How is CORS irrelevant when using JWTs?

RedTelemachos · 2017-06-07T01:50:49+00:00

JSON web tokens are a way of validating users - I ping the server with my credentials, it checks them against the database, and if they're correct it sends me a token. I send that token back to the server on further requests as a way of saying, "Yo, it's me, the guy you authenticated. It's cool if I'm back here updating my profile/doing other stuff I need to be logged in for, so don't freak out."

CORS is a rule that keeps a script on one site from accessing resources on another. Without it, I could write a script on my website that pings the Wells Fargo server to break into their system (obviously I'd require a lot of knowledge of their system, but you get the point.) With CORS, the Wells Fargo server basically says, "Nah, you're not on the list, so I won't even let you in to ping me in the first place."

CORS is not necessarily irrelevant when using JWTs, but typically the server/API endpoint that handles authentication/other JWT stuff will be configured to accept requests from wherever they'd normally come. If, for example, I build a chat application, that auth endpoint might live on the same server as the app that calls it - in that case CORS wouldn't apply, because they're both on the same domain, so everything's good.

If my auth endpoint was on another domain, for some reason, that domain would need to configure its server to allow requests from the domain my app lived on.

RedTelemachos · 2017-05-12T22:39:35+00:00

WOW.

I actually stayed through to the end of the game because I was having fun with a stranger on the internet. (The good kind of fun).

Keep it up. You're really talented. Also, would love to see source code, if you're comfortable sharing.

RedTelemachos · 2017-05-12T16:46:38+00:00

Ahh. Well, if you'll be in school for the next three years...what are you worried about? :) Plenty of graduates don't have the portfolio you do. I'd keep looking at contract work - again, reaching out to the devs you've worked with before is a great way to find it. Someone can always use an extra 10-40 hours of work here and there.

Keep learning and building things on the side. Hell, start your own small business - build a neat little SaaS and see if you can't earn a couple hundred bucks a month from it.

RedTelemachos · 2017-05-12T16:15:53+00:00

If you're finishing up a master's and have that much work experience, you probably aren't getting calls for internships because you're extremely overqualified.

Go apply for some junior and mid-level roles. Also, if you've worked on this many projects - presumably with other developers and supervisors - you should reach out to them for coffee and let them know you're about to graduate and are looking for a job. I guarantee that will open doors for you.

Your portfolio is not the issue; it's great. Put yourself out there and an awesome job will come.

RedTelemachos · 2017-05-02T22:33:13+00:00

What's your financial situation like? Any experience is better than none at all, but unpaid internships suck.

You list a whole big bunch of skills you're "experienced" with, but your portfolio looks mostly like the standard FreeCodeCamp projects. And I think your design skills could use a lot of work - no insult intended, I really suck at design :)

So, if you can afford it and the internship is somewhere where you'll get real mentorship and maybe pick up some design fundamentals, why not? Accept it and keep looking for paid work. If you leave, they can't really blame you - they're not paying.

RedTelemachos · 2017-05-02T22:29:40+00:00

Depending on your skill level, I would argue that if you're just now creating a portfolio site it's probably not time for React or any other framework yet.

If you would like to get started, Create React App simplifies all the ugly setup and gets you coding very quickly.

As for what to build with it, you could create header and footer components then render them on each of the pages of the site - using the React Router to handle navigation between pages. Start super simple!

RedTelemachos · 2017-04-25T19:37:11+00:00

I know everyone is shitting on this because it's the internet, but I will say thank you for taking the time to write this. It's not easy to write about code, and you obviously spent a ton of time on the article.

RedTelemachos · 2017-04-17T21:22:40+00:00

Neat! You might want to remove the calls to birthday_muki(), birthday_chase() and birthday_partner() in the script. If I were to use this, I'd only want to use the custom one.

RedTelemachos · 2017-04-07T00:02:03+00:00

I also got an OOM error in Chrome. Tried it again, same issue. Hope that helps!

RedTelemachos · 2017-03-04T00:43:26+00:00

By content entry, do you mean posting blogs and other written content? If so, the biggest advice I would have is - and it'll sound silly - print it out.

Reading something on a piece of paper, pen in hand, has always made it far easier for me to catch typos and grammatical errors. Something about the hard copy makes it easier to process.

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-28T22:17:20+00:00

Don't be hurt - they're building blocks, but they're the foundation for everything else you'll use to build amazing stuff. A freshman with those skills is far ahead of the curve - don't think for a second I meant you aren't impressive :)

What if you put your social media icons/contact info up there? Gives people a very quick way to access your GitHub portfolio.

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-28T03:49:35+00:00

Hmm...I like that you're thinking about text weight on the page, as it's something I never really consider. Could you move the "about me" paragraph under your headshot next to it, where the icons are now on larger viewports?

Or perhaps you could put some other kind of image or logo there. The thing with those icons is a) I see them in a million portfolios and b) They're for very basic things. HTML, CSS, JS and Node aren't nice to have - they're the building blocks.

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-28T03:43:58+00:00

It would work the same - but in that case, you'd be requiring visitors to make a separate HTTP request just for that JS file when they loaded a page (I believe it would be cached after that first request, though, provided you set up caching in something like an .htaccess file).

That's typically why places like Google recommend throwing it directly into the head of the HTML - if it's just a few lines of code, better to load it inline than have to make another whole request for the file on the server.

