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Using the Node.js MongoDB Driver with AWS Lambda

Writing a serverless function using JavaScript is straightforward and similar to writing a route handler in Express.js.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 9, 2023

Real Time Data in a React JavaScript Front-End with Change Streams

Whether an IoT sensor reporting a value, a stock value that you want to track, or a chat application, you will want the data to automatically update your UI.

Posted by Joel Lord on October 4, 2022

Application Deployment in Kubernetes with the MongoDB Atlas Operator

Kubernetes is now an industry-wide standard when it comes to all things containers, but when it comes to deploying a database, it can be a bit tricky!

Posted by Joel Lord on August 16, 2021

MongoDB Tutorials: Basic & Advanced Guides

MongoDB is a database that is both natural and intuitive for software developers. However, there are some key differences between MongoDB and traditional SQL databases.

Posted by Joel Lord on June 28, 2022

Building an E-commerce Content Catalog with Atlas Search

Search is now a fundamental part of applications across all industries—but especially so in the world of retail and e-commerce.

Posted by Joel Lord on May 31, 2022

What is Indexing in a Database?

A good indexing strategy is crucial to ensuring that your MongoDB database returns your results in the most efficient way possible.

Posted by Joel Lord on May 7, 2022

Morphia Java ODM for MongoDB

Morphia is a wrapper around the Java driver for MongoDB. It acts as an ODM (Object Document Model) for MongoDB documents.

Posted by Joel Lord on April 14, 2022

Search API Support and Compatibility

Implementing an entire search engine is not trivial. A lot of thinking goes into ensuring that all the data is indexed correctly and that the returned results are relevant.

Posted by Joel Lord on March 16, 2022

Accessing Atlas Data in Postman with the Data API

Implementing an entire search engine is not trivial. A lot of thinking goes into ensuring that all the data is indexed correctly and that the returned results are relevant.

Posted by Joel Lord on May 9, 2022

Stored Procedures in MongoDB

Stored procedures are used in relational databases to ensure that complex query operations are executed at the database layer. Nowadays, the need for stored procedures is replaced by other more advanced techniques, such as the aggregation pipelines available in MongoDB.

Posted by Joel Lord on March 14, 2022

Build a Web Scraper with MongoDB

A document database is a natural fit for web scraping. Using MongoDB removes the need to normalize data to accommodate the database. Instead, you can store the same objects you are using in the code.

Posted by Joel Lord on March 7, 2022

MongoEngine vs Pymongo with Flask

When it comes to connecting your Flask application to a MongoDB database, there are multiple options available. The two most common libraries to choose from are MongoEngine and PyMongo. Both of these libraries have pros and cons.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 28, 2022

MySQL to MongoDB Migration Guide

When modernizing an application, your database is a crucial element to keep in mind. Migrating to a more flexible and scalable database helps ensure that your application is future-proof.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 25th, 2022

What is Enterprise Search?

Enterprise search is a tool or a collection of tools used to classify and deliver data to an enterprise’s internal users. Large enterprises have more and more data, and without the right search tools, finding the appropriate information can be time-consuming and costly.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 22nd, 2022

Advantages of MongoDB

MongoDB offers many advantages over traditional relational databases.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 21, 2022

Elasticsearch and MongoDB Comparison

MongoDB Atlas is a data platform that includes a general-purpose document database with powerful search functionalities. Elasticsearch, on the other hand, is a search engine that you can use to store documents.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 16th, 2022

MongoDB vs Hadoop

Hadoop and MongoDB are great solutions to work with big data. However, they each have their forces and weaknesses. MongoDB is a complete data platform that brings you more capabilities than Hadoop.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 15th, 2022

Database Architecture Introduction

When designing a modern application, chances are that you will need a database to store data. There are many ways to architect software solutions that use a database, depending on how your application will use this data.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 11th, 2022

Build Your Own Wordle in Bash with the Data API

I wanted to brush up on my Bash scripting skills, so I thought, “Why not create the Wordle game in Bash?” I figured this would be a good exercise that would include some if statements and loops.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 9th, 2022

Accessing Atlas Data in Postman with the Data API

The Data API can be helpful when you need to access your data from an application that doesn't use those drivers, such as a bash script, a Google Sheet document, or even another database.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 1st, 2022

What is Full-Text Search and How Does it Work?

