Disruptive UI/UX - The new interactive design of a website

The faces of a website have evolved drastically from normal static one page to multiple page interactive and so on. With Big Data and ML, comes chatbot and more interactive website which more customer engaging concept.

It no time, we will definitely view a website through the Augmented Reality concept. Just read the name on a billboard, and then you will get to see the whole company profile in AR mode. Well, while waiting for this to happen, let us take a look at few revolutionize user engaging designs of a website.

As shared by Bruno Simon at https://bruno-simon.com/

Whom also the master of behind many 'abnormal' website like Orano

and Prior Holding

Go ahead browse the website and you will feel different.

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Ionic 4 + React + Capacitor: Publishing Your Apps

Since I don't have Apple Store Developer Account yet, I can only publish on Android, of which at Google Play Store. Head up if you are ready.

Before you start. Here is my development tools/environment.

1. VS Code 

Version: 1.41.0
Commit: 9579eda04fdb3a9bba2750f15193e5fafe16b959
Date: 2019-12-11T17:58:38.338Z
Electron: 6.1.5
Chrome: 76.0.3809.146
Node.js: 12.4.0
V8: 7.6.303.31-electron.0
OS: Darwin x64 19.2.0


2. OSX Catalina with zsh (I am not using Bash)


3. Samsung A50 running Android

Steps to publish your first Apps on Google Play.

1. Check your installation
           Command to check your NPM version

       % npm -v

       6.13.4

           Command to check your ionic version

       % ionic -v

       5.4.13

2. Test your apps on Android devices by running the following command on your command prompt
    ionic serve --devapp

   > ionic integrations enable cordova

   [ERROR] Ionic doesn't support using Cordova with @ionic/react projects.

        

        We encourage you to try ⚡️ Capacitor ⚡️ (https://ion.link/capacitor)

If you come across the above error, no worries. This is because your app is Ionic + React and Cordova does not support this. You need to add capacitor to it. If you already configure it with capacitor before, you don't need to run the command.

Run the following command.
      % ionic integrations enable capacitor
Once completed, you will see the following
     🎉   Your Capacitor project is ready to go!  🎉

    Add platforms using "npx cap add":

    npx cap add android

    npx cap add ios

    npx cap add electron

    Follow the Developer Workflow guide to get building:

    https://capacitor.ionicframework.com/docs/basics/workflow

     

    [OK] Integration capacitor added!

Next, initialize your apps to use the capacitor by running command npx cap init [appname] [appid]. The appname and appid are available in file capacitor.config.json.

Once done, run ionic build command. You shall see similar to following

> react-scripts build

Creating an optimized production build...

Compiled successfully.

File sizes after gzip:

...

354 B     build/static/js/5.c9486a88.chunk.js

The project was built assuming it is hosted at the server root.

You can control this with the homepage field in your package.json.

For example, add this to build it for GitHub Pages:

  "homepage" : "http://myname.github.io/myapp",

The build folder is ready to be deployed.

You may serve it with a static server:

  npm install -g serve ##this command is to install static server

  serve -s build       ##this command is to run the static server

Find out more about deployment here:   

Give it a try by running the last two command shown above. I did and the following appeared. Give it a try and use any other computer to browse your apps.

   ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐

   │                                                   │

   │   Serving!                                        │

   │                                                   │

   │   - Local:            http://localhost:5000       │

   │   - On Your Network:  http://192.168.1.123:5000   │

   │                                                   │

   │   Copied local address to clipboard!              │

   │                                                   │

   └───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Voila!! You are halfway go from releasing your apps. BUT damn, you get few more errors when you try running command npx cap add android
   [error] The web directory ([some folder of your apps]) must contain a "index.html".

    It will be the entry point for the web portion of the Capacitor app.

What is next? If you google it, you will only be directed to https://github.com/ionic-team/capacitor/issues/116 or few which won't resolve your problem. Just go to your project folder, find where index.html is located. For mines, it is located in the folder public.

So, change your capacitor.config.json to point the webDir to the folder that holds the index.html. In my case, it will look like below

"npmClient": "npm",

"webDir": "public",

Finally, run ionic build and followed by npx cap add android.
Once done, you will see the following message.

