DEV Community: intuitive-tech

Monoliths vs Microservices

intuitive-tech — Mon, 03 May 2021 19:39:25 +0000

What is a Monolith?

A monolith architecture is one that keeps all resources in one big server. This is something that isn't necessarily beneficial, because if one aspect of this fails, then this means that the entire monolith will go with it. In addition to this, trying to make code changes can be a difficult process because the entire platform would have to compile in order for the change to be complete.

What Are Microservices?

A microservice architecture incorporates smaller applications that are tied together through application integration. These microservices can be more simple to develop given their smaller scope.

One of the benefits that microservices bring to the table is that since each of the different functions can be separated across the network, if one function was to have an error then it wouldn't affect the other parts of the system. One of the biggest benefits to a microservice is its simplicity. When applications are split into smaller fragments, it is much easier to build and maintain. Also, managing that code that's written is much easier since it is all split in to separate chunks.

Ultimately, microservices make big solutions for problems much easier and allow for more flexibility between teams. The use of microservices is not all beneficial, but for bigger projects, the need to frequently update individual parts of a systems is best coupled with microservices as opposed to monoliths.

Intro to Web Components

intuitive-tech — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 18:18:36 +0000

What Is a Web Component?

In simple terms, a web component is a piece of code that allows you to create custom elements in a website. These components are reusable and can be placed anywhere in websites or apps as they're needed. Why is this important? Well, it allows for developers to spend less time coding the same things over and over again that they're going to use in a website anyway. Not only are web components great for usability, they allow for a website to have a uniform functionality and to be dynamic with all different types of data.

Examples of Web Components

Even if you've never heard the term before, chances are you've already used some web components just through browsing the internet. YouTube, one of the world's most popular websites, uses web components all throughout the website. If you go to the homepage, you'll see a number of components. Specifically, each of the video thumbnails and the data associated with it is displayed using a web component made by youtube. It's nothing fancy, but it allows for reusability all throughout the website in addition to uniformity.

Why Should I Use Them?

Like I mentioned above, one of the greatest strengths of using web components is for reusability. It makes life a whole heck of a lot easier for a developer to make one component and implement it all throughout their website as opposed to having to rewrite the same couple lines of code continuously. Also, in the case of YouTube, it allows for data to be displayed in a uniform way. One of the biggest strengths of web components is their open-source capability. This makes it so that anyone is able to work on a web component that has already been create and make their own version of it or make some type of improvements.

Below are some of the websites I found that are currently using web components to build their site:
YouTube
Wayback Machine
EA

Click here for a video explanation of web components!

Creating an instance of GitLab with Reclaim Cloud

intuitive-tech — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 02:06:56 +0000

Background

GitHub is a platform that is used for version control and collaboration of code. It allows you to work with others on a team so that you can develop projects without being in the same place at the same time. Though a very useful tool, GitHub is most useful when working in small groups or teams. GitLab, on the other hand, allows you to use the same features as GitHub, but is more tailored towards bigger organization.

Implementation

Reclaim Cloud Sign Up

The sign-up process for reclaim is very simple. Once you enter an email and password, you will be granted access to your account. Sign up here

Configuration

Before you are able to configure your environment through Reclaim Cloud, you must increase the minimum cloudlets so that the server is able to allocate the proper amount of resources to properly run. This can be done through clicking the "Change Environment Topology" button and dragging the slider in the middle of the page to 32 cloudlets.

Usage

Once you have increased the number of cloudlets, you will be able to click the link under DevOps Lab, as shown in the picture below.

Once you have entered into GitLab, you are now able to use all features that are available on the platform. From security to CI, GitLab provides a number of features that GitHub does not. The number of features that appear on the left sidebar gives GitLab an advantage over GitHub.

Overall, GitHub and GitLab are both very useful platforms when they are used in the most appropriate setting.

Video explanation

Auditing Taproot Kitchen Using web.dev and WAVE

intuitive-tech — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 01:51:13 +0000

As a student, I love getting involved with the community outside of the classroom. One of the ways that I did this was joining a community service organization. This has been a really fulfilling experience for me since I haven't done anything like it before. Through my organization, I have had the opportunity to volunteer at the concession stands at sporting events, help clean up stadiums after football games, and help make improvements to local parks.

