The 3 people who are probably reading this site may have noticed that there is now a “padlock” showing (depending on browser) along with the site address (URL). Yes I finally got around to making this a “secure” site not that it needed it because here is no login or much of anything else that needed it. But I figured as long as “Let’s Encrypt” SSL certificates are free I might as well do it. Why pay my hosting service to run a script to do that? Of course their certificates are good for a year and the free ones only 90 days but the certificate provider I used will email you in advance of the expiration of the certificate so it may be updated for another 90 days.

About the only thing that needed fixing here was the URL reference in the config file change to HTTPS and once that was done and the site generated all pages with the old URL reference were updated.

One of the reasons I got around to this was a need for support form in the apps I sell. Would you believe I get this emails saying “the app don’t work”? So which app? Which platform? The support form is a web page on my hosting site. It worked from a webview flawlessly unless I wanted to publish the app. Then it threw a CLEARTEXT exception. This on Android and iOS just won’t show the page. Best solution was to make the domain that page was on SSL. That took care of the problem.

That page grabs the app name, version and platform version and includes it in the email which is sent to me. So no need to ask back “which app and which platform?” Apparently some of my customers thought I was more psychic than I am.

As many of us know the software industry is always filled with buzzwords and the latest trends. I often like to check out what is new and see if there is any opportunity for fun, learning and maybe some extra income.

I’ve mentioned that I like Xamarin for cross platform development. But there are other solutions looking to compete in that market too. One is React which uses JavaScript to do things from websites to native mobile apps. Chances are if you’re a software developer reading this you already may know more about React than I do or am going to present so bear with me.

To be clear a lot of React uses TypeScript which “typed” JavaScript and therefore much more organized than basic JavaScript. It lets you set things up in classes. I had a hand at TypeScript before trying React and didn’t find it all that daunting. And I have been using JavaScript for years in site and web apps including some HTML5 games.

React is also set up in a way like Xamarin in that your have a root App file in JavaScript (Xamarin has a root App.cs C# file). React renders as does Xamarin.

Regarding “buzzwords”, a few years back I looked at a small mobile project which the client wanted done with Unity 3D. I thought Unity was a bit overkill for what they wanted but got the impression someone (probably NOT a software engineer) told them “it was the way to go”. The app was not 3D but 2D. Hence overkill and Unity has a big player more suited for games.

So now the “buzzword” seems to be “have them use React as it is the way to go.” In this case it might be true for mobile apps. But I’ll see as things progress.

React has been around for awhile but it was fun looking at and trying some tutorials only to find you couldn’t finish them because even though only a year old they were already out-of-date! What I found it was best just to go to the React website and go through their tutorials and examples because they are maintained!

https://reactjs.org/