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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.

Cracking Node.js interview for senior backend engineers in 2022

Posted on November 10, 2022November 17, 2022 by seoteam

Modern software application development is a requirement for most businesses to adopt and benefit from new technologies. Fortunately, backend developers have too many options to choose from. Node.js is a current application framework that has made large-scale application development easier.

Today, many companies use this backend technology for their tech stack. This includes well-known brands like Netflix, Uber, Twitter, and PayPal. According to StackOverflow’s 2021 Developer Survey, Node.js is the 6th most popular technology for backend development. According to a user survey report by Node.js, backend developers prefer this technology as it results in a 68% increase in developer productivity, boosts application performance by 48%, and results in a 13% increase in customer satisfaction.

Here we discuss the Node.js developer career landscape in detail.

Career Path in Node.js

Node.js developers as junior developers work on applications such as websites, native apps, and enterprise solutions. After spending 5-6 years on the technology as a senior developer, they get promoted to roles such as team lead, architect, scrum master, and product owners. Node.js developers can pursue a career as app developers, game developers, and product developers.

Developers who have a thorough knowledge of agile processes and ceremonies like backlog grooming, scrums, retrospectives, and demos are preferred for senior Node.js developer roles. Furthermore, the technical expertise of GitHub is also essential.

What skills will be evaluated during Node.js interviews?

Companies hiring Node.js developers look for some particular skill-sets. Along with good practical knowledge of Node.js, proven skills in fixing bugs and developing patches make a candidate stand out.

A competent Node.js developer, you should be comfortable with front-end technologies. Often, Node.js developers need to integrate various backend functionalities with front-end elements. Their HTML5, CSS3, and core JavaScript concepts are evaluated during an interview.

There are several Node.js frameworks, Express being the basic. Apart from Express, most interviews test developers’ knowledge of additional Node.js frameworks like Koa.js, Total, and Hapi. As these frameworks have expanded functionalities, you must familiarize yourself with them to demonstrate your experience.

Knowledge of Model-View-Controller (MVC) frameworks used in Node.js development is necessary. Sinatra, Rails, and StrongLoop are some important MVC frameworks.

Another responsibility of Node.js developers is to deal with interfaces between multiple systems. Here you can highlight your experience in working with RESTful APIs.

We already have great API-related resources for backend developers:

Tips on creating robust APIs as a backend developer

Best Practices to Design RESTful APIs

Also, check our guide on in-demand skills for a backend developer.

Interview Questions and Answers

Can Node.js support multi-processor platforms?

By default, Node.js is a single-threaded language that will run on the single processor core, thereby not taking full advantage of multi-core processors. However, Node.js supports the development of multi-core systems to take full advantage of the available hardware.

Node.js has the Cluster module that allows running multiple Node.js worker processes from the same port.

How does Node.js handle child threads?

Node.js is a single thread process that does not expose child threads to the developer. There is no way for a programmer to do thread management in Node.js, as everything goes behind the scenes.

Technically, Node.js does create child threads for specific tasks such as asynchronous I/O, but there is no way to execute any application JavaScript code for these child threads.

What are Promises in Node.js?

A promise is a placeholder in Node.js for a value available in the future. Commitments allow asynchronous methods in Node.js to return values just like synchronous methods. Instead of a final value, they return a promise. They have separate callback functions that are executed based on the status of the way, i.e., success/ failure and handling timeouts.

Promises in Node.js can have three different states:

The initial or the pending state
The fulfilled state represents a successful operation
The rejected state that results from a failed operation

What is REPL? What purpose is it used for?

REPL stands for READ, EVAL, PRINT, and LOOP. Node.js comes with a REPL environment bundled in its setup. This allows for the easy development of CLI (Command Line Interface) applications, usually part of enterprise software development.

Explain the preferred method of resolving unhandled exceptions in Node.js.

It is easy to catch unhandled exceptions in Node.js at the Process level by attaching a handler for uncaughtException event, something like this:

process.on(‘uncaughtException’, (err) => {
console.log(Caught exception: ${err});
});

However, as the uncaughtException remains a crude method for exception handling in Node.js, it is most likely to be removed in future language versions.

Also, this method catches the exception at the Process level, implying that the application and Node.js are in an undefined state. A better way to resolve unhandled exceptions in Node.js is to add another layer between your application and the Node.js process, called the domain.

As the domains provide a layer to handle multiple different I/O operations as a single group, you can safely handle exceptions at the domain level. It helps to prevent any exceptions from reaching the Process level.

The time required to run the following code snippet in Google Chrome is considerably more than the time it takes to run in Node.js.

{
console.time(“loop”);
for (var i = 0; i < 1000000; i += 1){
// Do nothing
}
console.timeEnd(“loop”);
}

Even when both the applications use v8 JavaScript Engine, explain why there is such a time difference.

In a web browser such as Chrome, we make it global when declaring the variable I out of the function’s scope. It binds the variable as a property of the window object. This results in repeated resolving of the property I with each for loop iteration within the heavily populated window namespace.

However, Node.js binds any variable declared outside of any function’s scope only to the module’s scope and not the window object. This is why the code resolves the value of I faster.

