Potluck — Corn Shucking × Self-Hosting Images × WordPress × Getting Scammed × Portfolios

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about selling and shipping t-shirts, and how to do it all in TypeScript! Prismic - Sponsor Prismic is a Headless CMS that makes it easy to build website pages as a set of components. Break pages into sections of components using React, Vue, or whatever you like. Make corresponding Slices in Prismic. Start building pages dynamically in minutes. Get started at prismic.io/syntax. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your code, track errors and monitor performance with Sentry. Sentry’s Application Monitoring platform helps developers see performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize their code health. Cut your time on error resolution from hours to minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners new to Sentry can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code TASTYTREAT during sign up. Deque - Sponsor Deque’s axe DevTools makes accessibility testing easy and doesn’t require special expertise. Find and fix issues while you code. Get started with a free trial of axe DevTools Pro at deque.com/syntax. No credit card needed. Show Notes 01:58 - T-Shirts 101 T-Shirts are cool I sold 100 right away to get the kinks out Then I did pre-order The stack TypeScript React Next.js 09:08 - Selling: Front-end Snipcart It’s a button When Someone buys, they scrape the site for the HTML If you only have a client-side rendered button, you use the JSON API instead Integrated into Gatsby pretty easily Wrote one custom hook to count inventory and disable when sold out I thought Snipcart would be enough, but I soon realized it wasn’t. I needed something to fulfill the shipment. 10:10 - Selling: Shipping Quotes Snipcart has integration for USPS, etc. You can also do custom shippers It’s a webhook They also take care of customs declaration 13:30 - Selling: Backend Next.js Dashboard Integrate with ChitChats, Stallion Express, and SnipCart. The tech Shipping Labels Packing slip 18:05 - Fulfilling Printing labels Designed with CSS + React Print CSS is wild Fan Fold labels were way better I switched to Stallion Express Cheaper Printing packing slips Batch scanning Scanning → Mark as shipped Started with webcam Bought scanner for cheap QR code was better because my tokens were long Data matrix is often better Sending notifications Hit the endpoint via Snipcart 28:48 - The physical part T-Shirts printed from local supplier U-Haul to get them here Bags printed in China (about 40 cents each) I wrote a bunch of code to organize by size This cut down on moving around (14 hours if you save 30 seconds per shirt) Some got stickers Multiples were the hardest 24 different types of shirts some wanted 4xl some wanted tall 36:30 - Common questions Why did you do this yourself? Fun project I learned a ton This is how you don’t burn out Why not print-on-demand? (DTG) Tonal Embroidery Quality Money Pay people in my community Control Bags, stickers, etc… stickermule Why not $companyThatHandlesIt I want to do stickers I want to do decks Why not Shopify Large orders still need major fulfillment strategies Code has to be written or money spent 44:16 - Other lessons learned Queues would be good here Sometimes you had to wait 3+ seconds for the confirmation of shipping No one reads, it was pre-order Don’t buy shipping right away — people email about incorrect addresses Over-order by a few each (out of 1550 orders, five got partial refunds and three got full refunds) Pre-order is great because you can offer many sizes Async JS to do things at most 50 at a time Links Wyze Plug ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Pixeleyes AutoMounter Wes: Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder Shameless Plugs Scott: Level 2 Node Authentication - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

21 Apr 202156min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about CSS container queries, what they are and how to use them. Sanity - Sponsor Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get a Sanity powered site up and running in minutes at sanity.io/create. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax. LogRocket - Sponsor LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax. Show Notes 07:22 - Why? Container queries are media queries for components (e.g. they are based on the element’s size, not the browser). This is in line with how we write components. It will change the way we write CSS. 08:49 - The Syntax Containers need to be defined as containers via containment context .container { contain: size layout; } New contain value: .inline-container { contain: inline-size; } This is the same as the logical properties. Assuming you read LTR, or RTL: size - width and height inline-size = width block-size = height /* @container { } */ @container (inline-size > 45em) { .media-object { grid-template: "img content" auto / auto 1fr; } } 18:49 - How to try them today Download and/or update Chrome Canary Go to chrome://flags Search and enable “CSS Container Queries” Restart the browser 19:27 - Demos Need Chrome Canary + Flag https://codepen.io/collection/XQrgJo https://codepen.io/una/pen/LYbvKpK?editors=1100 Links Miriam Suzanne Susy Miriam’s CSS Sandbox https://css.oddbird.net/rwd/query/explainer/ Canary @addyosmani The CSS Podcast @jon_neal Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

