<p>As a <a href="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/what-its-like-working-at-hov/">fully-remote company,</a> HOV has faced unique issues in recruiting or hiring new employees. Finding the right people to fill the much-needed roles is crucial to the business&#8217;s success and survival; imagine doing that entirely via your computer.</p>
<p>It is no secret that the corporate world has drastically changed over the past two years. Former companies with physical offices had been forced to operate remotely and from a technology point of view, these have advanced at an unprecedented rate and adopted new tools in a matter of a few weeks or months. This article is about the challenges of remote hiring from the perspective of a company that&#8217;s always been remote.</p>
<h3>Huge Numbers</h3>
<p>One of the most significant benefits for remote companies is increased access to talent. You don&#8217;t have to commute to a single place, so you don&#8217;t have to hire someone who lives near your office. This is great news for employers who now <strong>have access to <a href="http://movetowestsweden.com/why-should-you-recruit-global-talent">talent around the world.</a></strong></p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-2232 alignleft" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-300x165.jpg" alt="" width="360" height="198" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-300x165.jpg 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-1024x563.jpg 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-768x422.jpg 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-1536x845.jpg 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/shutterstock_1687381000-Converted-min-2048x1126.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px" />This increased talent pool is arguably positive, but it does pose some logistical challenges. One example is the significant increase in the number of applications that need to be processed before finding the ideal candidate. Remote jobs can attract hundreds or even thousands of applicants for a single role— all of this requires the attention of the recruitment manager.</p>
<p>Remote recruitment managers are strongly encouraged to create a streamlined recruitment process focused on excluding unqualified applicants. As with all positions, there are a large number of applicants who do not qualify for a certain position. Remote roles often attract people who are interested in a remote work lifestyle, regardless of position requirements. These are generally the easiest to work through, but may still be time-consuming.</p>
<h3>Timezone</h3>
<p>Remote work allows companies to utilize a global team which, for the most part, can be hugely beneficial. However, this, of course, comes with differing time zones which can sometimes be challenging to manage. In the day-to-day workflow, it’s relatively easy to overcome this by implementing<strong> asynchronous communication strategies, access to online resources, and scattered teammates, ensuring no one is working alone.</strong> Unfortunately, the act of hiring doesn’t always fit seamlessly into established processes, particularly if you only have one or two hiring managers.</p>
<p>Interviewers or recruiters have to learn how to manage time zones. Doing eight interviews a week of about an hour each plus note-taking, all at random times— it can be very emotionally and mentally draining. Learning how to manage your time like only opening up your calendar for interviews on three out of five days in the week, and only during specific times could come in handy.</p>
<p>Sharing the load with other recruiters also has the added benefit of speeding up the hiring process and having more input. You don’t always know what your own biases are so it&#8217;s always useful to communicate and get input from another recruiter within the company to get a second opinion.</p>
<h3>Logistics</h3>
<p>If you’re already a remote company, you’ll likely be set up for remote interviews. Technically it&#8217;s already similar to any regular meetings you already do. However, this may not be the case for the candidates. It can be a foreign language or foreign cultural experience to interview with a remote company.</p>
<p>Helping <strong>guide candidates through that process</strong> should be a top consideration. Reaching out to them ahead of time with instructions could save time and confusion later. Say you’ve scheduled an interview, a follow-up to let them know where to find the link and what technology platform to be using is going to be helpful.</p>
<p>While most people will say interviewing from the comfort of your own home is generally more appealing than traveling to an unknown location, there are still things candidates will need to do to prepare. In this case, they can’t just show up to a location, they’ll have to make sure to have the right programs installed, test microphones and speakers, and generally know their way around scheduling programs and video call software like Zoom. Having helpful instructions to guide through this process will help minimize any confusion.</p>
<h3>Technology</h3>
<p>Sometimes, no matter how much you prepare ahead of time, technology simply doesn’t work, and it’s important not to let these unavoidable mishaps cloud your judgment of the candidate. Imagine this: you’re talking through a microphone but your voice is muffled, so the candidate can&#8217;t hear clearly &#8211; or maybe their earphones aren’t working.</p>
<p>This can sometimes lead to questions being misunderstood or answered incorrectly, which skews the interview process. Sometimes, with all the other aspects of noise, interviewers have to infer what they’re trying to say because you can&#8217;t always hear every word. You kind of pick up the main words and try to string them together and hope that what you&#8217;re understanding is actually what they’re trying to say.</p>
<p>When this happens, it can be difficult not to let it influence how you thought the interview went. Sometimes candidates may misunderstand the question, does that mean they’re not listening carefully? Are they not understanding, or is it technology that’s not working out? This is where<strong> including multiple opportunities for communication comes in handy.</strong></p>
<h1>In Conclusion</h1>
<p>Recruiters need to be creative in order to attract new talent and get back on track for growth. However, one thing is for sure — there has been an immense increase in virtual contacts with people even more present on social media, especially millennials. Social media recruitment campaigns on platforms such as Facebook are a successful strategy to attract the attention of job seekers and ultimately recruit new talent.</p>
<p>Recruiters are also operating in that ambiguous, fast-changing environment. But there are many tools available that empower hiring teams to find, evaluate, and hire candidates in the new world of work.</p>