To improve the performance of the code in Chrome, we can replace var with let in the for loop declaration. It will reduce the loop’s run time by over 50%.

For more backend developer interview questions, you can check out:

Essential Interview Questions For Backend Developers With 1-3 Years Of Experience

Backend developer: interview preparation resources

Job prospects and average payscale Node.js developers

As of creating this guide, there were over 30,000 active job openings for Node.js developers on Naukri.com. Most of these ads were for experienced developers with at least one year of experience. LinkedIn has 55,000+ job listings for Node.js developers. Indeed has over 7000 active job openings for the same profile.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of Node.js developers is INR 4,70,380 for junior developers. With experienced senior developers earn around INR 12,00,000 a year. Those in software developer IV roles get an average salary of INR 27,00,000.

Free Online Assessments

Node.js developers can use online free assessment tools to brush up on their skills and practice interview questions. Here are some online assessment sites:

Testdome.com

Devskiller.com

Tutorialsteacher.com

Conclusion

A career as a Node.js developer will be a long-term venture. As some of the biggest companies uses this technology and offer productivity benefits, Node.js will continue to be a dominant JavaScript framework.

Talent500 provides a global platform for elite developers. Our clients include fast-growing startups and Fortune 500 companies—signup today for a career change.

Cracking advanced level PHP Interviews in 2022

Posted on November 10, 2022 by harsha satyakam

PHP is one of the most widely used open-source general-purpose scripting languages that many companies use as their backend tech stack. Facebook is the most notable company using PHP. Demand for PHP developers remains high, and almost 79% of the top websites in the world use PHP as the server-side scripting language.

The number of PHP developers is growing at a fast pace and soon, it is likely that India will become the top source of PHP developers. It also implies that the competition for jobs will be stiff. Apart from your technical skills, you will also be required to have soft skills like communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. We already have great resources on essential soft skills for software developers; you can check them out here:

Soft skills that still impress employers in 2022

Most valuable soft skills of exceptional software engineers

As far as the other skills are concerned, we will guide you through everything you need to know about a career in PHP development.

Career prospects: Demand, Job Openings, and Salary

PHP developers are some of the most in-demand professionals in the IT industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for web developers will increase by 13% between 2020 and 2030. Therefore, the job outlook for PHP developers is quite promising.

There are 15,580 job openings for PHP developers on Naukri.com, followed by 12,000+ active listings for PHP developers on Indeed and over 8000 requirements for the same role on LinkedIn. The demand for experienced PHP developers is high at companies like Accenture, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro.

According to the salary analytics platform Payscale.com, the average salary for experienced PHP developers in India is INR 6,20,000. The earning potential of PHP developers is often dictated by the company they work at and the experience they possess. Most senior PHP developers earn over INR 9,00,000 per year.

What all do PHP interviews involve?

Generally speaking, PHP developers need to demonstrate competence with the job’s technical aspects that demand a unique skill set.

During an interview, your ability to write clean object-oriented PHP code is tested. Experienced developers must also be efficient with SQL.

Candidates must be able to evaluate, design, develop and assist application systems. They need to have command over one or more JavaScript frameworks such as Angular, Vue, and NodeJS. We recommend PHP developers hone their skills in Angular as PHP developers with experience in Angular earn 23% more.

You can check out our comprehensive Angular Developer Toolkit which has all the resources required to become a successful Angular Developer.

Also, companies expect PHP developers to be skilled in Laravel, the most popular model-view-controller (MVC) framework built with PHP.

Important Interview Questions and Answers

What will this code output, and why?
$x = true and false;
var_dump($x);

The output of the above code will be bool(true). It is because the AND operator is behaving as an OR. The = operator takes precedence over the AND operator in the code snippet. This results in the statement $x = true and false being functionally equivalent to:

$x = true; // sets $x equal to true
true and false; // results in false without affecting anything

This code is an excellent example of why parentheses are used to specify the intent in a court.

What is the difference between == and ===?

The operator == is used between two different types of values.
The === operator is for a ‘typesafe comparison.’ It returns true only when the operands have the same type and the same value.

Can you explain the output value of $x in the following statement:
$x = 3 + “15%” + “$25”?

The output value will be 18.

PHP supports automatic type conversion. It implies that a variable is changed based on its context. For instance, if you perform an arithmetic operation on a string, then PHP will convert the string to its appropriate numeric type for calculation. If the string starts with one or more numeric characters, then the remainder of the string is ignored. And if the string begins with a non-numeric character, it will be evaluated to 0.

In the above statement, “15%” evaluates to the numeric value 15 and “$25” evaluates to the numeric value 0. Hence, 3 + 15 + 0 = 18.

What is PEAR in PHP?

PHP Extension and Application Repository or PEAR is a framework and repository for reusable PHP components. It is a collection of many PHP code snippets and libraries and supports CLI or command-line interface to install packages automatically.

What does the following code print?

$a = “PHP”;
$a = $a + 1;
echo $a;

The code will echo the number 1.

However, in PHP 7.2 record will throw a warning as the version of PHP will not convert the non-numeric value to int.

What are Traits?

