Late last year I had the opportunity to appear on the CodeNewbies podcast! Saron and I talked about Offline First, and I have to say, she is so cool. She’s a great interviewer and the CodeNewbies community is absolutely fantastic.

If you haven’t heard to the podcast, you can give it a listen here: link.

Offline First is an idea that apps should work in an offline capacity. It doesn’t have to mean that 100% of the app’s features work offline. Instead it can just mean that an app uses a service worker and indexeddb to store off someone’s data in the event of internet loss.

The important takeaway from Offline First is that you consider at the beginniing, what will happen when my app loses connection? It’s important to frame this as when your app loses connection because it will definitely happen to everyone.

Following along with the CodeNewbie chat was incredibly interesting. You can see the story here.

We know from studies that internet access is based on income, but it was really interesting to see that play out in the chat:

A1: Very accessible if you can pay the company’s monopoly price. If not, well no. #CodeNewbie https://t.co/k8kQveqzTs

— SEArndt (@SEArndt) February 14, 2019

A1: I live in a small rural town in ne Minnesota. There are not a lot of options for internet here. It’s better in town and degrades quickly as you get farther out. Our local library has att hot spots folks can check out. And there’s an initiative to increase broad band...1/2

— T Z Drift (@tzottoladrift) February 14, 2019

It was really interesting seeing how many people were affected by a lack of internet, and also their ingenuity for staying connected. Some people mentioned having to use libraries, coffeeshops, or hot spots to learn to code:

A1: Very lucky to have fast Internet now, but had no Internet at home when I was first learning to code -- had to connect via mobile hotspot or mooch office wifi after work. 🙄 #CodeNewbie

— Chrissy Hunt (@whereischrissy) February 14, 2019

At one of my old careers I didn’t have fast/reliable internet at work so I would download conference talks and watch them during down time. #CodeNewbie

— Andrew Cook (@codingwcookie) February 14, 2019

We only got 3g at my house for awhile. most of the time it didn't work so I used my phone to learn to code initially. I snuck to the library whenever my mom would watch my kids.
I sat in my car to interview for my first tech job so I'd have phone service 😅 #CodeNewbie

— Christina Gorton (@coffeecraftcode) February 14, 2019

Toward the end, the conversation shifted to how we have been affected by the internet. Most people said they thought internet access had been positive for them:

A3) Internet is a double edged sword. Internet causes distractions, but it also helps to answer questions and learn new things, so I have to say it absolutely helps a lot!#codenewbie

— Matthew Jacobs (@codingmatty) February 14, 2019

People mentioned being able to communicate in ways we’ve never been able to before.

A3: Sped it up by a LOT - google and stackoverflow are invaluable resources, and being able to jump on a quick video chat with a coworker at any time means we can WFH and still remain productive and collaborative #CodeNewbie

— 👏 Andy 🍁 George 🙏 (@RealAndyGeorge) February 14, 2019

Others mentioned how the internet has changed their lives for the better.

A3: Without access to the internet I would not have learned any computer code whatsoever. The impact of the internet is so immense it's impossible to put into words. #CodeNewbie

— Eric Tillberg (@Thrillberg) February 14, 2019

It was really interesting, though, to see people talking about how internet has become a bit of a “double-edged sword”.

A4: I often wonder if I'd be just as good without it. Some positive things but also many negative. The time suck effect in particular. Taking away from other things that may be more valuable in the longer haul. #CodeNewbie

— Dennis Keim (@denniskeim) February 14, 2019

Q3: When connections are slow, my ability to access resources (SO, blogs, Slack) and productivity are impacted and I become very frustrated.

— El Otro Alondo (@abrewing) February 14, 2019

In terms of my life, the internet has been a source of distraction and major temptations but from a work and money making stand point the internet has given rise to opportunity after opportunity to make extra money. For my coding journey, the internet is vital. #codenewbie

— warrick bowman jr (+PST+) (@WarrickB_Qaatil) February 14, 2019

A3: Everything speeds up with the speed of the internet as we become more and more dependent on it! But it also stops abruptly the moment the internet goes out! #codeNewbie

— Aditya Bharadwaj (@Adibharadwaj26) February 14, 2019

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go on CodeNewbies and help shed some light on this issue. This conversation just puts real faces on the issue of inconsistent internet access. We know what the studies say, but seeing how many people throughout the conversation dealt with not having good access or a slow connection really drove the point home.