19 Apr 202124min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about dev tools tabs, what each tab does and how you can use them. Vonage - Sponsor Vonage is a Cloud Communications platform that allows developers to integrate voice, video and messaging into their applications using their communication APIs. Whether you’re wanting to build video calls into your app, create a Facebook bot, or build applications on top of programmable phone numbers, you’ll have all the tools you need. Use promo code SYNTAX10 for €10 of free credit when signing up at vonage.dev/syntax. Freshbooks - Sponsor Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your code, track errors and monitor performance with Sentry. Sentry’s Application Monitoring platform helps developers see performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize their code health. Cut your time on error resolution from hours to minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners new to Sentry can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code TASTYTREAT during sign up. Show Notes 3:50 - Network See all requests, filter by type or name Used to understand all requests coming or going Turn off caching View timing See the true GZIP size Slow down network speed See time for page load Copy as fetch or CURL View request, response, and headers See CORS issues See which requests have happened See if an asset is cached (both in dev tools, also Cloudflare) See blocked requests because of extensions Tip: You can see the network info from the console in Firefox 22:03 - Memory See what is taking up memory Strings DOM nodes Objects Actual .js 26:44 - Performance Click record and use the site Flame chart useful for finding slow functions and debugging janky animations Get FPS in coordination with flame chart Save performance recording data to be able to share for debugging You can also upload saved data to debug without using the site 30:48 - Console Interfaces with the JS runtime Shows errors, warnings, and logs Tip: Negate noisy warnings/errors that clutter your console with - Tip: Use $0 to select current element $1 for second last $r for current React element Tip: Use $$ to shortcut Query SelectorAll and Array.from Tip: Use $ to shortcut Query Selector 40:28 - Storage / Application Working with LocalStorage, Cookies, Index DB, and Session Storage 44:56 - Audit / Lighthouse (Chrome and Firefox) Run lighthouse to check for performance, accessibility, and UI stuff Not the silver bullet audit that many people think it is Colors are sometimes like “Really?!” Can be helpful regardless 50:28 - DOM Tab Firefox only Shows everything that is in the scope of the browser Links Adam Wathan Ben Vinegar ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: dupeGuru Wes: Moccamaster Coffee Maker Shameless Plugs Scott: Node Fundamentals Authentication - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

14 Apr 20211h 2min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about CSS nesting — what it is, when to use it, and why. Prismic - Sponsor Prismic is a Headless CMS that makes it easy to build website pages as a set of components. Break pages into sections of components using React, Vue, or whatever you like. Make corresponding Slices in Prismic. Start building pages dynamically in minutes. Get started at prismic.io/syntax. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your code, track errors and monitor performance with Sentry. Sentry’s Application Monitoring platform helps developers see performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize their code health. Cut your time on error resolution from hours to minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners new to Sentry can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code TASTYTREAT during sign up. Show Notes 04:22 - What is it? https://drafts.csswg.org/css-nesting-1/#nest-prefixed https://twitter.com/argyleink/status/1371874777548267520 06:02 - Why nest? Easier to read Easier to write Prevents refactoring errors, allows for dry-er code. No more typing a parent div 100 times, with a possibility of screwing it up. 08:13 - When to use nesting Nesting is often overused Only nest what you would have written un-nested with a short hand (e.g. don’t nest just for the sake of it) .container .item {} .container .item a {} Use it for scoping 10:06 - Nesting prefixes In order to nest CSS, you must first start it with a nesting selector .tweet { & > p { } &.media-included { color: green; } & + .tweet { } // sibling & p { } // descentang } Component-based — tweet, card, company, Link article{ color: blue; & { color: red; } } and must be the first child of a compound selector 12:44 - @nest rule / media queries Mostly just a visual way to show nested .foo { display: grid; @media(orientation: landscape) { & { grid-auto-flow: column; } } } .foo { display: grid; @media (orientation: landscape) { & { grid-auto-flow: column; } @media (min-inline-size > 1024px) { & { max-inline-size: 1024px; } } } } /* equivalent to .foo { display: grid; } @media (orientation: landscape) { .foo { grid-auto-flow: column; } } @media (orientation: landscape) and (min-inline-size > 1024px) { .foo { max-inline-size: 1024px; } } */ 16:30 - How to use nesting today Literally any CSS preprocessor PostCSS to use spec Links Syntax 274: How does stuff get added to CSS? Adam Argyle answers! Sass PostCSS CSS Variables Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