✔ Installing android dependencies in 18.77s

✔ Adding native android project in: /YourProjectPath/android in 77.66ms

✔ Syncing Gradle in 107.10s

✔ add in 125.95s

✔ Copying web assets from public to android/app/src/main/assets/public in 7.90ms

✔ Copying native bridge in 1.21ms

✔ Copying capacitor.config.json in 4.62ms

✔ copy in 24.10ms

✔ Updating Android plugins in 3.01ms

  Found 0 Capacitor plugins for android:

✔ update android in 14.69ms

Now you can run npx cap open android to launch Android Studio

So go ahead run the command npx cap open android 
The command will open your android studio, update your Gradle and build your apps. It shall tell you where your APK is released.

Once done, observed on Gradle Sync Issues. Any Red or Orange, please do resolve it first.
Test your apps by running it.

NOTE: If you still face a problem; for instance, you have blank screen, Follow the following steps:
Ionic 4 + React + Capacitor — The right way of building mobile apps with these three https://link.medium.com/uHL1APKDx2 or http://malaysiandeveloper.blogspot.com/2019/12/ionic-4-react-capacitor-right-way-of.html

3. Test your apps by running it on emulater.
4. Before you publish your apps, create your splash screen. You can follow the steps shown here. I do it manually; that is by changing all icons in all folders located at android/app/source/main/res using Adobe Photoshop. Then I added the following in my capacitor.config.json file

"plugins": {

"SplashScreen": {

"launchShowDuration": 3000,

"launchAutoHide": true,

"backgroundColor": "#000000",

"androidSplashResourceName": "splash",

"androidScaleType": "CENTER_CROP",

"androidSpinnerStyle": "large",

"iosSpinnerStyle": "small",

"spinnerColor": "#ff9900",

"showSpinner": true

}

}

That shall do it.

5.  If you change the config and add new files, just recompile your code (start at step 2 again) and rebuild your APK.

6. Finally, you are ready to publish. If you are using Ionic 4 + React + Capacitor, skip step 7 to 10.

7. Create your key (if you have yet to do so). Follow the following step

(base) % keytool -genkey -v -keystore [yourkey.keystore] -alias [aliasname] -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 999999

Enter keystore password:  

Re-enter new password: 

What is your first and last name?

  [Unknown]:  [Your Name]

What is the name of your organizational unit?

  [Unknown]:  [Your Company]

What is the name of your organization?

  [Unknown]:  [Your Company]

What is the name of your City or Locality?

  [Unknown]:  [Your current Local]

What is the name of your State or Province?

  [Unknown]:  [Your State]

What is the two-letter country code for this unit?

  [Unknown]:  MY

Is CN=My Name, OU=MyName, O=MyName, L="Local", ST=State, C=MY correct?

  [no]:  Yes

Generating 2,048 bit RSA key pair and self-signed certificate (SHA256withRSA) with a validity of 999,999 days

for: CN=My Name, OU=MyName, O=MyName, L="Local", ST=State, C=MY

[Storing my-release-key.keystore]

8. Signed your Unsigned APK (or your successful compiled/debug APK). Normally, your APK is located at android/app/..../debug/
- Run the command

jarsigner -verbose -sigalg SHA1withRSA -digestalg SHA1 -keystore my-release-key.keystore /android/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk [your-alias-name-given-during-key-generation]

Enter Passphrase for keystore: 

 updating: META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

....

Warning: 

The signer's certificate is self-signed.

No -tsa or -tsacert is provided and this jar is not timestamped. Without a timestamp, users may not be able to validate this jar after the signer certificate's expiration date (4757-11-17).

(base) % 

Note: Don't worry about the warning as you are signing using your own certs.
If you face problem of jarsigner error: java.time.DateTimeException: Invalid value for MonthOfYear (valid values 1 - 12): 0
Don't worry, just change your Java Environment/JDK to higher version. For example, I'm using Java 9 during the signing process, I just switch to JDK10 using JEnv. and it works

9. Next, align your APK or in other words, compile for final release using the Zipalign command.

(base) % zipalign -v 4 [your-signed-apk].apk [yourfinalnameapps].apk

please make sure you include the path to your APK and path to zipalign. Zipalign is located in android folder; for instance, mine is located at ~/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/29.0.2/

