Author: Nic Raboy

Developing Alexa Skills with MongoDB and Golang

January 31, 2020 Nic Raboy

The popularity of Amazon Alexa and virtual assistants in general is no question, huge. Having a web application and mobile application isn't enough for most organizations anymore, and now you need to start supporting voice operated applications.

So what does it take to create something for Alexa? How different is it from creating a web application?

In this tutorial we're going to see how to create an Amazon Alexa Skill, also referred to as an Alexa application, that interacts with a MongoDB cluster using the Go programming language (Golang) and AWS Lambda.

Automating a Brand with Automate.io, Social Media, and Email Marketing

January 21, 2020 Nic Raboy

When it comes to blogging or running any kind of brand or business, you're going to find a certain rhythm in the activities that you do to keep it functioning. Many of these activities are simple, repetitive, and time consuming over the long term. In certain circumstances, the activities can be automated without needing your intervention.

I know what you're thinking. For what possible reason could a marketing automation entry on The Polyglot Developer make any sense, since The Polyglot Developer is known for development related topics. While not really a technical topic, you have to remember that The Polyglot Developer is a brand that needs to find its way into the eyes of a technical audience.

In this article, you're going to learn about how I'm using various marketing and automation tools to create workflows that reduce some of the repetitive tasks that happen daily.

My Activity Report For 2019

December 31, 2019 Nic Raboy

It has been another great year for technology and The Polyglot Developer. Like I've done in a 2018 activity report, and the years before it, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on all that was accomplished for the 2019 calendar year.

If you're unfamiliar with this kind of post, it is more or less a numbers report for the various things that happened throughout the year. Such things include blog, podcast, and YouTube metrics, as well as information around events and speaking engagements.

Not only is this an opportunity for me to keep track of things, but you can use it as an opportunity to learn about how I've conducted business and apply it towards your own.

The Community Contributions of 2019

December 25, 2019 Nic Raboy

Last year, in my article titled, The Community Contributions of 2018, I highlighted 11 tutorials that were contributed by the community. To show my appreciation towards the guest contributors on The Polyglot Developer, I wanted to highlight the content that they've produced in 2019.

If you found any of the following tutorials valuable, I encourage you to reach out to the author on social media and thank them for taking the time to produce such great content.

Generate Images from HTML with Gulp and Puppeteer

December 5, 2019 Nic Raboy

Have you ever needed to generate an image from your HTML? Whether it be for design purposes or for marketing purposes with social media, knowing how to get a screenshot of your HTML design without manually taking the screenshot can be a great thing.

A use-case I was interested in was around feature graphics for each of my blog posts. Sure I could open a graphic design tool like Affinity Photo, or use the same feature graphic for every tutorial, but what if I wanted to automatically generate them based on certain criteria?

In this tutorial we're going to see how to use Puppeteer to take screenshots of our HTML through a headless Gulp task.

Maps and Location Services with HERE by Example, Released

November 27, 2019 Nic Raboy

I'm pleased to announce that a new course has been published, this time on the subject of maps and various location services. This course titled, Maps and Location Services with HERE by Example, focuses on building web applications using JavaScript and products by HERE Technologies.

In this course you'll see many step by step examples on how to work with interactive maps, geocode and reverse geocode locations, calculate different types of routes, and more.

Checking for Unchecked Errors within Golang Applications

November 13, 2019 Nic Raboy

When it comes to error handling in the Go programming language (Golang), they can either be incredible or a miserable nightmare in terms of management. You can choose to embrace them and check if they are nil every opportunity that you have, or you can ignore them with an underscore. However, what happens in those circumstances where you didn't even know the function returned something?

Regardless of the story, checking for errors is a good thing, even if you hate doing it. In this tutorial we're going to see how to scan your code for missed opportunities when it comes to error checking using a nifty open source tool.