DEV Community: CoursePilot

Is JavaScript really the ultimate all-purpose tool in the software world?

CoursePilot — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 13:14:27 +0000

Introduction

JavaScript is a programming language that has been around for over two decades and has become ubiquitous in the software development industry. It is primarily used for front-end web development, but its capabilities have expanded over time to include back-end development, desktop applications, mobile applications, game development, and more. In fact, nearly every website and web application rely on it in some way.

With its overwhelming popularity and widespread adoption comes the question: Is JavaScript really the ultimate all-purpose tool in the software world?

The answer to this question is not straightforward as it depends on several factors. In this article, we'll take a deeper look at the pros and cons of JavaScript as an all-purpose tool, and explore some of the alternatives.

Pros of JavaScript as an All-Purpose Tool

Easy to Learn
JavaScript is relatively easy to learn compared to other programming languages like Java or C++. Its low barrier to entry makes it easily accessible to beginners.Its syntax is simple and readable, and there are many resources available to help developers get started quickly.

Versatility and Cross-Platform Compatibility
One of the primary advantages of JavaScript is its versatility. JavaScript can run on different platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices, making it easy to create cross-platform applications.

In addition, it can be used for a wide range of purposes, including web development, back-end development, mobile app development, desktop application development and even game development.

The versatility and compatibility factor makes it a popular choice for developers who want to work on different types of projects, platforms and/or industries.

Popularity
Another advantage of JavaScript is its popularity. According to several surveys, JavaScript is one of the most popular and widely used programming languages in the world.

This popularity and ubiquity means it has a large community of developers, a rich ecosystem and a wealth of resources that are available online.

As we all have seen, there is a very active community of developers who create and maintain libraries, frameworks, and other tools that make development faster and more efficient. For example, React, Angular, Node.js, NPM,the list goes on and on and on…

For these reasons, JavaScript is also an attractive skill to have in the job market.

Cons of JavaScript as an All-Purpose Tool

Learning Curve for Advanced Concepts
While JavaScript is easy to learn, mastering advanced concepts like closures and prototypes can be challenging for beginners.

Code Maintenance
JavaScript code can quickly become messy and hard to maintain, especially for large projects. This is partly due to the lack of strong typing, which can make it harder to catch errors before they become problems.

If you’re looking for both flexibility and the safety net of a strongly typed language, a good alternative is TypeScript (see more on alternative languages below).

Framework Fatigue and Third-Party Library Dependency
JavaScript has a lot of frameworks and libraries available, which can sometimes be overwhelming for new developers. We’ve seen a lot of junior developers that are too quick to jump to a library-based solution for something that could be fairly easily solved by pure JavaScript solutions.

On the other end of the spectrum, it can also be frustrating for experienced developers who need to constantly learn new frameworks to stay up-to-date.

Moreover, the reliance on third-party libraries and frameworks can lead to compatibility issues and security vulnerabilities.

Browser Compatibility
One of the biggest challenges with JavaScript is browser compatibility. Different browsers may interpret JavaScript code differently, leading to unexpected results or errors. There are now tools available to check cross-browser compatibility but this does not make it less of a pain point in ensuring that a website or application works correctly on all browsers.

Security Concerns
JavaScript is executed on the client-side, which makes it vulnerable to security attacks like cross-site scripting (XSS). This is especially true for web applications. Developers need to be vigilant about securing their code to prevent these types of attacks.

Performance Issues
JavaScript is an interpreted language, which means that it is slower than compiled languages. While JavaScript has come a long way in terms of performance, it is still not as fast as compiled languages like C, C++ or Java.

This can make it less suitable for building complex and resource-intensive applications, such as high-performance games or applications that require real-time processing.

Alternatives to JavaScript

While JavaScript is a popular choice for all-purpose development, there are other languages and tools that developers can use depending on their needs. For example, Python, Rust, Go, and Kotlin to name just a few.

Python: Python is a versatile language that can be used for a wide range of tasks, including web development, data analysis, machine learning, and more. It has a clean syntax and is easy to learn, making it a popular choice for beginners.

Rust: Rust is a systems programming language that is designed for performance and safety. It is a compiled language, which means that it can be faster than interpreted languages like JavaScript.

Go: Go is a programming language created by Google that is designed for building scalable and efficient server-side applications. It is fast and easy to learn, making it a popular choice for web developers.

Kotlin: Kotlin is a programming language created by JetBrains that is designed to be a more modern alternative to Java. It is used for building Android apps, server-side applications, and more.

Conclusion

JavaScript is undoubtedly a powerful tool in the software development world. But is it really the ultimate all-purpose tool in the software world?

It depends on your project’s requirements and goals, the expertise of the development team, and other factors like performance, security, and scalability.

As you’ve seen above, JavaScript has both pros and cons, so it’s important to weigh everything up before making a decision.

MongoDB vs Google Firebase: Which NoSQL Database Did We Choose?

CoursePilot — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 10:38:44 +0000

Not-so-fun story: We built and launched CoursePilot (an anonymous coding bootcamp review platform) with Firebase Database and then, two weeks later, spent two days converting Google Firebase into MongoDB Database.

Why did we start with Firebase?

We started with Firebase because there were so many voices telling us that a small-scale website or application should start off with Firebase. Reason being that it’s an all-in-one solution and very quick to get going and build a prototype.

We listened and we regretted.

