Getting Familiar with Gulp for Workflow Automation

I’ve been developing web applications for as long as I can remember and there are certain repetitive tasks that I do between the development and deployment of each final product. For example, current web standards demand that web resources like CSS, and JavaScript be minified or images be compressed. We could easily do this by hand or with helper applications, but why would you want to?

Instead, repetitive tasks can, and should, be transformed into an automated workflow, something that is particularly useful when it comes to continuous integration and continuous deployment.

We’re going to see how to create a an automated workflow using the Gulp toolkit to do simple tasks like cleaning, minification, copying, altering, and even deploying projects.

Unit Testing a Node.js Application with the Jasmine Testing Framework

When building an application, regardless if it is mobile, web, or neither, it is a good idea to come up with a collection of tests that can be used in a continuous integration scenario. I must admit, I don’t have the best habits when it comes to writing tests, but I’m sure my applications would be significantly better if I did.

Previously I had written about unit testing in Golang as well as unit testing in NativeScript with Angular. This time around it makes sense to talk about writing tests in Node.js, another technology that I have in my tool belt.

Request Android Permissions In NativeScript Using Angular

With every version of Android comes more security measures dropped into place. For example, in Android 6+ the user needs to grant permissions when doing certain activities, such as using the camera. These security measures are more aggressive than the previous form of asking permissions in the manifest file.

So what if we want to prompt the user to grant permissions at a time other than when trying to use the feature that requires the permissions? For example, asking for camera permissions when the application loads, rather than when we try to use the camera feature of the application?

We’re going to see how to request permissions in an Android NativeScript project with Angular.

TPDP Episode #15: Authorizing Access with OAuth

I am pleased to announce that the latest episode of The Polyglot Developer Podcast is now available to download from all the popular podcasting networks. In this episode titled, Authorizing Access with OAuth, I’m joined by Ryan Chenkie from Auth0 to talk about OAuth and how it can be used to authorize access to your data by third-party applications.

Episode #15 can be downloaded for free from iTunes, Pocket Casts, and every other popular network, but it can also be heard below.

Determine Network Availability In A NativeScript With Angular Mobile App

When developing mobile applications, there is often a need to perform certain tasks when a network connection is available. Not only this, but sometimes you only want to perform tasks depending on the type of network connection. For example, what if you wanted to backup large photos only when the Android or iOS device is connected to WiFi rather than 3G or 4G? To accomplish this, we need to determine the network availability and monitor it for changes.

We’re going to see how to check the network connection type and monitor it for changes within an Android and iOS mobile application using NativeScript and Angular.

Consume RESTful API Endpoints Within A Golang Application

I am a huge fan of the Go programming language and have written a decent amount of material on the subject. For example, a popular tutorial I wrote titled, Create a Simple RESTful API with Golang, focuses on developing an API. However, I recently received questions on the subject of consuming data from other APIs from within a Go application.

We’re going to see how to issue HTTP requests from within Go, in an effort to consume or send data to other RESTful APIs that might exist on the internet.

Use Fingerprint Authentication In A NativeScript Angular Application

More than a year ago, before I started using Angular, I had written a tutorial on the topic of fingerprint authentication in a core NativeScript application. Since then, I’m doing almost all of my mobile development with Angular which means that the previous article deserves an upgrade.

I recently released a mobile application called Solar Flare for Cloudflare that protects your account with device level fingerprint authentication. We’re going to see how I included fingerprint authentication, sometimes referred to as touch id, in a NativeScript with Angular application.