10. Once done, you should be able to release it to Google.

11. For Ionic + React + Capacitor, you must perform few edits before you can begin.

• Change your appId and appName at capacitor.config.json. Please ensure it was not pointing to io.ionic.start.
• Change your package name so that it will not refer to io.ionic.starter (follow https://abhiandroid.com/androidstudio/how-to-change-package-name-android-studio.html)
• Remove all permissions (If you don't need that). Take a look here -> https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/removing-default-permissions or  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41234205/warnings-your-apk-is-using-permissions-that-require-a-privacy-policy-android-p
• Once remove permission, add this in your manifest https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55334431/facing-below-error-toolsnode-associated-with-an-element-type-uses-permission
• Finally, change your version number (if you had tried to publish before). Check here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24772407/upload-failed-you-need-to-use-a-different-version-code-for-your-apk-because-you

12. Then run the command npm run build, followed by npx cap copy android or npx cap sync android.

13. Open your Android Studio and rebuild the projects.

14. Use your Android Studio to perform the following:

• Build APK and Bundle APK
• Signed the Bundle APK (Check https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/app-signing)

** Note: Please create key using Android Studio to ease in publishing the apps

15. Touch down. Open your Google Play Dashboard and start your publishing process.

The full documentation is reachable at https://ionicframework.com/docs/publishing/play-store and https://ionicframework.com/docs/v1/guide/publishing.html and https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7159011

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Improving and Managing the Applications Performance

I was developing my personal resume mobile apps using Ionic Framework + React and Capacitor. It is using a few JSON files so that I can easily manage it in the future.

It works perfectly when I run npm start or ionic serve command. However, when I move it to mobile apps, there start a problem. It is lagging despite running on an emulator or even on my devices and I'm just using local files.

After days of googling and try-n-error, I found a good solution to it. Used

• Lazy
• Suspend
• Error controller

And it should solve it.

Here it is done:

1. Lazy & Suspend

import React, {lazy, Suspense, Component} from 'react';

//import { IonContent, IonHeader, IonItem, IonLabel, IonList, IonPage, IonTitle, IonToolbar } from '@ionic/react';

const AboutPage = lazy(() => import('./AboutPage'));

class Abouts extends Component<any, any> {

constructor(props: any) {

super(props);

this.state = {

details: true

}

}

showDetails() {

this.setState({ details: true });

}

renderLoader = () => <div className="loader">Loading About & Credit...</div>;

render() {

const { details } = this.state;

return (

<div className="divLoading">

{ details &&

<Suspense fallback={this.renderLoader()}>

<AboutPage />

</Suspense>

}

</div>

);

}

}

export default Abouts;

2. Error controller

class ErrorBoundary extends React.Component<any, any> {

constructor(props: any) {

super(props);

this.state = {hasError: false};

}

static getDerivedStateFromError(error: any) {

return {hasError: true};

}

render() {

if (this.state.hasError) {

return <p>Loading failed! Please reload.</p>;

}

return this.props.children;

}

}

.....

#part of your code

<ErrorBoundary>

<Suspense fallback={this.renderLoader()}>

<ThePageToLoad />

</Suspense>

</ErrorBoundary>

All is based on the following resources. Credit goes to them who help me to solve it:

1. https://web.dev/code-splitting-suspense/
2. https://codesandbox.io/s/7zx3jlrry1?from-embed
3. https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-optimize-react-applications-with-lazy-loading-232183e02768/

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Flutter problem with MacOS Catalina

Apple has just released it's latest OSX known as Catalina. At the time this is written, there is still bugs or problem faces by developers especially when developing other than swift (or any apply proprietary) programming language. One of these problematic languages is Flutter by Google.

There are no shortcut on this. When you enable/allow one, few more will surface. Just be patient and continue to verify the problem as shared via these two link

1. https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/42302
2. https://medium.com/codespace69/flutter-idevice-id-cant-be-opened-because-its-integrity-cannot-be-verified-44ad2b313a0e

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Downloading and Formatting data for PDF output using Ionic, Angular, Cordova and TypeScript

It has been a while I did not focus and wrote anything on this blog and it is good to be back on track.

Lets kick start with writing PDF on your mobile apps. You may have data retrieve and your client require you to download the data as PDF. I've done that on Excel and it was way easy to do that.

Now lets start for PDF. It is pretty much easy too. We are going to use PDFMaker library.

