Articles

Year-end review: 2019

2019 has ended. Once again, I want to conduct my year-end review in public. This time, in a lot more depth and rawness compared to the previous years.

Mongoose 101: Population

MongoDB documents have a size limit of 16MB. This means you can use subdocuments (or embedded documents) if they are small in number.

For example, Street Fighter characters have a limited number of moves. Ryu only has 4 special moves. In this case, it’s okay to use embed moves directly into Ryu’s character document.

But if you have data that can contain an unlimited number of subdocuments, you need to design your database differently.

One way is to create two separate models and combine them with populate.

Mongoose 101: Working with subdocuments

You learned how to use Mongoose on a basic level to create, read, update, and delete documents in the previous tutorial. In this tutorial, we’ll go a step further into subdocuments

Mongoose 101

Mongoose is a library that makes MongoDB easier to use. It does two things:

1. It gives structure to MongoDB Collections
2. It gives you helpful methods to use

In this article, you’ll learn how to use Mongoose on a basic level.

What to do if you’re struggling with a Bootcamp

Bootcamps are fast-paced learning environments.

Most people who enroll in a Bootcamp do quite well when it comes to HTML and CSS. But many people struggle with JavaScript. Some even get depressed about programming because they can’t understand JavaScript.

If you’re one of these people, I want to let you know that you’re not alone. I receive emails from people like yourself occasionally.

Here’s one I received from Seth.

Understanding Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager for Mac OS. It lets you download binaries, packages, and applications with a single command.

In this article, I want to explain how to use Homebrew.

Protecting and syncing secret keys

You should never expose API keys or secrets. If you expose them, you might get into trouble. Once, I almost had to pay an excessive amount because my friend leaked my Amazon API key by accident.

What’s the amount? I can’t remember, but I think somewhere between $20,000 to $60,000. Thankfully, Amazon waived the charges.

It’s big trouble if you expose your API keys. So don’t expose them.

The best way to protect your API keys is to use environment variables.

Handling Errors in Express

I had a hard time learning how to handle errors in Express when I started. Nobody seemed to have written the answers I needed, so I had to learn it the hard way.

Today, I want to share everything I know about handling errors in an Express app.

What programming languages should you learn?

There are LOTS of languages. Picking one (or two, or three! 😱) can be scary and overwhelming at first. In this article, I want to share three things:

1. What to consider when picking languages
2. What NOT to worry about when you pick languages
3. Recommendations for languages to learn

The difference between HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

In this article, I want to explain the difference between HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with an analogy. I hope it helps you understand what these languages are, and what they do.