Challenges of remote hiring

<div class="sc-cMhqgX jMEedj">
<div class="sc-dnqmqq fKvEOH">
<div class="sc-gqjmRU kjUbTJ">With the recent introduction of Swift 5.5 in WWDC21, developers all around the world are celebrating as finally, finally, <span class="sc-kEYyzF dJiKkY">async/await</span> is now on Swift.</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-7EDA53DB-DFAA-4437-85A5-A9E170366E27" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-iQNlJl eIKlrm"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-9A829337-4E58-4F90-BEF2-59042CCF827C" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div id="9A829337-4E58-4F90-BEF2-59042CCF827C" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<div class="sc-VigVT cohFLa">
<div class="sc-gZMcBi hWAufR">
<div class="sc-gqjmRU eEEEQs">So, why is this a big deal?</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-iQNlJl eIKlrm"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-CFF7AB3C-7F40-4184-8ED5-67AC15A6D3DC" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div id="CFF7AB3C-7F40-4184-8ED5-67AC15A6D3DC" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<div class="sc-VigVT cohFLa">
<div class="sc-gZMcBi hWAufR">
<div class="sc-gqjmRU eEEEQs">Currently, if you’re doing something that requires a lot of asynchronous code, your code might have something like this:</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-exAgwC kieIiD">
<pre id="temp-for-copy" class="wp-block-code"><code>
func doComplexActions(completion: @escaping() - &amp; gt; Void) {
    action1 {
      boolResult in
        if boolResult {
        action2(boolResult) {
          intResult in
            action3(intResult) {
            stringResult in
              print(stringResult)
            completion()
          }
        }
      } else {
        action4 {
          stringResult in
            print(stringResult)
          completion()
        }
      }
    }
  }
  
  func action1(completion: @escaping(Bool) - &amp; gt; Void) {
    // async code here
    completion(boolResult)
  }
  
  func action2(_ result: Bool, completion: @escaping(Int) - &amp; gt; Void) {
    // async code here
    completion(intResult)
  }
  
  func action3(_ result: Int, completion: @escaping(String) - &amp; gt; Void) {
    // async code here
    completion(stringResult)
  }
  