Thanks for having me, CodeNewbies!

If you want to learn everything you need to know about service workers, head over to serviceworkerbook.com and order my book, “Let’s Take This Offline”! Be sure to use indexeddb for 10% off!

Last week I was at KCDC and it was absolutely amazing. I was lucky enough to not only attend, but also to speak about something near and dear to my heart – Offline First techniques. This time I was talking about using IndexedDB.

I’ve written about the importance of offline availability here. Offline First offers a kind way to handle a user’s loss of connection – something over which they have little to no control. And even more than that – implementing Offline First techniques can help people, which I’ve written about here.

Before we dive into any code, let’s talk about IndexedDB’s structure. I think IndexedDB is more similar to NoSQL, rather than traditional relational SQL. So let’s delve into how IndexedDB data is stored.

Each web app can have multiple IndexedDB databases, which are made up of Object Stores. An Object Store is kind of like a table, but it doesn’t use columns. It’s a place to store Objects, which will probably look similar to a server response or ajax request. Later on, we’ll look at some examples.

Within an Object Store, there are Indexes. An Index is a defined property within an Object Store. It’s a little bit like a column, except that it doesn’t have a defined type, nor does it require a type.

Indexes have various properties which can be applied to them. A few common ones include autoIncrement, unique, and keyPath. When we apply autoIncrement to an Index, the Index will create something similar to an auto-incrementing ID in SQL. I mentioned before that Indexes don’t have type requirements, but every rule needs an exception. When we use autoIncrement our Index will always be a number. However, we don’t need to specify a type for this to happen, nor do we need to pass in a number, as IndexedDB is going to handle that for us.

Another handy property we can apply is unique. unique allows us to specify whether or not an Index value can be duplicated. So for instance, if we wanted a list of email addresses, we might say that the email Index would be unique. This would keep any duplicates from being added. In the event that someone tries to add an email that is already in our Object Store, the email (and associated record) won’t be added. This helps protect the integrity of the data.

The last property we’ll discuss here is keyPath. The keyPath property allows us to define a sort of “master” Index within our Object Store. It’s a little similar to a primary key in a SQL table, but like most Indexes, does not require a specified type. Defining an Index as a keyPath allows us to look up records directly by that property.

Using our email example from before, if we specified the email address Index as our Object Stores keyPath, we could look up “ceo@bigdealcompany.com” directly, and get that record. If the keyPath for a record were a name instead, we would need to look up “Patricia CEO” to find the email address. Specifically, we cannot directly look up records via an Index that has not been defined as a keyPath.

Now that we have a good idea of IndexedDB’s structure, we’ll look at some code in the next post.

Thanks so much for reading! If you liked this post, you should head on over to serviceworkerbook.com and buy my book! Be sure to use indexeddb for 10% off!

Earlier today I was lucky enough to speak at 200OK in Tulsa. My talk, Mapping The Internet, is about a project I’ve been working on called MargieMap.

MargieMap is a visualization of United States census tracts by income. It also layers libraries on top of the census tracts. I used Mapbox to host the map tiles. The income data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau and the library data came from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

I’m planning to open source the data I’ve gathered, but I haven’t found a suitable (read: affordable) way to do that yet.

Why income?

I’ve been interested in the correlation between income and internet access for a long time. A lack of Internet Access contributes to the Homework Gap.

Of course a lack of internet access isn’t limited to households with school-aged children, nor are it’s challenges. According to a 2015 Pew Research Study nearly 20 percent of adults in the United States are smartphone-dependent – meaning they do not have access to the Internet outside of their smartphone.

These individuals reported using their phone for a multitude of things including job searches and looking up medical conditions. A large number of these individuals also reported losing their cell phone data due to cost.

With internet access being so prevalent, it’s hard for some developers to imagine not having connection, but the truth is – everyone will lose connection. Losing connection is something that is almost completely beyond a person’s control. Unfortunately, it’s usually beyond the control of the person when they’ll regain their connection.

Why libraries?

Free wifi is a very common feature for restaurants and coffee shops, but the truth is that wifi isn’t really free. Patrons of the establishment are expected to buy things in order to hang out and use the wifi.

Public libraries are one of the few places a person can go and use the internet without having to pay for a meal or a drink – which is really important if someone is unemployed and searching for jobs online. There are so many reasons why someone might need to use the internet – to research an illness, pay bills, or research for school. Fortunately, public libraries offer internet access without a fee.

