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388 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsEnterprise Web Apps Done Right
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Episodes
Web Frameworks: Soundness
October 03, 2017 16:37For a web framework to be effective, it should offer you more than just functionality. It doesn’t matter how much hard work you put into your application if it breaks when people use it. Beyond testing, let’s explore how frameworks can help us build better code before we test it. While we have been comparing […] The post Web Frameworks: Soundness appeared first on SitePen.
A Guide to Faster Web App I/O and Data Operations with Streams
October 02, 2017 19:31Why should you care about streams? On the modern web platform, many interesting features appear which enable new functionality which were not previously possible, for example, Web Bluetooth, Background Sync & Web VR. For new features in JavaScript specifically, many are just syntactic sugar for things you could already do in an alternative way, like […] The post A Guide to Faster Web App I/O and Data Operations with Streams appeared first on SitePen.
Efficient testing of Angular with Intern
September 22, 2017 14:37Intern is an incredibly powerful and feature-rich approach to all types of JavaScript and TypeScript testing. Intern 4 is a major update refactored in TypeScript and with much improved support for modern language features and support for ESM as well as bundlers like webpack. Can I test ________ with Intern? Since the start of […] The post Efficient testing of Angular with Intern appeared first on SitePen.
Blockchain Basics
September 21, 2017 14:20“Blockchain” is the newest term to enter the tech industry’s buzzword repertoire. Whether a company is processing sub-second banking transactions or transporting artisanal goat cheeses across state lines, it seems as though any company not investigating this technology, the same technology that powers infamous cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, will surely go the way of the dodo. […] The post Blockchain Basics appeared first on SitePen.
TalkScript Podcast Episode 5
September 20, 2017 17:20 - 42 minutes - 58.2 MBThe team discusses Web Audio and its application along with their issues with npm 5. The post TalkScript Podcast Episode 5 appeared first on SitePen.
Rethinking Inheritance
September 19, 2017 17:19Over the past year we’ve been heads-down working hard on Dojo 2 and its component architecture. The ability to change default component behavior is essential to a widget library, and several tactics exist for doing so. After extensive battle testing of different viable approaches to component modification, we decided to once again equip ES6 inheritance […] The post Rethinking Inheritance appeared first on SitePen.
Using Web Components With Angular
September 14, 2017 16:30Angular is an application framework favored by many in the JavaScript community. Angular provides a library for building encapsulated components, dependency injection, a templating language with data binding, an application router built on observables, and a command line interface that lowers the barrier to entry. While being slightly less flexible than some frameworks, Angular’s opinionated […] The post Using Web Components With Angular appeared first on SitePen.
Polymer Summit 2017
September 13, 2017 13:38Recently I was fortunate to be able to attend the Google Polymer Summit in Copenhagen with a SitePen colleague. Having attended the PWA Summit last year in Amsterdam we were expecting a well organised and interesting conference, and we were not to be disappointed. It was great to see so many people from all the […] The post Polymer Summit 2017 appeared first on SitePen.
Observing Intersection Observers
September 05, 2017 16:51As developing for the web has matured and JavaScript engines have become faster, one area remains a significant bottleneck – rendering. It’s because of this that so many of the recent development efforts have been focused around rendering, with virtual DOM being one of the more popular examples. In Dojo 2, being aware of these […] The post Observing Intersection Observers appeared first on SitePen.
Five of our favorite emerging web standards
August 31, 2017 17:09As we create and improve open source software, and build many applications for our customers, we’re constantly looking for things that will improve the software we create. Part of this is looking at an often dizzying array of proposed and emerging standards, and finding those that feel efficient and ready for use. Here we’ll explore […] The post Five of our favorite emerging web standards appeared first on SitePen.
Getting started with Intern 4
August 30, 2017 20:00Unless you have a time machine or a TARDIS, it’s pretty rare to have solid documentation in place before an open source project is released! While we’re getting close to a beta release with the Intern 4 and while we still have a fair amount of documentation and refinements to complete, a number of people […] The post Getting started with Intern 4 appeared first on SitePen.
Web Frameworks: Testing
August 29, 2017 17:27Test early, test often, and test some more. Why put our heart and soul into our web applications only to be let down because we are not completely testing them. Let’s explore how the different web frameworks approach testing. Testing is so essential to the success of any project that we have dedicated an entire […] The post Web Frameworks: Testing appeared first on SitePen.
Web Frameworks: Using and Developing
August 23, 2017 17:02Let’s figure out how to play our album. Is it a 45 vinyl or some sort of fancy SACD? Gaining insight into how we might develop and deploy an application built on a web framework helps us figure out if it is the right fit for our team. In this post, we are going to […] The post Web Frameworks: Using and Developing appeared first on SitePen.
