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Writing Tests for React Applications Using Jest and Enzyme
1.3.2019
While it is important to have a well-tested API, solid test coverage is a must for any React application. Tests increase confidence in the code and helps prevent shipping bugs to users.
That’s why we’re going to focus on testing in this post, specifically for React applications. By the end, you’ll...
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...
A Bit of Performance
28.2.2019
Here’s a great post by Roman Komarov on what he learned by improving the performance of his personal website. There’s a couple of neat things he does to tackle font loading in particular, such as adding the <link rel="preload"> tags for fonts. This will encourage those font files...
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...
Control Icons with Font Size
27.2.2019
Here’s a nifty trick from Andy Bell that now seems a little obvious in hindsight: if you set an SVG to have a width and height of 1em then you can change the size of it with the font-size property.
Try and change the font-size on the body element below to see the icon scale with the text:
...
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...
Create Your First Visual Studio Code Extension
26.2.2019
When Visual Studio Code doesn't do what you want it to, you install an extension. When you can't find an extension that does exactly what you need, you create your own! In this article, we will loo
iconsvg.xyz
25.2.2019
There is a lot to like about Gaddafi Rusli's ICONSVG.
It provides inline <svg>, which is the most generically useful way to deliver them, and probably how they should be used anyway. Each icon is a tiny amount of SVG and I'd bet they were all hand-golfed.
They are all stroke-based, so they...
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...
Build an Infinite Scroll Image Gallery with React, CSS Grid and Unsplash (Solution to Code Challenge #16)
25.2.2019
Last week on the code challenge we set out to build an image gallery with Infinte Scroll and consuming the Unsplash API. You can complete the challenge here if you haven't.
In this post, we
MVC in an Angular World
25.2.2019
When designing software with a user interface, it is important to structure the code in a way that makes it easy to extend and maintain. Over time, there have been a few approaches in separating ou
Using CSS Grid the right way
22.2.2019
Violet Peña has shared her recommendations for using CSS Grid. They basically boil down to these high-level points:
Use names instead of numbers for setting up our grid columns.
fr should be our flexible unit of choice.
We don’t really need a grid system anymore.
Although this is all great advice...
Colorful Typographic Experiments
21.2.2019
There have been some interesting, boundary-pushing typography-related experiments lately. I was trying to think of a joke like "somethings in the descenders" but I just can't find something that will stand on its own leg without being easy to counter.
Codrin Pavel created a fascinating multi-color...
Building a Landing Page Fast Using the Visual Composer Website Builder (Sponsored)
20.2.2019
What if it were possible to build a landing page from top to bottom, including a header and a footer, and do so without any need for writing code? And even if it was possible, could you reasonably expect to do so as easily and quickly as putting together a puzzle designed for children...
Social Cards as a Service
19.2.2019
I love the idea of programmatically generated images. That power is close at hand these days for us front-end developers, thanks to the concept of headless browsers. Take Puppeteer, the library for controlling headless Chrome. Generating images from URLs is their default use case:
const puppeteer...
Working with TypeScript in Visual Studio Code
19.2.2019
TypeScript and Visual Studio Code are two amazing products created by Microsoft, and - surprise surprise- they work amazing together! Let's take a look at how Visual Studio Code makes it a breeze t
How @supports Works
18.2.2019
CSS has a neat feature that allows us to test if the browser supports a particular property or property:value combination before applying a block of styles — like how a @media query matches when, say, the width of the browser window is narrower than some specified size and then the CSS within...
IE10-Compatible Grid Auto-Placement with Flexbox
18.2.2019
If you work on web applications that support older browsers, and have lusted after CSS Grid from the sidelines like I have, I have some good news: I've discovered a clever CSS-only way to use grid auto-placement in IE10+!
Now, it's not actually CSS Grid, but without looking at the code itself,...
7 JavaScript Playgrounds to Use in 2019
18.2.2019
The importance of online code editing platforms cannot be overemphasized. As much as we love our local IDE's, one too many times we find ourselves needing to quickly share and or collaborate with