Programming With Stenography

Garrett Hopper Other, Technology Snapshot 1 Comment

As developers, we spend a ton of time typing, so any small improvements in speed or comfort are well worth it.

If you’re anything like me, then you spend a full day typing at work only to come home and continue typing into the wee hours of the morning. With so much of my life spent typing, things like RSI are a serious concern. I’ve tried a variety of different ergonomic keyboards and I’ve even switched to Dvorak, but none of it made any significant difference in speed or comfort.

In my search for alternative text input methods, I discovered stenography. In this blog, I will give an introduction to stenography and how programmers (like me) have implemented it in an effort to make typing more comfortable and efficient.



Converting Enterprise Applications to TypeScript

Clayton Terry JavaScript, Single-Page Application, Technology Snapshot, TypeScript Leave a Comment

We have all been there: some new technology comes out and we know it would improve our maintainability. But we can’t use it. We already picked a technology, it is already implemented, and we can’t change it now. We are stuck.

TypeScript does not work like that. TypeScript is JavaScript, and JavaScript is TypeScript. What this means is any existing files you have are compatible with any new file you add.

So why waste time changing if it’s all the same anyway? TypeScript has some great advantages that JavaScript does not. In this blog I will introduce some of those advantages, as well as some troubleshooting tips for if you run into issues when you choose to convert to TypeScript…



Building Applications Using the backbone.khs Framework Extension

John Boardman BackboneJS, JavaScript, Node.js, Technology Snapshot Leave a Comment

Backbone is a very powerful application development framework. However, it can be a little “close to the metal” in terms of how much work is needed to produce a working application with it. I see Backbone as a low level framework that could use some help in making it a bit easier and faster to use.

Keyhole has released an extension to help! The backbone.khs framework extension npm module (available by clicking the link) does its best to minimize the work necessary to get a Backbone application up and running.

The extension makes it easier to deal with:
• browser history
• root level non-Model Object implementation
• caching
• session support
• regions (which break pages up into more workable segments)
• a top-level Application object to manage the application
• modules to help with page and URL routing
• a Backbone View extension to seamlessly integrate Backbone Stickit and make Marionette templates easier
• a Collection View to enhance working with groups of items.

In this blog, I’ll describe these enhancements with some code examples…



Using Spring Integration In Conjunction With Spring Batch

Mark Fricke JavaScript, Spring, Spring Batch, Technology Snapshot Leave a Comment

Recently I was working on a development project for a client focused on Spring Batch. The program required a pull of the SFTP directory for an encrypted file, decryption of that file, starting of the Spring Batch program, and archive of that file.

Initially, my first thought was to use a shell script to perform all the tasks. Then one of my colleagues suggested Spring Integration; I thought this was great opportunity to learn and get my hands dirty with something new.

In this blog, I will show an example of Spring Integration configuration code, break it apart, and show how each part works.

Spring Integration turned out to be a simple solution to my client’s needs. Using Spring Integration and Spring Batch with Spring Boot, I was able to have a single deployable jar that included everything to run the application. I no longer needed separate deployments for the shell script, and batch process and all code is one Java project.



My Reaction To React

David Pitt JavaScript, React, Technology Snapshot, Tutorial 2 Comments

We at Keyhole have been helping our clients adopt JavaScript-based single-page applications for over five years. We have been impressed with the adoption and advancement of the ever-changing JavaScript ecosystem.

Server side, headless JavaScript (Node.js) has led to good tooling and packaging options along with server side remaining available. Additionally, the new ECMA6 standard has turned JavaScript into a viable general purpose programming language, that is arguably, on the same plane as C# or Java. It certainly has a large number of available frameworks and tooling options.

React differs from the other frameworks I’ve worked with in a handful of ways. In this blog, I will show tangible examples of React’s unique features and capabilities, particularly how it handles HTML-based Components.