There are many “starter” project templates out there for basically any kind of stack or setup. These are simply boilerplate projects that provide you with the basic setup/configuration required based upon your chosen framework or tool. But let’s walk through how to create your own boilerplate, instead. What are we going to create? Specifically, we’ll […]

Custom hooks in React can be extremely useful, so it’s no doubt a good idea to gain some familiarity with regards to writing your very own hooks. Let’s firstly go over the basics; what custom hooks are and how they can solve our problems. Then we’ll look at an example of how we can use […]

Let’s build a simple anagram guessing game in Python! This is a simple project, and the final program is a short one, as you’ll see. You can play this anagram guessing game directly via the terminal, and the difficulty of the game is configurable based upon your own inputs (easy, medium or hard anagram options […]

Let’s create a simple Python password generator. The password generator will be accessible via the terminal, and you’ll be able to configure various options to customise the output (password length, whether the password should contain special characters and so on). So with that in mind, let’s begin! The full password generator script We’re keeping this […]

Here’s a list of 16 React tips and best practices to be aware of when working on your own projects and applications. In this article, we’ll look at tips that cover multiple different aspects: actually writing the React code, as well as some tips to help with your development workflow (and tooling) in general. Whilst […]

Let’s walk through a simple React password strength checker component that can be dropped into your form(s) as and when required. You can find a working example of this component over here: React password strength checker component example. What this component does The role of this password validation component is to essentially verify that the […]

There may be cases when working in React Native when you need to hide an element (or a set of elements) whenever the keyboard appears. Once the keyboard is dismissed; the element(s) should then become visible again. Fortunately, the Keyboard module makes this fairly trivial for us to implement. Using event listeners to detect and […]

If you’re new to React Native, you may be wondering about the best way to share styles throughout your application. Generally speaking, you’ll want to keep a lot of your styling rules component-specific where possible. This way, the components remain modular and can be easily transported or moved around without relying on an external resource. […]

There will likely be times when you want to make only a part of the given Text element bold in React Native. Likewise, you may want the word (or set of words) to be underlined or italicized. Basically, you want to modify only a subset of word(s) provided within a Text element. This is a […]

Tooltips can be really useful. Essentially, the tooltip is a message or some other piece of information that displays upon hovering (or alternatively, clicking) some element with the user interface. Tooltips can be used to portray important information to the user in a clean and easily digestible manner. In this short guide, we’ll create our […]

In this simple guide, we’ll use the OpenWeather API to fetch the 5 day weather forecast based on a user-supplied location using Python. This is a suitable Python project for beginners — the weather forecast script itself is fairly small, and we’ll go over it in considerable detail within this article. So with that said, […]

In this brief tutorial, we’ll go over the basics steps required to create your very own pagination component in React. Here’s the finished component for you to follow along with: JSFiddle containing the React Pagination Bar Component. The pagination mechanism your app uses is very important. Without an effective component to handle this aspect for […]

In this article, we’ll walk through the creation of a simple Python currency converter. The user will be prompted to enter their initial currency, their target currency, and the amount they’d like to convert. From here, we’ll make a web request to a currency conversion API to retrieve the required information. We’ll then present it […]

If you’re new to programming, Python is a great first language to pick up. It’s relatively easy to learn and quite accessible, yet still extremely powerful and viable in a commercial sense. It’s also great for the hobbyist. However, perhaps you are struggling to think of interesting app or project ideas to build with Python? […]

It goes without saying that IntelliJ IDEA is an extremely powerful IDE. We’ve compiled a list of various tips and tricks to help you get the most out of this behemoth. As is usually the case, the very best source of information regarding this piece of software is of course the official documentation. Everything is […]

Modals are very much a staple of the web. They are a handy way to use the screen’s available real estate to display content on-top-of content. Creating your own modal component in React is straightforward enough. This makes it a suitable task for React beginners to sink their teeth into, and it’s a good way […]

Autocomplete is a useful feature that’s also pretty fun to build in React. If your website or application has a search facility, it may be a good idea to include some sort of autocomplete functionality to assist your users and help them find what they are looking for more easily. To briefly summarize the functionality: […]