PHP does not support multiple inheritances. Traits are a mechanism to provide some of the reuse advantages of multiple inheritances in PHP. Developers can use traits to reuse combinations of methods from different class hierarchies.

How does JavaScript interact with PHP?

PHP is a server-side scripting language, while JavaScript is a client-side programming language. PHP can generate JavaScript variables, making it possible to execute the code in a browser efficiently. It makes it possible to pass JS variables to PHP using a simple URL.

Here is an erroneous code-

$referenceTable = array();
$referenceTable[‘val1’] = array(1, 2);
$referenceTable[‘val2’] = 3;
$referenceTable[‘val3’] = array(4, 5);

$testArray = array();

$testArray = array_merge($testArray, $referenceTable[‘val1’]);
var_dump($testArray);
$testArray = array_merge($testArray, $referenceTable[‘val2’]);
var_dump($testArray);
$testArray = array_merge($testArray, $referenceTable[‘val3’]);
var_dump($testArray);

Explain what is wrong with this code and what the output will be.
Also, how will you fix the error?

The output of this code snipped will be:
array(2) { [0]=> int(1) [1]=> int(2) }
NULL
NULL
It can also generate two warnings, similar to the following:
Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array
Warning: array_merge(): Argument #1 is not an array

The issue with the code here is that if either of the first or second arguments to array_merge() is not an array, the return value will be NULL.
Most developers miss this because it is not well described in the PHP documentation.

This is why the call to:

$testArray = array_merge($testArray, $referenceTable[‘val2’])
evaluates to $testArray = array_merge($testArray, 3). However, 3 is not of type array, as a result this call returns NULL. This in turn sets $testArray equal to NULL. In the next call to array_merge(), $testArray is NULL so array_merge() again returns NULL.

The fix here is relatively straightforward. We can simply typecast the second argument to an array to get the desired results.

Here’s the corrected code:

$testArray = array_merge($testArray, (array)$referenceTable[‘val1’]);
var_dump($testArray);
$testArray = array_merge($testArray, (array)$referenceTable[‘val2’]);
var_dump($testArray);
$testArray = array_merge($testArray, (array)$referenceTable[‘val3’]);
var_dump($testArray);

The final output of the code will be:

array(2) { [0]=> int(1) [1]=> int(2) }
array(3) { [0]=> int(1) [1]=> int(2) [2]=> int(3) }
array(5) { [0]=> int(1) [1]=> int(2) [2]=> int(3) [3]=> int(4) [4]=> int(5) }

Free Online Assessments

PHP developers can utilize the following resources to sharpen their concepts and understanding of tools to crack advanced-level PHP interviews easily.

TutorialPoint PHP Test

Multisoft Systems PHP Assessment Test

Testdome PHP Assessment Course

Conclusion

PHP developers will remain high in demand as the language evolves to accommodate the changing requirements of web development. We hope this guide will serve as a complete resource to prepare for advanced-level PHP interviews.

Talent500 has a pool of competent Indian developers. Sign up today and become ready for career-redefining opportunities at fast-growing startups and Fortune500 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.

5 effective JavaScript debugging techniques

Posted on October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 by saurabh kale

JavaScript is the web language used by over 90% of websites. Still, it has a reputation of being difficult to debug. JavaScript’s asynchronous nature makes it easy for developers to create complex web applications, but the same attribute makes it challenging to locate errors. Fortunately, knowing the right tools and understanding a few debugging tricks can make it easier to resolve bugs and errors.

Here we have put together a list of practical JavaScript debugging techniques you should keep in mind.

Use debugger

For many JavaScript developers, the debugger is their favorite debugging tool. When writing extensive code with complex logic, experienced programmers place a debugger in the code line that they anticipate will produce an error. When such code is run in Chrome, the Developer Tool will automatically stop when it encounters a debugger keyword.

You can also wrap the debugger in conditions to run them in a particular event like this:

if (thisThing) {
debugger;}
Learn more about debugger keywords here.

Learn to use the console.trace

JavaScript has many frameworks such as Node.js, Vue.js, and React. These frameworks make it easy to produce code quickly. In a project, you will have many views, triggers, and too many events. When working with a framework, most of these events will be hidden in an abstract layer, so it will be challenging to identify what caused a particular function call.

JavaScript is not very structured, and it is hard to get a clear overview of what happened and when. This is why JavaScript developers should use the console.trace method.

Let’s assume in the following code, you want to see the entire stack trace for the function call funcZ:

var car;
var func1 = function() {
func2();
}

var func2 = function() {
func4();
}
var func3 = function() {
}

var func4 = function() {
car = new Car();
car.funcX();
}
var Car = function() {
this.brand = ‘volvo’;
this.color = ‘red’;
this.funcX = function() {
this.funcY();
}

   this.funcY = function() {
           this.funcZ();
   }

   this.funcZ = function() {
           console.trace(‘trace car’)
   }

}
func1();
var car;
var func1 = function() {
func2();
}
var func2 = function() {
func4();
}
var func3 = function() {
}
var func4 = function() {
car = new Car();
car.funcX();
}
var Car = function() {
this.brand = ‘volvo’;
this.color = ‘red’;
this.funcX = function() {
this.funcY();
}
this.funcY = function() {
this.funcZ();
}
this.funcZ = function() {
console.trace(‘trace car’)
}
}
func1();

This will be the output at Line 33:

As you can see that the trace clearly indicates func1 called func2, which is further called func4. Then the func4 created an instance of variable Car calling the function car.funcX, and so on. This is a simple script, so it is easier to follow through the flow, but when the code block is a big console.trace method proves to be handy. You can easily trace all related functions to pinpoint the bug.

