thisdaveJ

Three Ways to Build Dynamic Web APIs using PHP

In this article, we learn how to build dynamic Web APIs using PHP. Why PHP? PHP is a very popular programming language used for rendering server-side web pages and is included as a standard option with many web hosting providers including HostGator (my provider). I had a need to generate simulated one-minute IoT data for a recent article I wrote on Fetching, Filtering, and Sorting JSON APIs in Google Sheets: The Missing Functions. Much to my surprise and delight, PHP is both powerful and fun, and I am here to share some of my learnings with you. Let’s get started and highlight three ways to build dynamic Web APIs using PHP.

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VS Code Syntax Highlighting

How to Copy Visual Studio Code with Syntax Highlighting to Other Applications

In this article, we learn how to copy from Visual Studio Code with color syntax highlighting to various other applications including Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Gmail to achieve beautiful, clear code samples for documentation, presentations, and general communication. This will prove useful whether you are using JavaScript, JSON, HTML, CSS, TypeScript, Markdown, C++, Java, PHP, Python, Go, T-SQL, XML, C# or a host of other languages and data formats that Visual Studio Code supports. How is this accomplished? It’s very simple! When you are in VS Code copy your selected code to the clipboard, VS Code brings the color syntax formatting along for the ride so the formatted text Read More

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Build an Amazing HTML Editor Using Visual Studio Code

Today we’re going to build an amazing HTML editor using Visual Studio Code (VS Code), a powerful, versatile cross-platform code editor that provides a lot of capabilities. Let’s get this out of the way up front: I’m a raving VS Code fan! In a previous post, I showed you how to Build an Amazing Markdown Editor, and now we’re going to learn how to create a fabulous HTML editor as well. Let’s get started!

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Build an Amazing Markdown Editor Using Visual Studio Code and Pandoc

Today we’re going to build an amazing Markdown editor using Visual Studio Code and Pandoc. This system will include real-time Markdown linting and the ability to generate html, docx, and pdf documents quickly with the potential to produce many other document formats as well. Markdown is a simple markup language that allows one to write documents using a text editor and transform those documents into many different formats.  Among other things, it works beautifully for documenting source code since the Markdown documents can be checked in and versioned with Git or your source control system of choice.

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Node.js IoT – Create Local Module for CPU Sensor

We’re back and ready to do some refactoring of our CPU sensor so we can learn about Node.js modules and how to create them.  Building small, focused modules is one of the key tenets of the Node.js philosophy as summarized in The Node Way: Building small, single-purpose modules is at the heart of the Node.js philosophy. Borrowing from Unix, Node.js encourages composing the complex and powerful out of smaller, simpler pieces. This idea trickles down from entire applications (using the best tool for the job vs. a full suite) to how the tools themselves are built.

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Node.js IoT – Build a Cross Platform CPU Sensor

I took a little hiatus in our series to take my family on a trip to Japan with layovers on each end of the trip in China which included a ride on the Shanghai Maglev Train, the fastest train in the world.  We had a fantastic time, and it was a great educational experience for the kids.  It is also good to be back home! We are back again with our Node.js IoT tutorial series and ready to continue developing our “CPU sensor” as CPU loading/utilization is a “sensor” we can measure, record, and ultimately stream to other locations.  Today, we will expand our CPU sensor and make it cross platform—and learn more about Node.js in Read More

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Node.js Learning through Making – Build a CPU Sensor

We are back with our LTM (Learning through Making) tutorials and ready to hit the ground running and write some real Node.js code!  In this series, we will learn about Node.js in the context of creating IoT (Internet of Things) projects.  We will build a “CPU Sensor” in this first project since CPU loading/utilization is a “sensor” we can measure, record, and ultimately stream to other locations.  In future tutorials, we will harness the power of Node.js to interact with physical sensors that live outside of our computing environment.

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Using Visual Studio Code with a Raspberry Pi (Raspbian)

We’re back with our LTM (Learning through Making) series of Node.js tutorials and we’re gearing up and getting ready to write some code!  We’ve learned how to build a Raspberry Pi from the ground up including Node.js, we’ve created a web server in Node without code, and we’ve even managed to get this web server on the Internet as a cool trick. So how are we going to write Node.js code? There’s nothing that would stop us from simply jumping onto our RasPi and using the Leafpad text editor or even the nano console-based editor to write our code.  I propose that we use some more robust tools in the form of an IDE (Integrated Development Read More

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Visual Studio Code Jumpstart for Node.js Developers

Visual Studio Code is an amazing, lightweight code editor and works great for Node.js development. I like it so much that I am recommending it for those doing the free Learning through Making (LTM) tutorial series I am creating.  My Using Visual Studio Code with a Raspberry Pi (Raspbian) article is closely coupled to this article; however, this article is intended to help you develop with VS Code whether you are using a RasPi or not. Now, let’s get started with first things first. This article is geared toward awesome, cutting edge people who want to develop with Node.js and leverage the latest ES6 (ES2015) features rather than being content living in yesteryear.  🙂   Am Read More

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Right click on Windows folder and open with Visual Studio Code

I’m all about using Visual Studio Code for Node.js development.  It is a lightweight code editor and runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.  I enjoy it so much that I also use it for Node.js projects on the Raspberry Pi.  To accomplish this, I create a Windows file share on the RasPi as described in my Beginner’s Guide to Installing Node.js on the Raspberry Pi and map a drive on my Windows system to the RasPi.  I am then able to use VS Code to create my Node.js code and jump onto the RasPi to run the actual code. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program…  Today’s topic is Read More

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