Frontend Developer – Talent500 Blog

5 essential tools for faster frontend development in 2022

Posted on November 15, 2022 by monica jamwal

Frontend development isn’t always fast, as the development speed can suffer without the proper tools to incorporate complex app functionalities and visuals into the design. Fortunately, modern frontend development tools offer the rate to build applications much more efficiently.

This post will list the top 5 progressive frontend development tools for hassle-free web development.

Bit — Component-Driven for 10X

Modern frontend development is component-driven. Most modern frameworks focus on components to build apps faster.

Bit is an advanced frontend tool for next-generation component-driven development. It allows users to build components that can be used independently to compose different applications. As the components can run anywhere, you can build scalable applications faster.

The Bit Cloud Platform helps teams collaborate and build together. For instance, if you are building eCommerce, working on components for each product page can be time-consuming and tedious. Bit can speed up the process as it offers excellent features like reusable customizable component templates, impressive visual components docs, isolated unit-testing, and per-component versioning.

Overall, Bit is a powerful frontend development tool for Micro Frontends, Rapid App Development, System Designs, and faster delivery of projects.

npm (Node Package Manager)

It is hard to imagine modern frontend development without npm or Node Package Manager. The numbers can anticipate the extent of its use – over 10 million front-end developers download over 30 billion packages every month using npm.

Package managers are essential for front-end development as they help install new dependencies in the code without writing everything from scratch. Furthermore, they can handle duplicate dependencies- a significant hassle in frontend development that occurs when the same reliance occurs more than once.

Node Package Manager hosts a large software repository that includes popular BootStrap, Reach jQuery, and Vue packages. It would be best to use it in application development because it allows easy installation of node programs and reusable code packages. It is cross-platform compatible, implying you can use it on any OS for web app development. It is a standalone tool that you can use with almost any application.

GatsbyJS

GatsbyJS is one of the prominent frameworks for building static sites using JAMStack. Frontend developers can significantly speed up the web development process using GatsbyJS. It offers a readymade framework, rich web templates, and a well-optimized set of tools to start building out-of-the-box.

GatsbyJS is a free, open-source, React-based framework that makes it too easy to work with countless static pages. If you are working on a React project and want to deploy static pages, GatsbyJS is your best bet.

Developers use this framework to build React applications that are fast and optimized for performance and dev experience. Do not underestimate the scope of GatsbyJS for full-blown modern applications. With the availability of thousands of plugins, you can add extended functionalities to your JAMStack static sites.

Sentry.io

Sentry is an open-source full stack error tracking system.

Any frontend developer worth his salt knows that error tracking is essential for faster application development. With Sentry.io, you can track errors across servers, browsers, and frameworks. It allows error tracking for both desktop and mobile applications.

Another reason why this is an essential tool for frontend developers is that it is for web applications. You can install Sentry with just two commands, and the UI/UX is straightforward to use. It is an excellent tool for frontend developers to prevent errors from reaching production by identifying and resolving them early on.

Suppose you are working on an enterprise web application with a lot of backend code. It can be too time-consuming to track each conflict with the frontend code. You can deploy Sentry to trace all back-end errors caused by backend issues. This tool provides a holistic full stack approach to frontend error fixing. Sentry can automatically capture all unhandled exceptions to avoid rolling into a more significant problem.

Jira

Project management tools are essential for backend as well as frontend developers. Faster frontend development means collaborating efficiently and effectively with other developers and stakeholders.

Jira is a powerful project management tool for front-end developers that boosts team collaboration by facilitating project planning, bug and error management, task management, time tracking, and resource allocation.

When working on large projects such as an eCommerce portal, you will need to improve the project’s agility by allowing developers to collaborate without clashing. Jira can help teams with agile development at scale. It improves operational efficiency and delivers better results by keeping the teams aligned toward the same goal.

Conclusion

Frontend development is evolving fast, and there is so much innovation across the board. You do not have to stick with the slow and outdated tools; there are too many options available to speed up the development of your projects where time is of the essence. We hope these five front-end development tools will add value to your projects by helping you code faster and deliver the best results.