  func action4(completion: @escaping(String) - &amp; gt; Void) {
    // async code here
    completion(stringResult)
  }
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-20FDAC7D-200F-4453-9983-F1374CA3D1BD" class="sc-epnACN kAlyV" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-iQNlJl iRKqjd"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-212C7720-CA20-4CC0-BB49-82777D4A605E" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div id="212C7720-CA20-4CC0-BB49-82777D4A605E" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<div class="sc-VigVT cohFLa">
<div class="sc-gZMcBi hWAufR">
<div></div>
<div class="sc-gqjmRU eEEEQs">But with async/await, we can further simplify that to a more concise and readable format.</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-iQNlJl eIKlrm">
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-17BB3994-3769-47F5-B00F-FCB928E2318E" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div id="17BB3994-3769-47F5-B00F-FCB928E2318E" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<div class="sc-VigVT cohFLa">
<div class="sc-gZMcBi hWAufR">
<div></div>
<div class="sc-gqjmRU eEEEQs">Let&#8217;s break down into how we can convert our current code to the Async/Await pattern.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div class="sc-bsbRJL kNaSwt"></div>
<div id="blockwrap-0CF524C7-5A93-4E6C-BF85-8988D6E64028" class="sc-epnACN cADneN" data-menu-inside="false">
<div id="0CF524C7-5A93-4E6C-BF85-8988D6E64028" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<p class="sc-ibxdXY iFLRwU">1. Replace the <em>completion handler syntax </em>with the <em>async syntax </em></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-0CF524C7-5A93-4E6C-BF85-8988D6E64028" class="sc-epnACN cADneN" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-iQNlJl eIKlrm">
<pre id="temp-for-copy" class="wp-block-code"><code>
func action1(completion: @escaping (Bool) -&gt; Void) {
    // async code here
    completion(boolResult)
  }
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-B16A57C4-9D1E-462A-B202-0564C8E45B15" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-bsbRJL kNaSwt">
<pre id="temp-for-copy" class="wp-block-code"><code>
func action1() async -&gt; Bool {
    // async code here
    return boolResult
  }
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-425309F5-38D1-47EA-85B4-922E4C6F9B5F" class="sc-epnACN cADneN" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-bsbRJL kNaSwt"></div>
<div id="425309F5-38D1-47EA-85B4-922E4C6F9B5F" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<div></div>
<div class="sc-ibxdXY iFLRwU">2. Replace the <em>c</em><span class="sc-kEYyzF dJiKkY"><em>losure syntax</em></span> with <em><span class="sc-kEYyzF dJiKkY">await syntax</span></em></div>
</div>
<div class="sc-iQNlJl eIKlrm"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-5D817ABA-38B2-49B9-AAF1-195A5D5F9DDF" class="sc-epnACN kAlyV" data-menu-inside="false"></div>
</div>
<div class="sc-exAgwC kieIiD">
<pre id="temp-for-copy" class="wp-block-code"><code>
action1() { boolResult in
    // ...
  }
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-595097AE-DA5A-4317-B24C-1C8B50F43029" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-bsbRJL kNaSwt">
<pre id="temp-for-copy" class="wp-block-code"><code>
let boolResult = await action1()
// ...
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-79620691-793C-43D8-BC64-B6E74DC26466" class="sc-epnACN cADneN" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-bsbRJL kNaSwt"></div>
<div id="79620691-793C-43D8-BC64-B6E74DC26466" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<div></div>
<div class="sc-ibxdXY iFLRwU">3. Repeat for other functions</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-iQNlJl eIKlrm"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-exAgwC kieIiD">
<pre id="temp-for-copy" class="wp-block-code"><code>
func doComplexActions() async {
    let boolResult = await action1()
    if boolResult {
      let intResult = await action2(boolResult)
      let stringResult = await action3(intResult)
      print(stringResult)
    } else {
      let stringResult = await action4(intResult)
      print(stringResult)
    }
  }
  
  func action1() async -&gt; Bool {
    // async code here
    return boolResult
  }
  
  func action2(_ result: Bool) async -&gt; Int {
    // async code here
    return intResult
  }
  
  func action3(_ result: Int) async -&gt; String {
    // async code here
    return stringResult
  }
  
  func action4() async -&gt; String {
    // async code here
    return stringResult
  }
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="sc-exAgwC kieIiD"></div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-21455B76-2900-4F68-B510-772A2DF45E7C" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-bsbRJL kNaSwt"></div>
<div id="21455B76-2900-4F68-B510-772A2DF45E7C" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<div class="sc-VigVT cohFLa">
<div class="sc-gZMcBi hWAufR">
<div></div>
<div class="sc-gqjmRU eEEEQs">And we’re done! As you can see, with async/await, our code is now more streamlined. We’re able to better see the scope of the conditional and the sequence of actions within it.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-B2968EE1-8E3C-4F47-9818-A813EED0359B" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div class="sc-iQNlJl eIKlrm"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sc-VigVT sc-hORach hdfVyZ">
<div id="blockwrap-7BB96734-E373-4D00-8A13-BFF717A0A68D" class="sc-epnACN eQJZRm" data-menu-inside="false">
<div id="7BB96734-E373-4D00-8A13-BFF717A0A68D" class="sc-VigVT hnmthv">
<div class="sc-VigVT cohFLa">
<div class="sc-gZMcBi hWAufR">
<div></div>
<div class="sc-gqjmRU eEEEQs">Cool right? that’s just one of the updates we have with Swift 5.5! Share more with us.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>