12 Apr 202120min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about how to keep your skill up to date when you have a job and a family, when you should start looking for your first job, monorepos, video hosting, TLDs, APIs, fake names, and more! Sanity - Sponsor Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get a Sanity powered site up and running in minutes at sanity.io/create. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your code, track errors and monitor performance with Sentry. Sentry’s Application Monitoring platform helps developers see performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize their code health. Cut your time on error resolution from hours to minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners new to Sentry can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code TASTYTREAT during sign up. Vonage - Sponsor Vonage is a Cloud Communications platform that allows developers to integrate voice, video and messaging into their applications using their communication APIs. Whether you’re wanting to build video calls into your app, create a Facebook bot, or build applications on top of programmable phone numbers, you’ll have all the tools you need. Use promo code SYNTAX10 for €10 of free credit when signing up at vonage.dev/syntax. Show Notes 02:10 - How do you handle token refresh when multiple API calls are made at the same time? Let’s says you get a 401 and do acquire a new token, but that will only be used by the first API call, while the other parallel APIs would still use the old one and error out. This has caused me to sort of artificially limit the total requests to be made to 1. How do you deal with it? 06:40 - What service do you guys use for video storage and optimization? I am currently building out a side project that will require some video hosting so I figured I would ask the experts. 15:22 - I’m trying to teach myself web development and I’m having problems making up the logic for my personal projects. I would have to watch YouTube tutorials or look at other people’s code in order to implement simple features to my website and I’ve been feeling pretty stupid for not spending the time to think of it. I feel like I’m missing out on knowing how to problem solve for myself whenever I copy other people’s code and try to understand them afterwards. 19:27 - I just landed my first web development job after following The Odin Project and building personal projects for about a year. It tripled my income so I am incredibly excited! I have been using a PHP framework which was developed by one of my coworkers and has no documentation. In order to understand the code, I either have to read a bunch of source code or ask one of the other developers questions. While I am doing well, I can’t help but feel as if I am working way too slow and asking way too many questions. I assume this is imposter syndrome and lots of people deal with it, but how would you suggest dealing with this type of anxiety? 25:11 - Monorepos, yes or no? 29:43 - As a brand new self-taught web developer, how would you know if you’re ready to apply for junior positions? 32:03 - Will there ever be a .eat domain or are the pre-order sites just ripping you off? Would like to know who decides what TLDs are possible or not. 35:26 - I’m currently employed as a fullstack developer but want to build a portfolio for future job hunting. Would you say it’s ok to reference a project or two from an employer? My problem is that the only projects I have outside are mostly just smaller tools built for myself for fun. 39:29 - Should developers always use their real first and last name when presenting themselves as a professional online (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Github, personal site). Or is it acceptable to use a fake last name for example? My wife is quite conscious about privacy online, so would prefer I retain some anonymity. But also, my last name is a bit generic, and not very Googleable. I thought having a more snappy and interesting name would help me stand out, and be easier to find with a quick Google. You guys both have awesome names that are very unique and are hard to forget. 43:59 - How do you find time to work and keep up with updates and libraries etc. having a wife & kids? 46:06 - I am a beginner in making course content. I am trying to create a programming tutorial, but every time I try to record some tutorials I have to compromise on audio quality. Lots of background noises get captured on audio. Can you both share some tips to make soundproofing room? What tricks do you both use? 53:33 - As someone who recently learned/is learning how to build websites using express/node/react, with a little know how with Python and Django too, how do you start building a portfolio that isn’t just a bunch of practice/show-pieces? How do I get a client? 59:53 - Should I be using multiple web apps on a single site or try to make them all one? If I have a site that displays blog posts about parks for example, then a page with all the parks listed out that link to a page about each single park’s details, should I be making the entire thing in one app? Or make a blog app and publish it, then make a different app for the other content and publish it using a subdomain? Links Syntax 266: Video for the Web 2020 and Beyond Cloudinary Mux Vimeo LesMills Bitmovin Brightcove Wista Cloudflare AWS MediaLive Keystone.js Gatsby Syntax 331: Hasty Treat - Hireable Skills for 2021 ICANN dbx 286s Electro-Voice RE20 reMarkable ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: CamLink 4k Wes: TS80p Mini Soldering Iron Shameless Plugs Scott: Node Fundamentals Authentication - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Fullstack Advanced React & GraphQL - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

