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EP15 - Understanding MVC In Web Development

This week we talk about MVC and it’s place in the Web Development world. We try to bridge the gap for bewteen “lean” script based web development and framework based web development.

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What do I need to know?

  • What is MVC?
  • The concept behind MVC
  • What makes MVC confusing in web apps?
    • Devs used to structured programming
  • Classes seem like over kill
    • Arlo’s senior project story
  • When did YOU realize using frameworks was the way to go?
  • Think about Big Picture
    • Maintenance
    • Future proofing
    • Documentation
    • User Impact?
  • MVC Frameworks are different
    • Controller
    • Models
    • Views

Moving Forward

  • Picking your next MVC framework
    • Based on what? (Doc., easy to use)
  • Build your next app with an MVC framework
  • Building your own MVC

Web Frameworks:

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EP14 - WTH Is HTML5 and CSS3 Anyway?

This week we talk about HTML5 and CSS3. We’ve all heard about it, but do we really understand the differences it brings to the industry? We try to find out for ourselves.

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What do I need to know?

  • Fully understand things introduced in HTML4.
    • DOCTYPE, CSS guidelines
  • Learn HTML4 deprecated tags
    • center, frameset and more [W3Schools link below]
  • Learn new stuff in HTML5
    • tags: footer, header, progress, navigation, canvas, section. SEO BOOST! [W3Schools link below]
    • audio, video and canvas
    • geolocation, localstorage, full web apps
  • Wassup wit CSS3? What’s New?
    • Native: Media queries, rounded corners, opacity, gradients, animations, shadows
  • Know your audience and your intended platform
    • How soon applicable to average user???
  • Limitations:
    • browsers. Users must be up to date with their platform, because HTML5 is constantly evolving.
  • Tackle limitations:
    • graceful degradation vs progress enhancement
    • Choosing CSS2 vs CSS3 base
    • Mobile and HTML5 is like fish in water

What do I do?

  • Working on a static page [brochure site]
    • full CSS3 animations, scrolling navigation, responsive (media queries)
  • Use the appropriate tags
    • header, nav, section, article, footer, etc.
  • Tutorials/examples [html5 link below]

Moving Forward

  • Fancy effects != HTML5
    • scroll down navigation, fluid/responsive design
  • HTML5 / CSS3 Frameworks
    • Responsive web design has become extremely important lately, since our content is published across many different platforms. It is important to consider how your content will reflow, so that you can plan accordingly. Frameworks like these are great starting points for creating responsive layouts, while not having to reinvent the wheel each time.
    • 52Framework
    • foundation by zurb
    • boilerplate.com
    • Grid Frameworks
    • Sencha
  • Emulating desktop experience
    • games: localstorage, canvas tag for animation, processing, css3 animation
    • phone gap
  • Mind Blowing Sites

Mentioned Links:

Correction: Tijuana Flats is not a HTML5 site, but an example is similar effects/sites done without HTML5.
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EP13 - Managing A Software Project Solo With @jaredbrown

This week we talk about our experiences while freelancing and lessons learned. We discuss appropriate tools you can use to make your experience a lot more enjoyable.

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What do I need to know?

  • Likes and dislikes
    • L: Choosing what to work on
    • D: Dealing with People/Client
  • Pros and Cons
    • P: Working from home
    • C: Working from home
  • Does and Don’ts
    • Do: Structure your time
    • Do: Join a co-location
    • Don’t: Mismanage your “go” time
  • Contracts and Picking a Price

What do I do?

  • Timekeeping: 37signals BaseCamp, Harvest, Freckle, Crometa …
  • Invoicing: FreshBooks, Harvest, Ballpark, TinderBox …
  • Project Management: BaseCamp, Pivotal Tracker …

Moving Forward

  • Consultant / Firm
    • multiple clients
    • outsourcing developers??
  • Making a living
    • Get follow ups from 1 client
    • Serious goals => Serious clients
    • “Go where the money is”

Mentioned Links:

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EP12 - Using Javascript #likeaboss In And Out Of The Browser

This week we talk about common misconceptions about Javascript and the DOM Api. Learning about Javascript’s strengths can help us understand how/why this popular language is being used extensibly in and out of the browser.

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What do I need to know?

  • More than just the document API. What is document API and DOM?
    • DOM is the actual HTML document
    • document.createElementByTag, getElementByID, getElementsByClass, XMLHttpRequest
    • Types: ‘string’, ‘boolean’, ‘undefined’, ‘function’, and ‘object’
    • Recommend: Javascript the Good parts
  • Client side applications is where it’s at
    • facebook, twitter, google, yahoo:
  • JS: More than just UI
  • V8 Engine

What do I do and not do?

  • Goal: Build your web’s client side JS app
  • Drop global variables! (Namespacing)
  • Falsy Values and other gotchas: Javascript Garden

Moving Forward

Mentioned Links:

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EP11 - Intro to NoSQL

This week we talk about NoSQL (Not Only SQL). Though we do not deep dive into any one particular schemaless database we cover their importance and what changes they are making in the web world today.

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What do I need to know?

  • Developed a while ago (1998), refined by high traffic sites
    • facebook, yahoo, google, amazon
  • Not relational
    • No Joins, big performance boost
    • document oriented: CouchDB, MongoDB, SimpleDB
    • key value pair: Memchached, Redis
    • extensive record: Google BigTable, Cassandra

What do I do?

  • NodeJS + MongoDB
  • MongoLab.com
  • php/redis, php/memchached

Moving Forward

  • Cloud hosting services
  • aws.amazon.com/free
  • How would I design for functional environment?