Some of the biggest brands trust Talent500 to hire, build, and manage their remote teams. Sign up here to join the elite frontend developers pool and get hired by the best companies.

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.
Talent500 helps front-end developers find the best opportunities with global companies. Join our elite pool of talent to get discovered by the best.

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.

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.

Top 4 algorithms to improve your JavaScript skills

Posted on September 28, 2022 by venkatesh

JavaScript is a skill that makes a developer a valuable candidate for any front-end or back-end position. When more than 98% of websites use JavaScript, it is evident that no web development project can take place without JavaScript components. It is required for any interaction between the user and a web page.

Suppose you are building a website to display the score of an ongoing sports tournament. As a developer, you can take two approaches here. First, manually update the value on the server, and users have to refresh the browser screen for score updates. Second, the viewer screen updates automatically every time there is an update in the value on the server.

Without a doubt, the latter approach is preferable. This is what JavaScript can achieve. It can significantly automate the functionalities and components of a web application.

To truly utilize the functionality of JavaScript, you must master some algorithms. This article will list the top four algorithms a JavaScript developer should know.

1. Linear search

One of the simplest JavaScript algorithms is linear search used for searching a data set. This algorithm starts from the 0th element, comparing the user’s input to return the positional value of the element finally.

It is often used to find missing elements in an array using JavaScript code. Here’s an example:

Find the missing number in this array:

Input: [1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Algorithm:

const find_missing = function(input) {

let n = input.length + 1; let sum = 0;

for (let i in input) {

sum += input[i];

}return Math.floor((n * (n + 1)) / 2) – sum;

};

Output: 5

2. Reversal algorithm

It is the algorithm used in JavaScript to reverse an array. The reversal algorithm creates subarrays and changes them to perform the rotation of an array.

Array alignment is one of the essential JavaScript skills to master. You can achieve the same with the reversal algorithm. Here is an example of a realignment in JavaScript:

Input: [1,2,3]

Code:

const permute = function(nums) {

let results = [];let go = (current) => {

if (current.length === nums.length){

results.push(current);

return;

}

nums.forEach(n => {

if (!current.includes(n)){

go([…current, n]);

}

});

}

go([]);

return results;

};

Output: [[1,2,3],[1,3,2],[2,1,3],[2,3,1],[3,1,2],[3,2,1]]

The same algorithm can be used for string array alignment.

Here is an example of two input strings that we check for alignment using the reversal algorithm.

Input: s1 = “ab”, s2 = “eidbao”

Output: true

Input: s1 = “aa”, s2 = “eidbao”

Output: false

JavaScript code:

const checkPermutation = function(s1, s2) {

const len1 = s1.length, len2 = s2.length;

if (len1 > len2) return false;const count = Array(26).fill(0);

for (let i = 0; i < len1; i++) {

count[s1.charCodeAt(i)-97]++;

count[s2.charCodeAt(i)-97]–;

}

if (!count.some(e => e !== 0)) return true;for (let i = len1; i < len2; i++) {

count[s2.charCodeAt(i)-97]–;

count[s2.charCodeAt(i-len1)-97]++;

if (!count.some(e => e !== 0)) return true;

}

return false;

};

3. Number-to-word conversion

This algorithm converts any given number into an English word string. It uses some predefined strings, and the output is generated using the values from these strings.

Input: 786

Output: Seven hundred and eighty-six

JavaScript code:

#include<iostream>

using namespace std;

string getUnit(int n) {

//Return single digit to word

string unit[10] = {“Zero”, “One”,”Two”, “Three”,”Four”,”Five”, “Six”,”Seven”,”Eight”,”Nine”};

return unit[n];

}

string getTwoDigits(int n) {

//Here n is 2 digit number

string td[10] = {“Ten”, “Eleven”,”Twelve”,”Thirteen”, “Fourteen”,”Fifteen”,”Sixteen”,”Seventeen”,”Eighteen”,”Nineteen”};

return td[n%10];

