It’s another potluck episode in which Wes and Scott answer your questions! This month - all things JS, go-to dev stacks, website security and the ever-changing nature of development.

Mlab - Sponsor

mLab is the leading Database-as-a-Service for MongoDB, powering over half a million deployments worldwide. Wes and Scott use mLab to host their own databases as well as take care of backups, security, scaling and performance. Try out a sandbox database on your next mongoDB project → https://mlab.com.

Sanity.io - Sponsor

Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get up and running by typing npm i -g @sanity/cli && sanity init in your command line. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax.

Show Notes

3:33 - Would you ever consider doing a live Syntax show?

Yes! Get tickets at JAMstack_conf

4:31 - What are your thoughts on Flutter? Does React Native have some solid competition now?

Google’s answer to React Native.
Flutter
NativeScript

9:43 - What are your website security essentials for static and dynamic sites? What’s the deal with forms? Is it bad to put a form on my site with no server-side validation?

Not cool. Always do server-side validation.
Netlify
Cloudflare

14:55 - Do you have a ‘go-to’ stack when building new web apps? If so, what is it and how would you go about choosing the right stack for the project?

Scott - Gatsby for sites / Meteor Apollo, React, MongoDB for db needing accounts sites
Wes - Next.js, Express Backend + either MongoDB, DiskDB or Prisma (or hasura)

21:51 - What are your thoughts on 100 Days of Code Challenge?

Consistency and accountability.
The best way to get good.
100 Days of Code

25:05 - I really have been learning a lot of React recently and have been wondering what is the difference between Next.js, Gatsby.js and vanilla React?

Dynamic vs static. What are your needs, how often does the content change.
Next.js
- Use for dynamic needs
- It can do static exports too
- Convert to markdown
- Nothing special other than Routing and SSR (Server request getInitialProps)
Gatsby.js
- Use for static needs
- Gatsby has lots of adapters

30:38 - What are websockets and when should they be used?

A request that is always open - it responds to events instead of pinging, pushing or pulling data

35:15 - I would love to hear your take on PWAs. Do either of you have any experience with building or using them?

Syntax Ep 50 - Progressive Web Apps

40:16 - I’m a nervous newbie who’s concerned about doing a web app that accepts payments or sensitive information. How can I know I’ve done everything to create a secure website and also protect myself from being sued by the client if their website gets hacked? I’m trying to be a jam stack developer so I’m looking at things like Snipcart and Stripe

Don’t save sensitive info in plain text. Use services that make it tough to do that until you are confident.
Look up PIPEDIA

43:23 - What is a JavaScript generator? I heard that async/await creates a “generator” under the hood.

Pausable function that can return multiple values - call .next() on it

46:54 - Are web components worth it in 2018?

Web Components
Polymer
Svelte

49:52 - How soon the designers replace React Developers with the invent of tools like Framer X?

Not soon.
Your job is changing and will continually change
SouthPark - They Took Our Jobs!

56:52 - Have you, or anyone you know ever thought of quitting the industry because of difficulties you have run into?

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

Scott: EGO Lawn Tools
Wes: B is for Build YouTube Channel

Shameless Plugs

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Potluck - JS × Web Components × Security × They took our jobs!

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Potluck - JS × Web Components × Security × They took our jobs!