Tech News - Web Development

CASL has released a new version 2.0 bringing with it several compelling opportunities for enhancing web app authorization methods. CASL is an isomorphic authorization JavaScript library which allows you to fix user abilities in the system. It grants you to set permissions in order to access the required resources in the system. You need to define the permissions in a single location since you cannot duplicate them across UI components, API services, and database queries. Some of the noteworthy changes available in CASL 2.0 are: Package Refactoring Refactoring is a process of changing a software system to improve the internal structure of the code without altering the external performance.   The lerna project has refactored CASL 2.0 to monorepo. Because of which MongoDB related functionality is moved into a different package, thus decreasing the core library size. You can find the core package at casl/ability and MongoDB related functionality at casl/mongoose, while helper function at casl/ability/extra. You don’t need to worry about updating your dependencies, thanks to renovate bot. CASL procures Frontend frameworks CASL now has complementary packages for leading frontend frameworks such as React, Vue, Angular and Aurelia. You can now integrate CASL into different single page applications with ease.   For more details, you can refer the README file for each library: CASL Vue package CASL React package CASL Angular package CASL Aurelia package Set abilities per fields Now you can set permissions per field of your application. For example if you want certain users with the ability to change the name of the product but not the product description. You can see suitable form fields for different roles in the admin panel Demo Examples If you want demo tutorials as per CASL 2.0 and complementary packages you can visit: Integrate CASL authorization in Vuejs2 application using CASL and Vue Integrate CASL authorization in React application using CASL and React Integrate CASL authorization in Aurelia application using CASL and Aurelia Integrate CASL authorization in Expressjs application using CASL and Expressjs Integrate CASL authorization in Feathersjs application using CASL and Feathersjs If you want to start implementing CASL library in your project or work, you can visit the GitHub page.

Mozilla is building a bridge between Rust and JavaScript. The bridge - Wasm-bindgen - allows Rust to interact with Web Assembly modules and JavaScript. One of Mozilla's aims is to turn Rust into a language for web development; building a link to WebAssembly is perhaps the most straightforward way for it to run on the web. But this doesn't mean Mozilla wants Rust to replace JavaScript - far from it. The plan is instead for Rust to be a language that runs alongside JavaScript on the backend. Read more about Mozilla's plan here. What is wasm-bindgen? It's worth reading this from the Mozilla blog to see the logic behind wasm-bidgen and how it's going to work: "Today the WebAssembly specification only defines four types: two integer types and two floating-point types. Most of the time, however, JS and Rust developers are working with much richer types! For example, JS developers often interact with document to add or modify HTML nodes, while Rust developers work with types like Result for error handling, and almost all programmers work with strings. Being limited only to the types that WebAssembly provides today would be far too restrictive, and this is where wasm-bindgen comes into the picture. The goal of wasm-bindgen is to provide a bridge between the types of JS and Rust. It allows JS to call a Rust API with a string, or a Rust function to catch a JS exception. wasm-bindgen erases the impedance mismatch between WebAssembly and JavaScript, ensuring that JavaScript can invoke WebAssembly functions efficiently and without boilerplate, and that WebAssembly can do the same with JavaScript functions." This is exciting as it is a valuable step in expanding the capabilities of Rust. But the thinking behind wasm-bindgen will also help to further drive the adoption of web assembly. While the focus is, of course, on Rust at the moment, there's a possibility that wasm-bindgen could eventually be used with other languages, such as C and C++. This might take some time, owever. Download wasm-bindgen from GitHub.