Mentioned Links:

Correction: Chartbeat is the analytics tool mentioned, not “Heartbeat”.
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EP10 - Using Git on a Production Website

This week we talk about what you need for setting deploying to your production website with Git. We go through different existing cloud services that let you deploy in the same fashion. Then we cover how to have a similar setup with shared hosting.

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Hack of the Week

Erick shares his most recent hack involving a Hanging with Friends “helper” website. Where you would type in the known letters and it would suggest possible words for the answer.

What do I need to know?

What do I do?

  • If not using above services
  • Ghetto way: push directly to hostgator
    • problems? crash your site?
    • maybe ok when you are by yourself
    • Push directly into a working repo
  • Running unit tests?
    • use git hooks to check for validating latest commit
  • Push into a bare repo, then make your “environments” pull

Moving Forward

  • Leverage Hosted Git Services
    • github.com / bitbucket.org / gitorious.org
  • Workflow:
    • pull requests
    • issues
    • anything with web hooks

Mentioned Links:

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EP09 - Getting Started With @Raspberry_Pi

This week we talk about what you need to know about Raspberry Pi. A new $25 micro computer, the size of a credit card, that has made a huge wave in the hacker/programmer scene. It’s aimed for educational purposes, but hackers all over the world also have their own agendas for this computer.

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Hack On Something For A Week

Why Is This Important?

  • Jobs
  • Seize the moment?
    • How important is Raspberry Pi

What is the Raspberry Pi?

  • Raspberry Pi foundation (Eben Upton)
  • Aimed at education
  • $25, credit card sized computer
    • Smaller than Sheva Plug
  • Enough power to run 1080p video (More graphics power than iPhone 4)
  • Uses Broadcom SoC
  • Where to order? raspberrypi.org

Setting up an environment

Python Development

  • Easy to learn, object oriented, interpreted language
  • Official Python Tutorial (Python Software Foundation) http://docs.python.org/tutorial/
  • Because it’s interpreted you can program for it anywhere
  • PyGame - Game development library (SDL)
  • Ideas for development:
    • where do ppl think they will use RasPi?

Mentioned Links:

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EP08 - Choosing Javascript Frameworks Part 2, Microframeworks

This week we talk about what you need to know about choosing micro frameworks. These are small and highly reliable javascript helpers that can be included into any javascript application. They do not depend on any other framework or library, some can even be used out of browser.

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Hack of the Week

Erick talks about his attempt to remake “Charadium” iOS app. He explains his adventures with SocketIO.js and web sockets for HTML5.

Javascript Utilities

  • Modernizr.js - HTML5/CSS3 - 367 forks - 4.8k+ watching
  • Underscore.js - Helpers - 397 forks - 4.2k+ watching
    • A library of functional programming helpers for JavaScript that fit in nicely alongside jQuery [or any javascript application]
  • Mustache.js
  • Script Loading
  • Microjs.org
    • How nice do these play with each other
  • SocketIO.js

Mentioned Links:

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EP07 - Choosing Javascript Frameworks Part 1

This week we talk about what you need to know about choosing the correct javascript framework for your project. Now a days there are a lot of options, but without knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each framework you could hinder your project from day 1.

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History

  • JS before frameworks
  • prototype, scriptaculous
  • What is the cross browser issue?
  • John Resig - (2005) wanted a more dedicated solutions to the bugs and a better API. Clear, cut and “terse”. Only one with documentation.
    • very influencial in the JS world

Major frameworks

  • prototype, scriptaculous, mootools
  • jQuery
  • YUI
  • ExtJS
  • Backbone.js - MVC[E] - 866 forks - 6.6k+ watching
    • A JavaScript library that helps you structure your client-side code with Models, Collections, and Views.
    • Users: LinkedIn Mobile, Panora [new HTML5 site], Foursquare, Khan Academy [backbone + Jquery], Groupon Now! [local deals], Basecamp Mobile [37 Signals], Diaspora, SoundCloud Mobile

Moving Forward

  • How do you pick a framework (decision?)
    • DOM: prototype
    • DOM+Effects: JQuery
    • DOM+Effects+UI Support: YUI, ExtJS
    • Scalable JS Application: Backbone.js, YUI
  • Not only browser. Utilities Next Episode.
    • modernizr, underscore, handlebars, microjs

Mentioned Links

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EP06 - Getting Started Appcelerator Titanium Mobile

This week we talk about what you need to know about developing with Appcelerator Titanium. We mention useful information for the first time Titanium developer.

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Hack of The Week

In light of this weeks topic, Erick talks about one of his first Titanium project. Started out as a fun project to get to know Titanium and ended up being a very useful picture frame.

Need To Know

  • Use on both Windows and Mac OSX
    • NEED Mac for iOS apps.
  • Pros / Cons
    • Pro: one code base multi platform
    • Pro: JS [lang of the web] - you can start now
    • Pro: can be extended to include latest SDK features
    • Con: less control on system level things [mem]
    • Con: native sdk moves faster than Ti
    • Con: only iOS and Android for now [free]

How Do I Use It

  • Installation
    • Install native SDK first
    • Android is a bit of pain
  • Titanium Studio IDE
    • New Projects, compiles/debugs
    • build for deployment
  • app.js
    • separating code into different files (windows)
    • commonJS modules [v1.8]
  • Namespacing

Moving Forward

  • Extending Titanium with Native Modules
  • Ti Frameworks [link below]
    • MVC
  • Best Practices [link below]
  • More? Vote for it on our website.

Mentioned Links: