This article will explore some strategies for...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/the-magic-of-engineering-leadership.md posts/the-magic-of-engineering-leadership.md Sun, 23 Feb 2020 05:00:00 GMT With the adoption of ES6/2015 by nearly all browsers (with one notable exception), developers have access to the new class keyword and its construct for creating objects. If you are familiar with prototypical inheritance in JavaScript, don't worry, that knowledge is still useful. Why? Because JavaScript "classes" are just syntactic sugar over the top of prototypes. In this post, I'll shed a little bit of light on the ability to access a parent class (prototype) from...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/understanding-super-in-javascript.md posts/understanding-super-in-javascript.md Sat, 04 Nov 2017 04:00:00 GMT This article was first posted on the Lunch Badger blog. Check them out if you're working with APIs in Node.js!

You've probably used it before: key authentication. The basic idea is simple, to authenticate your app or client with a given service you send a key to identify (and authorize) yourself. This is not intended for individual users necessarily, but rather for systems talking to each other. (Just to be clear, for users authenticating themselves you might want...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/implementing-key-authentication-in-express-gateway.md posts/implementing-key-authentication-in-express-gateway.md Sat, 21 Oct 2017 04:00:00 GMT This article was first posted on the Lunch Badger blog. Check them out if you're working with APIs in Node.js!

Separating your API code into microservices has far reaching benefits, but you probably already knew that, that's why you're here! So now that you've decided to shift to microservices you have some problems to solve. One of those is that splitting up your service areas can make it difficult to access much needed data at the correct time. If you'...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/build-a-distributed-caching-layer-with-express-for-apis-and-microservices.md posts/build-a-distributed-caching-layer-with-express-for-apis-and-microservices.md Sun, 30 Jul 2017 04:00:00 GMT This article was first posted on the Lunch Badger blog. Check them out if you're working with APIs in Node.js!

If you've written anything in Node.js the chances are you've used Express and its routing system. In this article I'd like to (re)introduce you to the built-in Router that really is the core of Express itself. We'll talk about the basic idea of routing, but then dig into some more advanced concepts like pattern and regex routes and advanced URL...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/a-re-introduction-to-express-js-routes.md posts/a-re-introduction-to-express-js-routes.md Sun, 16 Jul 2017 04:00:00 GMT This article was first posted on the Lunch Badger blog. Check them out if you're working with APIs in Node.js!

Let's imagine a system where you have a few different microservices in your external facing API, each one able to operate independently. Good start! Now we want to allow requests into those microservices from multiple clients - not just our own website. One of the issues you might quickly run into in this scenario is that many clients will want data...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/using-express-middleware-to-transform-data.md posts/using-express-middleware-to-transform-data.md Thu, 29 Jun 2017 04:00:00 GMT Up until last month, and for a little over a year, I taught new developers in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript at The Iron Yard in Washington, DC - an immersive code school. Of course, teaching people new to the world of software development must necessarily entail teaching a lot more than just writing code. On day 1 we start working in Atom, for example. Any code editor can be a very foreign environment for these folks. But one of the most difficult concepts for my students to understand is...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/lessons-learned-teaching-git.md posts/lessons-learned-teaching-git.md Thu, 15 Jun 2017 04:00:00 GMT Okay, first off, this is a loooong blog post. Over 3,500 words... without code examples. Sorry about that, but I wanted it to be relatively complete. There is some high-level navigation directly below that I encourage you to use when you come back later after wasting a few hours here on the first couple sections.

Building an Amazon Echo (Alexa) skill is quite...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/building-an-amazon-alexa-skill-with-node-js.md posts/building-an-amazon-alexa-skill-with-node-js.md Wed, 24 Aug 2016 04:00:00 GMT CSS selector efficiency just isn't that important to me.

That's not to say that efficiency generally isn't... it is. And I take great pride in my ability to determine the most efficient route from my home to work and the most efficient use of my time while preparing meals. However, my computer has eight gigabytes of random access memory and a quad core 2.7 gigahertz processor... As such, the load time of web pages I view is rarely affected by the speed of CSS...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/css-selector-efficiency-and-why-i-only-mildly-care.md posts/css-selector-efficiency-and-why-i-only-mildly-care.md Wed, 22 Jun 2016 04:00:00 GMT As some of my more dedicated followers might know, in March I left StrongLoop (now part of IBM) after only 14 months with the company. My primary role there was as a developer evangelist which basically means I got to go around to conferences and usergroups speaking about Node.js (read more about that in an earlier post). This was an amazing opportunity and something I had wanted to do for many years. But as much as I love engaging with the Node and JavaScript community around the world...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/my-first-cohort.md posts/my-first-cohort.md Sat, 14 May 2016 04:00:00 GMT We are quickly approaching the end of 2015, and the end of my first year professionally as a developer evangelist. It has been quite the roller coaster, including everything you would expect from a startup: expanded responsibilities, fast pace, and even a successful exit. Looking back on the experience thus far, I have some notes that I want to share, and some advice for others following in this path.

Let me back up first... In 2014 I spoke at 22 events, a couple of those were...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/one-year-in-evangelism.md posts/one-year-in-evangelism.md Mon, 28 Dec 2015 05:00:00 GMT Welcome to part two in our series on object oriented JavaScript! In the previous post we introduced readers to the core principles of OOP and started discussing some of the core nature of objects and functions in JavaScript. We moved onto constructors, the new keyword, and different types of object members. In this issue we're going deeper into the prototype object to discuss prototypical inheritance and polymorphism. We may refer to some nomenclature and syntax from part one, so be...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/object-oriented-javascript-part-the-second.md posts/object-oriented-javascript-part-the-second.md Tue, 01 Sep 2015 04:00:00 GMT Object oriented programming (OOP) is a concept eminently familiar to those of us that have coded in Java, C++, .NET, and other languages. So why the focus on OOP? One of our primary tasks as application developers is to model the real world through code. Consider the often used example of the "Employee" and "Manager" users in a system, object oriented programming allows us to represent these two real world entities by collections of code having data and actions...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/object-oriented-javascript-part-the-first.md posts/object-oriented-javascript-part-the-first.md Mon, 31 Aug 2015 04:00:00 GMT This entry was originally posted on the StrongBlog (by me). Nothing changed, just adding it to my personal site. :) That said, you should check out StrongLoop if you're interested in building APIs in Node!

Everyone in the JavaScript world is talking about ECMAScript 6 (ES6, a.k.a. ES 2015) and the big changes coming to objects (class, super(), etc), functions (default params, etc), and modules (import/export), but less attention is being given to variables and how they are...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/goodbye-var-js-variable-declarations-in-es6.md posts/goodbye-var-js-variable-declarations-in-es6.md Tue, 17 Mar 2015 04:00:00 GMT I am not an abnormally lucky person. Privileged, yes, but I don't recall getting many "breaks" in my life that were not earned in some way, either by me directly or by my own upbringing. A number of people have commented on not only my success in tech conferences, but generally on the fact that some people "are lucky to be presenting at so many conferences". I'm here to tell you that it isn't luck, these people (by and large) work hard to get where they are...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/speaking-and-mentoring.md posts/speaking-and-mentoring.md Fri, 13 Mar 2015 04:00:00 GMT This entry was originally posted on the StrongBlog (by me). Nothing changed, just adding it to my personal site. :) That said, you should check out StrongLoop if you're interested in building APIs in Node!

Before I get into the code and walk you through it, I wanted to talk about my motivation for this post. I recently spoke at the Confoo developer conference in Montreal. If you haven't been, it's a whirlwind of new technologies, complex data theories, useful soft...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/two-factor-authentication-with-loopback.md posts/two-factor-authentication-with-loopback.md Tue, 10 Mar 2015 04:00:00 GMT Note: This blog was cross-posted from the StrongBlog, check it out!

Now, this is a story all about how my life got flipped - turned upside down - and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the Developer Evangelist of a place called StrongLoop. Well, that didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, but you get the gist. I'm the newest employee at StrongLoop and our first Developer Evangelist! I'll elaborate on what I'...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/let-me-tell-you-a-story.md posts/let-me-tell-you-a-story.md Thu, 22 Jan 2015 05:00:00 GMT This is Part Two of a series on custom Grunt tasks. Have you read Part One?

As I mentioned last time, I've been answering a lot of questions on Stack Overflow about Grunt lately. What I've discovered is that there are a lot of people new to Grunt - but familiar with JavaScript - who aren't sure how to accomplish what they hope to. In Part Two of this series I'm going to take our custom tasks further and show you some of the other aspects of Grunt API and some tips...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/bending-grunt-to-your-will-with-custom-tasks-part-2.md posts/bending-grunt-to-your-will-with-custom-tasks-part-2.md Mon, 05 Jan 2015 05:00:00 GMT I've been answering a lot of questions on Stack Overflow lately about Grunt. I find that that tag is a little less attended to than some others given the growing popularity of the tool. I also think that I have useful knowledge and experience to share. What I've discovered is that there are a lot of people new to Grunt - but familiar with JavaScript - who aren't sure how to accomplish what they hope to. I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about writing custom tasks in...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/bending-grunt-to-your-will-with-custom-tasks-part-1.md posts/bending-grunt-to-your-will-with-custom-tasks-part-1.md Fri, 02 Jan 2015 05:00:00 GMT (To the tune of... well, I think you get it.)

On the twelfth day of JavaScript my language gave to me: 12 prototypes chaining

On the eleventh day of JavaScript my language gave to me: 11 closures scoping

On the tenth day of JavaScript my language gave to me: 10 dynamic vars declaring

On the ninth day of JavaScript my language gave to me: 9 frameworks competing

On the eighth day of JavaScript my language gave to me: 8 Node modules encapsulating

On...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/twelve-days-of-javascript.md posts/twelve-days-of-javascript.md Wed, 24 Dec 2014 05:00:00 GMT Almost two years ago a friend and fellow conference speaker, Cal Evans, began an interesting experiment: a virtual PHP usergroup he called NomadPHP. The event started small, just a dozen or so attendees, which isn't out of the ordinary for a usergroup generally. But the meetings had fantastic speakers focusing on deep technical content. That idea has blossomed into another endeavor: our new group called NomadJS. I want to take a few minutes to introduce to this group, ask for your help...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/nomad-js-a-new-way-to-learn.md posts/nomad-js-a-new-way-to-learn.md Wed, 17 Dec 2014 05:00:00 GMT In 2010, while working for our mutual former employer, Jonathan Sharp started working on a small library to mock Ajax calls made through jQuery in order to better test front end JavaScript code. Since then, fifty different people have contributed to jQuery Mockjax to make it one of the simplest tools for mocking out HTTP calls from JavaScript. I took over primary maintenance of the library earlier this year while working at appendTo; however, as of last Friday, October 17, 2014, ownership...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/next-stage-for-mockjax.md posts/next-stage-for-mockjax.md Fri, 24 Oct 2014 04:00:00 GMT The existence of a server does not determine the success of your front end testing strategy.

That is the basis, a thesis almost, for the rest of this post. The fact is that of the few of you actually doing front end testing, most are doing so with the "help" of a testing server that provides data from some pre-filled database. This is wrong.

This may not sit well with any of you, but my guess is that if you're reading this post, then you are...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/testing-front-end-code-without-a-server.md posts/testing-front-end-code-without-a-server.md Mon, 02 Jun 2014 04:00:00 GMT I'm trying to change the world - a goal my wife has always aspired to, but which I've only recently thought about in earnest. Crazy you say? Perhaps...

I attend a fair number of conferences and usergroups - large and small, near and far - and generally speaking I get a lot out of them professionally. That's not only from a technical perspective, but also in terms of professional connections and conversations. A few weeks ago I was in Miami for the SunshinePHP conference...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/my-next-billion-users.md posts/my-next-billion-users.md Wed, 05 Mar 2014 05:00:00 GMT I've been doing a fair amount of work on Windows 8 native applications lately, working with the Windows and WinJS JavaScript namespaces. Contrary to what a lot of people may say – including me from time to time – I have enjoyed much of that work. There are serious issues that the Microsoft team needs to work on (testing, the hamstrung webview, the structure of the syntax, etc), but it's certainly a nice direction to be headed for a core web developer like myself.

I've...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/windows-8-native-javascript-file-system.md posts/windows-8-native-javascript-file-system.md Wed, 01 Jan 2014 05:00:00 GMT I was walking back to my car from dinner tonight, just strolling along and enjoying the crisp, cold evening and chatting with my wife about errands to run, plans to make, and pets to get home to. The night wasn't exceptional in any meaningful way. As we stood on the sidewalk about to part ways - we had driven there separately - a man walked by.

I told my wife I would see her at home and I caught up to him. He was strolling slowly so this wasn't difficult. I asked if he...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/i-met-a-man-today.md posts/i-met-a-man-today.md Tue, 26 Nov 2013 05:00:00 GMT Many developers and development shops have embraced testing in their server side code - either using a TDD model, or sometimes just with unit or functional tests created on the fly - but very few developers I talk to test their front end code beyond eyeballing it in a few browsers (or if they're lucky, with a service like BrowserStack). And even fewer of those use any kind of automation. In this post I'm going to try and help out that majority of you who aren't testing - or...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/automated-javascript-tests-using-grunt-phantomjs-and-qunit.md posts/automated-javascript-tests-using-grunt-phantomjs-and-qunit.md Sun, 21 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT Web developers, I mean this with the utmost seriousness, we have a weight problem.