Use console.time() and console.timeEnd() to benchmark loops

Not just JavaScript, but loops are trouble makers in every programming language. To create efficient and fast code, developers need to know how long any code segment takes to execute. Slow loops can degrade the performance of the entire JavaScript code.

But you can benchmark loops to evaluate their performance. Here is a way to set up multiple timers using console.time() and console.timeEnd() methods.

console.time(‘Timer1’);

var items = [];

for(var i = 0; i < 100000; i++){

items.push({index: i});
}

console.timeEnd(‘Timer1’);

The output will be:

As evident, benchmarking loops in JavaScript can help you save time trying to troubleshoot performance issues.

Chrome Developer Tool for responsive test

As most web applications are accessed through multiple devices, you have to make sure your JavaScript code works on all screen sizes. In an ideal world, developers would have every single device check the compatibility of their code. Unfortunately, in the real world, it is not feasible.

Chrome Developer Tool has the option to resize the viewport to check your code’s performance on any screen size. To use this feature, open the inspector in Chrome and click on the toggle device mode button as highlighted in the image:

Using this tool, you can instantly check the media queries, forms, and dynamic code for various screen sizes.

Black box scripts for faster debugging

Modern web applications use libraries and frameworks that are tested for bugs. But when you run any debugger tool, it will still check and try to debug all files, even those that have no relevance. It substantially increases the cost of debugging and takes longer too.

The solution lies in black-boxing the scripts you don’t need to debug. Fortunately, both Chrome and Firefox provide the option to blacklist scripts that you don’t want to debug.

In Chrome, open the inspector and right-click the JavaScript file you want to blacklist, and choose ‘black box script.’ You can learn more about Chrome Script Black Box here.

In Firefox, go to the debugger tab in the element inspector. Mark the scripts you want to blacklist, then click on the eye at the bottom-left corner. Learn more here.

Conclusion

Debugging is an active responsibility of developers. Its unstructured design makes it challenging to identify and resolve errors with JavaScript. The techniques shared above will help you create JavaScript debugging more efficiently.

Talent500 is one of the best platforms for developers to find remote work opportunities. Join us today to be discovered by the best companies.

PHP developer toolkit: Important skills, learning resources, interview prep & more

Posted on August 9, 2022August 9, 2022 by

PHP is a popular backend programming language empowering the web since it first appeared in 1995. Today, 77.4% of all websites use PHP as the server-side programming language. You are in good company as a PHP developer as millions of backend developers use the programming language in their tech stack.

This toolkit will list the ultimate resources to be a skilled and job-ready PHP developer.

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: In addition to PHP, a developer is also expected to have a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. PHP is combined with frontend technologies to create web applications as a backend language. To fully utilize the benefits PHP offers as a general-purpose server-side scripting language, developers must be proficient in writing quality JavaScript code with HTML and CSS.

Advanced PHP Concepts: Any PHP project developed for web services uses many third-party web applications. A competent PHP developer should be familiar with advanced concepts, most importantly, parsing JSON, handling HTTP requests, using XML, and working with package installers like the composer.

Composer is an important concept to learn as it helps PHP developers to manage dependencies like classes, functions, and libraries conveniently. Also, developers can effortlessly switch between different versions of PHP using composer.

PSR (PHP Standard Recommendation), issued by PHP-FIG, is a PHP specification that developers should know. Knowledge of PSR is essential to standardize PHP code that enhances the interoperability of PHP components and frameworks.

Laravel: PHP developers seldom work on raw PHP code when building web applications. You will be utilizing PHP frameworks like Laravel to increase the productivity and accuracy of your code. While there are several PHP frameworks such as CodeIgniter, Symphony, and CakePHP, Laravel is the most widely used. Over 67% of PHP developers use Laravel for building web applications.

Databases: Web applications use several databases depending on the nature and type of data they deal with. PHP developers use PHP code to create, update and maintain databases in web applications. MySQL, MariaDB, and MongoDB are the three most widely used databases for PHP applications. Companies hiring PHP developers expect programmers to be skilled in one of these databases.

Web servers: PHP is primarily a server-side scripting language, and knowledge of web servers will help PHP developers with full-stack programming. Employers prefer PHP developers who know web servers as they can create faster and more scalable web applications.

Top 40 PHP Interview Questions and Answers in 2022 – [Fresher to Experienced]

21 Essential PHP Interview Questions

How to land a high paying backend developer job

Backend developer: interview preparation resources

Essential Interview Questions For Backend Developers With 1-3 Years Of Experience

Official Resources

PHP Manual

PHP official community

PHP Git Repository

PHP Wiki

Online Courses & Tutorials

KillerPHP is an excellent resource for PHP developers that have been around since 2010. The site has insightful blogs, videos, and short tutorials.