If you follow the steps shows here, it shall be sufficient.

https://ionicacademy.com/create-pdf-files-ionic-pdfmake/

and you can read the entire library here

http://pdfmake.org/#/gettingstarted

You need to download and install three libraries for it to work
# Install Cordova Plugins
1. ionic cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-file-opener2
2. ionic cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-file

#Install NPM packages
3. npm install pdfmake @ionic-native/file-opener @ionic-native/file
Once complete, declare it in your apps.module.ts. The link above shall guide you with the sample.

The link above shows how it was done in a single page.  I, on the other hand, create a service provider to ease me in sharing the service between the apps. Below is the snapshot of my code... and Yup, I'm using Promise to ensure I can control the outcome and catch any error.

#the import

import { Platform } from 'ionic-angular';

//import { Http } from '@angular/http';

import { Injectable, Component } from '@angular/core';

import pdfMake from 'pdfmake/build/pdfmake';

import pdfFonts from 'pdfmake/build/vfs_fonts';

pdfMake.vfs = pdfFonts.pdfMake.vfs;

import { File } from '@ionic-native/file';

import { FileOpener } from '@ionic-native/file-opener';

#the control

createPdf( isMin: boolean ): Promise<any>{

return new Promise ((resolve,reject) => {

if( isMin ){

this.createPdfMin()

.then((data) => {

return resolve( data );

})

.catch( (error) => {

return reject( error );

})

} else {

this.createPdfMax()

.then((data) => {

return resolve( data );

})

.catch( (error) => {

return reject( error );

})

}

})

} //end createPdf

#partial code to create pdf

createPdfMin(): Promise<any>{

//let docDefinition = null;

return new Promise((resolve) => {

let docDefinition = {

// a string or { width: number, height: number }

pageSize: 'A4',

// by default we use portrait, you can change it to landscape if you wish

pageOrientation: 'potrait',

// [left, top, right, bottom] or [horizontal, vertical] or just a number for equal margins

pageMargins: [ 10, 30, 10, 30 ],

content: [

{ text: 'The Header', style: 'header' },

{ text: new Date().toTimeString(), alignment: 'right' },

//SPA Section

{ text: 'Sub Header', style: 'subheader' },

{ text: 'Sub Sub Header', style: 'subheader2' },

{

columns: [

{

text: 'Intial data'

},

{

width: '*',

text: theValue.toLocaleString('en-US', {

style: 'currency',

currency: 'MYR',

})

}

],

// optional space between columns

columnGap: 10

},

{ text: '---------------------------------------------------', style: 'subheader2' },

],

styles: {

header: {

fontSize: 18,

bold: true,

},

subheader: {

fontSize: 14,

bold: true,

margin: [0, 15, 0, 0]

},

subheader2: {

fontSize: 12,

bold: true,

margin: [0, 15, 0, 0]

},

story: {

italic: true,

alignment: 'center',

width: '50%',

}

}

}

this.pdfObj = pdfMake.createPdf(docDefinition);

return resolve( this.pdfObj );

});

} //end createPdfMin

#code to download the pdf

downloadPdf(pdfObj, type:string):Promise<any>{

console.log('fileCreator.downloadPdf()');

return new Promise((resolve) => {

if (this.plt.is('cordova')) {

pdfObj.getBuffer((buffer) => {

var blob = new Blob([buffer], { type: 'application/pdf' });

// Save the PDF to the data Directory of our App

this.file.writeFile(this.file.dataDirectory, 'file_' + type + '.pdf', blob, { replace: true }).then(fileEntry => {

// Open the PDf with the correct OS tools

this.fileOpener.open(this.file.dataDirectory + 'file_' + type + '.pdf', 'application/pdf');

})

});

} else {

// On a browser simply use download!

this.pdfObj.download();

}

return resolve("success");

})

} //end function downloadPdf

#how it is called from other page or file

this.fileCreatorProvider.createPdf(true)

.then((data) =>{

//download the file for min

this.fileCreatorProvider.downloadPdf(data,'type')

.then((data) => {

if ( data === 'success'){

this.presentAlert('Download Complete','Successfully download the file','success');

} else {

this.presentAlert('Download Error','Fail to download the file','error');

}

})

.catch((error) => {

this.presentAlert('Download Error','Fail to download the file. Catch ' + error,'error');

})

})

.catch((error) => {

this.presentAlert('Download Error','Fail to download the file. Catch ' + error,'error');

})

and you shall be ready.

