venkatesh – Talent500 Blog

How long does it take to develop a mobile app?

Posted on November 2, 2022November 7, 2022 by venkatesh

If you’re a mobile developer, the second most commonly asked question from clients, after the pricing, is how long it will take to develop a mobile app. There’s no definite answer that you can give, as precise app development timeline calculation requires time and experience.

Essentially, mobile app development time estimation depends on what kind of app you are working on and what features will be included. This article covers a detailed breakdown of the app development timeline.

Researching the app idea: 1-2 weeks

App development does not start promptly. Firstly, research is conducted to determine the scope of the mobile app. This stage involves market analysis, proto-personas, value proposition, and customer journey mapping. Most companies underestimate the importance of this stage. To create a successful app, you need to research the idea to ensure a place for it in the market and the need. Once the research stage is complete and you understand the app’s requirements, features, and end business goals, you can move on to the idea validation stage. At this stage, app developers create a more improved proto persona of the application by framing hypotheses and testing the app flow.

Creating product strategy: 2 weeks

To provide clarity for everyone involved in mobile app development, a product strategy is a must. At this stage, product managers create comprehensive technical design documents, product roadmaps, timelines, and cost estimations. When you create a well-thought product strategy, all stakeholders can take a hint from the documents, and there is less space for miscommunication or delays.

Building the clickable prototype: 1 week

Now that we have the product idea and strategy ready, we can move on to building a clickable prototype of the actual app. A prototype is not a fully functional application. It’s just an early attempt to visualize what we are trying to build and how to create a working solution. A mobile app prototype gives the idea of what the actual app will look like. It does not have all the animations or functionalities but tests the app’s key features. Developers do not need to focus on polishing the prototype. It just has to be functional enough to validate the app idea further.

Design and development: 2-6 months

The actual app development can begin if everything goes per the plan and the client approves the prototype. Developers create the app design alongside the development. The design and development are the two most unpredictable parts of the development. Due to the changing requirements and new technologies rolling out frequently, the app development stage can be extended. There are several ways to keep things on track, such as a lean UX design process.

The most time-consuming part of the whole app development process is coding. There is no fixed timeframe to code an app. Depending on the complexity of the applications, the number of user roles, the tech stack being used, and the availability of the talent, coding can take up to 4 to 6 months. Sometimes, stakeholders plan to hire more developers to speed up the app development. However, it proves to be counterproductive as the induction of every new team member prolongs the process.

Onboarding new developers require bringing them up to speed, conducting code reviews, understanding other developers’ code, and more. Rather than focusing on increasing the number of developers, it would help if you looked for ways to optimize the team’s performance and improve communication.

How to speed up the app development process?

While we don’t advise rushing things, you can discuss possible ways to cut the app development timeline with the development team. Here are some ways we recommend:

Strengthen communication

Communication can single-handedly accelerate mobile app development. Making arrangements to promptly connect with the clients and internal team communication for quicker approvals and decision-making will help. Use tools like Slack, Zoom, and Jira for communication and collaboration.

Take the MVP approach

You can launch a mobile app faster by including all the features with minimal work or by adding minimal elements of the best quality. It’s a no-brainer; the latter approach is much better. If your goal is to launch fast, we recommend you take the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach. Focus on core quality and ship with minimum features; queue the left features or improvements for the next app version. It is the best way to launch a quality mobile app faster without compromising on quality.

Conclusion

The App development timeline depends on several factors. Depending on the requirements and scope of the project, it can take months to launch a viable product. To facilitate quicker app deployment, precise requirements, timely responses, and shared responsibility are essential strategies to be implemented at all stages.

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The Importance of design skills for frontend development

Posted on October 31, 2022November 8, 2022 by venkatesh

A good frontend developer understands the complex requirements of creating truly attention-capturing web designs. Simply gluing together HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code might make a working website or web app, but it won’t help create designs that communicate with the users.

A competent frontend engineer knows that harmonizing visuals and content requires non-technical skills. If the ‘harmonious’ part seems sophisticated, it is not. With an understanding of some essential design concepts, frontend developers can improve their design skills.

Let’s start with the concepts of design important for frontend development first.

The principles of design

You do not need to have an innate artistic ability to become a talented frontend developer; knowing design fundamentals is adequate. Understanding the design principles will make the difference between recreating a design you see and building unique and calculated designs from scratch.

The essentials of visual design principles are entirely rooted in Gestalt Psychology, the foundation of the modern study of perception. The same fundamentals form the foundation of web and graphics design. While a vast domain, here is the three fundamental principles of design you must know:

Emergence: It is the practice of seeing an arrangement of objects as a whole rather than focusing on individual parts. Emergence helps front-end developers identify asymmetry when a piece breaks a pattern.

Reification: It helps practice restraint in web designs. Reification is the practice of using only essential parts of an object to convey the meaning.

Invariance: It is the ability to include tasteful discordance in web designs and make an object stand out from a group of similar things. Designers use invariance to highlight parts of a design.

Typography

Typography shapes the perception of ideas when people look at them. Everything from a type’s weight to its geometry communicates meaning. As a front-end developer, you must understand how to make typographical choices to deliver the message in the best way.

Frontend developers have many resources to keep on top of typography trends. Font Reach is one such website. Good designers always understand the difference between type styles and how to use them.

