Snow

Spend some time out of the cold and reading some posts from our authors. Grab a warm drink and a blanket and spend some time with us.

TDD in React: Get to Red-Green-Refactor in No Time

Single-page applications developed with JavaScript libraries such as React are becoming the standard for front-end apps. The barrier to entry is low, and they provide the user with a more responsive experience. However, testing user interfaces hasn’t always been easy. Testing libraries such as Selenium have been popular, but these tests are notoriously slow and can be very fragile. So, how can front-end developers improve the quality of their apps and ensure the UI behaves as expected? Test-driven development, or TDD, is a very good approach to this problem. Find out more from JT Wheeler on Testim’s blog. 

The History of SRE

Site reliability engineering (SRE) uses techniques and approaches from software engineering to tackle reliability problems with a team’s operations and a site’s infrastructure. Knowing the history of SRE and understanding which problems it solves ensures that you can make it work for your organization. And as is the case with the spread and adoption of agile and DevOps, SRE guides you, so you know you’re making choices for the right reasons and with the right goals in mind. Learn more from Sylvia Fronczak on Enov8’s blog. 

Types of Testing Environments

Software testing is a process that verifies that the software works as expected in test environments. The verification is done through a set of automated or manual steps called test cases. A test environment is a combination of hardware, software, data, and configuration that’s required to execute test cases. You have to be sure to configure the testing environments to mimic production scenarios. There are many types of test environments. Which ones you’ll need depends on the test cases and the application under test. Learn more from Gurucharan Subramani on Test Environment Management’s blog. 

How to Build an SRE Team in Your Organization

So you’ve read up on the value of having an SRE team and want to start one at your organization. However, that task can feel daunting. This isn’t like creating a new application team that has one product to care for. The SRE team’s responsibilities can encompass products for all application teams and all infrastructure needs. How can you incorporate all of that without tearing the whole organization apart and putting it back together? And how do you ensure that we give the SRE team the right objectives and goals? Sylvia Fronczak can answer your questions on ASPE’s blog. 

Building Your First CI/CD Pipeline on AWS

AWS CodeDeploy deploys your applications, lambda functions, and static files to AWS computing services. A continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline has four major components, and each of these components can be switched out for different technologies. Jillian Rowe can help you explore how to implement a CI/CD pipeline on AWS on ASPE’s blog. 

Grafana Plugins: 7 That Are Worth a Look

We’re living in an incredible time for tech because everything we do online generates large amounts of data, starting from our browser history that’s then recorded in the web server logs behind every website we visit. For all described tasks, and many more, Grafana has a plugin the can help you. Learn more from Juan Pablo Macias Gonzalez on Scalyr’s blog.

The Organization Leader’s Guide to Improving to Time to Market

For those unaware of time to market, here’s a clear definition. Time to market (TTM) refers to the time needed to develop a product, from its conception to when it’s ready to be launched on the market. A shorter TTM focuses on releasing a product as fast as possible. However, TTM is also concerned with releasing subsequent updates in short time intervals. Often, this means an organization works through small product increments. Find out more Plutora’s blog from Michiel Mulders.

Database Performance Improvement – How-to in 4 Easy Steps

During development, it’s important to think about how your application will work with your databases. You can run into performance issues all the way through the stack, so you’ll want to be mindful of how the data is being accessed. From the client to the database, there are layers where the trouble may creep in. Phil Vuollet can fill you in on Raygun’s blog. 

Top 10 Python Security Best Practices

While writing code that’s secure from any outsider exploits can be hard, it’s supposed to make our lives easier in the long run. Even if it’s a simple application to inform users of innocent local events, there are sometimes bad actors who will make it into a phishing scam to take money from pensions. So what can you do to prevent this? Don Roche can answer your questions on Sqreen’s blog. 

AWS Elastic Beanstalk .NET Core Getting Started

We also refreshed a post this week on Stackify’s blog. AWS offers a variety of services to solve specific needs. There are some core services, like EC2 and VPC, that let you create an infrastructure for your applications that scales easily. But if you’re new to AWS and also new to infrastructure, you might need to invest some time reading before you deploy your application to AWS. Learn more here.