In the first part of this series, we learned the key concepts to build an application that is as CMS-agnostic as possible. In this second and final part, we will proceed to abstract a WordPress application, making its code ready to be used with Symfony components, Laravel framework, and October CMS (which is based on Laravel).
Accessing Services Before we start abstracting the code, we need to provide the layer of dependency injection to the application.

So far as I can tell, it is uncommon to come across educational content in the field of software development which provides an appropriate mixture of theoretical and practical information. If I was to guess why, I assume it is because individuals who focus on theory tend to get into teaching, and individuals who focus on practical information tend to get paid to solve specific problems, using specific languages and tools.

The web is full of services that host rich content such as videos, images, music and podcasts, maps and graphs, and all manner of different delights. Chances are, when you add your content to a site, it will offer you a way to embed that content in a web page somewhere else.
Sites like YouTube have their own embeddable player that is popular to use in blog posts and even product pages.

Let’s do a quick exercise. Say you’ve been working professionally as a developer for more than five years. You’ve gained hands-on experience through dozens of projects and kept your skillset sharp by learning about new techniques, tools, and frameworks. You contribute to different libraries, routinely refactor the code you write, and periodically exchange code reviews with your colleagues.
But then someone comes up and asks you that one question you haven’t had the chance to figure out: Where do you see yourself, ten years from now?

This article is the second part in a series, with part one located here, which provided basic and (hopefully) intuitive insight into Node.js, ES6+ JavaScript, Callback Functions, Arrow Functions, APIs, the HTTP Protocol, JSON, MongoDB, and more.
In this article, we’ll build upon the skills we attained in the previous one, learning how to implement and deploy a MongoDB Database for storing user booklist information, build an API with Node.js and the Express Web Application framework to expose that database and perform CRUD Operations upon it, and more.

Consumers are motivated by need and desire. And sometimes, just sometimes, they’re motivated by FOMO. That’s right: we can now add the ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ to the list of drivers that get consumers onto our websites and into our apps.
With that said, when we take a closer look at what FOMO really means and the negative impact it can have on consumers, is it something we really want to be encouraging as we build digital experiences for them?

I have been an iOS developer for over a decade now and have rarely seen articles that consolidate all possible ways to perform animations in iOS. This article aims to be a primer on iOS animations with the intent of exhaustively covering the different ways of doing the same.
Given the extensiveness of the topic, we would cover each part succinctly at a fairly high level. The goal is to educate the reader with a set of choices to add animations to his/ her iOS app.

We’ve called them an ‘opening and closing panel’ so far, but they are also described as expansion panels, or more simply, expanding panels.
To clarify exactly what we’re talking about, head on over to this example on CodePen:
Easy show/hide drawer (Multiples) by Ben Frain on CodePen.
Easy show/hide drawer (Multiples) by Ben Frain on CodePen. That is what we’ll be building in this short tutorial.
From a functionality point of view, there are a few ways to achieve the animated open and close that we are looking for.

In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, we’re talking about Design Tokens. What are they, what problem do they solve, and how can they be used within an existing Design System? Drew McLellan talks to someone who is much more than a token expert: Jina Anne.
Show Notes “What Are Design Tokens?,” by Robin Rendle “Design Tokens For Dummies,” by Louis Chenais “Style Dictionary,” a build system for creating cross-platform styles.

Making code that is agnostic of the CMS or framework has several benefits. For instance, through its new content editor Gutenberg, WordPress enables to code components which can be used for other CMSs and frameworks too, such as for Drupal and for Laravel. However, Gutenberg’s emphasis on re-utilization of code is focused on the client-side code of the component (JavaScript and CSS); concerning the component’s backend code (such as the provision of APIs that feed data to the component) there is no pre-established consideration.

On behalf of the Smashing team, welcome to another monthly update to keep you all in the loop about all things smashing. Join us as we share the latest news and highlight the things we have enjoyed reading over the past month.
Many of the included posts are sourced from the most popular links from our Smashing Newsletter. If you don’t get our newsletter yet, then sign up here to receive useful techniques and goodies (including a free eBook on accessibility)!

Creating an HTML email can feel like stepping back a few years as a web developer. All of our new layout functionality is unavailable to us &mdasj; email clients render the same layout in completely different ways. Just when we think we have it all fixed, another email client shows up with a new set of bugs.
Not too long ago, Rémi Parmentier, an HTML Email developer, ran a session with practical front-end techniques for building modern, cross-client emails.