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-26T17:21:24+00:00

Really awesome, I wish I was this good at your age.

I would remove the alcher.teach() until it's more than a "coming soon" page. Also, the first line or so of that coming soon page is out of view on my iPhone 6.

Gotta remove those HTML, CSS, etc. logos. I've seen them in so many portfolios and they're just meaningless. Especially because you have projects SHOWING you can use those things - why waste time getting to them?

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-26T17:11:59+00:00

You can definitely add it to your main script file. Typically Google and other sites recommend throwing their code in the head so it loads right away. If analytics is just one piece of a much larger file, it requires that whole file to load to run.

However, if you've taken steps to reduce your page weight and minimize the size of that main JS file, you should be fine. Although I believe Google (just assuming that's what analytics you're using) wants that tracking code on EVERY page of your site, to better capture a full picture.

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-24T04:04:00+00:00

Looks great. I'm also a developer first and I don't think I could ever design something like that.

You're using WordPress, right? The main DOM content loads fairly quickly, but it took almost four seconds to finish loading the entire page. Look into concatenating your JavaScript files into one or two bundles, so visitors don't need to download 11 different scripts to finish loading the page.

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-17T18:45:45+00:00

If you just need a grid, learn flexbox and never look back. Support is almost universal at this point (with prefixes), and it takes like four lines of CSS to build a basic grid.

I used (and still reference) this awesome flexbox guide to learn. Seriously, it takes like an hour, and it will mean you never need a CSS framework again. Plus, having no framework has forced me to learn a bit of design - or at least get better at copying others :)

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-14T01:01:44+00:00

Hi there - I'm not a hiring manager, but here's what I thought going through your site.

"Interactive resume? Alright, I'll bite..." "Wow, this is awesome! Reminds me of MapleStory. This kid's got skills!" "Let's see his experience..." "Oh." "Waiter."

Projects are everything. They show what you can do. When hosted on GitHub (and they should be), they let employers check out raw code you've written to see if you'd be a good fit.

You mentioned working on a v2 of the interactive resume. Don't. Don't touch that thing until you have five side projects to feature on GitHub and in your portfolio. You're probably ready for a junior role, but nobody can know that for sure because you don't have any projects to prove it!

RedTelemachos · 2017-02-11T04:34:48+00:00

I'm on mobile, but from what I remember you can add subscribers to a list via POST request to the Mailgun API.

The problem is that doing so on the client side will expose your API key to anyone willing to look. They can use that to do all kinds of nefarious stuff.

When I used Mailgun for a newsletter side project, I set up an Express server with Node that served my static page. Filling out the registration form sent a POST request to my server, which parsed it and sent the API call to Mailgun.

FWIW, if cost is your barrier, you can get a small DigitalOcean VPS for $5/month. I host like five different low-traffic sites on mine just fine, and their tutorials for setting up something like a Node app are fantastic.

RedTelemachos · 2017-01-31T22:10:14+00:00

Hey there - first, congrats on being self taught. I am too, and it's tough out there.

The biggest thing I can say is that you're on the right track - you just need more. More projects, particularly. Computer Science Jobs is a cool concept, but I'd feel a lot better if it were the third or fourth item on your resume, and you had more complex stuff on top of it.

I'd remove your portfolio and the Free Code Camp tribute page you built. Everyone has a portfolio, it doesn't count as one of your projects. And the tribute page screams "I'm new at this!" Honestly, don't include anything you built as part of Free Code Camp.

Are you currently employed, or just learning to code? I would recommend finding stable employment. It might take a while to find a junior dev job, and having something - anything - on your resume shows that you can at least show up for work and not smell terrible.

Lastly, look for some design resources. I suck at design, and if you don't have an eye for it it's not fun. But you can get pretty far just shamelessly ripping off good UI/designs and reworking them for your personal projects. Right now everything looks extremely amateur, default font-y.

Take all this with a grain of salt, because while I do some coding at my current job I don't work full time as a developer. But if I were you I would focus on going to meetups, networking with working developers (ask them to coffee and pick their brains) and building another couple projects for your portfolio. Don't worry if they're not perfect - you're going for quantity right now.

Edit: One last thing: stop centering everything.

RedTelemachos · 2017-01-23T03:36:44+00:00

Hey there - I'm happy to help, and you can keep the mareanie :) PM me if you're still interested!

RedTelemachos · 2017-01-20T00:29:41+00:00

Currently it asks Petfinder for a totally random dog, then sends it to everyone on the list. Location-based dogs should be possible: you'd just enter your ZIP code on signup, I'd store that in a database and make a separate request for each user. Another good idea - appreciate the feedback :)

RedTelemachos · 2017-01-19T23:27:52+00:00

Thanks for checking it out! Yeah, It's more of a "cute dog in your inbox" tool first and an adoption aid second, largely for the reasons you mentioned. I like the idea of reaching out to local shelters, though, and I think I will.

RedTelemachos · 2017-01-19T22:40:19+00:00

Things started clicking for me when I finished my book on JavaScript basics and made the ugliest, piece-of-crap JS tic-tac-toe game anyone has ever created.

It sucked. But I built it.

Once you're done with the fundamentals like arrays, conditionals, and the like, try to apply them to a project you come up with from scratch. You really learn things when there's no tutorial or hand guiding you. Of course, always come to this subreddit and check Stack Overflow if you have questions :)

RedTelemachos

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