}

string getTenMul(int n) {

//Here n is a multiple of 10

string tm[8] = {“Twenty”, “Thirty”,”Fourty”, “Fifty”,”Sixty”, “Seventy”,”Eighty”,”Ninty”};

return tm[n-2];

}

string getTenPow(int pow) {

//The power of ten in words

string power[2] = {“Hundred”, “Thousand”};

return power[pow-2];

}

void printNumToWord(int n) {

if(n >= 0 && n < 10)

cout << getUnit(n) << ” “;

//Unit values to word

else if(n >= 10 && n < 20)

cout << getTwoDigits(n) << ” “;

//from eleven to nineteen

else if(n >= 20 && n < 100) {

cout << getTenMul(n/10)<<” “;

if(n%10 != 0)

printNumToWord(n%10); //Recursive call to convert num to word

}else if(n >= 100 && n < 1000) {

cout << getUnit(n/100)<<” “;

cout <<getTenPow(2) << ” “;

if(n%100 != 0) {

cout << “And “;

printNumToWord(n%100);

}

}else if(n >= 1000 && n <= 32767) {

printNumToWord(n/1000);

cout <<getTenPow(3)<<” “;

if(n%1000 != 0)

printNumToWord(n%1000);

}else

printf(“Invalid Input”);

}

main() {

int number;

cout << “Enter a number between 0 to 32767: “; cin >> number;

printNumToWord(number);

}

4. 4sum algorithm

4sum is another important JavaScript algorithm that finds several uses in computational applications. It is used to find the four elements in an array whose sum equals the required answer.

JavaScript code example:

const fourSum = function(nums, target) {

let result = [];

let length = nums.length;

if (length < 4) return result;

nums = nums.sort((a, b) => a – b );for (let i = 0; i < length – 3; i++) {

if (nums[i] === nums[i – 1]) continue;

for (let j = i + 1; j < length – 2; j++) {

if (j > i + 1 && nums[j] === nums[j – 1]) continue;let k = j + 1;

let l = length – 1;while (k < l) {

const sum = nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[k] + nums[l];if (sum === target) {

result.push([nums[i], nums[j], nums[k], nums[l]])

}if (sum <= target) {

k += 1;

while (nums[k] === nums[k – 1]) {

k += 1;

}

}if (sum >= target) {

l -= 1;

while (nums[l] === nums[l + 1]) {

l -= 1;

}

}return result;

};

Conclusion

Whether you are a front-end or a back-end developer, these are four important JavaScript algorithms to learn. They are widely used in web applications, from delivery tracking websites to ticket booking apps.

Talent500 has some great learning resources for JavaScript developers. And, if you are looking for job opportunities, sign up here.

10 buzzwords every frontend developer should include in their vocabulary

Posted on September 27, 2022September 27, 2022 by venkatesh

The frontend development domain is rife with peculiar buzzwords that can baffle untrained ears. If you are a frontend developer new to the field, it will help if you familiarize yourself with these developer buzzwords. Being familiar with the industry vocabulary is an indicator of your skill versatility and experience handling projects. It acts as proof of your expertise. You will not feel left out when conversations around these frontend developer buzzwords happen.

This post lists the most popular front-end developer buzzwords that will make your journey into the industry much more straightforward.

1. Agile

A major buzzword in the software development industry is Agile. It is a methodology that offered an improvement over the waterfall methodology resulting in faster iteration and release of products. Agile web development is more common in the startup world. In agile methodology, web development teams work according to weekly or biweekly sprints. Sprint is the development cycle with five phases – design, develop, test, deploy, and review. Here, you can learn more about how agile methodology improves the development process and time-to-delivery.

2. API

Application Programming Interface or API is another important developer buzzword for front-end developers to learn. The core functionality of an API is to allow two different programs to communicate with each other. With APIs, front-end developers can make certain parts of their design available to back-end developers. Based on an API, several tools and widgets can be built that can be connected to a particular website. A payment gateway API is an example of how eCommerce websites accept payments. Here are some important browser APIs that front-end developers must be aware of.

