Send Emails In A NativeScript App Via The Mailgun API

I get this question a lot, not necessarily for NativeScript, but for other mobile frameworks. The question is, how do you send emails from within your Android and iOS application without launching one of the already installed mail apps? In other words how do you send emails via a custom form within the application or in the background?

A solution to this question would be to use a backend web server that can send mail and create an API endpoint to it that can be accessed from your mobile app. However, this solution takes work and other resources. Instead you can make use of a transactional email service.

There are many of these email services available, but for this example we’re going to look at using the Mailgun service in a NativeScript application.

The Developer Community Gives Back

I’ve been writing developer related content for a few years now, most of which I distribute for free. Sure I have some donation requests around this blog, but I never demand any and I try not to force it on you. I enjoy helping the developer community, and more, I enjoy creating a healthy developer community that helps each other.

This is a short story on how the developer community that I created, heard my request for help, and offered to lend me their skills.

Use SQLite To Save Data In A Telerik NativeScript App

Not too long ago I wrote a tutorial regarding saving data in a NativeScript mobile application using the application settings module that closely resembled that of HTML5 local storage. If you’re not familiar with the application settings module, it is persisted storage using key value pairs. What if you wanted a storage option that was a bit more query friendly? Like other hybrid app platforms, NativeScript supports SQLite for persisted data as well.

Both iOS and Android supports SQLite and since Telerik NativeScript can interface directly with native APIs, it becomes possible to use SQLite. We don’t need to write all the interface logic by hand because there happens to be a nice plugin available to make our life easier.

We’re going to see how to make use of SQLite in an Android and iOS NativeScript application using the available SQLite plugin.

Unit Testing In A Telerik NativeScript Mobile App

Unit testing! It’s something that we as developers all understand the importance of and implement in every project, right?

cough

Anyway… did you know NativeScript supports unit testing out of the box? It’s true!

By unit testing your application, you can ensure that any changes you’ve made to your code are working properly and that they haven’t broken any previous code. You could also integrate it into your Continuous Integration process and automate the running of your tests on a regular basis, or on each code check in!

TPDP Episode #4: What is All This Mobile First, Offline First, and API First Jargon?

There are a lot of “first” approaches circulating in the development and design space at the moment, but what does all this jargon mean? In this episode of the Polyglot Developer Podcast, guest speaker William Hoang and I are going to explore some of the common practices such as mobile first, offline first, and API first. I’ve broken Episode #4: What is All This Mobile First, Offline, First, and API First Jargon? into the following parts:

• What is the Mobile First Approach?
• What is the API First Approach?
• What is the Offline First Approach?

At the end of the podcast William and I bring everything together and explain how all of them are necessary in modern application development.

Use Hugo To Create Awesome Static Websites And Blogs

You might not know this, but I run another blog on a completely different subject material than The Polyglot Developer. This other blog is called Own the Web and it focuses on brand building, searching engine optimization, and boosting your online revenue through the internet. Unlike The Polyglot Developer, Own the Web was actually created using the Hugo Static Website Engine.

I want to share information about Hugo, some of the advantages and disadvantages, and my experience using it.

Phlat Theme For The Hugo Static Website Engine Released

I am pleased to announce that I created my first ever Hugo Static Website Engine theme called Phlat. This is not only my first Hugo theme, but the first theme I’ve ever created.

Before talking about the theme itself I want to give a quick background on Hugo since this is the first time I’ve mentioned it on The Polyglot Developer.