Color Theory

Frontend developers should understand combining primary colors to create new color palettes. But effective web design requires a bit more. As a frontend designer, you should be familiar with the concept of the color wheel. You should know how complementary, contrasting, and analogous colors work together.

Knowledge of color theory helps frontend developers avoid common mistakes like the use of clashing colors. You should take the guesswork out of your designs and stop wasting time with a trial-and-error approach. Here is an excellent resource to learn color theory. Now that underlying concepts of practical and unique web designs are there, we must also provide tips on learning them.

Practice is the key

There is no alternative, the only way you will get better is by creating projects to bring your design ideas to life. Fortunately, plenty of resources such as Behance, Dribbble, and even Pinterest can serve as a source of inspiration for your next design. Keep in mind that you are exploring these websites for ideas and not to ‘steal’ things. You can start with a similar design or pattern that you saw, but as you iterate your project, introduce new colors, move objects, and try different compositions to transform it into something new.

Communication is mandatory

Being curious, asking questions, and respecting feedback will make you an excellent designer. It can be tricky to comprehend why communication can be an essential design skill for a front-end developer. Designing is a form of visual communication. For instance, when you put an element in the corner of a design, you tell the users that there is some action to be taken here.

Frontend developers build on top of the code written by backend developers. To integrate the backend functionalities seamlessly into the frontend design, you must communicate with other developers effectively. As part of a team, you can use communication to anticipate any design challenges that might come up during future development and deploy solutions proactively.

Tools come in handy

You do not have to practice on whiteboards; some great tools help you save time and increase efficiency. Adobe Creative Libraries is a fantastic tool for front-end developers to create unique elements that they can use for web pages, apps, and applications. Codepen.io is another excellent tool that helps front-end developers create UI elements in a live environment to see how things will look.

Conclusion

Frontend development lies at the intersection of technology, design, and communication. You can start by implementing the ideas of other great designers into your projects. With each iteration, introduce your elements in the design, and soon enough, you will be creating strategically calculated and unique web designs on your own.
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10 Useful JavaScript plugins & data table libraries

Posted on October 31, 2022November 8, 2022 by venkatesh

Data tables are efficient tools for visualizing and processing data in JavaScript applications. As a JavaScript developer, a crucial part of your job will be to create data tables for data-driven websites and applications. Creating data tables manually is redundant as JavaScript has several data table plugins and libraries.

Designing data tables is an elaborated process. You have to develop a table layout, integrate it with the data source, and determine the interaction of data tables with other components. Manually creating an HTML table will be time-consuming and tedious. JavaScript data table libraries offer automation and significantly reduce the chances of errors.

This article will cover the ten most helpful JavaScript data table plugins and libraries you can use.

1. jQueryDynatable

One of the widely used JavaScript data libraries is Dynatable. It is a powerful plugin for automatically generating data tables; it is developer-focused. You can create highly customizable tables with Dynatable as it offers complete freedom to render the design, filter results, and customize data table searches.

Dynatable can be used for data-centric websites, allowing intelligent sorting out of the box. It will enable users to sort data in ascending and descending order for any number of columns. The plugin is licensed under the Affero General Public License and is available for $95 to $950.

2. Stacktable

This free JavaScript data table plugin is licensed under the MIT free source license. Stacktable.js is a highly robust jQuery plugin for creating highly responsive tables. For mobile-friendly data-driven websites, Stacktable is used to stack tables. With Stacktable, you can implement highly responsive tables that stack rows and fundamental values over each other. This creates a side-by-side layout for simplicity.

The limitation of using Stacktable is there are few options, and the documentation is also limited. If you are developing a project on a budget and want to make standard table elements mobile-friendly, this is one of the JavaScript plugins to try.

3. Material-table

Material-table is one of the most popular JavaScript data libraries, primarily because of its material-styled user interface. On GitHub, Material-table is one of the highest-rated JavaScript data table libraries. You can easily incorporate it in the most complex applications and websites as it supports custom column rendering, detailed panel view for rows, CSV export, and several UI elements. There is extensive documentation available to help developers exploit its features.

4. W2Ui

W2Ui is not just a JavaScript data table library but is a complete JavaScript UI library. It requires jQuery to function and has clearly defined declarative syntax, designed to create a clear distinction between application data and its logic layer. This approach offers immense performance benefits making the application faster. W2Ui is only 97kb in size, providing much quicker load time and execution than other JavaScript data libraries on the list.

One of the most significant advantages of using W2Ui is that it can handle multiple data representation requirements of web applications. Using this JavaScript library, you can also create popups, tables, forms, and sidebars.

5. AnyGrids

Suppose you want a vanilla library for quickly creating interactive JavaScript data tables. It can create data tables from JS arrays, JSON formatted data, and Ajax data sources. AnyGrids is a free JavaScript plugin you can install for your projects using npm or script tag.

Like other JavaScript data table plugins on the list, it also offers sorting, filtering, and data grouping options. With AnyGrids, you can expand the table rows with custom data render such as bar, pie, or linear sparklines, do column calculations, and create pagination.

6. Backgrid.js

If you want a JavaScript plugin to build semantic data grid widgets that you can easily style, Backgrid is a library you must try. It is a lightweight and modular JavaScript plugin that you can use to create data tables to display data visually. Backgrid.js has options to customize and style the layout of tables, allowing customized API to export data. It is an MIT license, free to use JavaScript data library.

