I have a really hard time being fully committed to something if a.) I feel like I can’t give my full effort because I don’t have the necessary skills and/or b.) I’m afraid of how I will be perceived by people. I need to overcome these fears, but to be fair, I have become one hell of a programmer since I last wrote this publication.

MEA(R)N Stack Newsletter is here for good!

Yes, it now has the R(React JavaScript ) but it is silent for this publication. I have to include React because it is what I normally use, but I still like the name MEAN Stack Newsletter the best. Don’t worry, I still use and talk about Angular a lot as well - it would just be a crime to leave React out when this is such a common and awesome tech stack.

It is likely that the MEAN and/or MERN stack is what you learned when you started learning to become a full-stack developer. It is so common that you have to know it or you won’t be taken seriously for web developer jobs. I don’t limit the content around just these tech stacks, but more so around web development in general. I do try to focus on MongoDB, React, Angular, Express, and Nodejs related things, but there is so much going on in web dev that I’d hate to limit it to just these.

I do typically try to include a MEAN or MERN stack tutorial to keep with the theme of the newsletter - this week’s tutorial got lost when my old Lenovo computer crashed and I lost 2 hours of recording it, so I’ll release it later on this week. Enough updates, lets get to the newsletter!

Issue 3 - Awesome Web Dev Stuff

Let’s get started with awesome web development things I found recently - some related to the MEAN/MERN stack, some Jamstack, but all related to web development.

NodeExplained - A Website, powered by Ghost CMS
I was going into one of my 12 hour research and coding projects where I just completely deep dive into some topics and get lost and shot out some Node.js cannon into some other world of doing really awesome things with one of the most time-tested JavaScript frameworks.
This website is one of the best I’ve ever been to, free-information wise. Seriously - plan to spend a long time on this site. I think I was wiping blood off my eyelids or something because I was staring. at this site for so long. That’s crazy - but seriously, this website is top notch - I think it’s the cream of the crop when it comes to technical articles becaue their tutorials are so well written, as well as quite fun.
Nodexplained website
Enhance - Progressive, lightweight, web standards based framework using HTML and JavaScript based components.

Enhance is a brand spanking new, web standards based framwework. Its supposed to allow you to easily build lightweight, flexible, and future-proof web applications. It reminds me a lot of Lit, the framework for making HTML and JavaScript based components that are lightweight.

Enhance is structured so you basically have Pages, APIs, and then elements. Pages are where you route your html files through app. The API section is where you call your API, obviously and finally we have the elements where you have your header and such. The docs will tell you more about how to follow the framework.

I am going to be creating an 11ty starter with a tutorial for this and I will post it to the main page when done.

Contentrain - New Git based CMS with awesome JSON and Markdown creation capabilities.

I love trying out new CMS (content managements systems) that I haven’t used before, so whenver a new one comes out, you can bet I’ll be right there to report on it! While I give headless CMS a slight edge over Git based CMS, Contentrain is another Git based one that makes me really reconsider which style is my favorite.

The Contentrain documentation is still a work in progress, but everything else is pretty polished for how new to the game it is. One thing I really love about Contentrain is that they offer MDX (markdown with JSX based components) which makes it easy to bring life to your markdown files. It also organizes your content into collections, or JSON schemas which is something I really like to use personally for the same task.

They currently have six sarter kits for the following frameworks: NextJS, Docusaurs, GatsbyJS, Hugo, 11ty, and Nuxtjs. They currently offer a free tier which allows you to work on one project and the paid tiers are $39, $249, and custom pricing for enterprise level plans. I am going to be adding it to my personal project documentation for my free project that they offer and will report back with results!

MarkoJS - The JavaScript framework used for Ebay

“Ugh! Another JavaScript framework!” as they all say. Unfortuantely, I love JavaScript frameworks. I’m an advocate of personal choice and I love having as many as possible so everyone can find their perfect little JavaScript niche. MarkoJS is the latest one I have been messing around with and it’s up there for one of my favorites.

MarkoJS is the JavaScript framework used for Ebay, so you know it has to be able to deal with scaling well. There are currently five server integrations that are on its documentation website - Express, KOA, HTTP, Cloudflare and Fastify. There are four bundler integrations as well - Vite, Webpack, Lasso, and Rollup. Adding components is as simple as adding HTML and to make it dynamic, just add good ol’ JavaScript!

My favorite feature of MarkoJS is how you can break up the application UI into it’s components with custom tags. When you put a component into your components/ directory and then call that component in a page, MarkoJS will automatically discover the tag by walking up the folder and finding the tag based on the .marko file the tag is rendered under. I’ve provided an example in the paid version of the newsletter, which you should definitely check out if you want to upgrade your MEA(R)N Stack Newsletter!

If you want more free content by me on MarkoJS, check out my my MarkoJS series on Medium!

RedwoodJS - The app framework for startups

I’ve known about RedwoodJS for sometime now, but I still wanted to mention it because I LOVE this framework. First of all, RedwoodJS is a framework created by the creator and founder of GitHub, Tom Preston Warner. It was created to allow startups to focus on developing their startup by focusing on the key features of their application, rather than focusing on all the framework setup which can quickly become a mess.

RedwoodJS is an opinionated full-stack framework that includes React, GraphQL, Prism ORM, Jest, and Storybook UI. One of the great advantages that Redwood provides its creators is the great community it provides. It allows you to get feedback from others while also having people around to help answer questions you might have regarding the stack.

If you need a tech stack for your framework, check out RedwoodJS! They are giving away $25-50,000 to help startups, especially those focused on promoting diversity and companies that help solve climate issues. Get started with the tutorial to see if RedwoodJS is for you!

Redwood JS Homepage — RedwoodJS - the startup framework

MEAN and MERN Content You’ll Appreciate

Here are some of my favorite articles that I think are worth your time to read:

The new wave of JavaScript frameworks - A well written guide to all the new JavaScript frameworks and how they originated from basic JavaScript.
Popular Software Architecture Patterns - This will help you discover some architecture patterns for your next MEAN or MERN project.
GitHub for Startups is Now Generally Available - GitHub is offering GitHub enterprise for one year now - apply today!
A simple example for NodeJS multiprocessing - Great example of server-side scaling technique that allwos for more than one Node instance running at a time.
Hacktoberfest 2022 is almost here - Get Ready - Use this startup guide to prepare tfor Hacktoberfest 2022!

Sign up for the paid version for my tutorials coming out later this week!

Did you enjoy this newsletter? You will enjoy it even more by signing up for the paid subscription that will be available this week when I release another upgraded version of this newsletter that features tutorials!

I will be creating tutorials for each of the five things I found and you will be able to decide if you like those technologies or not before committing to implementing them. I will be posting that up as soon as I finish creating them. It’s only $5 a month and subscribing to the newsletter helps me out so much more than you know. I’ve been a full-stack developer for almost a year now and I’m still looking for work. If you want ot just donate to my cause head over to my Ko-fi page or sign up for my Patreon.

Thanks for reading! I am excited to release the tutorials and to keep y’all updated on the newsletter!

The MEANStack Developer Newsletter

MEA(R)N Stack Newsletter Issue 3 - The…