Learn A11y, Rails and Solidity

“a11y” stands for “accessibility.” It is a numeronym, with 11 representing the count of letters between the letter a and the letter y.

Accessibility is broken down into 4 categories of disability: visual, cognitive, auditory, motor. 

Regardless of the category of disability, accessibilities aim in web development is to make applications and websites usable for everyone.

a11y

In this course, we'll be focusing on building an accessible component by using a built-in browser API with React to implement best practices in accessibility custom features. 

Everyone is responsible for accessibility, and we need to start creating features and websites with that in mind. The goal of this course is for you to exploit your understanding of HTML and aria, and be able to look at any common features and identify the different accessibility patterns. 

With this course you won't only learn about accessibility, but also will learn about `HTMLMediaElement` API, and state management in React. 


 





Introduction to Creating a Custom Accessible Audio Player with React

React's `forwardRef` function allows a component to receive a ref that has been created outside of it. This can be useful in cases where you want to have a specific part of your component, such as a section of a long transcript or a specific part of an audio recording, referenced from outside the component.

One example of when this might be useful is if you have a "listicle" type of audio, such as "5 things your tech resume needs", and you want to allow users to jump to specific parts of the audio. By converting the component to a forwarded ref component, you can create a ref in the parent component (in this case, the "App" component) and pass it into the audio component. This allows you to create a few buttons in the parent component that can control the audio ref and jump to specific audio sections.

To convert a component to a forwarded ref component, you can use React's `forwardRef` function to wrap the component, and then remove the audio ref and replace all instances with the new ref.

By doing this, you can now control the audio component, like play, pause and jump to a specific time, by interacting with the `audioRef` ref object created in the parent component and passed into the audio component.

**Think about:** What ways to control the audio outside the component could help with accessibility?

Using a forwardRef to Create External Controls

We are creating an accessible popup menu for a web application. It covers various concepts, including handling keyboard events, creating a new dropdown component for reuse, using arrow keys to navigate through buttons, using the Tab key to close the menu and go to the next item in the tab order, using the Escape key to close the menu and focus on the button that closes it, using the `aria-expanded` attribute to communicate whether the menu is open or closed, and the difference between the tab index values of 0 and -1. 

**Think about:**
- Why tabindex -1?
- Why would you use arrows versus tab key to navigate through the dropdown?

Create a Dropdown Menu for Rates

In this lesson, we are using HTML, accessibility concepts, and ARIA attributes to improve the time scrubber feature of an audio player. 

The goal is to make it accessible to users of screen readers so that the time scrubber announces the actual time (e.g. 12 minutes and 15 seconds) rather than just the value (e.g. 735). 

We are also creating a new folder called "helpers" in the "src" folder and a new file called "format time.js" within it to hold a function called "format human read time" that takes time as a parameter and returns the human-readable equivalent of that time. Additionally, the author debugs the code and uses console.log to check the variable.

**Think about:** Why does a human-readable name help?

Create a Human Readable Time Formatter

I suggest using the previously learned approach but keep in mind that it may lead to an overly complex markup. We also use the `aria-label` attribute, which can be used to override the text within a label element.

**Think about:** Why would you use an `aria-label` instead of creating a visually hidden span?

Using Aria-Label as a Solution for Overly Complex Markup

We create an input range with a label, where the range is between 0 and 1 with a step of 0 - 1. The input's value should be determined by a ternary statement that checks if the volume is muted and sets it to 0 or to the current volume if not muted. 

An `onVolumeScrubberChange` function is also added that sets the volume to the event target value when the input value changes and updates the volume in the state and an audio reference. The `onVolumeChange` function does not need to be used and the logic needs to be adjusted to ensure that the volume can be updated and that it mutes when the volume reaches 0.

**Think about:** Why do we have to add `audioRef.current.volume === 0` in addition to `audioRef.current.muted`?

Implementing a Volume Range with an onChange Event

We are creating a toggle button for muting and unmuting an audio element using React hooks `useState` and `useRef`. It destructures `isMuted` from the `useState` hook and sets the initial state to false. 

The button's inner text is dependent on the state of `isMuted`, and a `toggleMute` function is created which sets `isMuted` to the opposite of its current state and also sets the `audioRef.current.muted` property to the opposite of `isMuted`. 

A `onVolumeChange` function is added to the audio element that sets the `isMuted` state based on the value of `audioRef.current.muted`. This allows the `isMuted` state to change even when the mute button on the audio element itself is pressed.

