Jorge Vergara

How do you secure your Firebase API keys on client-side apps?

Hey Reader, Do you need to hide your Firebase API keys in your web or mobile apps? About 3 or 4 time a month someone asks this questions, they are worried that since our apps are client-side code (HTML, CSS, JS), someone can see their Firebase credentials and mess with their data. I understand why this is a concern. People want to keep their data private (ALL OF IT!). But there’s one thing we need to know about Firebase API keys. The fact that someone knows your apiKey is not a security risk...

5 months ago • 1 min read

My first look at the NEXT.js App Router coming from years of only using the Angular router

Hey Reader, I started migrating an app to nextjs (coming from an Ionic with Angular background) because I wanted to learn more about the react ecosystem. Last night I went through the routing documentation on their site and created the placeholder files and folders for all the pages my app will need, and doing so, I learned a few things about the App Router that I wanted to share with you. Check out what I've learned about the NEXT.js app router. So far, I like the simplicity of it all,...

5 months ago • 1 min read

Giving react a try after a decade working with Angular

Hey Reader, After a little over a decade of working with Angular (ever since the days of Angular 1, now AngularJS) I decided giving react a serious chance, mostly due to what I’ve seen in my current job search, most of the job posts I see for front end developer have some sort of requirement for react. Yeah, even the “Angular Developer” roles have the line that says “3-4 years with react.js is preferred” 😅 Here is a collection of things I’ve learned about react APIs and how they compare to...

5 months ago • 1 min read

Building full-stack Firebase powered Ionic Apps with Angular

Hey Reader, This is a comprehensive tutorial that walks you through building your a mobile app using Ionic Framework, Angular, and Firebase. Whether you're new to these technologies or looking to refine your skills, this guide will take you through all the steps of setting up a full-stack mobile app, from installing dependencies to handling user authentication with Firebase Here’s what you’ll learn: Setting up Ionic and Firebase in your project. Creating a mobile app that interacts with...

5 months ago • 1 min read

Use native CSS parts to access the shadow DOM in an Ionic component

Hey Reader, Changing the default styles of Ionic components can be a bit tricky since the components all use the shadow DOM, meaning we can't write CSS that targets the components inside the shadow DOM directly. Ionic has custom CSS variables in each component that allows us a lot of customization, and when those aren't enough, they expose CSS parts of the underlying HTML elements that form Ionic components. You can learn how to use shadow parts in this 3 minute video:...

about 1 year ago • 1 min read

Build a PWA from your Ionic application with minimal changes 📱

Hey Reader, One cool thing about Ionic, specially when you're using capacitor, is that a lot of the functionality that you use in your mobile app can also be used for the web. Most of capacitor plugins have a web implementation, which means, you wouldn't have to write extra code to get it to work. Learn how to transform your Ionic app into a PWA. In today's article, you'll learn: How to use the `ng add` schematic to get all the boilerplate done for you. How to edit the `manifest` file to set...