By the way, it is just snapshot. It shall give you brief idea on how to do that.

Happy Coding!!!

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Synchronizing the Asynchronous - Controlling the flow in ascynchronous type of apps

You have certain process to run in sequence; for instance
1. Login into the system
2. Check if the user valid, user status is valid, user role is valid
3. Store for future references
4. Capture audit trail and set timing, menu etc
5. Finally, show correct page base on user role and preferences

This shall be ok in synchronize programming. However, for programming like javascript, js, etc., you may face issues such as null value on a certain process, invalid id, or pages, etc.

There is ways, 'easy' way, but there is no guarantee that the data you will be receiving is accurate or at the exact time you need it.

Example of easy way is using timeout, as shown below

setTimeout(() => {

resolve('success');

}, 100)

Yet, the above example may not resolve your issues entirely.

Another option that looks promising is using Promise. However, there is a drawback to it. Your program may continue waiting despite it is already completed. Although it is a promise, within promise is still asynchronous program run.

return new Promise( (resolve, reject) => {

if (user) {

console.log("getUserProfile() - Success getting user in "

+ JSON.stringify(user) );

resolve(user);

} else {

this.showError('Access Denied! Invalid User Access');

reject('Access Denied! Invalid User Access');

}

});

Take for example the above code. The console may run after resolve(user) as the JSON.stringify may take few seconds than just return resolve value.

So, what is the best solution. Actually, there are no better solutions. What I did was,
1. Rewrite the code and logic and ensure all setting was done prior to user validation and page movement.
2. You can use Reducer or Promise-Sequential

You may refer here:

1. https://blog.risingstack.com/node-hero-async-programming-in-node-js/
2. https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/how-can-i-use-promise/40469/3
3. https://www.promisejs.org/
4. https://javebratt.com/wtf-promise/
5. http://coenraets.org/blog/2016/02/angular2-ionic2-data-services-promises-observables/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47767654/ionic-3-typescript-promise

For me, I'm using the latter (with timeout) as the former implementation is a bit complicated compared to the latter.

Here how I resolve the problem:

var sequential = require('promise-sequential');

var array = [this.getUserProfile(),this.validateUser()];

sequential(array.map((item) => {

return function(previousResponse, responses, count) {

return new Promise(resolve => {

setTimeout(() => {

resolve('success');

}, 100)

})

}

}))

.then(res => {

this.doLogin()

})

.catch(err => {

console.log('loginWithPromise(): ' + err );

this.showError(err);

})

wallawei!!! Hope it helps :)

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Javascript to newbies

Want to learn JavaScript and conquer the world? Start here:

Tutorials and Books
- JavaScript For Cats is a dead simply introduction for new programmers.
- MDN JavaScript Guide has the most standard and straightforward tutorials. If you need references, MDN is here for you
too.
- You Don’t Know JS is the best book to learn JavaScript from. It’s free to read on GitHub.
- Eloquent JavaScript is another great introduction to programming and learning JavaScript.
- Modern JavaScript Cheatsheet helps you understand and learn all the new features in the language.
- JSBooks, a collection of free JavaScript books.

Videos and Courses
- JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts an incredible course which teaches the concepts of the language. First 3 hours
are free on YouTube, you can but the whole course from Udemy.
- FunFunFunction makes the learning process enjoyable.
- Javascript30, 30 videos to level up your skills.
- Traversy Media great contents mostly aimed for begginers.

Learn by Doing
- FreeCodeCamp, learn to code by building projects.
- CodeAcademy, learn to code interactively.
- Codewars, train with programming challenges.

Functional Programming
This where the true the good parts show theirselves.
- JSUnconf 2016, learn functional programming basics with this talk from Anjana Vakil.
- FunFunFunction's videos are a great start.
- Mostly Adequate Guide to Functional Programming and Functional Light JS will make you master the functional programming.
- JavaScript Allongé, programming from functions to classes.
- Functional Programming Jargon in simple terms.
- awesome-fp-js is a good reference for functional programming in JavaScript.

Other Resources
- Spellbook of Modern Web Dev is a big picture of modern JavaScript development.
- What the fuck JavaScript?, list of funny and tricky JavaScript examples.

From JS telegram Part of @thedevs 
Rules: @thedevsrules Join other dev groups https://thedevs.network

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