DEV Community: dragos

Most advice around stress assumes you need the right mindset.

dragos — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:50:48 +0000

In practice, a lot of stress isn’t cognitive at all.
Your body is just stuck in a heightened state.

While working on a small iOS app, I focused on slowing things down physically
instead of trying to “fix” thoughts.

The result is a simple breathing-based tool,
built for moments when calming down feels impossible.

Project page:
https://www.breathapp.app/

No big claims.
Just documenting a quieter approach.

Shipping a small app forces uncomfortable decisions

dragos — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:28:38 +0000

Working on a small app has a way of exposing weak decisions very quickly.

When there’s no team and no long roadmap, every choice feels more permanent.
You can’t hide complexity behind future plans or “we’ll fix it later”.

The hardest part wasn’t building features.
It was deciding what to leave out and how to explain the idea clearly.

I’m finishing the launch of a small iOS training app that focuses on practicing
subtle facial cues through short exercises and feedback.

Project page:
https://microfacialexpressions.app

No big conclusions yet.
Just sharing the process and trying to keep things simple.

Shipping something small is harder than it looks

dragos — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 13:21:47 +0000

I used to think building the product was the hard part.

Turns out, shipping it is much harder.

When you’re working on a small app, there’s no team to hide behind.
No roadmap approved by ten people.
Just a lot of small decisions you have to commit to.

What surprised me the most was how much time went into things
that aren’t “features” at all:
copy, screenshots, edge cases, onboarding.

I’m currently finishing the launch of a small mobile app I’ve been
working on for a while.

Documenting the project here:
https://vetrecord.app

No big conclusions yet.
Just a reminder that progress often looks slower from the inside.

Two checkboxes in a row, when I check one the other must be unchecked

dragos — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 06:02:09 +0000

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/73605050/two-checkboxes-in-a-row-when-i-check-one-the-other-must-be-unchecked

I have an error when I want to save to the redux state. A non-serializable value.

dragos — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 22:31:55 +0000

I have an error when I want to save to the redux state.

A non-serializable value was detected in action, in the path: payload. picture. Value: FileList {0: File, length: 1}

Take a look at the logic that dispatched this action: {type: 'books/addToListOfBooks', payload: {…}}

<input
          type="file"
          {...register('picture', {
            validate: {
              lessThan10MB: (files) =>
                files[0]?.size < 1024 * 1024 || 'Max 1MB',
              acceptedFormats: (files) => {
                const pictureType = files[0]?.name
                  .toLowerCase()
                  .split('.')
                  .pop()
                return (
                  ['jpeg', 'png', 'gif'].includes(pictureType) ||
                  'Only PNG, JPEG e GIF'
                )
              },
            },

Problem with req. query;

dragos — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 20:18:22 +0000

I'm trying to pull data from a document containing a logged-in user from the MongoDB database. However, req. query doesn't seem to pass.

API:

export default async function handler(req, res) {
  const client = await clientPromise;
  const db = client.db("USERS");
  const { userName } = req.query;
  switch (req.method) {
  case "POST": {
    const bodyObject = JSON.parse(req.body);
    const query = {
      user: bodyObject.user,
      avatar: bodyObject.avatar,
      level: bodyObject.level,
    };
    const update = { $set: { score: bodyObject.score } };
    const options = { upsert: true };

    const newScore = await db
      .collection("USERS")
      .findOneAndUpdate(query, update, options);

    res.json(newScore);
    break;
  }
  case "GET": {
    const users = await db
      .collection("USERS")
      .find({ user: { $in: [userName] } })
      .toArray();
    res.json(users);
    break;
  }

  default: {
    // do nothing
  }
  }
}

COMPONENT:

import styles from '../styles/Elements.module.css';
import clientPromise from '../lib/mongodb';


export default function ScoreHeader({ users }) {
  console.log(users)

  return (
    <div className={styles.containerIndex}>
     fadsfds
    </div>
  );
}

export async function getServerSideProps({}) {
  const client = await clientPromise;
 const db = client.db('USERS');

  const res = await fetch(`http://localhost:3000/api/usersAPI`, {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
  });
  const users = await res.json();

  return {
    props: { users },
  };
}

How do I retrieve data for a logged user from MongoDb?

dragos — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 07:58:40 +0000

Hello, I want to retrieve data for a logged user from MongoDB. I did not understand the documents.

Deconstruction to not work

dragos — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 21:32:54 +0000

Deconstruction to not work

function QuziLogic({
  currentQuestion, questions, handleAnswerOptionClick, countDownBarWith, totalTime,
}) {
  return (
    <>
      <div className={styles.questionCount}>
        <p className={styles.questionText}>What is the output?</p>

        <p className={styles.questionText}>
          Question
          {currentQuestion + 1}
          /
          {questions.length}
        </p>
      </div>

I need help. TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'current')

dragos — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 21:14:30 +0000

I need help.

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'current').

This is code ⬇️⬇️

function QuizLogic(showScore, totalTime, fetchQuestions, loading, currentQuestion, questions, handleAnswerOptionClick, countDownBarWith) {
  const router = useRouter();


  if (loading.current && showScore) {
    return (
      <button
        onClick={() => router.push('/SaveComponent')}
        type="button"
      >
        See score
      </button>
    );

https://github.com/dragoslavIvkovic/Test-your-JS-skills---NEXT.JS-REDUX-MONGODB/blob/main/components/QuizLogic.js

I want to show the names of all but two collections.

dragos — Sun, 05 Jun 2022 09:09:15 +0000

I want to get all the collections names I have and show them, and I want to skip two collections "middle", and "xxx". How to do that?

Pice of my code.
await db.listCollections({name:"middle","xxx"} ).toArray();

I get err MongoInvalidArgumentError: Collection name must be a String

dragos — Sat, 30 Apr 2022 18:49:49 +0000

I get err MongoInvalidArgumentError: Collection name must be a String

First function:

export default function Questions ({data})
 {const [collection, setCollection] = useState("")

Second function:

export async function getServerSideProps({collection} ) 
{const client = await clientPromise;const db = client.db("javascript_questions");

let data = await db.collection(collection).find({}).toArray();
data = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(data));
return {props: { data },  };}

How to read from db and save user and his score from to monogodb? Any tutorial ?

dragos — Sat, 30 Apr 2022 09:33:47 +0000

How to read from db and save user and his score from to monogodb? Any tutorial ?

This is my project.
https://github.com/dragoslavIvkovic/next-qa-js