PHPtherightway.com is the best PHP documentation; some developers find it more comprehensive than official PHP documentation.

Packagist.org is a resource that every PHP developer should bookmark. The website has information on every open-source composer package. The website also integrates with GitHub well, so developers can easily install, create, and publish new packages.

Learn PHP with Codeacademy is a free resource that teaches PHP coding from scratch without being distracting. The lessons are interactive sessions, rather than just video or text tutorials. It is a self-guided PHP college course with articles, quizzes, and freeform projects.

Build a Social Network from Scratch is a Udemy course to learn the features and concepts of PHP through a project-based approach. Developers build a social networking site in PHP, JavaScript, and MySQL in this course.

PHP with Laravel for beginners is another quality Udemy online course to learn the Laravel framework. It teaches the best practice of creating PHP web applications using Laravel.

Object-Oriented PHP & MVC by Brad Traversy is a course for advanced learners as it dives deeper into PHP concepts. This course teaches you to create a basic framework using PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Then you build an application based on that framework.

Books for PHP Developers

The Joy of PHP Programming: A Beginner’s Guide – by Alan Forbes

PHP & MySQL Novice to Ninja – by Kevin Yank

Headfirst PHP & MySQL (A Brain-friendly Guide)

PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide

Modern PHP: New Features and Good Practices

Online Communities for PHP Developers

PHP Dev Community

PHP Forum

Webdev Subreddit

Laracasts- Official Laravel Community

Laravel.io

Podcasts for PHP Developers

PHP Arch Podcast

PHP Internal News

PHP Podcasts | The voice of the elePHPant

Soft skills for PHP Developers

Good Communication Skills: Communication is the key to projects’ success, and PHP is no exception. Basic communication etiquettes are a must for PHP developers, whether they work solo or as a team. It would be best to learn to communicate like a professional to land jobs easily.

Project Management: Managing programming projects is an essential skill that PHP developers should nurture to independently track and complete PHP tasks. Leadership, delegation, risk management, and quality management are part of project management skills.

Critical Thinking: Developers who are critical thinkers are better at application planning and design. They are also more efficient in debugging project code as they can critically analyze it. Furthermore, critical thinking makes PHP developers adapt to innovations and technologies quickly.

There is more to explore; here are some soft skill development resources from Talent500:

How soft skills transitioned to become the new power skills

6 soft skills that still impress employers in 2022

7 Most valuable soft skills of exceptional software engineers

Conclusion

PHP is a popular language for building web applications that over 80% of websites utilize. From creating custom websites to entire Content Management Systems, you can achieve a lot with PHP if you have the right skills. This PHP toolkit is the ultimate resource guide to learning and upskilling as a PHP developer.

Talent500 has the pool of elite PHP developers that global companies hire to build their remote teams. Join our platform today to find career-redefining opportunities.

Golang developer toolkit: Important skills, learning resources, interview prep & more

Posted on August 9, 2022August 9, 2022 by

Google first introduced the Go programming language, popularly known as Golang, in 2009. The open-source programming language is famous for its efficiency, simplicity, and tooling. Even though Go is comparatively new, it is already the 10th most popular programming language, according to the latest Stack Overflow developer survey. Most developers create in Golang because it helps them deploy applications with fewer servers saving them cost, and its simplicity and familiarity make it easier to learn.

We have created this Golang toolkit as a complete resource directory for beginners and experienced developers.

Expertise with Goroutines: Goroutine is a function that can execute independently yet connected with other Goroutines within the program.

According to Ben Popper, the Content Head at Stack Overflow, Goroutines are the “worth the price of admission alone” for the Go language. With Goroutines, you can create multithreaded programs. Go developers need to make their programs fast and efficient. With Goroutines, you can make your program continue execution even if one task is stuck.

This is a non-negotiable area of expertise that companies look for in any Go developer.

Go Channels: These are the medium used by Goroutines to communicate and share data. It is an essential mechanism for Go developers to learn. You will use Go Channels in your program to synchronize any data exchange between two Goroutines.

This prominent feature makes Golang better because most programming languages that allow concurrent threads to share data lock that data, creating several issues with memory management. Go overcomes this problem by allowing data to be sent via Go channels, with both threads ‘waiting’ until the variable value reaches its destination.

Companies want Go developers to be familiar with Go channel types (buffered and unbuffered) and the most common concurrency patterns and frameworks.

Godoc commenting: Comments in Go can go beyond just basic information, unlike most programming languages. You should be aware of godoc: Go’s built-in documentation tool.

With Godoc you can scan any Go source code for commands and compile them together to form the package’s documentation as an HTML page or plain text. No other programming language offers such an effective documentation tool out of the box.

Go templates: This simple template language allows customizing outputs from the code in different formats such as web pages, emails, and forms. You should be familiar with two template packages—text/template and HTML/template. These templates are used to produce text files and HTML pages depending on the project’s requirement.

Versioning tools: Any developer should know versioning tools. It is not a skill strictly related to Go but to software development overall. Git is the most popular version control tool that most companies use. It works with Golang code as well.