**Think about:** 
- Why do we have to add `onVolumeChange` for instead of `onMuted`? 
- How can we use `onVolumeChange` to check for things being muted?

Creating a Toggle Button for Muting and Unmuting an Audio Element in React

We are creating a playback rate button in a React application. An array of rates is created, and each element of the array is mapped to a button. Each button is given an onClick handler that calls an anonymous function called `changeRate`. 

`changeRate` sets the playback rate of an audio element to the rate passed as an argument. When the button is pressed in the browser, it shows the new playback rate.

**Think about:** We have all these states for volume, media time etc, why don't we have one for rate?

Creating a Playback Rate Button

We will create two buttons labeled "rewind 15 seconds" and "fast forward 15 seconds." Then, we created two functions, `onRewind` and `onFastForward`, to adjust the current time of a media by 15 seconds. The `onRewind` function will use `Math.max` to ensure that the time does not go into negative, and the `onFastForward` function will use `Math.min` to set a max limit. These functions will be added to the click events of the corresponding buttons. Finally, it sets the new time for the media state and the audio reference.

**Think about:** Why do you need the second parameter for `math.max` and `math.min`?

Add Fast-Forward and Rewind 15 Second Buttons

We Introduce [MDN Media docs](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLMediaElement) and all the APIs. 

In this lesson, we added the `useRef` and created an `audioRef` in our components. We also added the `ref` to the audio element to control it outside of the audio element. We use the `useState` hook, and we created an `isPlaying` state. And finally, we added a `button` that dynamically renders the text as pause and play depending on the `isPlaying` state. On click of that button, we toggle the `isPlaying` state, and depending on that state, we either pause or play it.


Creating a Toggle for Playing and Pausing the Audio

In this lesson we are going to create an `AudioPlayer` component that takes two props `src` and `transcript`, where it returns the audio element and renders the transcript, and we write some pseudo-code for the audio player to reference.

**Think about**: What do we get for free with common HTML elements?

Setup Native Audio and Plan our Audio Player Code

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. 

ethereum

Welcome to Noah's course on Introduction to Smart Contracts with Ethereum and Solidity. 

Introduction to Introduction to Smart Contracts with Ethereum and Solidity

Web3 is a paradigm shift in how applications are interacted with, ran, and built. 

It’s not just a Pump-and-Dump scheme on cryptocurrencies or Bored Ape NFT profile pictures you can put on Twitter.

A fundamental tenet of Web3 is bringing ownership back to the user. You no longer have to trust that your data is being properly handled on someone else’s server (although, currently Web3 ecosystem mainly depends on centralized infrastructure such as GitHub).  

This ownership is achieved through blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and smart contracts.

A great example of this type of ownership is through how you exchange money in Web3. There is no intermediary like Stripe, or PayPal to process your transactions. You can even build your own smart contracts that receive crypto (e.g. Ethereum or ‘eth’ for short) and then process that eth how you’d like.

Building this type of smart contract is exactly what Matías is going to show you how to do right now.

Matías builds out a Web3 application that allows you to receive tips in the form of eth in a tip jar on your website. This means your application will be backed by a smart contract that’s accepts eth, stores data, and emits Solidity events.

The frontend application uses SvelteKit which you’ll see how easy it is to get up and be productive with in minutes. A huge benefit here is that the JavaScript you write is just that, JavaScript. You’ll be able to take what you learn and implement it into any framework of your choosing.

While you build this application you will learn how to:

- Write a smart contract using Solidity language
- Test the smart contract using just JavaScript through the waffle framework
- Communicate and interact with the smart contract using ethers.js in a SvelteKit application
- Deploy your smart contract to make it public and accessible to anyone

Solidity is an object-oriented, high-level language for implementing smart contracts.

solidity

Full Stack Web3 and Blockchain Development on Ethereum with SvelteKit

There are several Ethereum test networks like Ropsten, Rinkeby and Kovan that you can use to deploy your contract to have it publicly available without having to use the mainnet and real ETH.
In this course you'll deploy to Rinkeby netwok (but, the process is the same for the other networks).

The first step will be update your Metamask Wallet to connect to the Rinkeby network.

Next, you'll need some test/fake Ethere to use for testing the Dapp in the network, for that you'll need to use a [faucet like this one](https://www.rinkebyfaucet.com/). Just visit that faucet and add your wallet address.

You will also deploy your web application to vercel to see your project live on the internet!

