Storybook with React

Braden Niswonger JavaScript, React, Technology Snapshot Leave a Comment

In most React applications, there are many components working closely together to share and pass data between them. This can sometimes make it difficult to test components individually. Maybe you want to see how a component will react when given invalid data, or you want to test your component visually in different states. Storybook gives you a great way to do this in isolation, without worrying about the app-specific dependencies or requirements.

Storybook is an open-source tool for developing user interface components in isolation. In other words, it’s a playground for UI components. In this blog, we will dive into the basics of Storybook, write a Storybook for Material UI’s button component, and look at a couple of its add-ons.

A Look at Styled-Components

Nick Brown JavaScript, React, Technology Snapshot Leave a Comment

The React framework’s component-based approach makes managing large projects simpler. By making it easier to break functionality down into logical pieces that are encapsulated, the framework makes it easier for developers to manage. With that in mind, there have been a lot of choices when it comes to styling your React application. One approach is styled-components. This is a really …

A Reactrospective: A React Retrospective

James Bradley Angular, HTML5, JavaScript, React, Technology Snapshot Leave a Comment

Most, if not all, of my experience has been with .NET and .NET Core. I’ve also worked with most of the front-ends throughout history including Classic ASP, Code Behind, Model View Presenter, MVC, Backbone, and, over the last few years, Angular 1… Angular 6… not Angular 2…AngularJS. To me, AngularJS is that old t-shirt that you put on to sleep in; comfortable.

At first, most of us on the team were a bit apprehensive about moving to React. AngularJS was very familiar and Angular 2 seemed like the natural next step. I could learn TypeScript, and as primarily C#-based developer, I really liked the idea of a little typing. I like shiny new things, and I’m always game to learn, so challenge accepted. Since then I’ve had a hand in writing three applications in React and have learned more than a few lessons. These are their stories… dun dun.

Placing React in Timeout with Material-UI

Peter Le JavaScript, React, Technology Snapshot, Tutorial Leave a Comment

As your application complexity increases, you may start thinking about implementing a session timeout in instances when there is no activity for a period of time. Whether you want a session timeout to increase your web app securities or to avoid unnecessary automatic API calls, it’s good to have some sort of idle check and log out built into your application.

An Introduction to State Machines Using xstate

Mat Warger JavaScript, React, state machines, Technology Snapshot, Tutorial, TypeScript 1 Comment

State machines are an old concept. They are a proven solution that provides a solid architectural foundation for application processes. In this article, I hope to provide an introduction to what they are and how they can be useful for a modern web or mobile application engineer. We’ll be focusing on one library in particular – xstate – and how it can allow anyone to easily leverage state machines for managing global or component state.