7. Handsontable

If you want to create data tables that allow users to have the same experience as MS Excel, Handontable is the JavaScript data library you need to use. It will enable developers to work with rows and columns, much like Excel sheets. It offers one of the most comprehensive APIs of all data table JS plugins. While you can use the library for free for non-commercial purposes, you will need a developer’s license for commercial use.

8. ngx-datatable

When working with complex and large data for an angular web application, you can use ngx-datatable to represent the data in tables. A lightweight and flexible JavaScript data library, ngx-datatable is built for modern web browsers. It offers all basic table functionalities such as sorting, filtering, and paging.

9. FooTable

FooTable is a jQuery table plugin that is focused on mobile-friendly data tables. It has no bootstrap involvement and is governed by two principles: hides columns after the declared breakpoint in the CSS and insert expandable rows to reveal data hidden in cells at the breakpoint. It is one of the most basic JavaScript plugins for creating responsive data tables. For styling, you can use bootstrap as it is designed to be compatible with bootstrap grids.

10. KendoReact

A JavaScript data library built for React offers virtualization, globalization, and other table functions such as pagination, filter, group, edit, resize and reorder. There is an option to develop data tables in controlled and uncontrolled mode. It also allows the export of data in Excel and PDF format. It is one of the best JavaScript plugins for data table generation with zero dependencies. We recommend it for React applications because its UI components are 100% optimized for React.

Conclusion

These ten are the most reliable options among the available JavaScript plugins and libraries for data table generation. You can easily create, organize, and process existing data using these libraries and plugins.

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Useful resources to help developers with dashboard creation

Posted on October 11, 2022November 9, 2022 by venkatesh

As organizations generate more data than ever, decisions driven by data insights are helping them evolve and expand. To access these insights, businesses rely on well-designed dashboards.

Dashboards are visual information tools that organizations use to access raw data in a representation format. Developers have to create dashboards in a manner to convey information efficiently. Usually, dashboards are designed to provide an understandable view of critical insights such as key performance indicators, revenues, sales, past performance, and more to predict future trends.

One of the nuances of dashboard creation is that it is easy to miss the difference between well-designed and ineffective dashboards. Fortunately, several resources can help with dashboard creation. At Talent500, we also rely on dashboards to use data insights to connect talent with the best companies; you can learn more about it here. In this article, we are sharing our engineers’ app dashboard design resources.

Best live examples of business dashboards with code for free

Every developer struggles with inspiration when designing dashboards every once in a while. Fortunately, FusionCharts offers a massive library of beautifully created business dashboards that developers can use for free for creating web or mobile dashboards.

The live examples of different dashboards on the website are shared with the code. All the dashboards shared are built using the FusionCharts plugins. Irrespective of what technology you are using for your project, you can include FusionChart dashboards directly into the framework using these plugins. It supports all popular front-end design frameworks, including JavaScript, Vue, React, Angular, Ruby, Laravel, and Node.

On FusionCharts, you can also find dashboards for a particular category like SaaS, wealth management, shipping analysis, sales management, HR resolutions, and more. Once you find a dashboard that best matches your requirement, you can download its source file, make changes or introduce desired functionalities, and launch your dashboard quickly.

Flaticon

Dashboards that have visually exciting views appear appealing to users. Icons and elements used within an app dashboard design significantly affect its user experience. While creating icons and elements from scratch is an option, we strongly advise against it unless your dashboard requires extreme customizations. Flaticon is an excellent website for accessing over 8 million free vector icons and elements for free.

It offers PSD, PNG, SVG, EPS, and CSS icons that you can directly include in your code. You can search for icons by terms or use. On Flaticon, you can edit icons before downloading. You can customize the icon color and size. In dashboard creation, icons can easily replace words to provide a summary view of everything without taking too much space. With the correct use of icons, you can display critical metrics without overcrowding the design.

Best practices for color blocking in data visualization

A common problem with color on dashboards is that the designer sometimes uses too much of it, making the design overwhelming, or too little color, creating boring dashboards.

Colorblocking is the technique that helps balance the use of colors in dashboard creation. It is the practice of balancing monochromatic background colors against bright colors to highlight key insights and data anomalies. Here is an excellent guide on best practices for data visualizations using colors. The guide explores how developers can use data visualization to help viewers quickly digest information. It further explains how colors can be used to create associations, show continuation, comparison, and highlight fundamental data.

For more tips on front-end design concepts, refer to this guide.

Learn to design data tables

Data tables are the most used elements within a dashboard design to represent information to convey trends or change. Modern dashboard design dictates that dashboard data tables must be interactive and data must be correctly aligned.

A data table is a great way to represent information that has a large data set. For instance, to represent sales information for the past month table is excellent for displaying product, ID, number of sales, etc. The data table design guide by Taras Bakusevych is an excellent resource for learning how to make great use of space using data tables for dashboard creation. It also explains how data tables can scale the scope of dashboards.

Complete overview of best data visualization tools

As mentioned, dashboards often have to represent large data sets in an easy-to-understand format. Data representation is not always straightforward, and sometimes data is so large that it seems impossible to discern anything meaningful from them. This is what data visualization helps with. However, creating data visualizations from scratch is an epic waste of time, as you will have to spend hundreds of hours plotting points in a chart.

Fortunately, we have data visualization tools to help. These tools provide designers with an easier way to represent large data sets visually, making their jobs significantly simpler. There are dozens of data visualization tools available, but this Toptal article explores the best data visualization tools for dashboard creation.