Top 25 Topics and Resources to Crack Golang Developer Interviews in 2022

Golang Interview Questions (Freshers to Experienced)

Crack the top 50 Golang interview questions

Top 20 GO Programming / Golang Interview Questions & Answers

7 Common full stack developer interview questions

Full Stack developer interview preparation resources

11 Top full-stack developer interview questions

Official resources

The Go Programming Language Blog

Go community Wiki

Online courses & tutorials

Learn Golang at Tour of Go: A good starting point to learn about Go.

Go by Example: You should bookmark this website. It will be a great resource to refer to when you want to understand any concept of the Go with code snippets.

Learn How To Code: Google’s Go (golang) Programming Language: This Udemy course is excellent for learning Go through an entire semester course. This video lecture-based course is a good starting point for learning Golang.

Programming with Google Go Specialization: A comprehensive Coursera online course, it is a good resource for learning Go Interfaces, Functions, and Concurrency.

Go (Golang): The Complete Bootcamp: If you want to learn Go with hands-on practice, this Udemy course is the best. It offers 1000+ exercises and projects to learn Go.

Books for Golang developers

The Go Programming Language by Donovan and Kernighan

Go in Action by Brian Ketelsen, Erik St. Martin, and William Kennedy

Programming in Go by Mark Summerfield

Building Web Applications with Golang

Learning Go by Miek Gieben

Online communities for Golang developers

The Go Forum

Go user groups and meetups

Gophers’ community on Slack

Podcasts for Golang developers

Go Time

JustForFunc

Soft skills for Golang developers

Remote working skills: Apart from technical skills, as a Go developer, you will be benefit from learning work-related skills. Remote working skills have become essential for employers ever since the Covid-19 pandemic. You should be familiar with collaboration tools and have good organization skills and task tracking.

Checkout out this Covid-19 Job Resource Toolkit to learn more.

Communication: Software development depends a lot on high-quality communication. Version control, test design, documentation and the like all depend on clear communication between team members. A competent Go dev must communicate effectively with other developers and stakeholders.

Organization: Organization keeps projects on a strict timeline. When you are organized in your work, you don’t have to deal with backlogs that often, and the quality of your code is high. Companies expect developers to be familiar with Kanban-style applications like Trello, Jira, Asana, etc.

For more, refer to – 8 Project management tools for remote software engineering teams.

Here are some more resources for you to check out:

The importance of leadership transparency and accountability in a hybrid and distributed workplace

6 soft skills that still impress employers in 2022

Conclusion

A competent Go developer can balance technical skills with soft skills to deliver projects on time without compromising quality. We hope that this Golang toolkit will provide a reference for all essential resources to become job-ready.

Talent500 helps Golang developers find the best opportunities. We are a preferred partner of global companies to build remote engineering teams. Join us today and become a vetted Go developer to get hired faster.

5 must-learn JavaScript concepts for front-end developers

Posted on August 8, 2022August 8, 2022 by venkatesh

JavaScript is undoubtedly a language for both front-end and back-end developers. It is touted as the web language because over 90% of websites use JavaScript in one way or another.

If you are just getting started with JavaScript, you must have written functions, used simple algorithms, or worked with classes. However, as you progress in your career, you will realize that modern JavaScript frameworks like Node.js can extend the application of JavaScript to the backend. Learning advanced JavaScript concepts will help optimize the speed and performance of applications. You can move ahead from using jQuery for each functionality in the web application that makes it load slower.

Here are the must-learn JavaScript concepts that every front-end developer must know:

1. Let and Const Keywords

In its early days, JavaScript only supported var keywords for declaring variables. However, it limited the scope of the language as it only allowed variables to be global or functional. Also, variables declared with var can be re-declared and even updated. This makes it unsafe to use for security features and applications.

JavaScript offers two new keywords to overcome these challenges – Let and Const.

Variables with these keywords have block scopes. Moreover, let variables cannot be re-declared. But they can be updated. While the variable declared with const can neither be re-declared nor be updated.

New JavaScript developers must learn the concept of let and const keyword variable declaration to write more optimized code.

2. Closures

A closure is a function created inside another function but has access to the outer function variables. While the definition might seem straightforward, the closure is an excellent feature for making JavaScript code more cohesive. As the closures can access the variable defined within its scope, in the range of their parent functions, and the global variables, you can extend the behavior of an external function to the inner function.

Being an essential object-oriented programming (OOP) concept, it makes JavaScript a highly scalable and high-performance language for front-end development.

Here’s an example:

function init() {
var name = ‘Mozilla’; // name is a local variable created by init
function displayName() { // displayName() is the inner function, a closure
alert(name); // use variable declared in the parent function
}
displayName();
}
init();

Code with Closure:

function makeFunc() {
var name = ‘Mozilla’;
function displayName() {
alert(name);
}
return displayName;
}
var myFunc = makeFunc();
myFunc();

Both the codes will have the same output, but in the second code, the displayName() inner function is returned from the outer function before being executed.