Deploy your Smart Contract to Goerli Test Network and App to Vercel

The magical disappearing UI framework

 - The web's JavaScript bloat crisis, solved. Svelte turns your templates into tiny, framework-less vanilla JavaScript.
 - Simple and familiar. Build apps out of composable, easy-to-write blocks using languages you already know.
 - Super fast, rock solid. Compile-time static analysis ensures the browser does no more work than it needs to.

svelte

Now that we have an application that is accepting tips to the smart contract that was defined, we need to be able to withdraw the funds that are sent to the contract. The smart contract function for this is already defined so we will just need to call the function from the front end.

To do this we will create a new route to display the contract information. We will then check if the current user is the contract owner and if so allow that user to withdraw the contract funds by clicking a button that we wire up to call the withdraw function from the smart contract.

## Important

SvelteKit is still in beta. Expect bugs! Read more here, and track progress towards 1.0 here. 

This lesson was recorded before the latest breaking changes, the content is still valid but it sometimes references a file that does not exists anymore.

Now: 
`src/routes/index.svelte` is called `src/routes/+page.svelte`

`src/routes/__layout.svelte` is called `src/routes/+layout.svelte`


Everything else is 100% valid. This particular content will be updated when Sveltekit reaches 1.0.0 stable.

Withdraw eth from a Smart Contract in a Svelte Application

It is time to interact with the contract, let's send some eth!

For this you'll need a form that is rendered only when the wallet is connected.
This form use the `sendTip` function and gather some required information. On submit, it will read the `sendingTip` loading state variable and disable or enable the button.

## Important

SvelteKit is still in beta. Expect bugs! Read more here, and track progress towards 1.0 here. 

This lesson was recorded before the latest breaking changes, the content is still valid but it sometimes references a file that does not exists anymore.

Now: 
`src/routes/index.svelte` is called `src/routes/+page.svelte`

`src/routes/__layout.svelte` is called `src/routes/+layout.svelte`


Everything else is 100% valid. This particular content will be updated when Sveltekit reaches 1.0.0 stable.

Create a Form in Svelte and Send a Tip to an Solidity Smart Contract

Now is time to setup the client to talk with the contract, for that you will need to store and access the contract ABI (this is a file generated by the contract compilation) as well as use ethers to set up a connection to the contract. 

Once set up is complete, we will listen to any tip events that come in from the contract and display tip information in the application.

## Important

SvelteKit is still in beta. Expect bugs! Read more here, and track progress towards 1.0 here. 

This lesson was recorded before the latest breaking changes, the content is still valid but it sometimes references a file that does not exists anymore.

Now: 
`src/routes/index.svelte` is called `src/routes/+page.svelte`

`src/routes/__layout.svelte` is called `src/routes/+layout.svelte`


Everything else is 100% valid. This particular content will be updated when Sveltekit reaches 1.0.0 stable.

Interact with a Solidity Smart Contract Using Ethers and the Contract ABI in SvetleKit

Now the UI is capable to connect to the Ethereum network by using the wallet, but we need two more things to continue.

1. Avoid re-connecting every time the browser is refreshed
2. Get more information about the user and the network.

For the first, let's run a little function every time the component is mounted.

Then, let's read and display some more information:

- The user balance
- The network that the user is currently connected

## Important

SvelteKit is still in beta. Expect bugs! Read more here, and track progress towards 1.0 here. 

This lesson was recorded before the latest breaking changes, the content is still valid but it sometimes references a file that does not exists anymore.

Now: 
`src/routes/index.svelte` is called `src/routes/+page.svelte`

`src/routes/__layout.svelte` is called `src/routes/+layout.svelte`


Everything else is 100% valid. This particular content will be updated when Sveltekit reaches 1.0.0 stable.


Retrieve Ethereum Network and Account information on Mount and Display it in Svelte

The first step in this part of the journey, will be to setup a simple UI that allow you to connect the current user to the blockchain through it's wallet.

To do this, let's write some code.

Sveltekit applications works by using a file system routing method, meaning that you need to create files under the `src/routes/` folder and those will be then reflected as routes (urls) in your app. Let's keep ti simple and just use the default route here, open `src/routes/index.svelte` and delete the content of it.

You're first step will be create a button that allow the user to "sing-in" to your new dapp and allow the UI to react to that showing a different content if the authorization process was successful.


Connect a Metamask Account to a Svelte Application

Before jumping into the Dapp code you need to setup an Ethereum wallet.
There are bunch of wallet applications and types outher, but for this project we're going to use Metamask.