We hope these dashboard creation resources will help you design better dashboards based on quality design principles.

At Talent500, we also rely on dashboards to use data insights to connect talent with the best companies; you can learn more about it here.

JavaScript concepts you should know before learning ReactJS

Posted on October 11, 2022November 9, 2022 by venkatesh

React, the most widely used JavaScript framework with over 40% market share, can be a valuable addition to your skill set. An essential thing about React is that it is fundamentally JavaScript. Hence, the better you are at JavaScript, the easier it will be for you to write quality React code.

While there are several JavaScript concepts every frontend developer must master, engineers at Talent500 picked some essential concepts that Reactjs developers should know.

Let’s break the essential JavaScript concepts you need to master React.

1. Function declarations and arrow functions

Any Reactjs application is built using various components. React components are independent and reusable code blocks that can be defined with JavaScript classes and functions. However, React components return JSX elements, unlike JavaScript functions.

Here’s an example of a JavaScript function:

// JavaScript function: returns any valid JavaScript type

function javascriptFunction() {

return “Hello world”;

}

Same with Reactjs:

// React function component: returns JSX

function ReactComponent(props) {

return <h1>{props.content}</h1>

}

Here, the difference can be seen in the casing of the names of the JavaScript functions and React function components. JavaScript functions names follow camel casing, while React function components are written with pascal casing.

In JavaScript, you can write a function in two different ways:

Using the function keyword: function declaration

New way introduced in ES6: arrow function

You can write React components using either of the ways. However, most React developers prefer arrow functions for their brevity. You can use several shorthands when creating arrow functions. It helps remove unnecessary boilerplate, and you can write the entire code in a single line.

Here’s an example:

// Function declaration syntax

function MyComponent(props) {

return <div>{props.content}</div>;

}

// Arrow function syntax

const MyComponent = (props) => {

return <div>{props.content}</div>;

}

// Arrow function syntax (shorthand)

const MyComponent = props => <div>{props.content}</div>;

2. Template literals

JavaScript has always been clumsy with handling strings, but with the arrival of ES6, it became easier to add strings together without using the + operator. You can concatenate or connect multiple strings using template literals.

You use template literals with two backticks ” instead of single or double quotes.

Here’s an example of how strings were concatenating in JavaScript before ES6:

function sayHello(text) {

return ‘Hello ‘ + text + ‘!’; //awkward syntax

}

sayHello(‘React’); // Hello React!

With template literals concatenating strings is much simpler and creates much more readable code.

function sayHelloAgain(text) {

return `Hello again, ${text}!`;

}

sayHelloAgain(‘React’); // Hello again, React!

The most powerful feature of template literals is the ability to use any JavaScript expression within the ${} syntax. When you master template literals, you can dynamically create strings in React.

For instance, here is a code for dynamically loading string values in head or body elements in a website:

import React from ‘react’;

import Head from ‘./Head’;

function Layout(props) {

// Shows site name (i.e. Reed Barger) at end of page title

const title = `${props.title} | Reed Barger`;

return (

<Head>

<title>{title}</title>

</Head>

<main>

{props.children}

</main>

</>

);

}

3. Async/Await

It is a better alternative to writing promises in JavaScript than the traditional method. Not only does it help write clean and clear code, but you can also convert any ordinary function into a promise by simply using the async keyword.

Here is a React code to fetch data from a GitHub API using the Fetch API to show a profile image using promises:

/* Go to react.new and paste this code in to see it work! */

import React from ‘react’;

const App = () => {

const [avatar, setAvatar] = React.useState(”);

React.useEffect(() => {

The first .then() lets us get JSON data from the response.

The second .then() gets the url to my avatar and puts it in state.

fetch(‘https://api.github.com/users/reedbarger’)

.then(response => response.json())

.then(data => setAvatar(data.avatar_url))

.catch(error => console.error(“Error fetching data: “, error);

}, []);

return (

<img src={avatar} alt=”Reed Barger” />

);

};

export default App;

The code has to use callbacks every time to resolve data from a promise. We can improve the code and use async/await to clean the syntax, like this:

/* Go to react.new and paste this code in to see it work! */

import React from “react”;

const App = () => {

const [avatar, setAvatar] = React.useState(“”);

React.useEffect(() => {

Note that because the function passed to useEffect cannot be async, we must create a separate function for our promise to be resolved in (fetchAvatar)

async function fetchAvatar() {

const response = await fetch(“https://api.github.com/users/reedbarger”);

const data = await response.json();

setAvatar(data.avatar_url);

}

fetchAvatar();

}, []);

return <img src={avatar} alt=”Reed Barger” />;

};

export default App;

Conclusion

JavaScript is a robust language, and you might have missed some concepts when you were learning basic JavaScript. However, to become a proficient Reactjs developer, you must master these JavaScript concepts, among several others. Here are some additional JavaScript concepts that front-end developers must know.

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Top 6 mistakes made by Javascript developers

Posted on October 10, 2022November 10, 2022 by venkatesh

JavaScript is an essential technology for front-end development. Websites, mobile applications, and even smart devices use this language. There are several benefits of using JavaScript for development. Websites built in this language are highly responsive, making them accessible on any screen. For mobile applications, JavaScript offers flexibility to integrate complex functionalities.