Full-text search refers to searching some text inside extensive text data stored electronically and returning results that contain some or all of the words from the query. In contrast, traditional search would return exact matches.

Posted by Joel Lord on January 31st, 2021

Horizontal Scaling vs. Vertical Scaling

As your application gets more popular, you will reach a point where your servers will get to their maximum load. Before you reach that point, you must plan for how you will scale your database. Scalability is a complex topic, and you can achieve it in many different ways.

Posted by Joel Lord on January 25, 2022

Search Indexes

Whether you are building an e-commerce website, a game, or a ride-hailing application, all modern applications require some sort of data. And the more data there is, the longer it might take to parse all of it to find a specific piece of information. This is where search indexes come into play. Having good search indexes is crucial in optimizing a database for fast and efficient queries.

Posted by Joel Lord on January 12, 2022

Database Search Introduction

Databases have been used to persist data in an organized and structured way for many years. As data is added to a database, it will eventually need to be searched to find individual pieces of information. This article explains some of the ways a database can be searched.

Posted by Joel Lord on January 11, 2022

What is Container Orchestration?

Microservices architecture has emerged to help businesses break down their monolith applications into smaller pieces, reducing the risk of breaking critical parts with each quick deployment cycle. Those microservices are typically deployed using containers, and with more and more containers deployed comes the need to have a container orchestration tool.

Posted by Joel Lord on December 13, 2021

Rust & MongoDB

Rust can connect to any MongoDB instance, including MongoDB Atlas. To experiment with Rust, you can try creating a cluster in MongoDB Atlas.

Posted by Joel Lord on November 15, 2021

IoT Database: Choosing the Best Data Platform for Your IoT Needs

IoT is not only about connecting objects to the internet. It is first and foremost about collecting data. As you connect more and more objects, a database that is optimized for IoT data will be key to the success of your business.

Posted by Joel Lord on November 27, 2021

What Is a Virtual Machine (VM)?

A virtual machine is an application that emulates a whole computer and runs inside your physical computer. It works as a separate independent machine, but it runs as a process on your host operating system. It’s a convenient way to dedicate a portion of your computer resources to a specific task or software.

Posted by Joel Lord on October 27, 2021

Deploying a MongoDB Cluster with Docker

When you create a MongoDB instance on MongoDB Atlas, the database-as-a-service offering by MongoDB, a cluster is automatically created for you, ensuring that you have the best possible experience. However, if you need to experiment with MongoDB clusters, you can use Docker to create a cluster on your personal computer. This tutorial will provide you with the necessary instructions to create your own MongoDB Docker cluster.

Posted by Joel Lord on October 27, 2021

MongoDB Dashboards with Charts

Creating dashboards is a core capability of MongoDB Charts. This allows teams to create related collections of charts into a single, sharable view. Dashboards in MongoDB Charts are a versatile and powerful tool for understanding your data and identifying business insights.

Posted by Joel Lord on October 6, 2021

Blockchain Database: A Comprehensive Guide

Learn what a blockchain is and how it can be used with MongoDB to create a blockchain database.

Posted by Joel Lord on September 28th, 2021

In-Memory Databases Explained

In-memory databases can be much faster than traditional databases, but is that a good enough reason to use them for your application? In this article, we will answer the question, “What is an in-memory database?” and explore how it compares with traditional databases.

Posted by Joel Lord on August 31st, 2021

What Is IoT Architecture

IoT architecture will change across different IoT projects, but will always involve large amounts of data. MongoDB makes it easy to scale your projects.

Posted by Joel Lord on August 20th, 2021

Docker and MongoDB

Many software developers have adopted containers as part of their day-to-day workflow. These containers can help developers by running an application in an isolated and consistent environment. In this article, you will learn about containers and how you can use them when developing applications using MongoDB.

