Keep up with code reviews programmatically using workflows. — Introduction This blog post is the second in a short series I’m writing about the many things I learned in the course of building my first open source API library for the IoT startup I work for, Blues. It was a great learning experience for me and a new, unique challenge…

Publish a project subfolder to npm with just a package.json and a GitHub Actions workflow. — Introduction I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, working as a software engineer for a startup is fun and challenging because of the sheer number of different things I get to do on a regular basis. I work for an Internet of Things startup called Blues which specializes in…

Implicit relational databases, JSON values, fetching the latest record from a table, handling no data scenarios — it’s all doable with Prisma.io. — Introduction Recently, my team and I were building an application that monitored the flow rate of liquid through pipes and remotely controlled valves to enable or disable these flows. I work for the Internet of Things company Blues which specializes in getting IoT data from devices in the real world into…

When you want to trigger a change in a nested component, just move the :hover higher. Introduction Building my own personal site was a lot of fun because I got to spend time on the little details and subtle touches to give it that little something extra — I know I always appreciate when I see them on other sites. …

With a separate staging table, inserting and updating data in PostgreSQL is straightforward. — Introduction One of the many things I enjoy about working at a startup is the variety of people I get to work with across the company and the interesting problems I get to solve. …

Stop a video playing or animate an element onscreen — the Intersection Observer API is highly versatile. — It’s the small things that matter When dealing with the business of building websites on a daily basis, I can’t help but start to notice that what separates the good sites from the great ones, is that the great ones pay close attention to the small details. Little page animations, a button that disables after form…

We no longer need to bother designers when the SVG’s color is slightly off: just filter it. — Introduction Working with talented designers is such a pleasure as a web developer. …

Need more than one color of line in a React Leaflet map? Polylines is the solution. — Introduction Last summer, I started working for an Internet of Things startup, Blues Wireless, whose goal is to make IoT development easier by providing prepaid cellular Internet connectivity to any IoT device through the use of a Notecard, which transmits sensor data as JSON to a secure cloud, Notehub. In a…

Setting up protected environment variables for GitHub Actions CI/CD workflows isn’t so tough. — Introduction Earlier this year, my development team and I were in the midst of building a new open source application to help our users get up and running faster with the hardware the Internet of Things (IoT) company I work for, sells. I work for an IoT startup called Blues Wireless…