aKa Web Design

Sencha Cmd post-build Ant utilities

Arthur Kay — Tue, 28 May 2013 15:37:20 +0000

If you're using Sencha Cmd for your Ext JS or Sencha Touch application, then you may be somewhat familiar with the build.xml file. This file is auto-generated by Sencha Cmd when you create a new project and allows you to add all kinds of hooks into the Sencha build process (which runs on top of Ant). Over the past several months I've seen a number of ways in which developers are using their build.xml file to customize their production builds - and I thought I would share one with you today. Continue reading →

LintRoller v2.3.0 has been released!

Arthur Kay — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:20:17 +0000

A few days ago, I released LintRoller v2.3.0 – and to celebrate it’s new features, I thought it would be cool to post a screencast. New Features in v2.3.0: Now enforcing strict mode on LintRoller src files Now supporting multiple … Continue reading →

First thoughts on AngularJS and Testing

Arthur Kay — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:43:19 +0000

As I prepare for my "End-to-End Unit Testing for Web Developers" presentation at 2013 Chicago Code Camp, I thought it would be a cool idea to try something new. That something is AngularJS - and since I'm only a few days into this experience, I thought I'd write down some initial thoughts. Continue reading →

aKa Web Design: Facelift 2013

Arthur Kay — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:00:05 +0000

Today I pushed my new website theme live! There's a lot of exciting things to mention about my new theme, so let's take a dive into what has changed. Continue reading →

LintRoller v2.2.2 Released

Arthur Kay — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:16:20 +0000

For those of you who use my LintRoller tool, I’ve just added a new feature in v2.2.2. LintRoller.util.removeBOM() I recently ran into JSLint’s awesome “Unsafe character” error in a project involving more than 300 JavaScript classes. Every single class had … Continue reading →

Building Unit Tests for Sencha Apps

Arthur Kay — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:41:11 +0000

Building Unit Tests for Sencha Apps from Sencha on Vimeo. Slides Give Feedback! If you’re interested in building unit tests for web applications, check out my recent webinar for Sencha. The presentation is specifically targeted at Sencha applications, but the … Continue reading →

2013: New Year’s Resolutions

Arthur Kay — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:06:29 +0000

This year marks 5 years (minus one I forgot) that I've posted my New Year's resolutions online. Overall I think this strategy helps to keep me accountable... and generally speaking, I think I'm getting better at hitting these goals. Continue reading →

JavaScript Console API – Browser Differences

Arthur Kay — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:58:59 +0000

Recently I was asked by a client to if using console.log() would be appropriate in enterprise web applications. Not everyone agrees with me, but my opinion is simple: Production applications should rarely, if ever, use the console API. I don't think these statements should ever be checked into version control - they clutter your code, and ultimately make debugging more difficult (because you have to ignore console messages unrelated to a given problem). Additionally, I have seen errors reported in Internet Explorer by the console object - runtime errors that are in effect bugs in your code. We went on to discuss the console API and how it offers more than just the standard console.log() method. That got me thinking... even though the major browsers seem to support a consistent console API, are there any actual differences in the implementations? Continue reading →

Free Airport WIFI and Chicago Tech

Arthur Kay — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 01:26:58 +0000

Minneapolis, Boston, San Francisco, Cleveland. What do these four cities have in common? The airports at these cities all have free WIFI in the terminals. Notice that Chicago is not on the list. Continue reading →

LintRoller v2.2.1

Arthur Kay — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 03:19:32 +0000

After some additional work over the past few days, I’ve added support for Esprima to LintRoller. At this point, you can run JSLint, JSHint and/or Esprima simultaneously on your entire JavaScript codebase! Version 2.2.1 includes breaking changes (again… sorry), but … Continue reading →