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What is super() in JavaScript?
6.11.2019
What's happening when you see some JavaScript that calls super()?.In a child class, you use super() to call its parent’s constructor and super.<methodName> to access its parent’s methods. This article will assume at least a little familiarity with the concepts of constructors and child...
Netlify CMS Open Authoring
6.11.2019
I like the term "Git-backed CMS." That term works for an emerging style of CMS that looks and behaves much like any other CMS, with a fascinating twist: it doesn't actually store any data for you. These CMSs are connected to a Git repo where the data lives in flat files (e.g. Markdown). You teach...
Show Search Button when Search Field is Non-Empty
5.11.2019
I think the :placeholder-shown selector is tremendously cool. It allows you to select the placeholder of an input (<input placeholder="...">) when that placeholder is present. Meaning, the input does not yet have any value. You might think input[value] could do that, or help match on...
Making a Chart? Try Using Mobx State Tree to Power the Data
5.11.2019
Who loves charts? Everyone, right? There are lots of ways to create them, including a number of libraries. There’s D3.js, Chart.js, amCharts, Highcharts, and Chartist, to name only a few of many, many options.
But we don’t necessary need a chart library to create charts. Take Mobx-state-tree (MST)...
Float Element in the Middle of a Paragraph
4.11.2019
Say you want to have an image (or any other element) visually float left into a paragraph of text. But like... in the middle of the paragraph, not right at the top. It's doable, but it's certainly in the realm of CSS trickery!
One thing you can do is slap the image right in the middle of...
The Trick to Animating the Dot on the Letter “i”
4.11.2019
Here’s the trick: by combining the Turkish letter "ı" and the period "." we can create something that looks like the letter "i," but is made from two separate elements. This opens us up to some fun options to style or animate the dot of the letter independently from the stalk. Worried about...
Become a Front-End Master in 2020 With These 10 Project Ideas
1.11.2019
This is a little updated cross-post from a quickie article I wrote on DEV. I'm publishing here 'cuz I'm all IndieWeb like that.
I love this post by Simon Holdorf. He's got some ideas for how to level up your skills as a front-end developer next year. Here they are:
Build a movie search app using...
A Look at JAMstack’s Speed, By the Numbers
1.11.2019
People say JAMstack sites are fast — let’s find out why by looking at real performance metrics! We’ll cover common metrics, like Time to First Byte (TTFB) among others, then compare data across a wide section of sites to see how different ways to slice those sites up compare.
First, I’d like...
Comparing the Different Types of Native JavaScript Popups
31.10.2019
JavaScript has a variety of built-in popup APIs that display special UI for user interaction. Famously:
alert("Hello, World!");
The UI for this varies from browser to browser, but generally you’ll see a little window pop up front and center in a very show-stopping way that contains the message...
Build a 100% Serverless REST API with Firebase Functions & FaunaDB
31.10.2019
Indie and enterprise web developers alike are pushing toward a serverless architecture for modern applications. Serverless architectures typically scale well, avoid the need for server provisioning and most importantly are easy and cheap to set up! And that’s why I believe the next evolution...
It’s All In the Head: Managing the Document Head of a React Powered Site With React Helmet
30.10.2019
The document head might not be the most glamorous part of a website, but what goes into it is arguably just as important to the success of your website as its user interface. This is, after all, where you tell search engines about your website and integrate it with third-party applications like...
Using the Platform
29.10.2019
Tim Kadlec:
So much care and planning has gone into creating the web platform, to ensure that even as new features are added, they’re added in a way that doesn’t break the web for anyone using an older device or browser. Can you say the same for any framework out there? I don’t mean that to...
Are There Random Numbers in CSS?
29.10.2019
CSS allows you to create dynamic layouts and interfaces on the web, but as a language, it is static: once a value is set, it cannot be changed. The idea of randomness is off the table. Generating random numbers at runtime is the territory of JavaScript, not so much CSS. Or is it? If we factor in...
Learn to Make Your Site Inclusive, by Design
29.10.2019
Accessibility is our job. We hear it all the time. But the truth is that it often takes a back seat to competing priorities, deadlines, and decisions from above. How can we solve that?
That's where An Event Apart comes in. Making sites inclusive by design is just one of the many topics covered over...
The Current State of Styling Selects in 2019
28.10.2019
Best I could tell from the last time I compiled the most wished-for features of CSS, styling form controls was a major ask. Top 5, I'd say. And of the native form elements that people want to style, Greg Whitworth has some data that the <select> element is more requested than any other...
A Business Case for Dropping Internet Explorer
28.10.2019
The distance between Internet Explorer (IE) 11 and every other major browser is an increasingly gaping chasm. Adding support for a technologically obsolete browser adds an inordinate amount of time and frustration to development. Testing becomes onerous. Bug-fixing looms large. Developers have...
Animated Position of Focus Ring
27.10.2019
Maurice Mahan created FocusOverlay, a "library for creating overlays on focused elements." That description is a little confusing at you don't need a library to create focus styles. What the library actually does is animate the focus rings as focus moves from one element to another. It's based...
Bidirectional Horizontal Rules in CSS
25.10.2019
Say you have a <blockquote> and the design calls for a thick border along the left side. Well, you might not necessarily mean left side, but actually mean on the side of the start of the text.
That's exactly what CSS logical properties are meant to address, and Hussein Al Hammad has a nice...
The Landscape of Cross-Platform App Development
25.10.2019
I don't track this stuff very well, but I get it. If you want a native app for Android and iOS, it sure would be nice to only have to write it once rather than two very different languages. Roughly double your reach without doubling the work. More and more of these things are reaching into desktop...
Weekly Platform News: WebAPK Limited to Chrome, Discernible Focus Rectangles, Modal Window API
25.10.2019
In this week's roundup: "Add to home screen" has different meanings in Android, Chrome and Edge add some pop to focus rectangles on form inputs, and how third-party sites may be coming to a modal near you.
Let's get into the news.
WebAPKs are not available to Firefox on Android
On Android, both...