Furthermore, hundreds of advanced JavaScript frameworks, libraries, and development tools can benefit the developers. JavaScript is an essential language for web developers. While it is relatively simple, JavaScript developers must be aware of some language pitfalls. This article will detail the top 6 mistakes made by JavaScript developers.

1. Incorrect references to ‘this’ keyword

One of the most common JavaScript mistakes is the keyword ‘this.’ Many developers wonder if the ‘this’ JavaScript keyword has the same literal meaning or is something else entirely. As JavaScript has grown sophisticated over the years, several self-referencing scopes within callbacks and closures are introduced into the language. The confusion around this/that keywords is better understood from this example:

Game.prototype.restart = function () {

this.clearLocalStorage();

this.timer = setTimeout(function() {

this.clearBoard(); // what is “this”?

}, 0);

};

Running the above code will result in ‘Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function error.

In the above code example, the ‘this’ keyword is used to invoke setTimeout(), but it is invoking window.setTimeout(). This is causing the anonymous function using the setTimeout() to be associated with the window object without any clearBoard() method.

A conventional solution experienced JavaScript programmers use to avoid this mistake is to use the ‘this’ keyword regarding a variable; the closure can inherit that. Here’s how:

Game.prototype.restart = function () {

this.clearLocalStorage();

var self = this; // save reference to ‘this’, while it’s still this!

this.timer = setTimeout(function(){

self.clearBoard(); // oh OK, I do know who ‘self’ is!

}, 0);

};

2. Using magic values

Not only in JavaScript but using magic values is a common malpractice in many programming languages.

A magic value is a constant value that abruptly appears within the JavaScript code, only the developer who wrote the code knows why it is there.

This makes JavaScript code unmaintainable as no one can understand what that random value represents; even sometimes, the coder who added the value cannot recall the reason.

For instance, check out this code excerpt:

const specialFn = (r) =>{

const fnValue= 2*3.1416*r // no idea why this value is used

return fnValue

}

console.log(specialFn(4))

How the code should be:

const PI = 3.1416

const specialFn = (r) =>{

const fnValue = 2*PI*r // Calculation for circumference

return fnValue

}

console.log(specialFn(4))

This practice must be followed with all methods, functions, variables, and values.

3. Not “static typing” JavaScript code

A JavaScript developer should write Static Typed code. A type is a syntax format to write JavaScript code with predefined syntax, hierarchy, and structure.

Typescript is one of JavaScript’s most popular static typing styles to help programmers write maintainable and quality code. Typescript is a superset of JavaScript, implying it is JavaScript but with some added syntax features.

When you write static-type JavaScript code, you can easily avoid some of the most common typos and syntax errors.

4. Assuming JavaScript has block-level scope

A beginner JavaScript developer can think that the language creates a new scope for each block of code, but it is simply not true. While many other programming languages like Python and Java have this functionality, JavaScript does not offer block-level scope.

For instance, in this code block:

for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) {

/* … */

}

console.log(i);

What do you assume will be the output here?

The code will not throw an error or undefined output but will return 10.

Why?

In most other languages, this code block will throw an error because the scope of variable ‘i’ would be only within the for loop block. But in JavaScript, there is no such restriction and the variable ‘i’ remains in scope outside the for loop.

5. Anomalous behavior of Boolean Functions

One of the advantages of JavaScript is that it automatically coerces any value referenced in a Boolean context into a Boolean value. But this convenience comes at a cost for JavaScript developers. Let’s see how.

// All these statements are True

console.log(false == ‘0’);

console.log(null == undefined);

console.log(” \t\r\n” == 0);

console.log(” == 0);

// And these do too

if ({}) // …

if ([]) // …

But the last two statements are empty, which any developer will intuitively think to return false, but as both {} and [] are coerced to a Boolean value in JavaScript, they will return True.

6. Not using “strict mode”

The “strict mode” in JavaScript is voluntary to ensure better quality code by enforcing stricter parsing and error handling. It also makes the code more secure. While not using strict mode is not a “mistake” per se, it is a practice that makes you a better JavaScript developer.

The strict mode JavaScript code prevents accidental globals, makes debugging more manageable, and makes eval() safer.

Conclusion

Being a proficient JavaScript developer is not only about learning the language’s concepts but also about being familiar with the common mistakes and best practices. It helps write concise and quality JavaScript code.

Talent500 is a platform for JavaScript developers to get career redefining opportunities with some of the best companies. Join us here.

5 useful JavaScript hacks for developers in 2022

Posted on October 10, 2022November 16, 2022 by venkatesh

Front-end development uses multiple technologies, but JavaScript is at the core of all front-end projects. Websites and apps depend on JavaScript for dynamic content generation and interactivity. The programming language empowers over 98% of the internet, which is why it’s a great addition to your resume.

As JavaScript rapidly evolves, front-end developers must keep track of the new features and libraries. In this article, we list incredible JavaScript hacks that you can use to improve your code.

1. Nullish coalescing operator (??)

Introduced in the ES2020, the ?? operator is called the Nullish coalescing operator. It works the same as the || operator and is used to determine that the value to the operator’s left is null or undefined before returning it to the right.

While the behaviour of the ?? operator is similar to the || operator, but it’s stricter. The || operator takes the right operant in the case of false values such as False or 0. The nullish coalescing operator (??) takes the right value only when the left side is set to null or undefined. Therefore, 0 || 1 will return 1 while 0 ?? 1 results in 0.