3. String Interpolation

In any programming language, strings are the most widely used data types. But, in JavaScript, strings are excessively used because front-end features like forms and logins have many string values. However, working with strings can be complicated when you have many inputs. For example, consider this code block:

let firstname = “Sarah”;
let secondname = “Connor”;

let age = 22;

let location = “Boston”;

return firstname + ” ” + secondname + ” is ” + age + ” years old and he lives in ” + city;

While there is no problem with the output string, and it will work just fine, the use of so many unique characters makes it somewhat complex.

String interpolation makes it a lot easier to handle such strings. The same output can be returned without any concatenation operators using string interpolation, as follows:

return `${firstname} ${secondname} is ${age} years old and he lives in ${city}`;

This concept makes it easier to work with strings. Furthermore, it is one of the most asked JavaScript interview questions.

4. Callbacks

In JavaScript, Callbacks are functions that are passed to other functions as parameters. They are invoked or executed inside other functions in serial formation, where one function waits for another to complete. As JavaScript is used to create asynchronous operations, Callbacks help to provide the synchronous capability to these operations.

Example:

function myDisplayer(some) {
document.getElementById(“demo”).innerHTML = some;
}

function myCalculator(num1, num2, myCallback) {
let sum = num1 + num2;
myCallback(sum);
}

myCalculator(5, 5, myDisplayer);

This example myDisplayer is a function passed to myCalculator() as an argument.

5. Arrow function

The arrow function is another important concept for JavaScript developers to master. It is a simple concept that enables developers to write functions succinctly. Let’s understand with an example.

function demo(a, b) {
return a + b;
}

The demo function is created using the traditional “function” keyword here. Now we make the same JavaScript function using the arrow function.

const demo = (a,b) => a + b;

The output will be the same. When a function has a single statement, we can omit the “return” keyword with arrow function.

Another reason to learn arrow function is that they are essential for functional programming in JavaScript. To know the advanced use of these functions, you can take the Udemy Advanced JavaScript Concepts course.

Conclusion

The JavaScript features listed above are easy to understand and can make your code much more functional. Due to its asynchronous structure, JavaScript code can get complex to write and debug as the size of the application grows. These concepts will help you write clean, concise, and maintainable JavaScript code at scale.

Talent500 is the platform for JavaScript developers to find the best career opportunities. Global startups and Fortune 500 companies trust us to hire, build, and manage their remote teams. Sign up today!

5 Best websites to learn JavaScript coding for beginners

Posted on July 22, 2022 by venkatesh

According to Atwood’s Law, “Any application that can be written in JavaScript, will eventually be written in JavaScript.”

It proved accurate as JavaScript is one of the major programming languages for building web apps. If you are beginning your journey as a developer, you should focus on learning JavaScript for web development. Even if you are an experienced programmer who never worked with web applications, learning this programming language will broaden your horizons. Once considered a strictly client-side language, Node.js now allows JavaScript to run both the front-end and back-end applications. Fortunately, there are several resources for beginners to learn JavaScript.

Here, we have compiled a list of the five best websites to learn JavaScript coding:

1. Udemy Free JavaScript Tutorials

Udemy is one of the best online resources for developers to learn and upskill. The website hosts free and premium online courses and tutorials in all technologies, including JavaScript, Java, Python, Spring, REST, Selenium, etc.

We recommend you use these tutorials for learning JavaScript as they are comprehensively structured for beginners to follow.

The Complete JavaScript Course 2022: From Zero to Expert!

The Complete JavaScript Course 2022: Build Real Projects

The Web Developer Bootcamp

While these courses are not free, their quality makes them a worthwhile investment. But, beginners can start with this free course first:

JavaScript Essentials

It teaches you the basic concepts of the languages and gives an overview of API design through a simple web project.

2. Pluralsight.com

Another great website to learn IT technologies. On Pluralsight, you will find many courses to learn programming languages like JavaScript. But it takes things a step further by allowing beginners to practice while they learn.

The site acquired CodeSchool, a live code editor that developers can use to write code through a browser to see how they worked. The best course on the site to learn JavaScript is the JavaScript Fundamentals by Liam Mclennan. While several free courses are available on Pluralsight, you should take its premium membership for the best courses. A membership gives you access to over 5000+ online courses, interactive quizzes, exercises, and certification material.

3. Coursera JavaScript Foundation Courses

Like Udemy, Coursera is an excellent online learning platform that offers quality JavaScript tutorials and courses. Founded by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, the platform grew fast and became one of the leading online degree platforms for IT professionals.

Learning JavaScript on Coursera will be a different experience. For instance, the course’s progress in a curriculum is similar to universities and you get a certification on completion. The website offers courses enabled by renowned universities like Stanford, University of London, Imperial College of London, University of Michigan, and Colorado.

Some of the best courses to learn JavaScript on Coursera are:

Programming Foundations with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS

Interactivity with JavaScript

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for Web Developers

Beginners can get a good grasp of JavaScript with these courses. Furthermore, on completing courses, Coursera offers you a certification that you can showcase on your LinkedIn profile.

4. Freecodecamp.org

This website is a community-driven learning platform for beginners to learn how to code for free, build real-world projects, and land a job as a developer.

