Libraries & Tools
What in REST, How in GraphQL
Amazing article about REST and GraphQL, their differences, and why and when you would choose one over the one. The author takes a very balanced approach, explaining when it is actually better to build your app using REST, and the advantages of REST over GraphQL. In this domain, which hypes up new technologies while putting down more established ones, it's refreshing to see such a pragmatic mindset.
medium.com
WhatsApp Clone using React (Hooks+Suspense), GraphQL, Apollo, TypeScript and PostgreSQL
Super impressive project that uses the currently most popular technologies in the JS ecosystem. If you've been planning on using one of these tools, this is a great place to get started! Dig into the code and play around with it, there's a lot to learn in there!
medium.com
Animated Background Color Swiper – Laurin – Medium
Cool article diving into React Native animations, and how the author built a swiping animation using just a couple of functions and the Animated API.
medium.com
Sponsored Link
Forget your old note taking app: Notion trumps them all.
Have you been thinking about trying out a new note taking app? Are you getting annoyed at the back and forth between your Trello board, Evernote and Excel sheets? Do you find the alternatives overly complicated or annoying to use?
Notion is a revolutionary product that allows you to take powerful notes, catalog important information, plan projects and personal tasks, and store information in databases. It works seamlessly across your personal and professional lives.
It's time for a change. Try Notion, you won't regret it.
notion.so
Open Source
react-native-magic-move - Create magical move transitions between scenes in react-native 🐰🎩✨
react-native-fitness - A React Native module to interact with Apple Healthkit and Google Fit.
Lyrics-King-React-Native - Lyrics King is React Native song lyrics search app, built with Expo. Designed with Adobe XD.
rn-bottom-drawer - A react native bottom drawer component
react-native-multibar - Custom tab bar with floating action button to collapse and expand additional functionality.
Let's React
Engineering
React as a UI Runtime
Very interesting technical article by Dan Abramov, that takes a deep dive into the React programming model and how different parts work together under the hood. It's aimed at more experienced folks, who want a deeper understand of React. I personally found this to be an incredible read, it answers a lot of the questions I've asked in the past, but didn't know how to begin answering. I also feel like this blog post is a very good start if you want to get started with contributing to React, as it gives a very good overview of the different moving parts.
overreacted.io
Full-Stack Development in the Era of Serverless Computing
This is one of my favorite reads of the year so far: a spot on analysis of what Full Stack Development entails in this day and age, when serverless solutions are becoming increasingly popular. Nader Dabit goes beyond cloud functions, and explains how companies like Auth0 and Algolia have significantly reduced the amount of work that needs to be done on the backend, with the difficulty scale now tipping towards the frontend. If there's an article you need to share with your team, this is the one. Super insightful and interesting, and very well written as always 👏
medium.com
The React Handbook
Amazingly thorough blog post with pretty much 80% of everything you'll need to know when getting started with React. I sure would've loved a resource like this when I first started! Make sure to share it with your friends and colleagues who are still learning or planning on starting soon!
freecodecamp.org
Business
Architecting your React application: the development and business perspective of what to be aware of
Interesting read about how to keep make the best React architecture decisions based on important business factors. I don't agree with everything, but there are some very relevant points that make it worth checking out!
usejournal.com
Welcome back folks!
I'm finally back from my post-Christmas hibernation period, during which I've been protesting how cold it is here in Canada by avoiding all responsibilities and snuggling in bed with my hedgehog. 😂🦔
Hope everything's been going well on your side, and that you've been able to build some amazing things in the first month of 2019!
If you haven't been following Twitter, there are a couple of news from the React/React Native teams at Facebook. The React team lost their Engineering Manager, Sophie Alpert, due to harassment over her views on the lack of diversity at Facebook. Sophie was a key player in the React community and someone we should all thank, because there would be no React without her. React Native, on the other end, has grown and now has two more team members, a new Engineering Manager, who previously led Jest, and Sebastian McKenzie, the person who created babel when he was 17. If there's one thing that shows, it's that Facebook is definitely invested in React Native!
Alright then, I wish you a happy belated new year, and a great week! The temperature here has been in the positives for the past couples of days, so I won't be complaining for a while ☀️
Cheers and enjoy!
Kenza Iraki