Here’s an example:

const response = {

settings: {

nullValue: null,

height: 400,

animationDuration: 0,

headerText: ”,

showSplashScreen: false

}

};

const undefinedValue = response.settings.undefinedValue ?? ‘some other default’; // result: ‘some other default’

const nullValue = response.settings.nullValue ?? ‘some other default’; // result: ‘some other default’

const headerText = response.settings.headerText ?? ‘Hello, world!’; // result: ”

const animationDuration = response.settings.animationDuration ?? 300; // result: 0

const showSplashScreen = response.settings.showSplashScreen ?? true; // result: false

Apart from Internet Explorer, all modern web and mobile browsers support ?? operator.

2. On-demand loading import modules using dynamic import ()

JavaScript allows loading dependencies using the import statement initialization like this:

import defaultExport from “module-name”;

import * as name from “module-name”;

//…

However, using such static import statements that depend on the type = “module” script tag has several drawbacks, such as:

A statically imported module can slow down the loading or execution of the code

It can take up a lot of system memory

It loads every time even when it is required less frequently

One programming hacks to use here is to load modules on-demand based on conditions. It can be used when the statically imported module is not needed immediately or only when certain conditions are triggered.

You can use the dynamic introduction of import () in JavaScript functions and classes. There are two forms to import modules dynamically:

// Form 1

import(‘/modules/my-module.js’)

.then((module) => {

// Do something with the module.

});

// Form 2

let module = await import(‘/modules/my-module.js’);

3. Replace substrings faster with String.prototype.replaceAll()

JavaScript developers often use dynamic functions where they have to replace a string or part of a string. The traditional way is to use the String.prototype.replace() method to replace substrings, but it is not efficient. This method only replaces the first occurrence of the substring and not all.

Another important JavaScript hack is to use the String.prototype.replaceAll() method for replacing substrings. It replaces all the occurrences of a substring in the entire code.

Here is an example of the use of String.prototype.replace() and String.prototype.replaceAll() methods to replace all a with Ahui:

// before

console.log(‘a’.replace(/a/g,’Ahui’)) //a

// After simplification

console.log(‘a’.replaceAll(‘a’,’Ahui’)) //Ahui

4. Use Proxy instead of Object.defineProperty

In JavaScript, Object.defineProperty is the static method used to define a new property directly on an object or modify the existing property and return the object. However, one helpful JavaScript hack is to use Proxy instead of Object.defineProperty.

Here are the benefits of using Proxy instead of Object.defineProperty:

While Object.defineProperty can proxy only a particular property of an object, the Proxy can proxy the whole object.
Unlike Object.defineProperty, Proxy can listen to the new properties added to an object.
Object.defineProperty needs to do all the recursions once when all the properties inside the object are to be recursively proxied. However, a Proxy can only be recursive when called. It is not ideal but much better than Object.defineProperty.
A proxy can listen to the changes made to an array, but Object.defineProperty cannot.

Here is an example of how to use Proxy:

function reactive(obj) {

return new Proxy(obj, {

get(target, key) {

// Can do dependency collection

track(target, key)

return target[key]

set(target, key, val) {

target[key] = val

// trigger dependency

trigger(target, key)

}

})

}

The proxy method acts as a constructor that takes two arguments to generate an object from scratch – a target and a handler.

5. Convert an if/else into a one-line

The most common practice of using an if-else statement in JavaScript is like this:

if (1 < 2) {

console.log(“True.”);

} else {

console.log(“False”);

}

But there is a powerful programming hack to achieve the same result using a ternary operator and to simplify the code.

Here’s the same code using a ternary operator:

1 < 2 ? console.log(“True.”) : console.log(“False.”);

The ‘:’ is the syntax for the ternary operator and is written like this:

condition ? exprIfTrue : exprIfFalse

Conclusion

We hope these five JavaScript hacks will help you be more productive. They can help you make your JavaScript code much more concise and cleaner. Here are some more JavaScript resources from our blog.

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5 common mistakes to avoid when using React in 2022

Posted on October 7, 2022November 16, 2022 by venkatesh

Since Facebook released React in 2013, it has become one of the most widely used JavaScript frameworks. According to Statista, React is the world’s second most used web development framework. As the popularity of JavaScript remains high, React utilizes its capabilities to provide the most comprehensive tool sets to build web and mobile applications.

As a React developer, you have the opportunity to be part of a technology that has immense growth potential shortly. More and more web developers are adopting this JavaScript framework. Backed by Facebook and a vast developer community, React is a framework to master if you want to become a web developer.

However, there are some common mistakes that you must avoid. Here we take a look at the most common React mistakes developers commit.

1. Not creating enough components

A common mistake any React developer can make is not creating enough components. React is a highly versatile language, and if you are creating a few significant components, you’re missing its reusability. While it is not wrong to produce large components that execute many tasks, it is recommended that you create smaller components, more preferably, one component corresponding to one function. This approach saves time and is a significant benefit when debugging the code. Any errors can be easily spotted as you know which components are associated with which functions.

