A Dive into SystemJS – Loading and Translating

In the last article we took a look at some of the basic configuration options of SystemJS and also the high level workflow of what happens when you attempt to import a module. This article is going to walk through what happens from when a script has been fetched by the browser until a module instance is returned, as well as provide some information on creating plugins for SystemJS. [Read more…]

A Dive into SystemJS – Part 1

The ECMA2015 module syntax for JavaScript was a much needed addition to the language. For years now the JavaScript community has tried to make up for the lack of a standard module format with several competing formats: AMD, CommonJS, and then UMD which tried to wrap both of the others. The introduction of an official module syntax, details of which can be found at the MDN imports documentation page, means that there is going to be a new module loader required to load the new format. Unfortunately the ECMA2015 specification ended up not including a module loader, but there is a proposal with the WhatWG team to add a module loader to the browser. SystemJS is a module loader built on top of the original ES6 module loader polyfill and soon to be the polyfill for the WhatWG module loader. This series of articles is going to take a deep dive into SystemJS and see what all it has to offer. [Read more…]

Firebase – A Real Time Document Database

There are a plethora of document databases to choose from nowadays. The entire nature of storing data is changing, so how we work with data needs to change as well. Single page applications on the web need to be responsive, not just in layout but in communication as well. Users have come to expect a higher quality of data representation, and the landscape is quickly evolving.

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Working with the HTML Selection API

The HTML Selection API gives developers the ability to access highlighted text within the browser and perform some DOM and text manipulation on the selected text. These useful features are available now in any modern browser as well as legacy browsers back to IE9. While there are more complex things that can be done with this API this blog article will hopefully illustrate some possible uses of the API and give you an idea of how to start using some of these features.
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Sencha Touch

Mobile applications are everywhere these days and the number of development frameworks geared towards mobile audiences is growing as well. This can make it difficult for us developers who have to spend valuable training time learning one or more of these frameworks in order to be able to do our jobs. Sencha Touch is one of these frameworks and it allows a developer to code in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, and then package up the application to run on different mobile devices. This article is intended to provide a general feel for what Sencha Touch is and what it does.
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Building Rich Web Apps: jQuery & MVC vs. Angular.js & WebAPI

As a developer,  you may have gotten used to hearing this: technology is changing! The web is no exception. Looking back 10 years ago it was amazing to be able to provide a web user experience that offered any degree of similarity to what was commonly available in thick clients or desktop applications. You might have been able to pull it off with ASP.NET Web Forms, but were probably plagued by complicated code, sluggish performance, ViewState bloat and a strong distaste for a language seemingly devised by the devil himself: JavaScript.

Fast forward to 2013: most of your customers are now used to rich web applications like Gmail or Facebook. Furthermore it is likely they aren’t using the web as much in a browser but but are instead using thick client applications on their smartphone or tablet. Regardless of the the platform, one thing is certainly true: your customers aren’t asking for a rich experience in their applications, they are demanding it.

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