Get to know Async/Await in Swift

<p>Part of every developers dilemma is deciding which approach to take in addressing certain problems. Genuine solutions require a certain amount of effort and steps to achieve and there exists acceptable &#8220;workarounds&#8221; that tests every developers way of thinking.</p>
<p>Here are some simple workarounds that you might find helpful and will help save time in cases you still haven’t figured out the right solution.</p>
<p>For you to follow along and experiment your use-cases or check the results yourself, here’s a quick <a href="https://reactjs.org/docs/create-a-new-react-app.html">guide.</a></p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">npx create-react-app my-app
cd my-app
npm start
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Optional</strong></p>
<p>Install your favorite UI library (in this example, I used <a href="https://ant.design/docs/react/introduce">ant-design</a>).</p>
<h4>1. Force re-render by updating component key property</h4>
<p>There might be instances that you need to reset your component state (e.g. form states) after a certain action (click event, keyboard event, after certain requests, you name them…) outside your form component, and realized you don&#8217;t have access to the form library&#8217;s <strong>reset</strong> function.</p>
<p><strong>Form component</strong> (use your favorite form state library, react-hook-form in this example)</p>
<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>import React from 'react'
import { Form, Input } from 'antd'
import { useForm, Controller } from 'react-hook-form'

const FormComponent = () =&gt; {
  const { control, getValues } = useForm();
  const formValues = getValues()

  return (
    &lt;Form&gt;
      &lt;Controller 
        name="firstname"
	control={control}
	defaultValue={formValues.firstname}
	render={props =&gt; &lt;Input {...props} placeholder="First name" /&gt;}
      /&gt;
      &lt;Controller 
	name="lastname"
	control={control}
	defaultValue={formValues.lastname}
	render={props =&gt; &lt;Input {...props} placeholder="Last name" /&gt;}
      /&gt;
    &lt;/Form&gt;
  )
}
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Usage</strong></p>
<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>import React, { useState } from 'react'
import { Button } from 'antd'

// use your favorite library (e.g. uuid)
const getUniqueFormKey = () =&gt; (new Date()).toISOString()

export default () =&gt; {
  const [key, setKey] = useState(getUniqueFormKey())
  return (
    &lt;div&gt;
      &lt;FormComponent key={key} /&gt;
      &lt;Button onClick={() =&gt; setKey(getUniqueFormKey())}&gt;Reset form&lt;/Button&gt;
    &lt;/div&gt;
  );
}
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Result</strong></p>
<p>By changing the components <code>key</code> property, we were able to re-render the component completely and reset its state</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1973 size-full" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/work-around-1.gif" alt="" width="600" height="338" /></p>
<h4>2. Access react state in event listeners via useRef</h4>
<p>There might be cases that you&#8217;ll need to add an event listener, override specific key binding, access react state from <code>useState</code> and trigger certain actions from there.</p>
<p>Sounds easy, right? It feels natural, but your state will most probably be empty. Let&#8217;s try.</p>
<p><strong>Component</strong></p>
<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>import React, { useState } from 'react'
import { Input } from 'antd'

const App = () =&gt; {
  const [formState, setFormState] = useState({ fname: '', lname: '' })

  return (
    &lt;div&gt;
      &lt;Input
        value={formState.fname}
        placeholder="First name"
        onChange={e =&gt; setFormState({
          ...formState,
          fname: e.target.value,
        })}
      /&gt;
      &lt;Input
        value={formState.lname}
        placeholder="Last name"
        onChange={e =&gt; setFormState({
          ...formState,
          lname: e.target.value,
        })}
      /&gt;
    &lt;/div&gt;
  );
}
</code></pre>
<p>Then add <strong><code>keydown</code></strong> event listener via <strong><code>useEffect</code></strong></p>
<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>import React, { useEffect } from 'react'
import { Input } from 'antd'

const App = () =&gt; {
  ...