What we found was:

Yes, it's not too difficult to set up. But in terms of signing up and connecting to Firebase, there was nothing about it that was different to most modern NoSQL databases these days. Maybe it's marginally easier and quicker than MongoDB but, in our opinion, the initial 30 minutes or so saved is not worth the subsequent 2 days of conversion and migration.
The “all-in-one” solution is not strictly speaking an all-in-one, out-of-the-box solution. For example, if you wanted to store user information after using Google Authentication, for example, you’ll have to sign up to Google Cloud Functions, which is separate to Google Authentication and is an addition to Firebase Database. Moreover, it has a different pricing plan. The pricing plan within a pricing plan had our alarm bells ringing so we opted to not store user data and, thereby, not subscribing to Google Cloud Functions.
If you don’t use Google Authentication (in case you're wondering, we use NextAuth) and don’t sign up to Google Cloud Functions, it becomes quite difficult to write security rules for the database once you switch from test mode to production mode. And if you don’t have good security rules for your database, (i) it’s not great in terms of looking after your user’s data; and (ii) Google will stop users from being able to write to your database. Not ideal by any means or standard.
Visually, it’s not very easy to see the Firebase Database data. If you don’t have a custom ID for a document you’re adding to the database, you are invited to use the add() method, which assigns an auto-generated ID for you. Sounds good so far? Until you get to the database and see that each document is listed by the ID, and only when you click on the ID, you see relevant fields. This makes it very annoying if you wanted to quickly double-check something or to quickly fix a typo directly in the database.
If you then want to import or export data, you have to upgrade your plan and start paying.

Our Conclusion

Firebase does have a lot of advantages and for the two weeks that we had it up and running, it worked absolutely fine but, in our case, it wasn’t the right fit for us. It just felt like we were at risk of snowballing into more and more Google products, layered with paywalls.

So one rainy Monday in March, we began the journey of switching to MongoDB.

After switching to MongoDB, all of our headaches went away. For some reason, likely to be purely psychological, MongoDB felt more robust for us.

Of course, every application is different and what didn't work for us doesn't mean it won't work for you but we hope that this at least provides additional information before you make the ever-so-important decision of whether to start with Firebase or MongoDB when you're looking to integrate a NoSQL database.

And since at CoursePilot, we're all about honest reviews. Here's our one last, candid comment:

If you’re a startup or new business debating on whether to start with Firebase or MongoDB as your NoSQL database, we would personally recommend ignoring people’s advice of starting with Firebase at a minimum.

Some people even recommend starting with Firebase and migrating to MongoDB once you’re of a certain size. No, just jump in with MongoDB.

The hassle of switching databases is NOT WORTH IT. All that time you waste could be better spent elsewhere

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the MongoDB vs Firebase discussion. Which do you prefer?

Microsoft Clarity vs Google Analytics: Which Web Analytics Tool Worked For Us?

CoursePilot — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 15:18:57 +0000

For user analytics, we (CoursePilot) are using Microsoft Clarity.

For the remaining post, we represents we, here at (CoursePilot), and I, represents myself, the developer who coded the site.

If you are wondering which web analytics tool, Microsoft Clarity or Google Analytics, is right for you, maybe seeing our reasons for choosing Microsoft Clarity will help you.

As a starting point, we also looked into Hotjar, Plausible, Fathom, and Matomo, but we wanted an easy-to-integrate, forever free plan to start with so we ended up deciding between Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics. Both Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics are free (in Google Analytics case, it has a freemium model) but the tools that Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics provide are slightly different.

Whilst Microsoft Clarity focuses more on how the user interacts with the site, Google Analytics predominantly tracks and reports website traffic.

From our research online, most reviews on Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics recognise the outstanding points of Microsoft Clarity but still favour Google Analytics so why did we choose Microsoft Clarity?

Business Use

We wanted to focus on the quality of the website, so yes we do want to see where the traffic is coming from but our priority is to see how we can improve user experience.

Microsoft Clarity offers this exactly. It’s very easy to see where the traffic is coming from in the “Referrers” section. At this stage, that is really all we want to see in terms of traffic referrals.

What has been incredibly valuable is to see recordings and heatmaps. Without Clarity, the only other way we could think of to achieve this would be to ask individual users to record how they interact with the site themselves, which is burdensome and expensive, if you’re using a third party user testing organisation.

The recordings and heatmaps show us what people are really interested in, where they might get frustrated (e.g. rage clicks, dead clicks and quickbacks) and what they did right before an error occurred.

This really helps us to prioritise features. For example, from our analysis on user usage so far, we’ve seen that we should probably add the price of courses on the “All Courses” page, either as text or as a sorting mechanism.

Other KPI measurements that Microsoft Clarity offer are: popular pages, countries, devices and operating systems.

We can see that as at 19 April 2023, 26 days after our launch date, the three most popular pages now are: CodeFirstGirls, Le Wagon and Northcoders.

Personal Preference

Personally, I don't mind the Google Analytics sign up and integration process, but Microsoft Clarity is so much quicker and easier. It only took about 2 minutes to sign up and 10 seconds to integrate the code (because it really is just copying and pasting the script that Microsoft Clarity provides you). For us, the data showed up in less than 30 minutes.

The dashboard is so much more user-friendly than Google Analytics. Everything is intuitive and easy to understand for someone who does not have a background in data analysis.

Having used Google Analytics previously, I used to spend at least half an hour hunting down the KPI I wanted to see, often Googling what certain measurements meant. The Google Analytics dashboard felt crowded, I really struggled to focus on a particular metric. Eventually, I stopped looking at it altogether.

Some downsides of Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity itself recognises that it does not have as many metrics as Google Analytics, which is why it offers the ability to connect with Google Analytics so that links to session recordings can be accessed from a Google Analytics dashboard.

Down the line, if we carry out advertising and/or sales campaigns, we may have to supplement Microsoft Clarity with an additional service (unlikely to be Google Analytics out of personal preference) but we are very happy with what we have for now, which is probably why we’re beginning to sound like a Microsoft Clarity salesperson.

Let us know if this has been helpful!

What analytics tools are you using?