JavaScript utility functions are efficient, reusable snippets that are generic in nature and can be utilized across many different projects. To this end, the overall purpose of the utility function in JavaScript is to help increase your productivity as well as the consistency of your code. In this article, we’ll go through some handy functionalities […]

If you’re new to the web development realm, there’s a good chance that your path may be starting to look something like this: Learn HTML & CSS Learn JavaScript But what comes next? It can of course be a little bewildering to figure this next step out, there are so many languages, frameworks & tools […]

Hangman is a particularly suitable game for beginners to look at replicating or recreating in React (or within JavaScript in general, in fact). This is because the fundamentals of the game revolve around some very common web-dev operations, most notably; the searching of strings. On top of this, the developer will have the opportunity to […]

In this tutorial or guide, we’ll be implementing a Node/Express API as well as utilizing a Postgres database. Alongside this, we’ll create a single-page React app to consume this new API. The user will be able to authenticate with the app and have their session persisted. After following along with this article, you’ll have the […]

If you’re just getting started with React Native, you may be looking for some project ideas that are particularly suited to beginners. Of course, there is always the classic todo app, but what other projects are suitable for React Native beginners? We’ve compiled a list of 10 interesting React Native project ideas for your consideration. […]

In this article, we’ll go over the steps required to test in app purchases in your Android application. This article isn’t about actually implementing the billing functionality itself. It’s only about (effectively) testing the in app purchases via your own implementation. The information with regards to testing in app purchases within your local environment (whilst […]

There is often a degree of confusion when first beginning to copy (or clone) objects in JavaScript. We can attribute a significant portion of this confusion to a misunderstanding with regards to the types of clone: shallow clones and deep clones. There are fundamental behavioural differences between these two concepts, and it’s very important to […]

You may be wondering how to split a string in JavaScript. This is a fairly simple operation, with two main approaches used to achieve this goal. In this article, we’ll look at using split as well as slice. These functions each have different use-cases and different return types, we’ll step through them in turn. So […]

This article covers the creation of a simple React quiz app that should prove useful to entry-level React developers. You can view the quiz app here in JSFiddle. The quiz app is about as basic as it can get in terms of functionality, but it provides a solid foundation on which to experiment or to […]

When first starting out with a new language, framework or tool — it’s generally considered a good idea to look at some of the more common pitfalls that other developers are experiencing. You can then try to actively avoid making these same mistakes for yourself. Here’s a list of 10 of the more common React […]

JavaScript is a fairly quirky language, and as such, there are many pitfalls to be avoided when working with it. This is especially true when first starting out. We’ve compiled a list of 21 of the most common JavaScript mistakes. In this article, mistake refers to: something done incorrectly that almost certainly can (or will) […]

Showing and hiding elements and components in React is straightforward enough. However, there are some caveats and some gotchas to consider in some scenarios. Let’s dive right in! Setting up a flag or indicator in state to track visibility The mechanism to show and hide elements in React should work in conjunction with the component’s […]

The carousel is a classic piece of functionality. It’s a mechanism that the user can utilize to scroll through slides of content, image-based or otherwise. Here’s the accompanying infinitely-scrolling React carousel example (accessible directly in JSFiddle). This carousel example provided is very much a “bare-bones” implementation. I’ve tried to capture the core functionalities in the […]

This article will walk through some of the key points and aspects of an accordion build within React. You can find the accompanying JSFiddle component over here: React accordion component example. This is a small and relatively simple component. But that’s why it’s a good example for React beginners to look at. Alongside the accompanying […]

In this article, we’ll go over the build of a React calendar component. This calendar can also display events. You can view the React calendar component example in question directly in JSFiddle. If you’re fairly new to React, don’t worry — building a React calendar component is fairly straightforward. It is, in fact, much easier […]

Here’s a list of 8 simple JavaScript games for beginners to create. When first starting out with JavaScript, it’s helpful to have an interesting project to focus on. Something that’s not too difficult or too time-consuming, but also not too straightforward. This selection of simple JavaScript games is ideal for beginners because the games are […]

In this article, we’ll go over a few of the more common ways to loop through an object in JavaScript. Or more specifically — how to loop through object properties in JavaScript. When starting out, most developers will at one point or another iterate over an array. With objects in particular, it can be a […]

