Web Front-end

The Raspberry Pi is a little computer that you can get for as low as USD $5 and on which you can run many different types of software and build many different projects. In this article, I’m going to guide you through the process of setting it up as a home development server and deploying a full-stack JavaScript application that you can access from outside your network. This is great for setting up your own remote digital workspace, or simply to have control over the hardware you use for development.

ClojureScript and its multiparadigm approach (with an emphasis on functional programming) may sound esoteric to some front-end developers. But it’s amazing to work with, and getting started with it is far simpler than one might imagine. In this tutorial, Toptal Freelance Clojure Developer Luke Tomlin shows off some key features, getting straight into a React demo using Reagent and the Hiccup syntax.

Angular 6 is out! The most outstanding changes are in its CLI and how services get injected. In this tutorial, Toptal Freelance Angular Developer Joaquin Cid goes over the basic steps of initial setup and then creates a small diary app using Material Design for the front end and Firebase for the back end.

The Ethereum Name Service is a blockchain-backed alternative to the internet’s traditional Domain Name System. If you own a .eth domain, you can deploy smart contracts that let users set up their own subdomains—but then, of course, you’ll want a corresponding ĐApp to make it user-friendly. In this tutorial, Toptal Freelance Ethereum Developer Radek Ostrowski provides complete coverage of this scenario, this time with a focus on ĐApp development.

Static websites offer a host of advantages over dynamic pages in many scenarios, but they can be impractical and tedious to maintain.

In this, Toptal Front-end Developer Silvestar Bistrovic demonstrates how the four most popular static page generators can help.

Hybrid mobile apps may have their limitations, but often it’s well worth the boost in cross-platform consistency and development speed. Apps made with Apache Cordova in particular can further leverage existing web developer skills through the use of Cordova frameworks. This tutorial compares Ionic with Framework7.

CSS is notorious for getting messy quickly as a website scales. While frameworks like Bootstrap can help, SMACSS takes a different approach, as a set of solid organizational guidelines. In this article, Toptal Freelance Front-end Developer Slobodan Gajic gives us a run-down of the idea and benefits behind Jonathan Snook’s architectural wisdom.

In this article, Toptal Freelance JavaScript Developer Nick Chikovani shows how easy it is to perform web scraping using a headless browser. Specifically, he provides a Puppeteer tutorial, going through a few examples of how to control Google Chrome to take screenshots and gather structured data.

Hot module replacement is one of the most useful features offered by Webpack. It allows all kinds of modules, including JSON, CSS, and JS files, to be updated at runtime without needing a full refresh.

In this article, Toptal Freelance JavaScript Developer Shaojiang Cai demonstrates how to use Hot Module Replacement in Redux.

Microsoft and Google have worked together since Angular 2, rendering ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC Razor obsolete. Nevertheless, while ASP.NET’s front-end tools may be lacking, it is still a great back-end framework.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Angular Developer Pablo Albella teaches us how to create the best architecture for both these worlds.

Not everybody likes JavaScript frameworks, nor are they always applicable. But even when we don’t want to or can’t use them, there are some parts that are handy to have.

In this tutorial, Toptal Freelance JavaScript Developer Juan Carlos Arias Ambriz proposes a simple way to recapture some of the benefits of using JSX while working in vanilla JS.

JSON web tokens (JWTs) provide a method of authenticating requests that’s convenient, compact, and secure. More often than not, Angular apps will include them in their data flows.

In this tutorial, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Sebastian Schocke shows how to implement JWT authentication in an Angular 6 single-page application (SPA), complete with a Node.js back-end.

The modern, cross-platform programming language Haxe is well-known in some circles, yet many developers have never heard of it. Since it first appeared in 2005, it’s been battle-tested by its loyal—if rather quiet—following.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Kevin Bloch explores the Haxe ecosystem and how to transpile some sample code.

Despite its age, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) remains a widely used standard in adaptive bitrate video and a de-facto Apple alternative to MPEG-DASH.

In this tutorial, Toptal Java Developer Tomo Krajina explains what makes HLS tick and demonstrates how to create an HLS player in Android.

While preprocessors like Sass and Less have made CSS development easier, there is still a lot to be desired in this modern age of web development.

In this article, Toptal Freelance JavaScript Developer Jeremy Davis explores styled-components—the niftiest CSS-in-JS library.

Mobile applications are creeping in. Developing for each mobile platform can be an exhaustive task, especially if resources are limited. This is where Apache Cordova comes in handy by providing a way to develop mobile applications using standard web technologies - HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. This article explores how one can get started with Apache Cordova and build mobile applications targeted at a wide range of mobile devices.