Blog by Mick Patterson
The Complete Guide to HTML Input Types
November 11, 2021The humble HTML input tag is actually an extremely useful and powerful HTML tag. Not only are they used for constructing forms, but they allow for all sorts of additional functionality to be added to your page.
How to Calculate the Number of Months Between Two Dates in Javascript
November 05, 2021Manipulating dates in Javascript is an extremely common requirement for a large number of apps and server logic (when using NodeJs). The ability to retrieve the number of months between dates is a very common and useful skill to have in your toolkit.
Remove Duplicate Entries From a Javascript Array
November 04, 2021Arrays are one of the most common data structures you will use in Javascript. They create lists for displaying to users that can be simple or contain complex data objects. Creating lists that have clean information in them is vital for a good user experience. One way to do this is to make sure you are not displaying the same information multiple times.
Connecting to a SQL Server Database via NodeJs
November 01, 2021Every full-stack application in production today probably connects to a database of some variety, whether that be a NoSQL database like MongoDB, a MySQL database like MariaDB, a SQL Server database like those provided by Azure or any other variety. This means that knowing how to wire up a stable connection to these databases from your NodeJs API is a critical skill.
Remove the White Screen Before the Splash Screen in a Flutter App
October 21, 2021By default, iOS and Android show a native loading screen before the splash screen of a Flutter app is displayed. This default screen is completely white which means your app will have a white "flash" before showing your custom splash screen in your app's colours and with your logo. This is not a good user experience. We are unable to remove this native screen, but we can customise it a little bit to make it less intrusive.
HTTP Methods Explained for Frontend Developers
September 23, 2021Frontend developers will inevitably need to make HTTP requests frequently when building out the client side of a full stack app. Having a solid understanding of these methods and how to build the requests is essential in being a top shelf frontend developer.
How to use Environment Variables in NodeJs with Express and Dotenv
September 22, 2021Environment variables in NodeJs are essential for setting configuration options as well as storing important values securely. The environment variables allow you to store API keys and other configuration secrets independently from your main codebase and separate from your git repository so they never get checked in anywhere. Being able to configure and consume these variables is essential in creating solid, production-ready NodeJs APIs for all applications.
How to Setup Scheduled Functions with NodeJs, Express and Node-Cron
September 21, 2021Building an API with NodeJs and Express is always one of the key building blocks of any full stack application. In conjunction with managing user requests, the NodeJs API application can also help maintain database integrity by performing scheduled maintenance checks to ensure everything remains in solid working order.
How to calculate the number of days between two dates in javascript?
September 20, 2021Date manipulation and calculations are core to a huge amount of enterprise business logic. Being a wizard at using dates and turning them into simple values to run your logic on is critical. Knowing how to calculate the number of days between two dates is an essential piece of logic to have in your utility belt. This post will explain clearly how the math works as well as creating a simple utility function that can be used anywhere.
How to Use Environment Variables in An Angular App
September 05, 2021Environment variables in an Angular app are extremely useful for storing constants in your app that need to be used frequently, such as API url's, API access keys, Firebase config values and other general flags.
API Versioning with NodeJs and Express
August 30, 2021Setting up an API with NodeJs and Express is a topic that is well covered and documented. But what happens when your API requirements expand beyond having a simple CRUD offering? API versioning can help with this. Anytime you see an API url with /v1/ in it, the API is using an internal versioning setup. In this post we'll cover one simple way to configure this with NodeJs and Express.
HTTP Interceptors in a Create-React-App with Axios
August 30, 2021A how-to for adding HTTP interceptors to a Create-React-App app with the Axios npm library to check and modify request and response headers for all HTTP requests
Adding Sign-in with Apple to Ionic Capacitor Apps with Firebase
August 23, 2021Authentication is vital for any app with user accounts. Apple requires that their authentication provider is available on all apps submitted to the iOS app store.
Adding Custom HTTP Headers to an Azure Function Response in Nodejs
August 18, 2021Adding custom headers to the response object of of an Azure Function written in Node sounds simple. Turns out it may not be as simple as it sounds.
How to setup an Angular HTTP Interceptor
August 16, 2021An HTTP interceptor is a piece of logic that is able to attach to a HTTP request or response. This logic can then modify the data being transferred.
SQL Server Insert or Update Query with T-SQL & Merge
July 31, 2021A standard SQL Server query to execute that will insert a new row or update an existing one
Best Indie Fullstack Developer Tools
July 18, 2021A curated list of the best developer tools for fullstack indie developers covering everything from coding, git, database admin and devops
Setting iOS App to Portrait Only for iPads
July 17, 2021A quick how-to for setting portrait (or landscape) only for your iOS app for iPads as the default setting in XCode doesn't apply to all devices equally.
Sorting an Array of JavaScript Objects in a Specific Order
July 17, 2021Sorting an Array of JavaScript Objects in a Specific Order is a use case that comes up quite frequently when building UI layouts to meet client specifications. Unfortunately, it is more challenging than a standard array sort and requires additional setup work.
Creating a Realtime Chat with NodeJs, Express and Socket.io
July 14, 2021Step-by-Step guide to setting up an express server to run as a realtime chat server
Why I use Microsoft Azure
July 14, 2021Reasons why Azure is the DevOps platform of choice for me
Adding Rollbar Error Tracking to Ionic + Angular
July 14, 2021A quick how-to guide to adding Rollbar cloud error logging to your Ionic app with Angular
Integrating Firebase with Ionic + Angular
July 14, 2021A quick how-to guide for adding Firebase into an Ionic application using Angular
Returning JSON objects from an Azure Function in Node.js & Typescript
July 13, 2021Often, by default, an Azure Function written in NodeJs stringifies the response object being returned. This results in unnecessary JSON parsing on the client in order to be able to process the response. Luckily, we can avoid this by making a simple change to the Azure Function to ensure the object is returned.