How can I use the map?

The map has categorized incomes by color – low incomes are heavy blue and fade as the median income increases. Higher incomes start off light and turn into a heavy pink. You can search by zip code, city, or state and see the incomes in that area. If you click on an area on the map, you’ll see the median individual income for that tract.

You might also notice orange dots scattered around the map – those are public libraries. The goal of the map was to visualize the income data along with libraries and see if there’s any correlation between income and libraries.

What’s next?

I’ve gotten data for all 50 states onto the map, but I also have data for U.S. territories as well. I plan to map the income data for the territories, but I’ve been struggling to find a list of libraries for the territories. If you know where I could find this data, please let me know!

Starting small, I’d like to find high/low incomes for the country, and for each state as well. Once I have that, I’ll be able to focus on those income tracts and see if they have libraries and how many.

There’s so much I want to do with this data – MargieMap is just the first step. I’m very excited to see what all I learn, and I’ll be sure to blog about it too!

** I would be remiss if I didn’t mention all the help I got from Devin Clark. Devin is a JavaScript dev with a specific interest in geo and mapping, and he was a great resource on mapping tools. Thanks Devin! **

I’ve been considering moving off of Github Pages for a while because of issues with HTTPS not working with custom domains.

But Github Pages makes everything so easy! Just push to the repository where my code would live anyway and boom, it’s done. So when they introduced HTTPS for custom domains, I was ecstatic!

The only problem was, I couldn’t find specific steps all in one place for how to do it. So I wrote down what I did here so you don’t have to have six tabs open like I did.

1. If you see an error about not being able to use HTTPS, check your DNS provider.

You probably need to change the IP address your domain’s A record is pointed to. A list of IP address you can use is available here.

2. Go into your repos settings and delete the custom URL and save.

2.1 While still on this page, re-add the custom URL and save.

This will trigger the CNAME file being deleted from your repo, and then re-added which will trigger the HTTPS availability.

3. While still on the settings page, click Enable HTTPS underneath your custom url.

This took a couple of minutes for me (less than 5 minutes) because they had to generate the certificate. Once the certificate is generated, you’ll be about to click the checkbox.

Aaaaand, voila! You now have HTTPS enabled on your site.

Vive la Github Pages!

Questions? Tweet me!

A pretty typical beginner dilemma: you’re completely stumped by an issue with your code. You’ve tried multiple solutions, but nothing is working. You’re stumped.

But, you’re also worried about reaching out for help because you don’t want to reach out too often. What can you do?

Well, if you’re in this situation, I hope firstly that you have someone more experienced you can reach out to. That helps tremendously. Mentors can be found at local usergroups (you can check meetup to find usergroups in your area) or even online using coding forums.

If you’ve already secured a mentor, you’re ahead of the curve! But if you’re worried about asking too many questions, it can be tough to know when you should keep working on a problem versus when it’s been long enough and you should ask.

Some people advocate a time-based system. Something like, “don’t spend more than X hours on a problem.” I propose another system – one that isn’t time-based.

A system that has worked for me in the past is to try three things before asking any question. It’s important to also write down what you’re trying and the result you’re getting.

This has multiple benefits. Firstly it gives you an exact template to use if you aren’t sure how to ask your question. You can simply tell your mentor that you tried X and then Y happened, but you were hoping for Z outcome. This will help your mentor because they can review what you’ve been attempting and put themselves into your mindset. They’ll understand better where your confusion lies and be able to explain the issue – and hopefully the solution – in a way you’ll understand.

The other benefit is, in my opinion, even more important and beneficial. I’ve found this method very helpful because usually the act of trying something and documenting the outcome will give you something to search for online. That, in turn, will point you in another direction – quite possibly the direction you need to go! Oftentimes I didn’t even need to ask for help because this method would lead me to an answer, or at the very least a different problem. Often when you’re stuck on one problem, getting a different error will feel like progress!

One last point I want to make is how important your mentor is. A good mentor will be able to tell you to take a break and come back to the issue or tell you to keep working on a problem because you’re close. They won’t belittle your attempts or make you feel stupid because you didn’t come to the answer on your own.

It’s perfectly fine, even encouraged, to be conscientious of someone else’s time. However if you feel like you can’t approach someone because they make you feel less than, go find a new mentor.

I hope this helps. If you have questions, feel free to tweet me!