Coinbase announced the launch of their Coinbase Commerce API on April 3rd. This represents an interesting step in the cryptocurrency world as it will allow eCommerce merchants to accept multiple cryptocurrencies in a "user controlled wallet". This means that those stores that want to accept cryptocurrencies will no longer have to expend energy developing their own payment platform. With platforms like Stripe recently ending its support for Bitcoin payments, it'ss a chance for Coinbase to position itself as an essential component in the continued growth of cryptocurrency. A number of well-established eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, will have Coinbase Commerce integration. The Coinbase team explained in a post on Medium: Starting today, instead of manually creating payment buttons or hosted pages to accept cryptocurrency payments, you can dynamically generate them using our API... Coinbase Commerce and Reddit However, this product launch hasn't been straightforward for Coinbase. The social media platform Reddit announced at the end of March that it would cease using Bitcoin as a means of paying for premium membership. This was revealed to be, in part, due to the launch of the new product. On Reddit, admin emoney04 said: "Yup that’s right. The upcoming Coinbase change, combined with some bugs around the Bitcoin payment option that were affecting purchases for certain users, led us to remove Bitcoin as a payment option." However, while this news may be frustrating for Coinbase, Reddit is open to accepting bitcoin payments again. emoney04 went on to say that "we're going to take a look at demand and watch the progression of Coinbase Commerce before making a decision on whether to reenable". Community misgivings about Coinbase Commerce However, as an article on BTCManager notes, there are some misgivings within the community that Coinbase Commerce represents a move away from the original peer to peer philosophy behind cryptocurrency. BTCManager quoted Reddit user Bitcoin-Yoda: "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Any intermediary between your BTC payment and the merchant is violating the definition of Bitcoin and your privacy." How to get started with Coinbase Commerce You can learn more about Coinbase Commerce here. There's also developer documentation provided if you want to take a look a bit more closely at how you can get started.

The SurveyJS team have announced in a post on Hackernoon that it is now out of beta. The JavaScript library for building surveys features a number of updates and improvements that JavaScript developers tasked with developing surveys will love. First released to the public back in September 2015, SurveyJS 1.0 showcases a JavaScript library that has has been developed with a close attention to the needs and interests of its community of users. New SurveyJS features Here are some of the new features announced: Panels let developers put questions into a conditionally visible panel (so you don't just have to be a new page). Dynamic panels to tackle some of the problems with dealing with lists. Custom widgets held in a dedicated GitHub repository. The ability to create timed quizzes. SurveyJS themes and Bootstrap 4 support - although the team were planning on waiting for Bootstrap 4 to be officially released to integrate it, the team note in the post that the amount of interest in Bootstrap 4 from the SurveyJS community was so great that they went ahead anyway. The team have also added support for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. This move underlines the growing popularity of the project and the need for it to respond to the needs of increasingly professionalized use within the corporate and enterprise world. What is SurveyJS? In case your scratching your head and wondering what SurveyJS is, here's a quick primer. it's essentially a JavaScript library that lets you develop, run, and analyze surveys. There are three different components: The survey library - allows you to build an integrate a survey into a webpage on your site The survey builder - a tool for developing the survey UI. The survey service - pieces together the survey UI and data collection making it easier for you to process and analyze data.  Go to the the SurveyJS project site to find out more.

Sails v1.0 is here! Sails.js is an MVC framework for Node.js, to easily build custom, enterprise-grade Node.js apps. It combines the familiarity of working with MVC pattern of frameworks like Ruby on Rails, with the requirements of modern apps, such as data-driven APIs with a service-oriented architecture. Version 1.0 promises to provide a better developer experience over backward compatibility. Because of this, the upgrade to Sails 1.0 may include more breaking changes than previous versions. Here’s an overview of what's changed in this release and some of the new features you might want to take advantage of in your app. Sails v1.0 no longer supports Node v0.x; the earliest version it supports is Node 4.x. Sails v1.0 introduces custom builds. These custom builds provide more control over an app’s dependencies as certain core hooks are now installed as direct dependencies of an app. It also makes npm install sails run considerably faster. The new Sails also comes with several improvements in app configurations. This includes: datastores, which is by far the biggest change in app configuration. Datastores represent the data sources configured for an app. automatic install of lodash and async are now customizable to any version. view engine configuration syntax has been normalized to be consistent with the approach in Express v4+. The new blueprint API is getting expanded to include a new endpoint which might require developers to make changes in the client-side code. Most importantly, Sails v1.0 comes with a new release of Waterline ORM (v0.13). This Waterline version introduces full support for SQL transactions, picking/omitting attributes in result sets, dynamic database connections, and more granular control over query behavior. It also comes with a major stability and performance overhaul. These cover the majority of changes that Sails version 1.0 has introduced. A comprehensive list of all changes along with the necessary code files required to upgrade to the version 1.0 is available on the Sails Documentation.