Posted by Joel Lord on August 20th, 2021

How to Set Up a MongoDB Cluster

As a modern database, MongoDB was initially built with the cloud in mind and now has built-in features to help maintain a high availability and easy scalability through distributed workloads. While it’s true that it can run as a single instance, most of the time it runs as a cluster. In this article, you will learn about the different types of clusters in MongoDB and how you can set them up in MongoDB Atlas.

Posted by Joel Lord on August 18th, 2021

What is Data Modeling?

A good data model will help you understand the business requirements for your application and structure your schema. MongoDB Atlas allows for schema flexibility to match your application requirements.

Posted by Joel Lord on July 28th, 2021

Free Cloud Database

Fully supporting AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, MongoDB Atlas is a fully managed cloud database that offers robust data management paired with the leading NoSQL database.

Posted by Joel Lord on July 23rd, 2021

Publishing Full Stack JavaScript Applications to the OpenShift Developer Sandbox (p.3)

In this series of blog posts, you will learn how to deploy a full-stack JavaScript application in an OpenShift cluster. Starting from a source code, you will take an application that runs locally and deploy it in the Developer Sandbox.

Posted by Joel Lord on May 4th, 2021

Publishing Full Stack JavaScript Applications to the OpenShift Developer Sandbox (p.1)

In this series of blog posts, you will learn how to deploy a full-stack JavaScript application in an OpenShift cluster. Starting from a source code, you will take an application that runs locally and deploy it in the Developer Sandbox.

Posted by Joel Lord on May 4th, 2021

Publishing Full Stack JavaScript Applications to the OpenShift Developer Sandbox (p.2)

In this series of blog posts, you will learn how to deploy a full-stack JavaScript application in an OpenShift cluster. Starting from a source code, you will take an application that runs locally and deploy it in the Developer Sandbox.

Posted by Joel Lord on May 4th, 2021

Containerize and deploy Strapi applications on Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift

Strapi is the leading open-source headless content management system (CMS). It’s 100% JavaScript, fully customizable, and takes a developer-first approach. In this post, you will see how to deploy your Strapi CMS in a Kubernetes cluster.

Posted by Joel Lord on April 12, 2021

New Features in JavaScript with ES2021

On March 9th, 2021, the ES2021 was officially released. Here are some of the key features for this new version of EcmaScript.

Posted by Joel Lord on March 18th, 2021

Building rootless containers for JavaScript front ends

By default, most containers are run as the root user. It is much easier to install dependencies, edit files, and run processes on restricted ports when they run as root. As is usually the case in computer science, though, simplicity comes at a cost. In this case, containers run as root are more vulnerable to malicious code and attacks.

Posted by Joel Lord on March 4th, 2021

Making environment variables accessible in front-end containers

Passing environment variables to a container for your front-end application can be tricky. Here is how to do it with most major front-end frameworks.

Posted by Joel Lord on March 4th, 2021

OpenShift dockerimagelookup error toomanyrequests

If you tried to run `oc new-app <docker-image>` on OpenShift and got a similar error message, here is how to fix it. W0216 12:21:52.014221 671649 dockerimagelookup.go:237] container image registry lookup failed: docker.io/username/image:latest: toomanyrequests: You have reached your pull rate limit. You may increase the limit by authenticating and upgrading: https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limit

Posted by Joel Lord on February 16th, 2021

OBS, Overlays and Virtual Camera

I don’t like most online presentations. I feel like looking at slide with someone reading the content is not the best way for me to learn. I’ve seen some videos that are a bit more engaging though. Using a few simple tools, I managed to get some scenes in order to provide the attendees with what I hope to be a more engaging experience.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 3rd, 2021

Use Deno From A Container

Deno v.1.0 was finally released. And the best way to try it out is from within a container. Here's how.