No, no... not YOU personally (well, maybe... we sit on our butts quite a bit) - I'm talking about our web sites. They're getting heavier, a LOT heavier. Year over year the top 1,000 web sites (according to Alexa ranking) have increased their page-weight about 24% * . This is according to the HTTP Archive statistics site which keeps such statistics for top 1000 and 100 web sites globally. And...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/overweight-pages-on-the-rise.md posts/overweight-pages-on-the-rise.md Fri, 12 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT Recently I spent a couple of weeks trying out a new (to me) mobile web application framework: Sencha Touch (version 2.1.0). I was building a little event discovery tool mostly for the purposes of trying out the framework (although I also submitted the project to Sencha's "HTML5 is Ready" contest). In this post I'll outline some of the features of the framework, how to get up and running quickly, and some pitfalls to watch out for. This isn't intended to be a "...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/two-weeks-with-sencha-touch.md posts/two-weeks-with-sencha-touch.md Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMT Recently I watched a small interlude between TED talks from 2005 by Terry Moore. You may have seen, you may not. It's about how most of us have been taught an inferior way to tie our shoe laces. Take a look at the video below (it's only 3 minutes long):

I was hesitant to believe that our "weak form" knot was in fact so inferior, well, a few days ago I put it to the test. I went for a run and started with my shoe laces tied in my normal – weak – fashion. No...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/am-i-doing-it-wrong.md posts/am-i-doing-it-wrong.md Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:00:00 GMT Whether you are a new developer or an experienced guru, we all need to stay up to date on our industry and it's advances. This seems to be more true every year, and with that in mind, here are some great presentations from 2012 to stir your interest (but you can find a lot more!):

Web Components and the Future of Web DevelopmentEric Bidelman

Eric provides some fantastic information on a variety of topics related to web components coming up soon...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/web-development-lessons-for-2013.md posts/web-development-lessons-for-2013.md Mon, 07 Jan 2013 05:00:00 GMT I receive a lot of job offers/interview requests on LinkedIn. My profile clearly indicates that I do not wish to receive these requests. And as much as you may hate Facebook, at least on here random people can't contact me if I don't want them to. On LinkedIn, pretty much anyone can contact me so long as they make the "category" somehthing I want to hear about.

This came Friday, below that is my response.

---------------------- [The message I...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/really-linkedin-really.md posts/really-linkedin-really.md Mon, 18 Jun 2012 04:00:00 GMT I know your mother told you never to run with scissors - everyone's mother did - but you've done it anyway, haven't you? You've ignored that sage wisdom and taken leave of your senses due to what you probably thought at the time was a dire need to get something done with extreme brevity. Did you at least grab the pointy end to prevent you from stabbing someone as you ran around that corner?

Of course, this post isn't a rant on safety in the kindergarten class...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/running-with-scissors.md posts/running-with-scissors.md Sun, 05 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT I often get asked computer questions by friends and family... whether or not the question is actual in my field of discipline makes no difference to these people's expectations. As such, I try to find the answer even if I don't know it right away. One question that I do know the answer to (and have been asked many times) is: "What is binary?"

To answer the question, lets first look at the name: "binary." As the prefix of the word suggests it basically...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/lesson-time-binary-style.md posts/lesson-time-binary-style.md Wed, 29 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT You are not your programming language. You are not the web stack you've learned. You are not your text editor you write your code in.

I was reading a post by Dave Newman the other day (yes, so were 46,840 of you) and he ended with the quote above. As I start to look for my next opportunity, I'm reminded that I didn't start with the tool set I have now, and I certainly won't end with it.

When I began working on the web there weren't nearly as many...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/you-are-not-your-programming-language.md posts/you-are-not-your-programming-language.md Sat, 25 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT I wouldn't call myself an extrovert. Other people have - and do - but I think my outgoing nature only extends to certain areas of my life. I work from home, and I do so each day with only the company of my dog (who plays out in the yard most of the day) and my wife's cat (yes hers, not mine). You might be thinking “I can see how that would be lonely”, but I don't. I like working alone, I like not having a tribe.