State of Modern Component Styling
August 17, 2017 16:47As new user interface component frameworks are created and old frameworks are replaced with emerging technologies, methods for styling those components must change with them. Long gone are the days of creating a simple HTML component and importing a simple CSS file with corresponding class names. Concerns such as style leaking, local DOM manipulation and […] The post State of Modern Component Styling appeared first on SitePen.
Higher Order Components in React
August 15, 2017 17:14Traditionally, engineers use mixins, decorators, inheritance, and plain code duplication to add common functionality to a handful of components. Mixins and decorators can modify the target object in such a way that you are never really sure what methods are safe to override without unwanted side effects. Inheritance can quickly get out of hand as […] The post Higher Order Components in React appeared first on SitePen.
TalkScript Podcast Episode 4
August 10, 2017 20:22 - 30 minutes - 41.3 MBWe complete our series of interviews from NEJS Conf by talking to Kim Crayton about Overcoming the Challenges of Mentoring. Speakers Kim Crayton on GitHub Neil Roberts on Twitter Listen Now!
TalkScript Episode 4
August 10, 2017 20:22 - 30 minutes - 41.3 MBWe complete our series of interviews from NEJS Conf by talking to Kim Crayton about Overcoming the Challenges of Mentoring. The post TalkScript Episode 4 appeared first on SitePen.
Web Frameworks: Common Usage
August 10, 2017 17:13Previously on Web Frameworks, we looked at how various frameworks deal with the concept of applications. Akin to listening to the whole album, we got a sense of how the frameworks pull it all together. In this post, we explore what are common types of applications and how the frameworks we are considering might work […] The post Web Frameworks: Common Usage appeared first on SitePen.
TalkScript Episode 3
August 09, 2017 17:17 - 41 minutes - 57.6 MBWe talk with Lucas Fernandes da Costa and Jonathan Mills about their NEJS CONF talks. The post TalkScript Episode 3 appeared first on SitePen.
TalkScript Podcast Episode 3
August 09, 2017 17:17 - 41 minutes - 57.6 MBWe continue our interviews from NEJS Conf – We talk to Lucas Fernandes da Costa about his talk What Can We Learn from JavaScript Fatigue and Jonathan Mills gives us a A Skeptics Guide to Functional JavaScript. Speakers Lucas Fernandes da Costa on GitHub Jonathan Mills on GitHub Neil Roberts on Twitter Listen Now!
Wrapping Web Components With React
August 08, 2017 16:38There are many reasons to like React. It provides a nice library for writing reusable components and leverages its own virtual DOM, abstracting away the obtuse native DOM APIs in favor of a simple method calls, which are further abstracted away with a JavaScript language extension, JSX. Numerous other reactive and virtual DOM solutions exist […] The post Wrapping Web Components With React appeared first on SitePen.
TalkScript Episode 2
August 07, 2017 19:26 - 48 minutes - 66.3 MBWe talk about Nick and Neil's adventures at the NEJS CONF and listen to Neil's interviews with conference speakers Divya Sasidharan, Lon Ingram, and our very own Sarah Higley. The post TalkScript Episode 2 appeared first on SitePen.
TalkScript Podcast Episode 2
August 07, 2017 19:26 - 48 minutes - 66.3 MBWe talk about Nick and Neil’s adventures at the NEJS Conference and listen to Neil’s interviews with conference speakers Divya Sasidharan (In VDOM we Trust), Lon Ingram (Performance Perf) and our very own Sarah Higley (Don’t Forget Your Keys). Speakers Torrey Rice Nick Nisi on Twitter Neil Roberts on Twitter Sarah Higleyon GitHub Divya Sasidharan […]
Web Frameworks: Applications
August 03, 2017 16:51Applications built with web technologies, something that was a curiosity a few short years ago, have emerged onto the scene as a must have for most organizations. Transcending websites and providing users with a more open and unbounded experience, web applications are everywhere. Likely the main reason you are reading this series is to determine […] The post Web Frameworks: Applications appeared first on SitePen.
Less Clicking, More Binging
August 01, 2017 16:05Whether it’s Game of Thrones or an old season of Rupaul’s Drag Race, it’s pretty likely you’ll be streaming something tonight from your TV. Netflix, Hulu, Sling — these are the apps that dominate our quiet evenings. And while many of us don’t consider them apps, they are services that we consistently interact with on […] The post Less Clicking, More Binging appeared first on SitePen.
The State of Internationalization in JavaScript
July 19, 2017 18:09As businesses expand into new markets and existing markets become more diverse, it is increasingly rare that enterprise applications can expect to serve speakers of only one language, with identical expectations for how they should be addressed or be presented data. In spite of this, globalization — the process of catering an experience to users […] The post The State of Internationalization in JavaScript appeared first on SitePen.
Event Delegation: Pattern or Anti-Pattern?
July 11, 2017 18:50A significant amount of work on JavaScript toolkits and frameworks has centered around trying to fix, normalize, and optimize browser implementations. Doing so requires making many assumptions about what the problems are, how our tools will be used by developers, and what we expect of the future. The assumptions made often turn out to be […] The post Event Delegation: Pattern or Anti-Pattern? appeared first on SitePen.
TalkScript Episode 1
July 07, 2017 16:56 - 1 hour - 108 MBThe gang of the SitePen Podcast changes the name of the show to TalkScript, discusses the latest in VR/AR/WebVR, and Nick tries to make fetch() happen. The post TalkScript Episode 1 appeared first on SitePen.
TalkScript Podcast Episode 1
July 07, 2017 16:56 - 1 hour - 108 MBThe gang of the SitePen Podcast changes the name of the show to TalkScript, discusses the latest in VR/AR/WebVR, Nick tries to make fetch() happen, and Torrey discusses various techniques for animating characters and viewing them online. Speakers Torrey Rice Nick Nisi Paul Shannon Show Notes Below are links to the resources and topics mentioned […]
Web Frameworks: Foundational Technologies
July 06, 2017 18:23We have previously discussed the look and feel of web frameworks. While we often become interested in a framework based on the stylishness of the widgets and applications it can create, this may lead to a similar approach to how we have historically selected music. Traditionally, you would go out, buy an album, maybe from […] The post Web Frameworks: Foundational Technologies appeared first on SitePen.
TypeScript 2.4: Dynamic imports and weak types
June 28, 2017 19:00The TypeScript 2.4 release might be a minor update in terms of not requiring substantial changes within our open source work and customer projects, but it provides some major benefits that we are already leveraging throughout the Dojo 2 codebase. Dynamic import() The headline feature for TypeScript 2.4 is support for the ES.Next dynamic import() […] The post TypeScript 2.4: Dynamic imports and weak types appeared first on SitePen.
Web Frameworks: User Experience Design
June 27, 2017 16:57While instruments such as guitar and drums are part of a band, how they are used by the musicians define the style of the band’s music. Similarly, the elements of an application user interface connected together define the user experience. In this post as part of our ongoing series about frameworks, we are going to […] The post Web Frameworks: User Experience Design appeared first on SitePen.
Intern and JavaScript Testing in 2017
June 22, 2017 19:24Since we released Intern in 2013, the state of JavaScript testing has changed substantially. The JavaScript world was a very different place. Node.js was at version 0.8, and core modules like http were still being heavily developed! Popular tools like webpack, React, and TypeScript were still in the early stages of development. Jasmine was probably […] The post Intern and JavaScript Testing in 2017 appeared first on SitePen.
Web Frameworks: User Interface Development
June 16, 2017 23:32Whether it is Top 40 or classical or R&B, artists and music have a recognizable look and feel. When looking at frameworks, some simply provide us with a bag of instruments, while others provide us with chord progressions and album covers we can customize. This tooling forms the cornerstone of most web frameworks; an interactive […] The post Web Frameworks: User Interface Development appeared first on SitePen.
If we chose our JavaScript Framework like we chose our music…
June 13, 2017 16:20…we would all be using justin-bieber.js. We as an organization have been working with JavaScript since 2000. We have seen frameworks rise and fall, including being responsible for some of them. We have seen trends come and go. We have seen browser dominance ebb and flow. We have seen winners and losers. We have seen […] The post If we chose our JavaScript Framework like we chose our music… appeared first on SitePen.
Ahead of the Curve: TypeScript & Enterprise Web Development
June 12, 2017 21:48For a concise read on why the enterprise should care about using TypeScript in its applications, look no further than Remo Jansen of the Aon Centre for Innovation and Analytics’ presentation on the 6 reasons you should be using TypeScript. The SitePen engineering team has been using TypeScript since it came onto the open source […] The post Ahead of the Curve: TypeScript & Enterprise Web Development appeared first on SitePen.
ECMA-414: Modularizing the JavaScript Standard
June 07, 2017 16:14As we noted in our post about the open and incremental approach to TC39, one of the challenges facing TC39 is that it has grown in size substantially along with the community interest in JavaScript. ECMA has started to address this by creating a few additional standards bodies for sections of JavaScript that can be […] The post ECMA-414: Modularizing the JavaScript Standard appeared first on SitePen.
TypeScript 2.3: The Sexy Default Type Argument
May 09, 2017 18:52TypeScript 2.3 is the latest version in the quarterly release cycle from the TypeScript team. This release contains several useful additions to TypeScript which we have already started to leverage within some of our current projects. Let’s take a closer look! Default type arguments A seemingly simple change is the ability to provide default values […] The post TypeScript 2.3: The Sexy Default Type Argument appeared first on SitePen.
The Law of Diminishing Returns
May 05, 2017 19:57Last month we looked at various approaches to scaling enterprise development, and the challenges found within development organizations in our Time for InnerSource? post. This month we continue looking at the need for InnerSource by taking a closer look at the Law of Diminishing Returns. The law of what? The Law of Diminishing Returns refers […] The post The Law of Diminishing Returns appeared first on SitePen.
Typings for dojox/gfx
April 25, 2017 17:02dojox/gfx is Dojo 1.x’s vector graphics library, with support for SVG, Canvas, and other legacy rendering environments through a drawing API based on the semantics of SVG. This API also provides the foundation for dojox/charting. Often the biggest challenge in working with vector graphics is the large number of possible configuration settings and permutations. TypeScript […] The post Typings for dojox/gfx appeared first on SitePen.
Making TypeDoc better
April 20, 2017 18:01Over the past several months, the SitePen team has been hard at work on Dojo 2 along with the tools and infrastructure to support it. Part of that infrastructure, and one of the major priorities for Dojo 2, is to have top notch developer documentation, complete with examples, tutorials, and API documentation. The early fruits […] The post Making TypeDoc better appeared first on SitePen.
7 habits of highly ineffective developers
April 18, 2017 14:07While the SitePen team is widely known for its expertise in building JavaScript and TypeScript applications, providing support and training to enterprise teams, and for helping create Dojo and Intern, it also has a fair amount of insight and expertise with helping teams be more effective. Whether it’s Milestone Mayhem or InnerSource or just knowing […] The post 7 habits of highly ineffective developers appeared first on SitePen.
TC39: Open and Incremental Approach Improves Standards Process
April 06, 2017 13:29In our recent post about the key features in ES2017, I was reminded just how much the standards process has changed in the past 15 years. As someone who tried to get involved early to improve standards, the process was broken and I was quickly discouraged. However, much has changed since the early days of […] The post TC39: Open and Incremental Approach Improves Standards Process appeared first on SitePen.
What TypeScript can offer to Dojo 1.x
March 29, 2017 14:24As many of you know, Dojo 2 is being built on TypeScript. Many of us involved in Dojo 2 believe that TypeScript brings several advantages to developing with web technologies these days. Features like structural typing and interfaces help us write code that is less prone to errors as well as being able to express […] The post What TypeScript can offer to Dojo 1.x appeared first on SitePen.
Time for InnerSource?
March 23, 2017 17:55InnerSource is a series of strategies and tactics from the open source world that help companies share source code across teams. While it might seem odd at first, it turns out that the things that work for well-managed open source projects are really helpful for businesses that want to encourage a culture of collaboration and […] The post Time for InnerSource? appeared first on SitePen.
The 5 features of ES8 and a wishlist for ES9
March 21, 2017 18:14As we near the finalization of the proposal, it’s looking like ES8 is going to deliver much more than the simple updates of its ES7 predecessor! We wanted to take a few moments to highlight our 5 favorite things about the upcoming 2017 release. 1. Object.entries and Object.values This change is one we’re very excited […] The post The 5 features of ES8 and a wishlist for ES9 appeared first on SitePen.
Functional reactive programming and Observables in JavaScript, TypeScript, and Dojo 2
February 27, 2017 14:45Functional programming and reactive programming principles are not new to JavaScript, but their adoption has recently become widespread across most modern frameworks and toolkits. The ease of using these approaches has improved as we’ve finally seen the decline of legacy browsers, and as we’ve seen the introduction of functional and reactive paradigms within ES6 and […] The post Functional reactive programming and Observables in JavaScript, TypeScript, and Dojo 2 appeared first on SitePen.
Mixins and more in TypeScript 2.2
February 22, 2017 14:17The TypeScript team recently announced the TypeScript 2.2 release candidate which will contain key improvements to the TypeScript language. Most notably, are the introduction of the object type and improved support for mixins and composable classes. Refinements: The object type and dotted property access The object type fixes a previous limitation in defining a type […] The post Mixins and more in TypeScript 2.2 appeared first on SitePen.
Microservices and SPAs
February 20, 2017 17:32The techniques involved in creating modern web applications are continually evolving. It can be difficult to separate out the ones that are truly improving how web applications are developed from those experiments that, while often interesting, are ultimately not worth investing in. From this sea of ideas a couple of trends have risen to the […] The post Microservices and SPAs appeared first on SitePen.
Dojo FAQ: How do I optimize a Dojo app for mobile?
February 14, 2017 15:25Web applications can be deployed to many environments, including desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. We can even deploy web applications natively using a wrapper such as Apache Cordova to gain access to device features such as GPS, battery, and accelerometer data. However, it is not always optimal to package our application into a universal layer […] The post Dojo FAQ: How do I optimize a Dojo app for mobile? appeared first on SitePen.