 🧙

How to add real web push notifications to your webapp

You've probably seen web notifications before. YouTube shows them when it goes to a new song, Facebook pings them when a new message comes in, scammy websites ask for permissions and you say no. The usual. You can fire those notifications from anywhere inside your JavaScript.

How to waste hours of life with fetch() and a bit of brainfart

Both superagent and fetch() enable you to talk to a server. The first produces clean code that gets nesty if you need many things. The second produces clean code that is Promis-y and sometimes cumbersome. The difference between superagent and fetch() isn't that one sends your headers as-given and the other lowercases their names. The difference is that superagent sends a cookie and fetch() doesn't!

The one thing flexbox can't do

Writing modular Backbone with Backbone.SubRoute

Always look for the gem

I infiltrated #railsgirlslj, here's what it was like

How to tell a phone your website is an app

Blackbox testing node.js apps

Web page segmentation

A lesson about client-side templating

Django protip #2: Forms are awesome