One of the coolest events that we do as an organization is volunteer at Taproot Kitchen. Taproot is an organization that helps adults with intellectual disabilities gain culinary training and meaningful employment.

After running the audits, there were a number of areas that could be improved, specifically with performance and SEO. Even though performance of the website was extremely poor, the accessibility and best practices of the website were nearly perfect. Because of this, I'll mainly focus on how to improve the performance and SEO.

One of the main areas that needs to improve is eliminating unnecessary code. One of the aspects that web.dev highlighted was unused CSS and JavaScript. One of the ways to fix this would be to remove unused CSS and only attaching the needed libraries to the page or component of the page. Reducing or switching the number of WordPress plugins would also help to reduce the amount of unused CSS.

There is also an issue of render-blocking within the website. One of the ways to help mitigate this is to identify the critical code and move it to an inline script tag within the HTML page. Doing this will give it what it needs to handle the page's core functionality first.

Overall, Taproot Kitchen does a great job with the accessibility and best practices but struggles greatly with performance. It seems like the website is in a good spot given that there are only a few areas that desperately need attention.

Video explanation of the audit

VueJS in addition to HTML and CSS

intuitive-tech — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 05:23:05 +0000

VueJS? What's that?

VueJS is a framework for JavaScript. It is very easy to implement Vue into your code. All you have to do is create a script with the src pointing to the Vue library which can be found online. After that, you are able to use any and all elements of the VueJS framework within your own code.

How I used VueJS with my resume:

My thought process behind implementing VueJS was that I wanted to create a business card that would be easy to put on any website. I used the CSS grid style to my advantage with this and placed each element of the card on different parts of the grid. I then created the Vue elements that would be necessary for the card, like a first and a last name. I did this and added it to my h1 element in the html code. I utilized the loop functionality on two parts of the card to get information across easily and effectively. I added both an applications and skills section to the bottom left and bottom right of the card. Since it is easier to put these elements under bullet points, I used "li" and "ul" (I have to use "" instead of <> because markdown will actually create a list in this post) in the html code and pulled the information from the Vue component. Overall, I think it is beneficial to use VueJS in order to improve readability and lessen the amount of code that you have to use in html. I think that you can do more with less (in terms of code) with the framework and it lessens the amount of headaches you'll have trying to implement different types of code across html.

Links

Video explaining how I used VueJS

Codepen source of my business card

Welcome to Intuitive Tech!

intuitive-tech — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 03:42:10 +0000

Hello everyone!

Introduction

My name is Alex and I am a junior at Penn State University. I am studying Information Sciences & Technology (IST). This major is basically a mix of business/IT and computer science. I am also pursuing a minor in Supply Chain Management, which I think will give me an edge against any people I may be competing with for a job position. After graduating, I'm not completely sure yet which career path I would like to pursue. IT Consulting is one of the areas that I have really enjoyed so far, so that is definitely a top contender between possible career paths.
Technology has always been an area/topic that has interested me. I grew up surrounded by devices which is probably what led to my inclination. When deciding what I wanted to major in at school came pretty easily to me -- something tech. This is why I love the major I chose. It combines both of the things that I love and I really couldn't see my self doing anything else.
Since I was 16, I've been working part-time jobs in the food industry. These jobs have taught me a lot about hard-work, time management, communication, and resilience. This summer I am going to have my first professional internship which is something I am very excited about. I can't wait to take what I've learned in the classroom and apply it to a real world solution. I'm not exactly sure if the position is going to be virtual or in-person, but I'm looking forward to it regardless.

Visual Studio Code

In the video attached below, I will be talking about how to set up a simple HTML file in Visual Studio Code and I will show some of my favorite/most useful plugins. Though I have not had a lot of experience programming HTML, I really enjoy using Visual Studio and I would definitely consider using it in the future for any other programming needs. Visual Studio also makes it very easy for users to acquire plugins to customize the program so its catered to them.
I have only taken one course that revolves around HTML and CSS and web development in general. I thought the class was very interesting but I feel like I didn't become as well-rounded with the language as I should've. Being that I have a background in programming primarily with Java and Python, I thought the language itself was fairly easy to pick up-- it doesn't feel like it takes a great deal of technical skills in order to effectively use it. Though I am more interested in back-end development than front-end, I think that HTML is very interesting and something that I would consider learning more about given the opportunity.