3. Adaptive design

Also known as responsive design, it is a way in which a website is designed to adapt to the screen size of a device without breaking. The adaptive design creates websites in several layouts to fit different device screens. You will be asked to develop adaptive website designs as a frontend developer. Mobile-first is also a term used for adaptive design.

4. Bootstrap

A free and open-source frontend framework, Bootstrap is widely used in website and web app design. Developed at Twitter by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton, it brings consistency to your website design. Bootstrap is based on HTML and CSS. It uses the same technologies for design templates and elements like forms, typography, tables, buttons, modals, and more. Bootstrap is among the most common front-end developer buzzwords you will often hear in your career.

5. Cache

Website performance is augmented with the use of cache. A cache is temporary storage for data that the browser uses to store website data. When a user requests the same website data, it is fetched from the cache instead of sending a request to the server to download the resources again. It enables faster loading of web pages.

6. CI/CD

CI/CD stands for continuous integration and continuous delivery. It is a method to deliver apps frequently to the customers by introducing automation into the various stages of app development. The CI/CD is a solution where most problems arise from integrating new code into an existing code base. It helps development and operation teams to deploy app updates and features faster. Learn more about CI/CD here.

7. DOM

The Document Object Model or DOM is a cross-platform and language-independent interface used in web or app design. DOM treats XML or HTML documents as a tree structure wherein each node is an object representing a section of the document. Simply put, a DOM means any HTML or XML document in a logical tree for the browser to render. It is one of the most important developer buzzwords you must be aware of.

8. FCP

First contentful paint or FCP measures how long it takes the browser to render the first piece of DOM content after a user visits a web page. It is also one of the metrics that Google uses to evaluate the performance of a web page. Images, non-white <canvas> elements, and SVGs on a web page are considered DOM content, while iframe content is treated as non-DOM content. As a front-end developer, it will be your responsibility to keep FCP low. Google has a great resource on FCP and how to improve FCP scores.

9. Information architecture

Information architecture is the practice of organizing and representing complex information clearly and logically. In the context of website and app design, it implies creating a user-friendly navigation structure. Front-end developers and back-end engineers are information architects, too, in how they structure their code.

10. Minification

The last, but not least, front-end developer buzzword on our list is minification. It is the process of minimizing the markup and code to reduce the file size. When creating web pages, a developer will use spacing, comments, and variables to make code more readable, but it also increases the file size. Once a web page is live, the developer removes the spaces and comments to minify the code files.

Conclusion

This is no exhaustive list of the important front-end developer buzzwords, but it is enough to help you initiate the web developer talk. As you learn and grow in your career, you will come across many more developer buzzwords.

Are you a talented front-end developer looking for a job opportunity at a fast-growing startup or a Fortune 500 company? Talent500 can help. Join us here to know more.

5 useful cheat codes for React

Posted on September 19, 2022 by venkatesh

Facebook created React in 2013 as an alternative to AngularJS, the prominent JavaScript framework at the time. To better suit the requirements of Facebook’s server-side rendering, React was made very different from Angular. For instance, React is a dynamic library while Angular is a restrictive framework. React supports flexible TypeScript, but Angular supports only static TypeScript. Such differentiations led to the development of web frameworks by leaps and bounds.

Today, React is the second most popular JavaScript framework in the world. If you are getting started with this JS framework, it might seem overwhelming. However, our engineers created this React cheat sheet to give you an overview of some important React features in simple-to-understand snippets.

1. JSX

JSX is short or JavaScript XML which is a syntax extension of JavaScript to write HTML code.

It will be a bit complicated if you have to write HTML in React without JSX. Here’s an example:

const myelement = React.createElement(‘h1’, {}, ‘Hello World!’);

ReactDOM.render(myelement, document.getElementById(‘root’));

The same code can be restructured like this using JSX:

const myelement = <h1>Hello World!</h1>;

ReactDOM.render(myelement, document.getElementById(‘root’));

Evidently, JSX makes it a lot easier and faster to write HTML elements in React code. In its absence, you will be forced to use the ReactDOM.render() function, which takes two arguments – the HTML code and the HTML element to render the code.

