920: How to Build MCP Servers

It’s another potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about Gatsby vs Next, Google Home and privacy, flat file CMS, working with designers, CSS frameworks and more! Netlify - Sponsor Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info. 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. Show Notes 6:15 - Q: Curious if you would ever consider running your course platform on Gatsby instead of NextJs? If not, what dynamic content would prevent you from doing so? 10:48 - Q: What’s the difference between a software developer and a software engineer, in your opinion? 13:11 - Q: How do you deal with designers who design without any thought about how dev will implement it? 15:46 - Q: I saw that Wes has an example in one of his slides where the Array prototype is written onto the Nodelist prototype. Is this safe enough for production as it overrides all regular NodeList behavior? 19:18 - Q: In a potluck episode you mentioned that you do not host your clients’ website. If you don’t host you clients’ website how do you usually go about handling clients that are less tech savvy? Or do you avoid those types of clients? 21:30 - Q: I know you guys (especially Wes) have been pretty insistent recently on not hosting clients’ sites yourself, but what do you guys think about continuously hosting client sites with a service like Netlify? It’s highly unlikely to go down and scales all for you, so it might be a bit of reoccurring income if you bill them yearly for the minimal Netlify fees. 24:44 - Q: I was listening to your episode on “The Smart Home” and I’m very interested in buying a Google Home Mini myself. However, I cannot stop thinking about the privacy implications of an always listening device around the house. What are your thoughts on this topic and on privacy related to online services in general? 29:08 - Q: What are your thoughts about using a CMS that uses flat files vs one that uses a traditional MySQL or Postgres database for a company blog that won’t have insane traffic? We’re currently evaluating Grav CMS and Craft CMS. 32:17 - Q: Have you used data attributes as custom elements in CSS and JS? 37:32 - Q: Why do so many people jump on styled-components/CSS in JS? Are these all people who have never used Sass/SCSS?! It seems like such a PITA to get Sass working with either of these. It feels like coding tables vs HTML 5. To me it seems like a step backwards. 44:26 - Q: When do you, if ever, reach for a component library, like Material or Bootstrap? Currently working a corporate job where it’s almost expected to use one of these for all internal applications. I usually prefer to make my own, but I’m wondering if I’m just making my life more difficult than it needs to be? Any advice? 48:30 - Q: Could you guys chat about Git clients and which ones you guys use and why? Or are you guys hardcore terminal geeks? Links Gatsby Next.js Bling.js Syntax 118: The Smart Home Grav CMS Craft CMS prismic Sanity Contentful Tiny CMS Forestry Airdale Chemical Material Bootstrap VS Code ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: HeavySet - Gym Workout Log Wes: Baroness Von Sketch Shameless Plugs Scott: FullStack React with NextJS - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Beginner Javascript Course 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

6 Nov 201959min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes bring you more web dev horror stories! Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your errors, track them with Sentry. Sentry is open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Cut your time on error resolution from five hours to five minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code “tastytreat”. Show Notes 2:26 - Perf Woes 3:42 - Always Backup Your Backups 4:54 - Kill Children 6:03 - Robots Don’t Eat Food 8:32 - Email Goof Up 9:44 - Hundreds of Thousands of Date Issues 10:46 - Spooky August 12:32 - You’re up to .bat 13:17 - Printed Code 15:12 - ThinkGeek 16:12 - It would take a while to Ketchup on all these orders 17:05 - This story makes me want to stick my head in async 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

4 Nov 201921min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about web dev horror stories — things you can only hope will never happen to you! 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. 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. Show Notes 2:09 - Scott’s Disastrous Git Clean 4:35 - Magic Updates the Gathering 8:52 - YAAAAS 9:37 - Token Trouble 12:16 - jQuery Plugins 15:22 - Success! 18:00 - Parental Advisory 21:47 - Students Changing Grades 22:46 - Lorem Sh!tsum 26:22 - Drowning in a Waterfall 28:53 - Magneto Upgrades 30:00 - JOHN CENA 33:24 - Migration Migraine 35:39 - Primary Key Nightmare 36:26 - The $20,000 YAML formatter Links Adam J. Sontag jQuery GitLab Gitlab Database Incident Magento Meteor ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Dyson Hand Vacuum Wes: /r/ AbsoluteUnits Shameless Plugs Scott: Fullstack React with JS9 - 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