Here is an example of a TodoList component broken down to single functions:

// ./components/TodoList.js

import React from ‘react’;

import { useTodoList } from ‘../hooks/useTodoList’;

import { useQuery } from ‘../hooks/useQuery’;

import TodoItem from ‘./TodoItem’;

import NewTodo from ‘./NewTodo’;

const TodoList = () => {

const { getQuery, setQuery } = useQuery();

const todos = useTodoList();

return (

<div>

<ul>

{todos.map(({ id, title, completed }) => (

<TodoItem key={id} id={id} title={title} completed={completed} />

))}

<NewTodo />

</ul>

<div>

Highlight Query for incomplete items:

<input value={getQuery()} onChange={e => setQuery(e.target.value)} />

</div>

);

};

export default TodoList;

2. Modifying the state directly

Another common mistake React developers commit is modifying the state directly. As a rule of thumb, in React, the state must always be immutable; otherwise, there will be performance issues that will be difficult to fix.

Here’s a code:

const modifyPetsList = (element, id) => {

petsList[id].checked = element.target.checked;

setPetsList(petsList);

};

Here we want to update the checked key of an object in the array based on the state of the checkbox, but there is an issue. React cannot observe and trigger the re-rendering of the object because it has been changed with the same reference.

Either you can use the setState() method or the useState() hook to fix the issue. These methods will ensure that React acknowledges the changes made to the object and that your DOM is correctly re-rendered.

3. When rendering the list, do not use the key

If you are a beginner or used our React developer toolkit to learn the language, you must have come across the prompt when you render a list according to the method described in the documentation.

For example, rendering these arrays:

const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

const listItems = numbers.map((number) => <li>{number}</li>);

will display this prompt on the console “a key should be provided for list items.”

The solution is obvious here. We have to follow the prompts and add the key attribute to each item like this:

const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

const listItems = numbers.map((number, index) => <li key={index}>{number}</li>);

The key helps React identify which elements have changed, which is why you need to assign a unique value to the key. In the above example, we have used the index as the key value.

However, we do not recommend you to use the key and ignore the prompt.

This is because the value of the key will change every time an item is added or removed from the array. It will result in performance degradation.

4. Using Redux too much

Redux is becoming very popular among React developers, primarily working on large apps. It is helpful as it helps manage global state, but you don’t have to use it to manage every state in your React apps.

If your applications do not use parallel-level components that need to exchange information, then there is no need to use Redux. Instead, you should use a local state method or useState when you use form components or want to check the state of an element every time it is accessed.

5. Incorrect use of boolean operators

In JSX/TSX syntax, React developers often use boolean values to control rendered elements utilizing the && operator like this:

const count = 0;

const Comp = () => count && <h1>Chris1993</h1>;

While we want that page to display empty content at this time, it will actually display 0 on it.

The error is because the falsy expression causes elements after && to be skipped. However, the value of the falsy expression is returned.

The correct way to write the condition without relying on the JavaScript’s boolean value to compare:

const count = 0;

const Comp = () => count > 0 && <h1>Chris1993</h1>;

Now the page will display empty content.

Conclusion

Now that you have learned some common React mistakes, keep them into account when creating your next React app. Gradually you can inculcate these best practices and soon they will become a learned behavior and improve your code quality.

And if you are an experienced React developer, join Talent500. We are a global remote team-building platform that Fortune500 companies and fast-growing startups use to hire talent.

4 code review mistakes and how to avoid them

Posted on October 7, 2022November 16, 2022 by venkatesh

Code review is a systematic evaluation of the code followed by checking the changes made at the development stage. In software development, code reviews play a critical role in ensuring that code quality is high.

You will find different code review standards at various organizations, primarily driven by their philosophies, perspectives, and opinions. As it is not a stringent or fixed process, anyone can make their definition of what quality coding must be like. Most companies take a ‘trial and error’ approach to determine what kind of code review produces the best quality end product. You will have to review code frequently in your development career, so you must know what common mistakes one should avoid while checking codes.

Here we compiled a list of common code review mistakes that every developer must know.

1. Skipping tests

Hopping off tests is one of the common mistakes most developers commit. We understand that reviewing your code through all the tests can get mundane, but skipping tests should not be the reason. Setting up the code review environment and tearing the code repeatedly can get boring.

Often testers let their guard down, assuming that the code will pass through some tests without an issue. It is tempting to discount extra effort to ensure that the code review is completed without skipping any tests and directly goes into the implementation and conclusion phase. However, this practice puts the entire project at risk.

Code review tests are also pragmatic and functional codes designed to test the working of coding at a certain level. Unless you are confident that you truly understand the working and functioning of all test cases (hardly ever so!), you must not skip a test. It is essential to detect any bugs early in the process to eliminate the risk of errors at a later stage of development when it can be costly to rework the code.

2. Reviewing only changed or newly added code

Code review is a constantly evolving process. It goes through several development phases, but the common mistake QA testers commit is thinking that they only need to review the changed lines of code. A code cannot be read or acknowledged in parts. If you start reviewing code in chunks, you will miss specific details that can jeopardize the whole project.

It is essential to understand that code is produced much like a story. You won’t leave chapters or jump paragraphs to complete the story unless you want to lose the concept. Code review is the same; when changes are made to a code, you must review the overall code. Make it a habit to review a codebase as a whole, a single package, and review changes and existing lines of code. It is the only way to ensure its integrity.

3. Missing screenshots

Sometimes when you review the code, especially front-end code, you might comment on the bugs or errors without adding screenshots. You should avoid this mistake to help the developers understand where the error occurred and how it looks at the front-end. While this recommendation is not directly linked to your code, it is a great help if you include some screenshots to point out how the UI looked before and after the changes made to the code.

