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· One min read
  1. Click on settings for VSCode
  2. Click on "User Snippets
  3. Click on "New Global Snippets File..."
  4. Add the following JSON which will be limited to markdown files only
{
    "Add Docusaurus blog frontmatter": {
        "body": [
            "---",
            "draft: true",
            "modified: ${CURRENT_YEAR}-${CURRENT_MONTH}-${CURRENT_DATE}T${CURRENT_HOUR}:${CURRENT_MINUTE}:${CURRENT_SECOND}.000Z",
            "date: ${CURRENT_YEAR}-${CURRENT_MONTH}-${CURRENT_DATE}T${CURRENT_HOUR}:${CURRENT_MINUTE}:${CURRENT_SECOND}.000Z",
            "title: ${TM_FILENAME_BASE/(\\w.*)/${1:/capitalized}/}",
            "slug: ${TM_FILENAME_BASE/([\\w-]+$)|([\\w-]+)|([-\\s]+)|([^\\w]+)/${1:/downcase}${2:/downcase}${2:+-}/gm}",
            "---"
        ],
        "description": "Create Blogpost Frontmatter",
        "scope": "markdown,mdx,md",
        "prefix": ["blog", "draft blog", "frontmatter", "add frontmatter"]
    }
}

· 2 min read

I've been reading the excellent book Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided By Tests and there's so much that resonated with me about starting work on a new project.

As with anything new, give developers some shiny new something to work on and there's always the temptation to dive right in and get started with code. This often means that you're starting from the inside-out of a problem space and often some operational details are overlooked. When we're done solving that problem, trying to release that or to push that to production is often a problem nobody had perceived.

I recently experienced this on a project where we'd resorted to creating the application locally to put that online later. We had an idea of things like tech limitations and choices at the time, and deferring that decision seemed right, but it later came to bite us when we wanted to release the first feature.

We had roadblocks after one another, these came in the form of security policies, technology choices and release process already in place and trying something new. This whole thing cost us a couple of months of back and forth between dev/ops/admin folks.

So if I could tell my past self, I would say, release early and release often even if it means releasing the project skeleton in a hello world state.

In the context of the book I've been reading, establishing a walking skeleton is hugely important.

· 6 min read

Dockerising the legacy​

Making changes to application infrastructure can be daunting at the best of times so when it was decided that we move to the world of containers, I took on a task I didn’t know the depth of, so I am going to share my experience of getting my hands dirty.

At the time, I was new to docker but very interested in the technology, as technology folks, we all love a shiny new toy to play with. Apart from that the advantages and thus the reasons for so are listed as follows in no particular order:

  • Introducing speedier changes and testing ideas faster
  • Infrastructure as code
  • Simplify application/tech stack
  • Be cloud-friendly

· 5 min read

What is it?​

JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties. The claims in a JWT are encoded as a JSON object that is used as the payload of a JSON Web Signature (JWS) structure or as the plaintext of a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) structure, enabling the claims to be digitally signed or integrity protected with a Message Authentication Code (MAC) and/or encrypted.

JSON Web Tokens are an open, industry-standard RFC 7519 method for representing claims securely between two parties. See here: https://jwt.io

· One min read

Hello World 🌏

This is my first post, hoping there's a lot more I can write, but for now, this is me getting started with blogging.

I am an experienced Software Developer from the UK. I started my first fulltime job in 2011, I never thought to share my thoughts & experience. Through this blog, I am hoping to channel my thoughts and hopefully pay forward the knowledge in the same way I've found to be useful from other bloggers.

For now, I have a lot to learn about GitHub pages but I shall be adding more content over the coming future.

Stay tuned. ⚠️ 🚧