Checking if an input is empty with JavaScript

Last week, I shared how to check if an input is empty with CSS. Today, let’s talk about the same thing, but with JavaScript.

It’s much simpler.

Here’s what we’re building:

Checking if an input is empty with CSS

Is it possible to know if an input is empty with only CSS?

I had that question when I tried to make an autocomplete component for Learn JavaScript. Basically, I wanted to:

1. Hide a dropdown if the input is empty
2. Show the dropdown if the input is filled

I found a way to do it. It’s not perfect. There are a few nuances involved, but I want to share it with you.

The Gitignore file

If you don’t want to commit a file into a Git repository, it makes sense not to have the file show up in the staging area.

You can do this with a Gitignore file.

Why support older browsers?

Why you have to care about old browsers?

Who use old browsers? Probably, users with old computers?

If they use old computers, they probably don’t have money to buy a new one.

If they don’t have money to buy a new computer, they probably will not buy anything from you as well.

If they will not buy anything from you, why you have to care about supporting their browsers?

To a business person, that’s a perfectly reasonable train of thought. But why do we developers still insist on supporting older browsers?

What not to save into a Git repository

You should not commit these four types of files into your Git repository.

1. Files that don’t belong to the project
2. Files that are automatically generated
3. Libraries (depends on the situation)
4. Credentials

Supporting older browsers—Part 3: JavaScript

It’s easy to provide JavaScript support for older browsers. Most of the time, you just need to use a polyfill.

But there are more things you can do.

Undoing changes in Git

Undoing with Git

At this point, you already know Git is like a save point system. What you’ve done so far is to learn to save. But how do you undo, and go back to a previous state?

That’s what we’re going to cover

Supporting older browsers—Part 2: CSS

There are two ways to provide fallbacks for CSS features:

1. Property fallbacks
2. Feature queries

Git Tags

We use Git tags to create releases. In this video, you’ll learn how to tags manually without Git Flow.

Supporting older browsers

You don’t have to worry much about supporting older browsers today. They’ve been decent ever since Internet Explorer 8 died.

But the question remains: How should you go about supporting Internet Explorer 9 and other browsers? In the first place, should you even be thinking about supporting Internet Explorer 9?

We’ll look at a few things you’d want to consider.