When you include the screenshots with the code review feedback, front-end developers can better understand how the code changes affected the UI and how you expect it to be.

4. Unclear or ambiguous comments

Code review is to help correct the errors and let developers know what needs to be fixed. But if you drop in obscure or unclear comments, it won’t help the cause. For instance, if you leave a comment like “Please Fix,” how will the developer know what you mean by that? If you leave such comments in the review feedback, you are forcing developers to waste their time guessing what can be wrong with the code. It would help if you focused on explicitly articulating the issue about the errors or bugs such that developers can easily understand.

The whole point of a code review is to help developers get accurate and understandable feedback on the quality of the code. Be specific and clear about what can be wrong with the code. Put direct comments, identifying the concerns you have and suggesting the ideas you think will help improve the code quality.

Conclusion

A code review is essential for producing a quality product. If you commit the common mistakes listed here, you will derail the code review, resulting in more work for everybody. It’s important to keep code review quality high, not for high coding standards but also to maintain harmonious relationships among team members.

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5 most frequently asked JavaScript interview questions

Posted on October 7, 2022November 16, 2022 by venkatesh

JavaScript is the core of front-end development. JavaScript interview questions are asked to gauge the technical abilities of front-end developers. If you plan to start your career as a front-end developer, you are up for an exciting domain that frequently witnesses innovations and technological advancements.

Your skills as a front-end developer will be tested on how well versed you are with JavaScript. In this article, we are sharing the most frequently asked JavaScript interview questions.

1. What is the drawback of using a bar with typeof bar === “object” to determine if bar is an object? How can the drawback be avoided?

While typeof bar === “object” is a reliable way of checking if bar is an object, the problem arises because null is also considered an object in JavaScript.

That’s why the following code will return true, unlike most JavaScript developers anticipating it to return false.

var bar = null;

console.log(typeof bar === “object”); // logs true!

As long as you are aware of this nature of JavaScript, you can easily avoid the problem by proactively checking if bar is null:

console.log((bar !== null) && (typeof bar === “object”)); // logs false

This statement eliminates the problem, but the important point is to know that the above solution will return false if the bar is a function. In most cases, it is a required behavior, but if you want to return true for functionals, you can make a change like this:

console.log((bar !== null) && ((typeof bar === “object”) || (typeof bar === “function”)));

2. What will be the output of the following code, and why?

var myObject = {

foo: “bar”,

func: function() {

var self = this;

console.log(“outer func:

this.foo = ” + this.foo);

console.log(“outer func:

self.foo = ” + self.foo);

(function() {

console.log(“inner func:

this.foo = ” + this.foo);

console.log(“inner func:

self.foo = ” + self.foo);

}());

}

};

myObject.func();

This is another commonly asked JavaScript interview question. The output of the code will be:

outer func: this.foo = bar

outer func: self.foo = bar

inner func: this.foo = undefined

inner func: self.foo = bar

In the outer function, myObject is referred to by both this and self, which is why both can adequately refer to and access foo. While, in the inner function, this no longer refers to myObject and results in undefined output. However, the reference to the local variable self remains in scope and therefore is accessible.

3. What is a scope, and what are its types?

In JavaScript, a scope determines how an object, a variable, or a function can be accessed in a particular section of your code.

Scopes are of two types in JS:

Global scope: It is defined outside the function and can be accessed from any code section. For example:

var name = ‘LambdaTest’;

console.log(name); // logs ‘LambdaTest’

function newLogName() {

console.log(name); // ‘name’ is accessible here and everywhere else

}

newLogName();

Local scope: Here, variables are defined inside the function, scoped in the function only, and cannot be used outside.

// Global Scope

function sampleFunction() {

// Local Scope #1

function oldFunction() {

// Local Scope #2

}

// Global Scope

function newFunction() {

// Local Scope #3

}

// Global Scope

4. What will be the output of the code below ? Explain your answer

console.log(0.1 + 0.2);

console.log(0.1 + 0.2 == 0.3);

This developer interview question is a bit tricky to answer. You can’t be sure of what the outcome will be. The code might print out 0.3 and true, or it might not. The reason being in JavaScript, all the numbers are treated as floating point precision which is why they may not always output the expected result.

The above example is a classic case of how JavaScript handles numbers. The code will surprisingly print:

0.30000000000000004

false

The easiest solution to this problem is to use a special constant Number.EPSILON to compare the absolute difference between two numbers:

function areTheNumbersAlmostEqual(num1, num2) {

return Math.abs( num1 – num2 ) < Number.EPSILON;

}

console.log(areTheNumbersAlmostEqual(0.1 + 0.2, 0.3));

5.What is prototype property?

Prototype property in JavaScript is used for implementing inheritance. Each function in JS has a default prototype property value which is null. Methods and properties are added to the prototype to make it worthwhile for the instances. This is how a JavaScript function is made robust and available for multiple instances.

This JavaScript interview question is better explained with the following code to calculate the perimeter of a rectangle:

function Rectangle(x, y) {

this.x = x;

this.y = y;

}

Rectangle.prototype.perimeter = function() {

return 2 * (this.x + this.y);

}

var rectangle = new Rectangle(4, 3);

console.log(rectangle.perimeter()); // outputs ’14’

Conclusion

These are some critical JavaScript interview questions that you must understand. JavaScript is an essential language for developers. Beginners can start learning JavaScript from these websites.

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