Using IndexedDB with Alpine.js / / No Comments A lot of my "x with Alpine" blog posts end up being, well, nothing special. That’s a good thing I suppose as it really helps highlight how simple Alpine.js is. (Note, I go back and forth between including the ".js" when referring to Alpine. I should be more consistent I suppose. On one hand, Alpine.js is the formal name, but Alpine just feels simpler.) That being said, the impetus for this post was to get something basic done before I built something a bit more complex. So if you wish to TLDR – it just works, visit my CodePen for the full source, and come back for the next post. If you’re still curious, keep on reading. IndexedDB – Vanilla or Library?... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Alpine.js, IndexedDB, using
The World’s Largest Snow Dome / / No Comments This morning I discovered MapTheClouds, which features a whole host of impressive interactive map visuals. I’m sure a lot of the maps featured on MapTheClouds are very useful but as ever I’m drawn to the fun, experimental maps, to the maps that apparently serve no other purpose than they were fun to create and are even more fun to play with.Here are a few links to my personal favorites, but check Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Dome, Largest, snow, world's
Where Your Food Comes / / No Comments When you begin to prepare your Thanksgiving dinner you may wonder about where all that food comes from. Well a new interactive map from CU Boulder and The Plotline, can help show you where. The Food Twin shows you where food is grown and consumed in America and how crops travel from producers to consumers.Click on your county on the map and you will see colored dots flowing into your county Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Comes, food
Introducing the Sunderland Collection / / No Comments The Sunderland Collection of antique maps has been digitized in full and can now be explored in detail on the new virtual platform Oculi Mundi (Eyes of the World). The Sunderland Collection was started by Dr Neil Sunderland in the 1990s. The collection now consists of around 130 vintage globes, maps and atlases which date back to as early as the 13th century. The new Oculi Mundi platform takes Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: collection, Introducing, Sunderland
Adding Simple Routing to Cloudflare Workers / / No Comments I’ve been "playing" with serverless for years now, but honestly still feel new to it. When it comes to organization in a project that uses serverless functions, I’ve typically tried to build one function per operation. So for example, if I had a need to get a list of cats, I’d have one function. If I had a need to get information about a cat based on an identifier, I’d probably build a second one. That being said, I recently came across an example Cloudflare function that did something cool – it used a router, specifically the very lightweight itty-router. Let me share an example of how it works. What is a Router? # So I kinda assume most folks know what... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Adding, Cloudflare, Routing, simple, workers
The Rise & Fall of National Rail Networks / / No Comments The Berliner-Morgenpost has visualized the rise and fall of the German rail network from its rapid growth in the 19th Century right up to its 21st Century post-privatization contraction. The German Rail Network from 1835 Until Today uses an interactive map to show all the active rail lines in Germany for every single year from 1835 until 2022.On December the 7th 1835 a six-kilometer rail line Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Fall, National, Networks, Rail, Rise
A Tip for Properly Handling Loading States in Web Apps / / No Comments This isn’t something I was going to blog about, but after seeing the same issue a few times recently (although to be fair, last in a mobile game), I thought I’d share it with my audience. I apologize if the title isn’t the best as it was a hard issue to describe, so let me begin by demonstrating the problem, and then the (hopefully) obvious solution. Loading Data # Here’s a super simple example of a web page that loads some data from the API. In this case, it’s the Star Wars API which, unfortunately, has been pretty slow recently. On the flip side, that helps illustrate that issue. The HTML is just an h2 and an empty ul and the JavaScript is fairly simple: document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded',... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: apps, handling, Loading, properly, States
Standing on Top of the World / / No Comments If you want an uninterrupted view towards the horizon in all directions then you need to stand on top of a mountain. But not just any mountain. What you need is an ‘on top of the world’ mountain. On Top of the World Mountains An “on top of the world” mountain, also known as an OTOTW mountain, is a mountain that is so high that no other mountains can be seen above the horizon from its summit. Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: standing, World