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Creating a Custom Element from Scratch
20.3.2019
In the last article, we got our hands dirty with Web Components by creating an HTML template that is in the document but not rendered until we need it.
Next up, we’re going to continue our quest to create a custom element version of the dialog component below which currently only uses...
I Don’t Hate Arrow Functions
19.3.2019
TL;DR Arrow functions are fine for certain usages, but they have so many variations that they need to be carefully controlled to not break down the readability of the code. While arrow functions clearly have a ubiquitous community consensus (though not unanimous support!), it turns...
React Starter: React Popularity and When Not to Use React
18.3.2019
There are many big reasons for why React has become so popular. Let's examine how popular React is, what people like about it, and when we should/shouldn't use React.
Main Benefits of React
People Digging into Grid Sizing and Layout Possibilities
15.3.2019
Jen Simmons has been coining the term intrinsic design, referring to a new era in web layout where the sizing of content has gone beyond fluid columns and media query breakpoints and into, I dunno, something a bit more exotic. For example, columns that are sized more by content and guidelines than...
Web Standards Meet User-Land: Using CSS-in-JS to Style Custom Elements
15.3.2019
The popularity of CSS-in-JS has mostly come from the React community, and indeed many CSS-in-JS libraries are React-specific. However, Emotion, the most popular library in terms of npm downloads, is framework agnostic.
Using the shadow DOM is common when creating custom elements, but there’s...
SEC’s Assessment Concludes that Ethereum is not a Security, IBM Joins Crypto Custody Business
13.3.2019
U.S. Securities and Commission Exchange (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton has written a letter to U.S. Rep. Ted Budd in which he agrees with Division of Corporate Finance Director Bill Hinman evaluation that Ethereum, the second largest digital asset by market […]
The post SEC’s Assessment Concludes...
Getting into GraphQL with AWS AppSync
12.3.2019
GraphQL is becoming increasingly popular. The problem is that if you are a front-end developer, you are only half of the way there. GraphQL is not just a client technology. The server also has to be implemented according to the specification. This means that in order to implement GraphQL into your...
Stackbit
12.3.2019
This is not a sponsored post. I requested a beta access for this site called Stackbit a while back, got my invite the other day, and thought it was a darn fine idea that's relevant to us web nerds — particularly those of us who spin up a lot of JAMstack sites.
I'm a big fan of the whole idea...
Accessibility is not a “React Problem”
11.3.2019
Leslie Cohn-Wein's main point:
While [lots of divs, inline styles, focus management problems] are valid concerns, it should be noted that nothing in React prevents us from building accessible web apps.
True. I'm quite capable (and sadly, guilty) of building inaccessible interfaces with React...
Get Started with Node: An Introduction to APIs, HTTP and ES6+ JavaScript
11.3.2019
Jamie Corkhill has written this wonderful post about Node and I think it’s perhaps one of the best technical articles I’ve ever read. Not only is it jam-packed with information for folks like me who aren't writing JavaScript everyday, it is also incredibly deliberate as Jamie slowly walks through...
HMTL, CSS and JS in an ADD, OCD, Bi-Polar, Dyslexic and Autistic World
8.3.2019
Hey CSS-Tricksters! A lot of folks tweeted, emailed, commented and even courier pigeoned (OK, maybe not that) stories about their personal journeys learning web development after we published "The Great Divide" essay. One of those stories was from Tim Smith and, it was so interesting, that...
Learning to Learn
4.3.2019
There’s been a lot of talk recently about whether or not you need a degree to be in tech (spoiler: you don’t). But please don’t take this to mean you don’t need any kind of education to be in tech, because by not getting a degree, you’re opting to replace the imposed learning structure of...
The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript Algorithms: Falsy Bouncer
4.3.2019
Falsy bouncer? Just in case your mind's been pacing frantically trying to make sense of the title of this challenge, worry not! We’ll do that together.
A bouncer is a person em
Mask Compositing: The Crash Course
2.3.2019
At the start of 2018, as I was starting to go a bit deeper into CSS gradient masking in order to create interesting visuals one would think are impossible otherwise with just a single element and a tiny bit of CSS, I learned about a property that had previously been completely unknown to...
I Spun up a Scalable WordPress Server Environment with Trellis, and You Can, Too
28.2.2019
A few years back, my fledgling website design agency was starting to take shape; however, we had one problem: managing clients' web servers and code deployments. We were unable to build a streamlined process of provisioning servers and maintaining operating system security patches. We had...
Keen makes it a breeze to build and ship customer-facing metrics
28.2.2019
(This is a sponsored post.)
Keen is an analytics tool that makes it wonderfully easy to collect data. But Keen is unique in that it is designed not just to help you look at that data, but to share that data with your own customers! Customer-facing metrics, as it were.
Keen works just the way...
Did you know that CSS Custom Properties can handle images too?
27.2.2019
So you might be aware of CSS Custom Properties that let you set a variable, such as a theme color, and then apply it to multiple classes like this:
:root {
--theme: #777;
}
.alert {
background: var(—-theme);
}
.button {
background: var(—-theme);
}
Well, I had seen this pattern so often...
Text Wrapping & Inline Pseudo Elements
27.2.2019
I love posts like this. It's just about adding a little icon to the end of certain links, but it ends up touching on a million things along the way. I think this is an example of why some people find front-end fun and some people rather dislike it.
Things involved:
Cool [attribute] selectors that...
Look Ma, No Media Queries! Responsive Layouts Using CSS Grid
27.2.2019
Not only has CSS Grid reshaped the way we think and build layouts for the web, but it has also contributed to writing more resilient code, replacing "hacky" techniques we've used before, and in some cases, killing the need to rely on code for specific resolutions and viewports. What's so cool about...
Dealing with overflow and position: sticky;
25.2.2019
Any overflow value other than visible and no height is the enemy of child elements with position: sticky;. It's like that element is ready to stick when the parent scrolls, but it never does because the height is unconstrained. Adding a fixed height can solve the issue, but that's not always...