DEV Community: Vero O

Tips for better programming in distributed teams 🚀

Vero O — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 19:22:57 +0000

I've been working remote and freelance for the last 18 years, and my experience told me that working remotely with a distributed team is easier if you set a standard, using some basic and simple rules. 🤓 Remember that you have to work with different people that have different ways of coding.

Code can always work, but can you maintain it across the years?

This is the important part for me: maintain the development and release new features without rewriting it.

Those are simple tips, for best practices, in long term developments with distributed teams:

1. Comments 💬

Always comment on your code, even if you think that you understand it. Because tomorrow you're not available and some colleague has to continue it.

2. Variables 📛

Try to set a standard for variable names, don't let your team use any names. Please, I beg you, don't use variables that do not refer to your entity.
Ex: let's suppose you've a list of books
don't declare:

let list = []

instead, refer to your entity first and the variable:

let book_list = []

3. Use absolute paths ⚓

To avoid mistakes, don't use relative paths! use absolute paths for better understanding of the code. It's cleaner to read and easy to follow.

Example for Frontend dev / Next.js

In next.js > 9.4 you can use absolute path like this:

import { MyComponent } from '@/components/elements'

instead of doing this:

import { MyComponent } from '../../components/elements'

You've to add the paths to your tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
      "baseUrl": ".",
      "paths": {
         "@/components/*": ["components/*"],
         "@/classes/*": ["classes/*"],
         "@/styles/*": ["styles/*"]
      }
    }
}

+info: Next.js official docs

VS CODE tip:

If you see and error about module location not found, try:

a. add to .vscode/settings.json

"path-intellisense.mappings": {
    "src": "${workspaceRoot}/src"
  }

b. Reload Visual Studio Code with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P and type "reload window".

Example for Backend dev

Also if you're a backend developer, you can set up constants to the absolute path and use them inside your code.

const PATH_TEMPLATES = '/var/www/public_html/templates/';

Did you find these tips helpful? follow me for more.
I would 💜 to 👀 and 🤓 from your tips, write me!

Cheatsheet: Build IOS ipa from Cordova command line.

Vero O — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 11:46:36 +0000

This is a simple, tiny cheatsheet for building an ipa from cordova command line.

To upgrade your cordova IOS version:

npm update -g cordova npm i cordova-osx

To create a new cordova project:

cordova create [folder_name] [app_id] [app_title]

To add platforms to the project:

cordova platform add ios@6.1.0 cordova platform add android

To manual add plugins:

cordova plugin add path/to/cordova-plugin-name

To get a plugin from git and then add it:

cd plugins git clone https://github.com/PROJECT/cordova-plugin-name.git

To build:

cordova build ios cordova build android

Once you've build it, you need to go to Xcode, to generate the IPA file:

Open the workspace open ./platforms/ios/[app_title].xcworkspace/
Inside the project preferences, set the sign keys for development and release
Set the "device" to "Generic IOS device" to compile.
Go to product > archive
Done!

That's all folks!

Start with AWS CLI and DynamoDB.

Vero O — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 12:53:30 +0000

This guide will teach you the steps that you've to follow in order to start working with DynamoDB.

The main issues that all new users face when working with AWS are:

Is hard to have a quick and global estimate of your costs. They've in most of it services a free tier, so don't be afraid to try it.
Is hard to configure initially, because you don't have a step by step screen that'll guide you.

CONFIGURE YOUR ACCOUNT

1 - Create an account on AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/account/sign-up
2 - Create a user in IAM:
https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/
a) Define the username that this user will have (ex. "publishers", "authors"), and then you have to choose the access method ( public and private key is recommended).
b) Define the policies or permissions that this user will have. This is important because you've to define all of it for the service that'll use.
c) Add tags if you want
d) Copy in a temporarily place the public key and the private key.

INSTALL THE AWS CLI ON YOUR SERVER

1 - Follow the AWS guide to install the CLI, according your server: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/install-cliv2.html)
2 - When you're in the step of "configure", you'll have to add the private and public keys that you've written temporarily in "Configure your account. Step #2d".
Let's suppose you need to add a new service, or a new user.
Go Back to the step "Configure your account. Step #2" and create it.
Then find in your server the "credentials" file that AWS CLI creates (Ex. ~/.aws/credentials) and add a new "Block" of credentials for this new user, which AWS CLI Calls "profiles" to retrieve the information. I'll recommend you to use the same username that you've choose in "Configure your account. Step #2a" to avoid mistakes.

Ex:

~/.aws/credentials

[default] 
aws_access_key_id= 
aws_secret_access_key= 

[authors] 
aws_access_key_id= 
aws_secret_access_key=  

[publishers] 
aws_access_key_id= 
aws_secret_access_key=

WORK WITH DYNAMODB

1- Go to https://aws.amazon.com/es/dynamodb/ and enable your account
2 - Create your first table.
You'll have to define:
a) Table name
b) Table primary unique key name
c) Table secondary key name, called "order key" which can have duplicate values
3- Depending on your language, you've here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/GettingStarted.html
examples of the basic actions that you can do: put, delete, describe, query
You've to have in mind that this information is required to connect with dynamo:
a) The profile name that you'll use to manage the permissions, defined in "Install the AWS cli on your server, Step #2"
b) The region of your DynamoDB. You can find this information in the URL of your AWS DynamoDB account:
Ex:

https://{REGION}.console.aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/home?region={REGION}

About the actions:

You can retrieve one record or all.
PutItem works as well for adding new items an updating them, based on your primary key.

That 's all folks!