Author: Nic Raboy

Convert An Uploaded Image To A Base64 String In Node.js

February 26, 2016 Nic Raboy

Not too long ago I wrote about uploading files to a Node.js server that was making use of the Multer middleware. In that scenario the files were saved to the file system and even though I didn’t demonstrate it, in theory the file metadata would be stored in a database. What if you wanted to store the files in a database as a base64 string instead of on the file system?

We’re going to take a look at what it would take to allow file uploads in Node.js and convert them into base64 strings for database storage.

Share Things On Social Media Via An Ionic Mobile App

February 24, 2016 Nic Raboy

Recently one of my subscribers asked me if I could refresh the social media sharing article that I wrote for Ionic Framework 1 to work with Ionic 2. Since I’m already in the process of rewriting all my posts to Ionic 2, I figured now is a good time to do so.

In case you hadn’t seen my previous post, it is still worth checking out. In either scenario, the goal we’re going to accomplish here is sharing messages, images, and links via social media outlets on Android and iOS within an Ionic 2 mobile app that uses Angular.

Why You Should Not Use Ionic Serve For Hybrid Apps

February 23, 2016 Nic Raboy

I’ve written a lot of Ionic Framework and Ionic 2 blog articles and have answered even more questions and troubleshooted more problems. When it comes to Ionic Framework, if I had to estimate, I’d say about 80% of the time the problems were related to the Ionic Service solution that the Ionic team offers.

I’ve written a post similar to this before on the topic of properly testing your Ionic Framework applications, but since it’s alarming how many people are still running into these issues I think it is worth bringing up again.

Using The Onymos Media Component In Your Ionic Framework App

February 22, 2016 Nic Raboy

A few years back I demonstrated how to use the device camera in an Android and iOS application developed with Ionic Framework. Being able to take photos wasn’t particularly difficult, but it left a lot to be desired. This is where the Media component by Onymos comes into play.

So what is the Onymos Media component?

The Onymos Media component extends the media features offered by the Apache Cordova camera plugin. It will correct common orientation issues for photos and videos captured from the various platforms and devices, it allows access to the various internal directories on Android, and it offers advanced compression features. The component also offers tight integration with Amazon S3 for storing media online.

Per the Onymos website, the Media component reduces the time it takes to get an application released to the market and in turn saves in development costs. Paired with the component’s continuous updates, your application will always be functional.

We’re going to see how to take pictures within our application using the Onymos Media component and upload them to Amazon S3 with ease. Everything you see below can easily be expanded to videos as the Onymos Media component can accomplish the same tasks with video as well.

Use The HTTP Module Instead Of Fetch In NativeScript

February 18, 2016 Nic Raboy

Not too long ago I wrote about using the NativeScript fetch module for making HTTP requests in an Android and iOS mobile application. Personally I find that the fetch module is a bit awkward to use, so this time we’re going to take a look at using the http module instead.

The great thing about the NativeScript http module is that it is pretty much the same as it is in the other languages.

Create A Podcast Episode With GarageBand For Mac

February 16, 2016 Nic Raboy

As you may know, I recently started two different podcasts. Let’s not confuse these with podcast episodes as I’m talking about shows. I started The Polyglot Developer Podcast and The NoSQL Database Podcast. Creating a podcast has been something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and it turns out it wasn’t very complicated to do.

Using GarageBand for Mac, which is free, I’m able to produce high quality podcast episodes with minimal amounts of time. The two shows that I produced have been very successful, so I thought I’d share my methods.

Monetize With Google Admob In An Ionic Mobile App

February 14, 2016 Nic Raboy

So you made a shiny new app and want to earn some money from it. The paid revenue model may not be the best fit for you, so instead you might want to consider ads. The more popular Google Admob solution makes advertising incredibly simple and best of all it can be used within an Ionic 2 Android and iOS application.

If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you’ll know that I wrote about using Admob in an Ionic Framework 1 mobile app a while back. Things have changed since then, both in the framework and the particular plugin used.