30 Okt 201945min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott talks about moving to iPhone — his experiences with both Android and iOS, the advantages and disadvantages of both, and more! Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your errors, track them with Sentry. Sentry is open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Cut your time on error resolution from five hours to five minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code “tastytreat”. Show Notes 1:59 - My device history OG Droid → Nexus → Pixel Misconceptions of android It’s Windows for phones It’s cheaper or not as nice 5:03 - Why switch? 6:39 - Who wins what? Android Homescreen Low light photography Usability Squeeze assistant Google search integrated everywhere Search Keyboard Notification iOS Apps Performance Camera overall Device quality Fun stuff Haptics Links 1Password LastPass Gboard 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

28 Okt 201925min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk with Brad Touesnard of Delicious Brains about migrating, deploying, and hosting WordPress. Netlify - Sponsor Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info. Hasura - Sponsor Hasura is an open-source GraphQL engine that helps you instantly setup a scalable and realtime GraphQL backend. Hasura makes your team super productive by dynamically composing a schema backed by databases and services that you can securely query from frontend clients. Get started at hasura.io to try it out in 30 seconds! Show Notes 3:50 - Why did start Delicious Brains? 5:25 - What plugins does Delicious Brains make? 11:40 - Migrating WordPress 16:50 - Migrating databases 24:20 - How do you do version control with WordPress? 37:06 - What’s the easiest way to deploy and host WordPress? 40:23 - What are some examples of managed WordPress hosts? 46:58 - What does your deployment process look like from beginning to end? 50:22 - Thoughts on headless WordPress 53:12 - Is serverless WordPress a thing? Links Delicious Brains WP Migrate DB Pro WP Offload Media WP Offload SES SpinupWP Heroku Now.sh WP Engine Flywheel Advanced Custom Fields Composer WP Packagist WordPress.org React Laravel Pagely Kinsta GoDaddy WordPress.com SiteFround Buddy Digital Ocean Laravel Forge npm Codeship Gatsby Laravel Vapor Installing via Composer WordPress deployment workflow Managing your WordPress site with Git and Composer ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Brad: Teppanyaki Grill Scott: Succession and The Righteous Gemstones Wes: Magnatiles Shameless Plugs Brad: All Products Scott: Svelte For Beginners - 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

23 Okt 20191h 2min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about server side rendering — what it is, how to use it, best practices, things to avoid, and more! Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your errors, track them with Sentry. Sentry is open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Cut your time on error resolution from five hours to five minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code “tastytreat”. Show Notes 3:20 - What is SSR? 4:16 - Why SSR at all? 8:39 - Platforms that do SSR out of the box 11:18 - Gotchas useLayoutEffect import { useEffect, useLayoutEffect } from 'react' const useIsoLayoutEffect = typeof window !== 'undefined' ? useLayoutEffect : useEffect export default useIsoLayoutEffect 18:20 - Tools Links Next.js Gatsby Webpack Parcel Meteor React NoSSR component Syntax 127: Hasty Treat - React Suspense 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 Okt 201923min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about server side fundamentals — the important things you should know if you’re interested in diving into server side. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your errors, track them with Sentry. Sentry is open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Cut your time on error resolution from five hours to five minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code “tastytreat”. 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. Show Notes 2:53 - Requests and responses 9:21 - What is a server? 10:33 - Ports 13:50 - Database connection and interaction 15:16 - Cookies and sessions 15:48 - Writing files and directory permissions 19:34 - Headers 22:13 - Error Handling 22:50 - Logs 25:04 - Async data handling 26:33 - Routing 30:44 - Mime types 36:26 - Authentication 37:49 - Environmental variables 40:37 - Deployment 43:24 - Advanced Links GraphQL Node React For Beginners Next.js Meteor Papertrail pjax jQuery Github iMazing HEIC Converter Now.sh Netlify Twitter streaming API B is for Build ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Samcrac YouTube Channel Wes: Wyze Plugs Shameless Plugs Scott: Svelte For Beginners - 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

16 Okt 201955min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about their experiences with float tanks! 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 2:28 - What is a float tank? 6:47 - What are the benefits? 8:50 - How did you feel during the float? 17:28 - Would you do it again? Links The Joe Rogan Experience 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 Okt 201923min