This article is focussed on using React with TypeScript. More specifically, we’ll be looking at typing React components in general: their state, their props, their return types and so on. So if you’re new to using React with TypeScript, or if you just need a refresher — this short guide should (hopefully) be of some […]

Here’s a selection of 23 entry level React interview questions. When preparing for any interview, it’s clearly important to have a good grasp on the fundamentals of the topic at hand. This selection of questions touches upon many of the fundamental aspects of React, from JSX to the virtual DOM to hooks. Difficulty wise, I’d […]

Here’s a selection of 27 different JavaScript interview questions for beginners. The answers have also been provided in each case. The intention of this article is to cover some of the typical questions you could expect to receive when preparing for an entry level JavaScript developer interview. As such, the questions and answers provided here […]

The Big O Notation is an important concept within programming. We’ll cover 3 of the more common Big O Notation examples in this article: constant time, linear time and quadratic time. Maybe you’re completely unfamiliar with the concept, or maybe you’ve heard of it in passing but never got around to taking a closer look […]

In this guide, we’ll go over what the JavaScript || operator actually is, and what exactly it does. As is common when working in JavaScript in general, there are some quirks and pitfalls to be aware of when using this operator. We’ll cover each of those cases during this explanation.re Let’s get right into it! […]

We’ve all been there. “How do I get the last element of an array in JavaScript?” It’s a fairly simple JavaScript problem, with a fairly simple solution. Nowadays, with the advent of ES6 and the like, there are numerous other solutions to this problem outside of the “classic” approach. I thought it’d be a good […]

In this article, we’ll go over how to handle errors in JavaScript. JavaScript error handling in general is fairly straightforward, it’s somewhat consistent with other languages in that regard. There are some quirks to be aware of, however. Let’s get into it! What is a JavaScript error? It’s easiest to think of JavaScript errors simply […]

There are numerous distinct niches within the web development world. If you’re looking to break into this world, you’ve likely been wondering what web development niche you may be best suited to. Maybe you already have some sort of idea of what web development niche you’d like to aim for. Or maybe you have no […]

Working with JavaScript dates is something that most web developers will do at one time or another. That’s because working with dates and times is very much a standard operation in web development in general. Both on the frontend and on the backend. We’ll often need to access, display or manipulate dates and times as […]

If you find yourself asking the question – “how do I get better at JavaScript?“, we’ve compiled some useful tips, advice and best practices for your consideration. This article is aimed at beginners. The focus is not only on actual JavaScript technical fundamentals, but there are also some practical pieces of advice included too. The […]

WordPress is a fantastic platform. It’s user-friendly and extremely powerful — it’s also particularly accessible to those just starting out with web development. For those of us just starting out with with WordPress theme development in particular, however, it’s worth noting that there are numerous ways to go about developing your very own theme. You […]

When just starting out, the goal is often to just create something that “works”. This is fine, but as your skillset starts to develop – you’ll want to more carefully consider how you are composing your React application. In React, a good understanding of component structure, or more specifically component composition, is one of the […]

Following on my from my article: Can I Teach Myself Web Development? — I’d like to delve into a bit more detail on this topic in particular. Gaining real-world experience as a web developer. Putting together a fantastic portfolio, as well as being fairly skilled in your craft, are fantastic prerequisites. Obtaining relevant real-world web […]

It’s a question that circulates very often across the various web development communities: “Can I teach myself web development?” The answer is yes. Yes, you certainly can. Strictly speaking, you don’t need a formal education or paid courses. But you’ll definitely need two things to succeed on your path to becoming a self-taught web developer: […]

Looking for some React project ideas to present within your portfolio? You’ve come to the right place! Effectively demonstrating your abilities is a crucial part of obtaining employment within the web development world. For React developers, having a fully functioning single page app that interacts with an external API could be an excellent place to […]

If you have no idea what closures are or what you can do with them, fear not, we’ll demystify them in this article! We’ll also tackle lexical scoping in JavaScript — a closely related concept. Some familiarity with JavaScript in general is assumed, here. We won’t be going into tremendous depth on this topic, the […]