Including and excluding files in your npm package

Introduction

After publishing an article on developing and publishing an npm package using TypeScript, I received a suggestion on Twitter to “create .npmignore in addition to .gitignore or else your dist won’t be included (if dist is in .gitignore).” While this is true (you don’t need to add a .npmignore file if you’re using the files field in the package.json file), given that all three approaches affect what get’s included in your npm package, I wrote this article to try and demystify the process.

Let’s take a look at these scenarios to understand…

We’ll also cover unit testing, test coverage, and code analysis

Introduction

Ever wondered how to publish your very own npm package to the npmjs.com registry? In this article, I’ll take you through the step-by-step process. We’ll start by developing a very simple npm package using TypeScript. Next, we’ll add unit tests to confirm the accuracy of the functionality we’re developing and while we’re at it, we’ll also produce a test coverage report. After that, we’ll use static code analyzers to help us improve our code quality. Finally, we’ll make use of some command-line magic to publish this package to npmjs.com. Doesn’t…

Getting the most of your time spent on social media

Introduction

If you’ve watched The Social Dilemma, it becomes apparent that the goal of social media giants is to keep you on their platform for the longest time. Based on your likes, interests, engagements, time of the day and so many other factors, the intelligent computers running complex algorithms are able to show you more content that you might find interesting and keep you active by giving you regular dopamine shots. …

And resolving a malformed Azure DevOps Extension package error

Introduction

I was recently updating my Azure DevOps Extension that I had published in the Visual Studio Marketplace. The last time I made an update to this extension was in 2019 but I already had everything in place including a DevOps pipeline, so I thought this should be easy. Well, almost. When I got to publishing the extension, I encountered an error. This article aims at unpacking the error and the solution applied to fix this.

Problem

I made my changes, all the unit tests passed and even the build pipeline generated a…

Spin up a WordPress website within minutes

Introduction

While creating WordPress content for my YouTube channel, I relied on using my Azure experience to host a WordPress website. This works out great because with just a few clicks and at no extra cost, I can spin up a WordPress website very easily, and once I’ve completed recording my video content, I can delete all the resources. In this article, I’ll give you a quick introduction on WordPress and then I’ll explain the process of installing WordPress on an Azure App Service.

Wait, what’s WordPress?

WordPress is a very popular CMS software that you can…

A neat and fast way to convert your Word document to HTML

Introduction

I’ve come across this problem multiple times now, maybe a few of you have faced the same too. I’m talking about that time when you were sent a Word document and were told to transfer its contents onto a website. Yes, that time. What did you do? Did you copy-paste the contents and then typed the HTML tags by hand? What if I told you that there was a better way? Don’t believe me? Read on to be delighted.

Problem

Imagine you’ve been given multiple pages worth of content…

Includes generating an API from Markdown files and a lot more

Introduction

Earlier this month, I released a major update to my website that I had been working on for many months. This update was packed with a lot of technical changes like rewriting and redesigning my website, adding an API to host my portfolio information, adding multiple other microsites and a lot more. This article aims to unpack all of these technical changes and hopes to inspire other minds that might read this.

Never miss an invoice or an important email with Microsoft Power Automate

Introduction

I’ve been using Microsoft Power Automate for a while now to keep track of my monthly utility and energy bills, as well as other important communication. This way, I don’t forget to pay the bills, I don’t forget to respond to important emails, and copies of these emails are stored and organized in Trello; making it easy for me to search through the archives. The image below is a workflow that I designed for my personal situation. …