7 Apr 20211h 11min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about their favorite VSCode extensions, tips, and workflows! .TECH - Sponsor .TECH is taking the tech industry by storm. A domain that shows the world what you are all about! If you’re looking for a domain name for your startup, portfolio, or your own project like we did with uses.tech, check out .tech Domains. Syntax listeners can snap their .TECH Domains at 80% off on five-year registration by visiting go.tech/syntaxistech and using the coupon code “syntax5”. LogRocket - Sponsor LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax. Show Notes 04:05 - Easy Snippet https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=inu1255.easy-snippet 05:33 - Add Missing Function Declaration https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/1369393437062074377 07:30 - Error Lens https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=usernamehw.errorlens 09:08 - Declare Missing Members https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=tamj0rd2.ts-quickfixes-extension 10:29 - ES7 React/Redux/GraphQL/React-Native Snippets https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dsznajder.es7-react-js-snippets 11:59 - File Utils: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sleistner.vscode-fileutils 13:59 - GitLens — Git supercharged https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=eamodio.gitlens 15:15 - ES6-String-HTML https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Tobermory.es6-string-html 16:41 - Wrap Console Log Simple https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=WooodHead.vscode-wrap-console-log-simple 17:18 - Text Pastry https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jkjustjoshing.vscode-text-pastry 19:14 - Better Comments https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=aaron-bond.better-comments 20:14 - Tip: Use Emmet everywhere https://emmet.io/ Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

5 Apr 202122min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk Matt Holt about Caddy, SSL, web servers, best practices, and more! LogRocket - Sponsor LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax. Freshbooks - Sponsor Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Cloudinary - Sponsor Cloudinary is the best way to manage images and videos in the cloud. Edit and transform for any use case, from performance to personalization, using Cloudinary’s APIs, SDKs, widgets, and integrations. Guests Matt Holt Show Notes 02:08 - Who are you and what do you do? 03:22 - Why would you want to build a web server? 08:45 - How do SSL certs work? 14:03 - Why do you even need a web server? 23:03 - Is it better to have a web server serve your images? 20:31 - What is load balancing and why might you need it? 31:35 - Is server administration a lost art? 38:03 - What is a sidecar proxy? 38:50 - How do chron jobs work? 39:50 - Why is GO so fast? Why is it good? 46:32 - Should every website have an SSL certificate? Links Floss Weekly 364 Caddy Let’s Encrypt Certbot PM2 https://doesmysiteneedhttps.com Tello Drone ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Matt: LG Stick Vacuum Scott: Alen Pure BreatheSmart Air Purifier Wes: Tello EDU Shameless Plugs Matt: Matt Holt Sponsorships Scott: All Courses - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

31 Mar 20211h

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about a common problem you’ll encounter in your development career — the n+1 problem. Hasura - Sponsor With Hasura, you can get a fully managed, production-ready GraphQL API as a service to help you build modern apps faster. You can get started for free in 30 seconds, or if you want to try out the Standard tier for zero cost, use the code “TryHasura” at this link: hasura.info. We’ve also got an amazing selection of GraphQL tutorials at hasura.io/learn. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your code, track errors and monitor performance with Sentry. Sentry’s Application Monitoring platform helps developers see performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize their code health. Cut your time on error resolution from hours to minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners new to Sentry can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code TASTYTREAT during sign up. Show Notes 05:00 - What is the n+1 problem? The N+1 problem can happen in any language but is especially prevalent in GraphQL because it’s so easy to query relationships. 09:33 - The solution The solution to the n+1 problem is to batch the queries. As you loop over each podcast, keep an array of host IDs to lookup. Once you have looped over the podcasts, make a single query to the database with your large array of podcast host Ids. 11:11 - Should you care? Sometimes no: its often fine to do multiple DB Calls Facebook DataLoader Mercurious Many ORMs take care of this for you These then break it down into my appropriate SQL MongoDB Ruby: eager loading Laravel ORM does it Aggregation pipelines Prisma N+1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oMfBGEdwsc&vl=en Mongoose Populate Apollo Studio Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

29 Mar 202120min