Consume Remote API Data Via HTTP In A Vue.js Web Application

When building a modern web application, chances are that you’ll need to consume data from some remote resource, whether it be one that you’ve built or something someone else built. Sending HTTP requests is one of the more popular ways to send data from client facing applications to RESTful API backends.

We’re going to see how to send HTTP requests within a Vue.js web application, using a variety of techniques such as those found in the popular axios and vue-resource libraries.

Consume Remote API Data From Within A Node.js Application

Not too long I wrote about consuming remote API data using Golang. However, as you know, I’m also a heavy Node.js developer as well. So how do we issue HTTP requests from within a Node.js application and why might you want to. The simple answer is that you might want to consume someone else’s data within your web application and you can’t just do that like you would in a browser-based application using Ajax or similar.

We’re going to see how to make HTTP requests possible within Node.js.

Building A RESTful API With Node.js And Hapi Framework

Back when I was really getting into the swing of Node.js, I had written about creating a simple RESTful API that made use of the Express framework. Express was, and still is, one of the most popular frameworks for creating web applications with Node.js. However, this doesn’t mean it is the best solution.

Recently I’ve been hearing a lot around Hapi for Node.js. The common feedback that I hear is that it is specifically designed for creating RESTful web services making them significantly easier to create without as much boilerplate code.

We’re going to see how to create a simple API using Hapi as well as packages such as Joi for request validation.

Getting Familiar with Gulp for Workflow Automation

I’ve been developing web applications for as long as I can remember and there are certain repetitive tasks that I do between the development and deployment of each final product. For example, current web standards demand that web resources like CSS, and JavaScript be minified or images be compressed. We could easily do this by hand or with helper applications, but why would you want to?

Instead, repetitive tasks can, and should, be transformed into an automated workflow, something that is particularly useful when it comes to continuous integration and continuous deployment.

We’re going to see how to create a an automated workflow using the Gulp toolkit to do simple tasks like cleaning, minification, copying, altering, and even deploying projects.

Unit Testing a Node.js Application with the Jasmine Testing Framework

When building an application, regardless if it is mobile, web, or neither, it is a good idea to come up with a collection of tests that can be used in a continuous integration scenario. I must admit, I don’t have the best habits when it comes to writing tests, but I’m sure my applications would be significantly better if I did.

Previously I had written about unit testing in Golang as well as unit testing in NativeScript with Angular. This time around it makes sense to talk about writing tests in Node.js, another technology that I have in my tool belt.

Validate Form Submissions In Node.js With Google reCAPTCHA

Anyone that operates a website or web application with a contact page knows how bad the SPAM problem on the internet is. Spammers, phishers, and other malicious people create bots that will crawl search engines for contact forms and send emails to the hosts, register accounts, or something else. There was a point in time that I was receiving more than ten emails a day from spammers that wanted to redesign my website. This kind of activity is incredibly annoying on my inbox.

This is where CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA form elements come into play. These elements typically require some interaction such as typing words from an image or solving a math problem. Adding this small amount of form complexity can go a long way towards stopping bots.

We’re going to see how to hook up a Google reCAPTCHA element into a client facing form and validate that element using a Node.js backend.

Implement 2FA With Time-Based One-Time Passwords In A Node.js API

Not too long ago I wrote about authenticating within a Node.js API using Json Web Tokens (JWT). The basis of the example is around authenticating via a username and password and receiving a JWT for every future request against the API. While that example is incredibly useful and follows best practice, it doesn’t cover the scenario where you’d like to have a two-factor authentication (2FA) option for your users. In case you’re unfamiliar, 2FA is a second layer of protection for accounts made possible by a time-based token generated by a shared secret key.

We’re going to see how to add a two-factor authentication option to our Node.js API while continuing to use Json Web Tokens.