### What is an ethereum Wallet

A wallet is an application that let's you interact with your Ethereum account. You're wallet is the one that works as a gate between the Dapp and your data, through it the applications can read your balance, send transactions, etc.

You can swap wallet providers at any time or manage multiple accounts in one application. This is because the wallet are non-custodial, meaning that they don't hold your assets, you do.

Just to set some concepts down:

- An Ethereum account is an "entity" that can send transactions and store some assets, it "lives" inside the blockchain.
- The accout have an address (like your profile URL of some social app or your email address) that can be used to send or receive funds.
- A wallt is an application that allow you to interact with the Ethereum account.

There are different types of Wallets:

- Hardware wallets that hold your crypto assets offline - The most secure of all
- Mobile apps, like Argent.
- Web wallets, that let you interact through the browser: Like Metamask.
- Desktp apps

Set up a Metamask Wallet with your local Ethereum Network

Now you need a way to keep a local network alive, deploy the smart contract there and then interact with it. You can think on this like a local web server. When you develop an API you have a local server running it so the client application can talk to it so you can develop and test, this is the same idea.

Head over to your terminal and run tthe following command.

```bash
$ npm run hardhat node
```

This will ramp up a local ethreum network using hardhat and will show in the console a set of accounts and private keys that can be used for testing pruposes.

These are 20 test accounts and addresses created for your. Each account is also rich! are loaded with 10000 ETH. (fake eth btw).

Right now this is just an empty blockchain. There are no blocks nor smart contracts on it. But you want to create a new block and put the smart contract that you just created there, for that you need to create a little script that will use ethers.js power to compile and deploy.

Deploy a Solidity Smart Contract with Hardhat to a Local Ethereum Network

I've been using Cursor for a very long time and their "Agent" feature in Composer is fairly new, so I'm still getting used to it. But since Windsurf recently got onto the stage with their Cascade agent, they've slowly been gaining the mind share on the UX for coding agents. I decided to put them to the test by putting Windsurf and Cursor on the exact same screen side by side trying to accomplish the same task and to see which workflow I would prefer. I've been a diehard Cursor user for over a year now, so it's going to take a lot for me to switch to a different IDE. But I just have to say, even from this simple demo, Windsurf is looking pretty nice.

This lesson is just going to walk through creating a CLI using both tools to print out inspirational quotes and to explore how they approach the step-by-step of installing packages and running commands and setting up all the files we need to get this running.

Windsurf Cascade vs. Cursor Composer Agent Side-by-Side Comparison

This TypeScript tutorial explains how to use generics, allowing for different types to be passed as arguments. It discusses the use of shorthand syntax in generics and illustrates with examples. This method is useful for library creation, providing type safety and control to the user.

```typescript
interface PhotoMetadata<T> {
  title: string;
  takenAt: Date;
  customData: T;
}

// Function that processes a photo with custom metadata
function processPhoto<T>(photo: PhotoMetadata<T>): {
  processedTitle: string;
  daysSinceCapture: number;
  customDataSummary: T;
} {
  const today = new Date();
  const daysSinceCapture = Math.floor(
    (today.getTime() - photo.takenAt.getTime()) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24)
  );

  return {
    processedTitle: photo.title.toUpperCase(),
    daysSinceCapture,
    customDataSummary: photo.customData
  };
}

// Example usage with different custom data shapes
type CameraSettings = {
  iso: number;
  aperture: string;
  shutterSpeed: string;
}

type LocationData = {
  latitude: number;
  longitude: number;
  locationName: string;
}

// Using with camera settings
const photoWithCamera: PhotoMetadata<CameraSettings> = {
  title: "Sunset at beach",
  takenAt: new Date('2024-01-15'),
  customData: {
    iso: 100,
    aperture: "f/2.8",
    shutterSpeed: "1/1000"
  }
};

// Using with location data
const photoWithLocation: PhotoMetadata<LocationData> = {
  title: "Mountain vista",
  takenAt: new Date('2024-02-01'),
  customData: {
    latitude: 45.5231,
    longitude: -122.6765,
    locationName: "Mount Hood"
  }
};

const processedCameraPhoto = processPhoto(photoWithCamera);
const processedLocationPhoto = processPhoto(photoWithLocation);

processedCameraPhoto.customDataSummary.iso
processedLocationPhoto.customDataSummary.longitude

```

Basic Explanation of Typescript Generics

A very basic explanation of generic function arguments

I've been using Cursor as my primary editor for over a year now, but recently I've heard wonderful things about Windsurf AI Agent features. I decided to record myself building out something I've always wanted to make, but never made the time for.