Here’s an extensive JSX cheat sheet that React developers must check out.

2. React fragments

In React, it is required that all returned elements must be returned within a “parent” component. For example, consider the following code:

function MyComponent() {

return (

<h1>My header</h1>

</p>My paragraph</p>

);

}

It is an invalid React code because here, two sibling elements, H1, and a paragraph, are returned from the same component.

React has an element called a fragment. They are the components that allow wrapping or grouping multiple elements without adding an extra node to the DOM.

If you want to overcome this limitation, you can use a fragment.

// valid syntax

function MyComponent() {

return (

<h1>My header</h1>

</p>My paragraph</p>

</>

);

}

Here we did not wrap our elements in any container element like a DIV, instead used a fragment. The syntax for using React fragments is:

<React.Fragment>

</React.Fragment>

</>.

3. React conditionals

All React components and elements are displayed conditionally. A basic approach to creating a separate return is using an if-statement like this:

function App() {

const isAuthUser = useAuth();

if (isAuthUser) {

// if our user is authenticated, let them use the app

return <AuthApp />;

}

// if user is not authenticated, show a different screen

return <UnAuthApp />;

}

React codes using if-statement can be highly nested. It is possible to write a conditional within a return statement. It simplified the React code like this:

function App() {

const isAuthUser = useAuth();

return (

<h1>My App</h1>

{isAuthUser ? <AuthApp /> : <UnAuthApp />}

</>

)

}

You must wrap the entire conditional in curly braces. Also, a conditional must resolve to a value.

4. React context

You can use context to pass data to the React components tree without using props. The problem with props is that we are sometimes forced to pass them through components that don’t need them in React codes. This is known as props drilling.

In the snippet below, the props are passed through a Body component that doesn’t need it:

function App() {

return (

<Body name=”John Doe” />

);

}

function Body({ name }) {

return (

<Greeting name={name} />

);

}

function Greeting({ name }) {

return <h1>Welcome, {name}</h1>;

}

To overcome this issue, we use the createContext function from React.

You can call context with an initial value. A createContext function has two components – a Provider and a Consumer property. The Provider is wrapped around the component tree through which the given value is to be passed. Next, you place the Consumer in the component from which you want to consume the value.

Example code:

import { createContext } from ‘react’;

const NameContext = createContext(”);

function App() {

return (

<NameContext.Provider value=”John Doe”>

<Body />

<NameContext.Provider>

);

}

function Body() {

return <Greeting />;

}

function Greeting() {

return (

<NameContext.Consumer>

{name => <h1>Welcome, {name}</h1>}

</NameContext.Consumer>

);

}

However, before you use the context to optimize the React code, see if you can better organize the components to avoid passing props through components that don’t require it.

5. React useState hook

Hooks were introduced in React version 16.8 and completely overhauled React’s use. They allow adding reusable, stateful logic to React function components.

One important React hook is useState. It does what it says; it allows React developers to use stateful values in function components.

The useState hook is preferable over a simple variable because when the component’s state is updated, it can display the updated value.

Here’s an example of using useState to increment a counter:

import { useState } from ‘react’;

function MyComponent() {

const [stateValue, setStateValue] = useState(initialValue);

}

We can identify the current count from the count variable and can increment the state by passing count + 1 to the setCount function like this:

import { useState } from ‘react’;

function Counter() {

const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

function updateCount() {

setCount(count + 1);

}

return <button onClick={updateCount}>Count is: {count}</button>;

}

Conclusion

Even though it is fairly concise, this React cheat sheet covers the five most important features of the JavaScript framework that beginners should learn. As you practice and grow, you will discover many more features. Don’t be intimidated or overwhelmed; just start writing code.

React developers can explore job opportunities with Talent500. We are a trusted partner of some of the largest tech companies to build their engineering teams. Join our elite pool of talent.

5 most popular programming languages in 2022

Posted on July 20, 2022 by vallish

Learning a programming language is a big commitment and investment of time and energy. You do not want to waste time learning a language that is no longer in demand. When planning a career in software development, you need to know which programming languages are functional and have a scope for the upcoming applications.