Freecodecamp has a massive repository of interactive tutorials and practice courses for learning JavaScript and other web development concepts. Many coders find this website a lot more interactive as it provides them with tools to learn through doing. You will also be able to connect with fellow learners and experienced programmers who mentor beginners. You will find over 2000 JavaScript courses on this website that are entirely free. Apart from that, Freecodecamp has a robust Facebook Group and Medium blog where they share articles and resources on trending topics and technologies.

5. Codecademy

Many first-time coders learn JavaScript from Codecademy as it offers a learning curriculum different from other websites listed here. The website has designed a crisp and easy-to-follow JavaScript course that helps beginners learn the essential concepts of the programming language at an accelerated pace.

The Introduction of JavaScript Course teaches developers both the programming language’s front-end and back-end aspects. The course is self-paced, so beginners can pause in between or revisit a concept later. This is why this JavaScript course for beginners has over 5 million enrolled students.

In this free course, developers get introduced to the most common concepts of JavaScript, such as functions, scopes, conditionals, arrays, and iterations. Then the course moves on to intermediate-level skills such as APIs and frameworks. Finally, you put your learnings to the test by building games and interactive websites.

Conclusion

JavaScript is the language of the web. If you want to get into web development, you must learn the concepts of the language well. Also, companies expect both front-end and back-end developers to know at least one JavaScript framework. The websites we listed here are the best resources to get started with JavaScript.
Talent500 is the platform for competent developers to discover career redefining opportunities with fast-growing global startups and Fortune 500 companies. Join us today!

Steps for effective debugging of web applications

Posted on July 22, 2022July 22, 2022 by vallish

Web applications are at the forefront of business expansion irrespective of the industry. With the evolution of technology, web applications are becoming complex. Bugs occur all the time – when you build the applications, test after completion, and even post-production. On average, a developer creates 70 bugs per 1000 lines of code. Most web developers spend many more hours debugging rather than creating.

Around 75% of the development time is spent on debugging, but there are some techniques to reduce the pain significantly.

This article aims at providing some practical recommendations to help you prevent bugs and shorten the time spent on debugging.

Use Console.log with variable

JavaScript is part of over 90% of web applications, and one of its most commonly used methods is console.log. Developers often use this method with variables to debug. When you run a web application, the values returned by the variables are specified inside the way in the console. This makes it easier to check the returned values to ensure that they are as expected.

However, it is not an effective debugging method because you cannot see the progress of code execution. If you try to see the progress, you have to insert console.log every few lines. You would not want to use console.log so frequently because then the amount of data shown in the console will be unreadable.

To overcome this challenge and more efficiently use the console.log method for debugging, use a string and the following variable like this:

console.log(‘variable’, variable)

By doing so, you will be able to track the progress of the code and easily debug it.

The ‘debugger’

The debugger is a vital JavaScript concept that can make your life easier when debugging the code. The debugger is a JavaScript keyword that halts the execution of a web application such that the developer can interact with the variables, executing code one step at a time.

Developers can use this keyword for explorative debugging, a paradigm used in manual testing. The debugger is handy for large web applications for which console.log is not enough. You can use the debugger directly from Chrome’s Sources tab or Firefox’s Debugger tab.

<h4>Debugging demonstrations using Debugger keyword</h4>
The solution of 20 * 5 is:
<p id=”test”></p>
<p>If the debugger is turned on the code stops
execution at the start of the debugger</p>
var x = 20;
var y = 5;
var z = x * y;
debugger;
document.getElementById(“test”).innerHTML = z;

As you can see in the code above, the debugger is used before the variable z in the JavaScript part of the code. The code execution stops before displaying the output when you run the code in the Google Chrome browser.

This is a simple example of how developers can use the debugger keyword to make debugging more efficient.

React developer tools

If you are working with a web application built in React, you can utilize React Developer Tools suite for debugging. These tools allow you to easily view the React tree structure, breaking down the project code by the states and the props in the component. It comes in handy when hundreds and even thousands of parts are in a project. Going through thousands of lines of code to find a component is tedious; this debugging tool simplifies the process.

You can install React Developer Tools as an add-on to the Google Chrome Developer Tools debugging module. It is a free and open-source extension that provides a powerful ‘Select an element’ functionality to inspect any project element if you are unaware of the whole project. It also helps you quickly discover components in a large project. If your project uses Vue.js, there is another excellent extension, Vue.js devtools, that you can use for similar debugging features.

Explicitly document all external dependencies

Every project should have a README file within its source control system. A quality of a good developer is that they include every bit of information with the applications they develop to make it easier for other developers and stakeholders to use the application.

A README file should document all external systems, resources, or databases necessary for the web application to function correctly. It should also explicitly list what resources are optional and how to handle external resources.

All significant web projects have a README.md file that keeps track of what bugs occurred and changes made to the project. It is also a way to tell your company what improvements you made to the project through debugging.

Conclusion

Follow these recommendations when you are building a new web application, and it will become a lot easier to debug errors. These debugging techniques will reduce the time and cost spent troubleshooting production bugs and crashes.

Top Indian talent finds career re-defining opportunities with Talent500. Join us today and be part of an elite pool of developers.