In this lesson, I demonstrate how to leverage Windsurf's powerful agent process to create a fun word-guessing game inspired by Heads Up. Watch as I build an interactive application featuring category selection and word navigation, complete with data hosting on GitHub Gists and deployment to GitHub Pages - all in under 30 minutes (before editing the lesson down to 12 minutes)!

What makes this project particularly exciting is how Windsurf eliminates the typical friction points of development. While this game was always on my project wishlist, the overhead of setup, configuration, and deployment made it hard to justify the time investment. Windsurf's agent process handles all these pain points seamlessly, from managing URLs to orchestrating deployment.

This lesson perfectly showcases how AI agents can help developers bring their backlog of project ideas to life, transforming what would typically be time-consuming tasks into efficient, enjoyable development experiences.

Build a Word Game with Windsurf's Cascade AI Agent



Discover how to harness the power of Cursor IDE's Composer Agent feature to optimize your code. In this lesson, you'll witness an AI agent doing all the work to generate test suites, implement performance benchmarks, and create optimized function variations - all without writing a single line of code. You'll learn how to validate performance improvements through data-driven benchmarking, ensuring that optimizations are backed by concrete metrics rather than speculation. This hands-on demonstration showcases a groundbreaking approach to automated function development that combines the precision of test-driven development with the efficiency of AI-powered optimization.


Agent-Driven Development in Cursor: Testing, Benchmarking, and Optimizing Functions

This course is aimed for using `zod` effectively in projects based on TypeScript (both browser and node.js). The benefits you gain with this course is not just simply coding, but also understanding when/why/how should you perform runtime validation.

`zod` is the missing piece to TypeScript's capabilities, which can guarantee type-safety only in compile-time.

`zod` can be used whenever the compiler cannot guarantee what happens in runtime. And... it's a very frequent usecase, such as HTTP calls, websockets, etc.

In this course you get quickly up and running by:
1. using `zod` with primitives and objects
2. adapting `zod` quickly to existing projects thanks to automatic generators
3. changing the strategy frm type-first to schema-first
4. using error-throwing `parse` or non-error-throwing `safeParse` basing on your needs
5. applying `zod` to the most common usecase - validating API responses
6. handling errors the most convenient way (out of many!)

Take advantage of runtime validation with `zod`. Take advantage of the detailed lessons in this course 🔥

Effective Runtime Type Checks with Zod


Cursor can now automatically run commands in the terminal and walk step-by-step towards building out your entire project. You give it a goal, then it will suggest the commands you need to run and the files that you need to create and you can work with it to achieve what you're building. This lesson does a quick walkthough of using a Cursor Agent to build a project from scratch and guide it along the way. Cursor Agents definitely feel like a sneak peek at the future of programming!

Cursor Agents Initial Impressions - Allow an AI to Build Your Entire Project

Mock Service Worker is an API mocking library that allows you to write client-agnostic mocks and reuse them across any frameworks, tools, and environments.



Mocking WebSocket APIs with Mock Service Worker


While using anonymous functions might seem convenient, they can create difficulties when trying to identify performance bottlenecks during profiling. This lesson will demonstrate how named functions make it easier to pinpoint and address performance issues, ultimately leading to more efficient and debuggable code. Learning this practice will greatly improve your ability to locate and fix performance issues in complex projects.

Always Name Functions in JavaScript


When attempting to load the same module twice in JavaScript you'll hit a cache and code won't re-run. In scenarios where you actually do want to have state in your modules, you'll have to use a cache-busting technique by passing a query parameter to a dynamic import. This lesson walks through how to add a query parameter, how to add the appropriate types for loading dynamic modules in TypeScript, and when these techniques are valuable.

Import the Same JavaScript Module Multiple Times with Cache Busting



The include keyword in GitHub Actions empowers you to add custom variables to your matrix strategy, providing flexibility beyond standard configurations. In this video, we'll explore how include allows you to define specific combinations of variables, enhancing control over your workflow runs. You'll see how this feature enables you to tailor jobs for unique environments or scenarios not covered by the default matrix options. By leveraging include, you can efficiently manage complex build processes with greater precision. This technique helps you streamline your CI/CD pipeline, making it more adaptable to your project's evolving needs.

Search

Search Results