Using ES6 in nodeJS

Are you getting bored writing the ES5 code in nodeJS, then this is time to move to ES6. However node 6 has built in support for ES6, this post is meant for people using older versions of node.

Install babel-cli in your project
npm install --save babel-cli
Install ES2015 presets for babel
npm install --save babel-preset-es2015
If you want to compile your entire server code to distribution then you can use
babel server/index.js -d output.jsand then run
node output.js
Else if you just want to run your code then use
babel-node server/index.js
This will automatically compile and run the es6 code for you.

Enjoy programming in ES6.

Contributing packages to npm

If you are a open source developer then you may feel to contribute to open source as well. This post helps you to get started with contributing to open source especially npm (Since I am a javascript lover).

Prerequisites:

Install node
Install npm

Creating the package:

Create a directory

$ mkdir <your project name>

Create a npm project

$ cd <your project name>$ npm init

Give details as required.
Create your project files
$ vi somefile.js
In your file start writing your functions
yourFunction = function () { .... };
Dont forget to export your function at the end of the file.
exports.default = yourFunction

Publishing:

Once your package is ready then you need to publish it to npm
To publish to npm you first need an account in npm
Then add your account to your machine

$ npm adduser

Give your username and password.
Now, ready to publish

$ npm publish

Yay!! your package is published and you are a open source contributor.

Javascript rocks!!!

Getting started with Redux

Redux is yet another framework for React web Apps. Today’s web applications are getting more into single page applications which requires lot of states to be known by the app like the cache data, local data, which tab to open, what content should be put in which tab etc., if we fail to know clearly about the states we are using in the app then it becomes difficult to find the error in case of bug. In order to facilitate this we use Redux which provides a nice way of dealing with states. Also Flux, is another framework which does this.

I have made a codepen to get started with Redux. In this code pen you can find a counter made with Redux.

Redux provides a method createStore which has three functions getState(), dispatch(), subscribe().

getState()

The getState function will return the current state of the app

dispatch()

By this function we can call the action to be dispatched. In this example I call dispatch({type:’INCREMENT’}) , because the action that I need to perform is INCREMENT.

subscribe()

The subscribe method will keep listening to the state change and if the state changes then the method in subscribe will be executed. Generally we put render() in the subscribe to display the state changes in the UI.

Feel free to fork the pen and play around with it!! Happy Redux!!

Creating a personalized server for development

We know that most of the web servers for open source languages run on linux. So in order to get the feel of developing in server even in local machine is very important for a new developer. But installing linux server directly on personal machines may be difficult, since full stack developers need access to designing tools available on Windows. This post guides you to setup a personalized server.

Prerequisites:

Download Virtual box (Open source) for your windows machine.
Download ubuntu server (Note: Don’t use ubuntu desktop), because Ubuntu server will not have GUI and will give a good feel of using a server.

Installing Ubuntu Server on Virtual Box:

Create a new Virtual Machine, select Ubuntu from the dropdown.
Allocate atleast 30GB of disk space.
Allocate 1GB of RAM space
Start the Virtual Machine, and it asks for boot device, select the ISO
Select install ‘Ubuntu Server’
Then follow the instructions for selecting keyboard, encryption of drive etc.,
When it asks for installing other tools, select ‘DNS server’, ‘LAMP server'(if you want PHP), ‘Open SSH’ (Must select for doing an SSH), ‘Samba Server’ (Must select for mounting drive on windows machine).
Setup users, root password with the instructions on the screen.
Now your Ubuntu Server is ready

Mounting a drive from Ubuntu Server to Windows:

$ sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Change the Workgroup to your workgroup as per your windows machine (To see workgroup in windows Goto Explorer -> right click and select properties -> There you can seee WORKGROUP). Put the same name here else you cannot see the server as part of your workgroup
Then save and exit file.
Now create a user for samba

smbpasswd -a mohithg

Give it a password.
Next create a directory if you want to share that particular directory alone
Again, go to the smb.conf file , and add below text in the Share Definitions (below Printers)

[share]
comment = Shared
browseable = yes
path = /home/mohithg
read only = no
guest ok = yes
writeable = yes

You can change the path to your home directory or you home directory
If you want a password protection for your shared drive then use guest ok = no
Restart your server

Mounting the Shared drive on Windows

Option 1:

You can goto run (Windows Key + r) and type \\HOSTNAME and see your shared server
The host name is the one that you gave when installing your ubuntu server

Option 2:

You can goto explorer and click on Network
There you can see your server with the hostname, double click on it to open and you can see your shared files.

SSH into Ubuntu Server

Download putty
Give the ip-address of your ubuntu server
Enter your username, password and connect
You should be able to access your server

Conclusion:

By this you can keep all your development on server, and you will get a good feel of using server and developing things as you learn. Happy Coding!!!