I created a Node JS project recently that required fetching some data from an external API. A colleague suggested that I cache the API call response. I thought this suggestion was a good idea since the data did not change very often and the app ran continuously hitting the same endpoint frequently. A cache would cut down on network requests and boost performance, since fetching from memory is typically much faster than making an API request.…
Setting goals In order to accomplish anything important, you need to set multiple goals. Your goals need to be both in the big and in the small. The small goals that you set every day will help you hit the larger ones in the end. It’s often automatic and easy for a non-scheduled event to have a goal because that goal was the impetus for the event. However, it’s easy for your goal-orientation to suffer when you’re following a process (like SCRUM) which includes scheduled activities and ceremonies.…
How to learn calligraphy efficiently. In our fast-moving world, it’s easy to overlook the amount of effort and time necessary to achieve true mastery of a skill. We millennials are obsessed with instant gratification. We often give up too soon, and in doing so, develop poor habits, relationships, and skills. In our minds persistence is confused with stubbornness and repetition is confused with a sign of stupidity. Good calligraphy requires a ton of repetition and the only way to go through it is with an abundance of will.…
Digital Transformation (DT) is a hot topic these days. It might be in the running for buzzword of the year, along with blockchain, disruptive, and cloud-native. And yet, it’s a buzzword that businesses are taking very seriously. As IDG noted in their 2018 State of Digital Transformation Report: “More than a third of organizations (44%) have already started implementing a digital-first approach to business processes, operations and customer engagement.…
In the article, Why I Recommend Against Using Cucumber, the author Jason Swett, stipulates some problems with how he sees Cucumber being used incorrectly, and that even if used correctly, he posits that Cucumber has a “small negative value.” While people’s testing practice may vary, and there is more than one way to skin a cat, based on our experience using Cucumber at MojoTech on many Ruby projects, I felt the need to offer a rebuttal because Mr.…
These days, it seems that almost everybody wants to learn to code — and if you believe all the boot camps and book titles that have surfaced over the past two decades, you might think it’s also easy to do. It seems to me that the latest generation of programmers is learning to code quite differently from how I learned. Perhaps that’s progress, but on the other hand, I meet many junior programmers who achieve a certain competency with code, but then hit a ceiling.…
Intro to Cloud-Native Terms The definition of what makes something a cloud-native application can be a little (pardon the pun) cloudy. This lack of clarity is curious given that by 2020, it is predicted that the “Cloud Shift” will affect more than $1 trillion in IT spending, making cloud computing the next major technological disruptor. With this much money at stake, one would hope that everyone involved in the cloud ecosystem could speak the same language and come to a consensus on the correct usages.…
A lot of projects we work on at MojoTech require the UI to be accessible in many different locales. Recently we have been working with a global retailer to build an internationalized React client for their B2B ordering platform. One of the core requirements was for this to be accessible throughout Europe and the United States. This includes translating strings to different languages, and formatting numbers, dates, and currencies to the user’s preferred locale.…
When you look at an agency’s site, what do you look for? We recently redesigned our website at MojoTech, and we spent a lot of time looking at other agency sites to help us think about how to move forward with ours. This exercise made something painfully clear: most agency websites aren’t particularly helpful to potential clients. They’re built with the agency in mind, rather than the client. For example, many sites spend countless words going on about the various programming languages that they use; a valuable recruiting pitch, perhaps, but not all that interesting to someone who merely wants their idea turned into a working, thriving product.…
Introduction Running A/B tests are pretty straightforward. Pick an A/B testing platform, set up some JavaScript snippets, and start making your changes through the provided editor. It works great for testing copy and small HTML/CSS changes, but what if your tests are more complex? Netlify looks to solve this problem by allowing you to A/B test multiple GitHub branches. You just select the available branch, specify how you want to split the traffic, and you’re ready.…
On paper, MojoTech’s resume looks pretty impressive. Since its inception in 2008, MojoTech has launched more than 100 products by partnering with clients to deliver software that solves their most complex business problems. MojoTech was ranked the 42nd fastest growing software company in America by Inc. Magazine, and was listed as one of 2016’s Best Places to Work for the third year running, by Providence Business News, who also awarded co-founder Chris Shoemaker “CTO of the Year”.…