Our engineering team has picked out the languages in this list based on their experience, industry trends, and future scope. If you are confused, allow us to help you with a list of the most popular programming languages in 2022.

JavaScript

JavaScript tops the list of top programming languages as per the Stack Overflow 2020 Developer Survey. It is also touted as the web language because of its functionality, scalability, and interactivity functionalities. Learning JavaScript is the safest bet as it continues to dominate the web development domain. If you plan to take up web development, you must focus on learning JavaScript apart from HTML and CSS.

Did we tell you that JavaScript is also the most sought-out programming language by hiring managers in the US?

Scope of learning JavaScript: Web development, mobile apps, game development, and building web servers

Here is a list of the top 6 JavaScript books to learn the language.

Python

Python is the fourth most popular programming language, used by 41.6% of all developers in the world. The general-purpose programming language is used primarily for backend applications. It is one of the best programming languages to master as you can follow any programming style while using it – functional, reflective, or object-oriented.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, you can learn Python quickly as it does not follow string syntax like Java or C. The language also has an extensive library of packages that allows for faster development. Today, over 50% of hiring managers seek candidates skilled in Python programming, and it is simply one of the most in-demand programming languages of 2022.

Scope of learning Python: Backend development, app development, data science, and automation

Check out our Python toolkit for developers to find learning resources and more.

Java

Java is the fifth most commonly used programming language, according to Stack Overflow. It is a functional programming language that has been at the top of the popularity scale for enterprise application development for many years. Java has applications in several industries, especially banking and finance for its object-oriented programming capabilities. With object-oriented programming, developers can put functions and data into objects and then use these objects to create programs in a structured manner.

Learning Java is easy as its syntax is close to the natural language we use in our daily lives. It is also relatively easier to compile and debug than other practical languages like C.

Scope of learning Java: E-commerce, fintech, app development, and banking

Check out our Java developer’s toolkit for learning resources, online Java communities, etc.

PHP

Arguably one of the best server-side scripting languages, PHP is used by over 80% of the websites on the internet. It is a popular language for building online applications, preferred by beginners and experienced programmers alike. PHP will continue to be one of the top programming languages in 2022 because its code can be readjusted to accommodate new features without additional expenditure. Its extraordinary resourcefulness is the reason why websites like Facebook and Wikimedia use PHP in their tech stack.

PHP is easy to learn. It follows a logical and consistent syntactical structure. Applications and websites built in PHP are highly flexible, fast, and compatible with multiple operating systems.

Scope of learning PHP: Web development, building servers, E-commerce, and CMS

Learn PHP with these resources: PHP Manual, PHP Tutorial by W3Schools, and Killer PHP.

Go

Go is a relatively new programming language that was developed at Google in 2007. It is a top-tier programming language used for hardware and data-specific applications such as media editing and big data.

Go is a programming language that is known for its efficiency. Its ability to run multiple processes concurrently makes it extremely fast. Also, with an extensive ‘vocabulary’, it can display more information than any other programming language. It is easier to code in Go as it has no requirement for semicolons or curly braces for control structures like other programming languages.

Companies usually hire Go developers who can utilize its features to create applications that have top-notch memory safety functionality. Not only is Go one of the top programming languages to learn in 2022, but the related jobs also offer better pay, a 33% salary bump, to be specific. This is because, as compared to other programming languages, talent for Go development is scarce.

Scope of learning Go: Big data, system/network programming, and audio/video editing

Here are some resources to learn Go.

Learn Go: Free YouTube Channel from Freecodecamp

Go Annotated Tutorials

Introducing Go by Caleb Doxsey is an excellent book for beginners

Conclusion

Learning a new programming language is beneficial irrespective of your experience within the software development industry. However, it is essential to pick a programming language which has the scope to contribute to your career progress by remaining high in demand. The five top programming languages of 2022 will be good additions to your skillset.

Talent500 is a platform for Fortune500 companies and fast-growing startups to build remote teams faster. Join our elite team of developers and discover global opportunities.

Front-end frameworks & libraries every developer should know

Posted on July 18, 2022July 19, 2022 by venkatesh

Building front-end applications require developers to combine HTML that sets the basic layout of a webpage with CSS to manage visual formatting and JavaScript to add interactivity to the page. While it is possible to develop front-end projects from scratch, writing each functionality and setting the whole layout line by line is not efficient and, in 2022 it is not required.

Frameworks and libraries are software packages that are prewritten/reusable code modules which can be imported into a project. These standardized front-end technologies help front-end developers accelerate the development process without spending copious time coding every object or function from scratch.

This article lists some front-end frameworks and libraries that every developer must be familiar with.

CSS pre/post-processing

Basic CSS is limited to just styling the elements that we develop in HTML, but modern applications are more complex. The pre and post-processing capability of CSS allows front-end developers to dynamically execute the code like other programming languages.

Sass and LESS are two pre-processing extensions of CSS that allow front-end developers to use loops, variables, and functions within CSS. This extended functionality helps to use logic within styling to visualize content differently as per the requirement.

Post-processing is used when you’ve already coded in plain CSS and want to extend its functionality afterward through automation. Some common post-processing activities include extending class selectors and auto-appending prefixes. PostCSS is a framework that can be used for post-processing CSS.

JavaScript is the web language that is estimated to be used by over 90% of websites. Therefore, front-end developers can greatly benefit from knowing JavaScript frameworks.

React.js

React.js or React is an open-source JavaScript front-end framework that was created at Facebook to support its exponential growth. It is widely used for applications and websites that handle high traffic without compromising user experience. React has selective rendering, due to which there is a significant performance boost. Once you master React.js, you no longer have to waste time recalculating page layout to fix performance issues. With lifecycle methods like componentDidMount, React can execute code at specific points during an entity’s lifetime, saving resources and boosting performance.

jQuery

A classic JavaScript library, jQuery is still one of the essential front-end libraries to master. It is lightweight, fast, and feature-rich. This makes it easier to carry out HTML document manipulation, traversal, and assists with animation, event handling, and Ajax.

As of 2021, around 77.6% of all websites use jQuery, so it is a sound front-end library for developers to learn. One of the reasons why developers prefer jQuery is its small size. The library is just 30 kb to gzip or minify.

After these two JavaScript frameworks, there are several other JavaScript frameworks you can explore, like Node.js, Angular, and D3.js.

Component libraries

A component library is a tool that allows front-end developers to scale their projects fast. From Netflix to Uber, many companies leverage these front-end libraries to design speedy systems and show impressive growth.

Unless you are working on an enterprise project with specific needs, you seldom have to look over component libraries to build applications and websites faster. For instance, when you are working on a webpage, you do not have to set the columns and rows to adjust the position of elements one at a time.

You can use Bootstrap, which uses built-in components to position elements on a web page. For almost any functionality, there are component libraries available to use out of the box. However, you must ensure that you are not simply importing the component libraries and using them with the same look and feel. This will make your website look too similar to other websites using the same component libraries. Instead, use these front-end libraries to maintain features.

Some important component libraries for front-end developers are:

Bootstrap

MUI

Chakra UI

Single-page application (SPA) frameworks and libraries

When working on single-page applications, you might not need all the functionalities of a framework but limited components from it. You can count on SPA front-end libraries and frameworks for such development requirements.

Some important examples of SPA JavaScript frameworks to understand are Vue, Next, and Svelte.

SPA routing libraries are also important. These front-end libraries include the page routing functionality to the project when it is missing in a SPA framework. Svelte SPA Router, React Router and React Navigation are some notable routing libraries.

Finally, if you are building an application that requires scalability beyond the scope of conventional front-end frameworks, third-party SPA state management libraries can help. Redux, Hookstate, and NgRx are some important state management libraries.

Conclusion

Innovation in software development results from combining technical skills with productivity tools to deliver results faster, by automating much of the time-consuming tasks. The front-end libraries and frameworks listed here can help developers accelerate project development and scale at speed. This should serve as a great reference guide to get you started.