You see, my trouble with tribes is that often it leads to...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/the-trouble-with-tribes.md posts/the-trouble-with-tribes.md Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT As a child I had all sorts of trouble paying attention - not just in school, but to anything. Soccer was my group physical activity of choice, and I would regularly find myself standing on the field looking at the other games on adjacent fields. When we would rent a video game for the weekend I would quickly lose interest if I couldn't complete on my first few attempts. And remember: we're talking about the early days here, video games were very new, and there wasn't any "...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/are-you-paying-attention.md posts/are-you-paying-attention.md Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT I've noticed lately that I have had very little time to focus on the projects that I'm really interested in... the ones that inspire me, and that encouraged me to jump ship in the first place. This is bad for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that I'm feeling the burn - the burn that comes before the burn out. I've been working on contracts for other people, and while some of them are okay, most of them just tend to be tedious. Its not my clients' fault, the...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/focus-focus-focus.md posts/focus-focus-focus.md Wed, 06 May 2009 04:00:00 GMT I think that statement is one that applies to just about every nook and cranny of our lives. In my experience, any time something goes well or poorly, it occurs in droves. For example, a few years ago some of my family began experiencing medical problems. All of them were unrelated, but they all came within a year of each other. Some people say that bad things happen in threes, but I don't think there is a specific number assigned to the "pouring."

This week I am...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/when-it-rains-it-pours.md posts/when-it-rains-it-pours.md Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:00:00 GMT I'm in the thick of it now. I'm teaching classes every week, 2 or 3 days each; one client is moving forward with a custom WordPress-powered site (custom as in new, custom theme); Track the Pig (my main other project) is getting close to ready to alpha release (hoping to do so before SXSWi); and I have 3 other potential clients in the wings. One of these keeps emailing me to ask when we can start. This is all good of course; I'm staying busy, generating good client relationships...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/trudging-forward.md posts/trudging-forward.md Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:00:00 GMT I registered for the South By SouthWest Intercative (SXSWi) festival last week. It was a bit difficult to plop down $400+ to basically see what other people are doing, and yes, I do see the benefits or I would not have registered; its still difficult. So what exactly do I hope to get out of it? This may be a good exercise for myself: creating a list of what I hope to get out of conferences in general (or this one specifically) and make sure that whatever I do attend fulfills those goals...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/learning-and-doing.md posts/learning-and-doing.md Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT There was a great post by Aaron Hillegass back in December about his choice to start his own business, and how that led to failure (and what he thinks about it). Go read it, then come back and I'll give you my thoughts...

... well go on.

I completely agree that we get too complacent in that upper success range, although I would set the upper limit lower, closer to 85%. I haven't been able to put my finger directly on why I left my steady, well-paying job to do this...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/failure-or-why-we-choose-this-path.md posts/failure-or-why-we-choose-this-path.md Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT I realized over the last couple of weeks that the holidays mean much less to the freelancer than to the regular working stiff. I had already experienced the differences with "sick" time, and had applied that to "vacation" days as well, but this was different. My wife would be home, family and friends would be off of work, and there would be things to do, right? Well, in a sense, yes... there was plenty to do.

My upcoming deadlines - looming ever larger - pushed...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/holiday-schedules.md posts/holiday-schedules.md Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT Last week was not the best in terms of tasks accomplished (work tasks anyway). I did get some things done on a couple of projects, but there were distractions all around. I spent a lot fo time doing house work (cleaning, fixing up a guest room, etc.) in preparation for a visit from my dad, who lives out of state and thus I don't get to see him often. I also needed to run some errands out of the house.

A lot of these things could have been done after "work hours", but I...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/distractions.md posts/distractions.md Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT Well, I've made it through one weekof this new adventure, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I find that my personal style of work lends itself well to bursts of highly focused and concentrated tasks, followed by large breaks that let me cool down.

For most of the week I've started my day rather lazily (I guess that new-job smell is still around), but once I start working, I'll do so for 3 hours or so until I reach a good stopping point. After that I'll take a solid...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/end-of-week-1.md posts/end-of-week-1.md Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT I'm rededicating this blog in light of recent events. You see, last week was my last in the traditional workforce. I will be using my talents on some of my own projects (more on those later), as well as to educate others. This isn't an entirely new experience for me as I've been freelancing for a while now, but it will be new in that I am doing so without having a "real job" or in school at the same time.

I plan to use this blog to record my adventures into...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/starting-out.md posts/starting-out.md Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT What I don't like about many applications (both web and desktop apps) is the sense that they need to do everything. Microsoft Word, for example, has thousands of built-in functionality to do all sorts of things that frankly a word processor shouldn't be doing!

Perhaps the wording better fits my rage at those who talk on cell phones while in line at the video store, but I think it applies to our situations as well. Quite simply, developers (and the companies they work for...]]> https://jordankasper.com/posts/beauty-in-simplicity.md posts/beauty-in-simplicity.md Thu, 24 Aug 2006 04:00:00 GMT