D3.js, the popular javascript library is now available in version 5.0. This version D3 5.0, introduces only a few non-backward-compatible changes. D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 combines powerful visualization components and a data-driven approach to DOM manipulation. It helps bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS without restriction to a proprietary framework. Here are the most notable changes available in D3 5.0: D3 5.0 now uses Promises instead of asynchronous callbacks to load data. Promises simplify the structure of asynchronous code, especially in modern browsers that support async and await. D3 now also uses the Fetch API instead of XMLHttpRequest where the d3-request module has been replaced by d3-fetch. D3 5.0 also deprecates and removes the d3-queue module. Developers can use Promise.all to run a batch of asynchronous tasks in parallel, or a helper library such as p-queue to control concurrency. D3 no longer provides the d3.schemeCategory20 categorical color schemes. It now includes d3-scale-chromatic, which implements excellent schemes from ColorBrewer, including categorical, diverging, sequential single-hue and sequential multi-hue schemes. It also provides implementations of marching squares and density estimation via d3-contour. There are two new d3-selection methods: selection.clone for inserting clones of the selected nodes, and d3.create for creating detached elements. In addition, D3’s package.json no longer pins exact versions of the dependent D3 modules. This fixes an issue with duplicate installs of D3 modules. As a developer you can be assured that the API has been very stable since the release of 4.0. The only significant breakage will be in adopting modern asynchronous patterns i.e. promises and Fetch. You can download the latest version from d3.zip. The latest release can also be linked directly by copying this snippet: <script src="https://d3js.org/d3.v5.min.js"></script> The list of entire changes and code files are available in the release notes.

Full stack developer has been named as one of the most common developer roles according to the latest stack overflow survey. But what exactly does a full stack developer do and what does a typical full stack developer job description look like? Full stack developers bridge the gap between the font end and back end Full stack developers deal with the full spectrum of development, from back end to front end development. They are hugely versatile technical professionals, and because they work on both the client and server side, they need to be able to learn new frameworks, libraries and tools very quickly. There’s a common misconception that full stack developers are experts in every area of web development. They’re not – they’re often generalists with broad knowledge that doesn’t necessarily run deep. However, this lack of depth isn’t necessarily a disadvantage. Because they have experience in both back end and front end development they know how to provide solutions to working with both. But most importantly, as Agile becomes integral to modern development practices, developers who are able to properly understand and move between front and back ends is vital. From an economic perspective it also makes sense – with a team of full-stack developers you have a team of people able to perform multiple roles. What a full stack developer job description looks like Every full-stack developer job description looks different. The role is continually evolving and different organizations will require different skills. Here are some of the things you’re likely to see: HTML / CSS JavaScript JavaScript frameworks like Angular or React Experience of UI and API design SQL and experience with other databases At least one backend programming language (python, ruby, java etc) Backend framework experience (for example, ASP.NET Core, Flask) Build and release management or automation tools such as Jenkins Virtualization and containerization knowledge (and today possibly serverless too) Essentially, it’s up to the individual to build upon their knowledge by learning new technologies in order to become an expert full stack developer. Full stack developers need soft skills But soft skills are also important for full-stack developers. Being able to communicate effectively, manage projects and stakeholders is essential. Of course, knowledge of Agile and Scrum are always in-demand; being collaborative is also vital, as software development is never really a solitary exercise. Similarly, commercial awareness is highly valued - a full stack developer that understands they are solving business problems, not just software problems is invaluable.

So you want to get into web development - but where do you even start to begin? The world of web development has never been more important. Last year was the first time that the majority of purchases were made on the web rather than visiting a brick and mortar store. Web apps now offer fantastic ease of use for business clients or shoppers, and a poorly built or optimized app is often all it takes for your customers to choose to leave your ideas behind and go somewhere else. Luckily, we've got tons of free eBooks for you to get started with if you’re looking to enter this wide world of web development with as best a foot forward as possible. And beyond that, when you’ve got the basics down and are ready to start developing your skills in new and interesting ways with frameworks, coding paradigms, and optimization then we’ve got you covered too with our entire web development range of titles to buy too! Here are our current top free learning resources we think you'll find perfect to get started. With how important web development is right now starting here for free might just be the smartest investment you make today! All you need to do is click the links below, log in, and you’ll find the eBook in your account. You'll then be able to download the free machine learning guides as PDFs which you can keep forever. It's that simple. Thinking in HTML For anyone who wants to understand the web and how it works, HTML is an essential place to start. If you need somewhere to start your journey into HTML then this free eBook provides you with everything you need to know to get to grips with the code and to begin building your own web pages. Inside you’ll explore everything from how HTML code structures a web page, to formatting pages and including essential things like hyperlinks and images, to creating your own forms you’ll have the perfect foundation to build upon all your future work. Download and read Thinking in HTML for free now. Thinking in CSS CSS is intrinsic to the modern web, and if you want to become a true web developer it’s a must have to know inside and out. Thinking in CSS is your gateway to the ins and outs of the language. This title gives you the crash course on the ins and outs the structure of CSS, how to use selectors to locate elements to restyle your webpage, and shows you how CSS interacts with the web pages you see every day. With this book by your side you’ll be able to cut through CSS without breaking a sweat - letting you focus on simply making your web pages look great without getting lost in the language! Download and read Thinking in CSS for free now. What you need to know about JavaScript JavaScript and the web go hand in hand, and as a web developer you need to have a great handle on the language to ensure you're creating the best apps you can. From the absolute basics of JS syntax to combining ECMAScript 6 and Visual Studio Code this primer is the perfect resource for a JavaScript Master-in-the-Making! Download and read What you need to know about JavaScript for free now. What you need to know about Angular 2 Angular was one of the biggest development revolutions of the decade, and you owe it to yourself to see just why Angular 2 is going to be just as big - and this title will show you how. Giving you everything you need to build your first basic Angular app this is the ideal place to start for any Angular initiate looking to start their journey. Download and read What you need to know about Angular 2 for free now. Mastering JavaScript High Performance So, you’ve got the basics of web development down - where do you go from there? Why not try making sure your JS code's performance is as good as possible with this title! Inside this 208 page guide you’ll find a whole host of easy to copy tips, tricks, and best practices you can bring to your web dev world going forward. With a few simple tricks you can rest easy knowing your web or mobile apps run faster and better for both you and your customers; meaning your competitors don’t leave you in the dust. Download and read Mastering JavaScript High Performance for free now. There we go - 5 titles to give you the start (and a bit more when you’re ready to dig deeper too!) you need to start creating your very own web apps. So what are you waiting for? Get downloading, get reading, and then get creating!

What do you need to know to get ahead in web dev in 2015? We surveyed 6,000 web dev pros for Skill Up to find out what the essential tech skills were to earn the top salaries. Which industry pays the most to its web developers? Is AngularJS going to be the one big thing that everyone needs to know? Has JavaScript finally left PHP in the dust, or are pros still finding new ways to put the classics to use? Skill Up has the answers - discover the state of modern web dev by watching our Skill Up results animation, and find out what you need to know to upgrade your career. View the full report here: www.packtpub.com/skillup/web-dev-salary-report