Blog Posts

Environment variables are essential for configuring your Node.js applications, allowing you to tailor settings for different environments like development, testing, and production. While you can set environment variables directly in your system or terminal, a more elegant and organized approach is to use a .env file. This file allows you to store all your environment variables in one central location, keeping them separate from your code and making it easy to manage different configurations.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve into the world of environment variables in Node.js, explore the role of the popular dotenv package, and uncover how to use it effectively. We'll also explore the native way of accessing environment variables in Node.js 20+ using ESM (EcmaScript Modules). Let's get started!

Working with dates and times is a common task in software development. In JavaScript, you have the built-in Date object, but it can be a bit cumbersome and has its quirks. There are third-party libraries like date-fns to help manipulate and format dates in JavaScript. However, the fundamental task of comparing two dates can be quickly done using the built-in methods, as you will learn in this post. You will start from the basics and move to use a third-party library, date-fns, for date comparison in JavaScript. Buckle up!

Reading a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) file in Node.js is a common task for web developers, especially those working with backend and server-side applications. This tutorial will guide you through the process, breaking down the steps to efficiently read JSON files using both the native Node.js fs module and the fs-extra npm package. Let's dive into the world of JSON file handling and equip you with the knowledge to tackle this task seamlessly!

Writing code is a small part of your job as a software engineer. You will also be communicating and managing expectations. In this post, you will learn about where software engineers get blocked while executing a task and how you (as a product person) can unblock them. You will also figure out ways to unblock yourself as a software engineer. Let’s get started!

When writing unit tests for your JavaScript code, especially when dealing with time-dependent functionalities, it's crucial to control and mock the behavior of the native Date object. This ensures that your tests are deterministic and produce consistent results regardless of the current date and time. In this guide, you'll learn the easiest way to mock Date in Jest without installing any extra NPM packages. This approach leverages Jest's built-in mocking capabilities with Fake timers and setting the system date, making it simple and efficient to control the time within your tests. Let’s get started!