Posted by Joel Lord on May 13th, 2020

Creating Pipelines with OpenShift 4.4’s new Pipeline Builder and Tekton Pipelines

OpenShift Pipelines are built on top of Tekton and are readily available from the OperatorHub for your Red Hat OpenShift clusters. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.4 has just taken pipeline creation a step further with the Pipeline Builder. As part of the web console’s Developer perspective, the Pipeline Builder makes it even easier for software developers to create their own pipelines.

Posted by Joel Lord on April 29th, 2020

How To Upgrade OpenShift

Recently, I had to explore a new version of OpenShift but I could only provision the current stable version. In this post, I describe to procedure to upgrade your cluster to a newer version using the CLI.

Posted by Joel Lord on April 20th, 2020

Deploying VueJs Applications On OpenShift

Because Vue.js will bundle up everything as static files, many options are available to you. In this post, we will explore how to deploy a Vue.js application on an Nginx server running in a Red Hat OpenShift cluster.

Posted by Joel Lord on October 1st, 2019

Getting My Enterphone To Work With Nexmo

I’ve recently moved to Toronto. Moving to the big city meant for me to move from a house into a condo tower. For the first time, I actually had an Enterphone to let my guests into the building.

Posted by Joel Lord on February 13th, 2019

Use VoiceIt as a Second Authentication Factor with Auth0

Learn how to use VoiceIt's photo + video recognition as an additional layer of authentication for your apps and integrate with Auth0 for two-factor authentication.

Posted by Joel Lord on January 31st, 2019

Validate User Emails Fast using Kickbox and Auth0 Hooks

Learn how to ensure that only real users are registering to your applications using Kickbox and Auth0 Hooks.

Posted by Joel Lord on September 28th, 2018

Change the Language in Auth0 Login Screen

Following a question I got at Confoo, here is a quick hack to change the language on the Auth0 login screen

Posted by Joel Lord on March 11th, 2018

Environment variables in Node

You probably have some differences between your production and development environments. Here is a quick tip on how to differentiate between both.

Posted by Joel Lord on September 20th, 2017

ES8 features in JS

Now that you mastered all those new ES6 features, you shouldn't stop. Keep up to date with the lastest ES8 features.

Posted by Joel Lord on August 25th, 2017

Machine Learning in JS

Machine learning can seem like a complex subject but really, it's easy to get started. See how you can create your first machine learning script in Javascript.

Posted by Joel Lord on October 22nd, 2016

Intro to SystemJs

I stumbled on SystemJs today. It seems very interesting to include modules using the ES6 format so I gave it a try and here are some of my findings.

Posted by Joel Lord on June 1st, 2016

The Node Event Loop

The Node event loop is the core concept behind Node's performance. Here is a little metaphor that will hopefully help you understand a little bit more about it.

Posted by Joel Lord on March 18th, 2016

Using Clusters

Node is typically single threaded, but using the cluster module, you can spin off many instances of your application.

Posted by Joel Lord on March 5th, 2016

Array methods you should be using

There are some built-in array methods that you should always be using instead of for loops to write cleaner code.

Posted by Joel Lord on January 8th, 2016

Upgrading Node with n

How to use n to manage and upgrade your current version of node.

Posted by Joel Lord on December 31st, 2015

Command Line Tools with Node

How to easily create command line tools using NodeJs.

Posted by Joel Lord on December 6th, 2015

WordPress moves to Javascript

WordPress is migrating to a Javascript interface, so what?.

Posted by Joel Lord on November 24th, 2015

Speaking Goals

It's almost the end of the year and it's time to start reflecting on my speaking goals for 2016

Posted by Joel Lord on November 21st, 2015

Creating Node Modules

Now that you have all the pieces ready, let's publish it.

Posted by Joel Lord on November 21st, 2015

Creating Node Modules

Before we publish this module, let's add some tests to it.

Posted by Joel Lord on November 21st, 2015

Creating Node Modules

Second part of the series, focusing on the package.json file generation.

Posted by Joel Lord on November 20th, 2015

Creating Node Modules

First part of a series that I plan to make on how to create and publish a node module on npm.

Posted by Joel Lord on November 18th, 2015

Joel Lord
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