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Top 5 JavaScript UI frameworks and libraries for 2022

Posted on July 18, 2022July 19, 2022 by venkatesh

JavaScript has grown to be the language of web development, with over 90% of websites using it in some form. If you are a front-end developer, then you already know how important this programming language is for web applications. JavaScript has all the features that make a website or application interface interactive and responsive.

JavaScript is essential for web development, but it would be very time-consuming if developers used it to create features and UI from scratch. To accelerate client-side development, professionals use JavaScript frameworks and libraries.

Frameworks or libraries are code blocks containing components that can be directly integrated into a project to build an application. JavaScript libraries also have widgets that can be combined with any environment.

This article looks at a list of the top JavaScript UI frameworks and libraries developers can use. Our experts picked these frameworks based on their popularity, editing features, presence of documentation, and regularity of updates.

Webix UI Library

If you spend most of your time with JavaScript frameworks like Angular and Vue, you will be surprised to use the Webix UI library. While the former are full-fledged JavaScript frameworks that are not just limited to UI, Webix is primarily focused on front-end design. The library is rich with over 1000 widgets. There are 13 complete single-page applications for web developers to create one-page UIs easily.

Suppose you want to create highly interactive web interfaces. In that case, you can use the Webix JavaScript library to create turnkey web functionalities straightaway or more customized projects per your requirement. This JavaScript UI library is fully compatible with Angular and Reach environments. Some popular Webix widgets are Gantt, File Manager, Pivot, and Kanban. You can use the Webix Jet microframework to combine two or more widgets.

Ember.js

It is interesting how few developers are aware of the robustness of the Ember.js JavaScript library even when its features are comparable to any JavaScript UI library. Ember.js was first launched in 2011 and since then, it has grown to be a reliable solution for user interface design of web projects based on JavaScript.

One of the reasons why developers prefer Ember.js is its lightweight rendering. The UI built with Ember.js is HTML driven, so you work with HTML templates for the most part. When building apps in Ember.js, you can use the built-in development environment that supports auto-reload and test running. There is also a built-in Ember router that supports nested URLs.

DevExtreme

DevExtreme is a JavaScript library that offers a complete collection of powerful components that you often find with Angular, React and Vue. If you are looking for an alternative to these JavaScript frameworks, try DevExtreme and you won’t be disappointed. It has essential data components like TreeList, Charts, DataGrid, Maps, PivotGrid, and Forms. There are over 50 tools included in this JavaScript framework to help you build applications fast. You get a built-in Theme Builder to create custom themes and support for touch screen devices. There are enough demos and examples available to help developers get started. If your project is developed in React, Angular or Vue and you need to extend its functionality, you can explore the components of DevExtreme.

DHTMLX

If you are working on a complex web or mobile application, you need JavaScript frameworks with essential components for the usual tasks. DHTMLX is a JavaScript library that includes most HTML5 Material Design components for UI development. From Gantt charts to Canvas Grids, there is a component for any UI design. Like other JavaScript libraries on the list, this one is also compatible with Angular, Vue and React. A distinguishing feature of DHTMLX is its support for TypeScript, which is rare. Excellent technical support and outstanding performance are additional features to consider.

Backbone.js

What makes Backbone.js stand out from other JavaScript frameworks is its short learning curve. The ease of learning makes it easier for developers to use its features in their projects to incorporate complex functionalities with less code. It is an open-source JavaScript library, so a community of experienced JavaScript developers supports it. It also follows the Model and View approach, similar to JavaScript frameworks.

We recommend Backbone.js for applications that have robust APIs. The framework has a rich API of enumerable functions that you can connect with existing application APIs using the standard RESTful JSON interface.

Conclusion

JavaScript libraries and frameworks are essential for accelerating web or mobile app development. As a web developer, you must know the best JavaScript libraries to help create interactive and intuitive UI. The JavaScript libraries we have listed above serve the goal of being practical UI-building components.

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