  useEffect(() =&gt; {
    const onKeydown = e =&gt; {
      if (e.code === 'Enter') {
        // do whatever you want with the state
        console.log(formState)
      }
    }
    if (window) window.addEventListener('keydown', onKeydown)
    return () =&gt; {
      if (window) window.removeEventListener('keydown', onKeydown)
    }
  }, [])

  ...
}
</code></pre>
<p>With this setup, this is what the state looks like upon triggering the &#8220;Enter&#8221; key from the keyboard, it doesn&#8217;t contain anything but the default values.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1975 size-full" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/work-around-2.gif" alt="" width="600" height="338" /></p>
<p>To access the updated state in the event listener, add the following modifications to the code</p>
<ol>
<li>Import <strong><code>useRef</code></strong> and set the default value with the state&#8217;s value</li>
<li>Add another <strong><code>useEffect</code></strong> that will keep the <strong><code>formStateRef</code></strong> value updated every time the state changes</li>
<li>Use the <code>formStateRef.current</code> on the <code>onKeydown</code> instead</li>
</ol>
<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react'
import { Input } from 'antd'

const App = () =&gt; {
  const [formState, setFormState] = useState({ fname: '', lname: '' })
  const formStateRef = useRef(formState)

  useEffect(() =&gt; {
    const onKeydown = e =&gt; {
      if (e.code === 'Enter') {
        // do whatever you want with the state
        console.log(formStateRef.current)
      }
    }
    if (window) window.addEventListener('keydown', onKeydown)
    return () =&gt; {
      if (window) window.removeEventListener('keydown', onKeydown)
    }
  }, [])

  useEffect(() =&gt; {
    formStateRef.current = formState
  }, [formState])

  ...
}
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Result</strong></p>
<p>And we can now have access to the updated state via useRef in our event listener.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1974 size-full" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/work-around-2-1.gif" alt="" width="600" height="338" /></p>
<p>It&#8217;s good to note that the above workarounds will work on any stateful components, and are not limited to form components.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>While it is always good to find a genuine solution to a problem, workarounds can be as creative as true solutions and I find some of them saving me from doing over-engineered solutions which convolute the codebase unnecessarily. Plus, it saves time!</p>


Simple ReactJS workarounds

<h3><b>Ethical Hackers</b></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you hear the word hacker what do you immediately think?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Is it the hooded guys that steal personal data from the internet using their insane computer skills?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you do, you’re not entirely wrong, but did you know that there are also hackers that have good intentions and are actually allowed to hack into computer systems? They are called Ethical Hackers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Have you seen Sylvester Stallone’s movie Escape Plan? In this movie, he breaks in and out of prisons as a profession. After a successful prison break, he then recommends improvements on the prison&#8217;s security system based on the methods he used during the prison break. Similarly, ethical hackers break into computer systems using the same methods used by criminal hackers, to help assess the security of a system.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the saying goes, “</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">It takes a thief to catch a thief</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">” but in this case, we are dealing with hackers, not a thief and instead of catching them, we just want them out and away from our systems.</span></p>
<h3><b>Unethical Hackers</b></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last time, I asked you “what comes to mind when you hear the word hacker?”. So now, we will talk about those shady guys that come to mind when talking about hackers. Since it’s common knowledge that hackers break into systems with ill intentions, I won&#8217;t get into that. Let’s talk about other things about them instead.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">First, their motive. Most of the time, it’s money. I’m thinking of three ways how they can make money from what they are doing:</span></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sell the assets they obtained through hacking</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sell their services to people who want to hack a computer system</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Collect ransom from owners of hacked computer system</span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When it’s not money, they hack the system for the same reasons why people hire them in #2.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Next, let’s talk about the different types of unethical hackers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some hackers break laws to fulfill their motives.</span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Black hat hackers: A hacker who breaks into computer systems without the permission of the system owner. This is usually someone with malicious intent.</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Blue hat hackers: The vengeful spirits. A person who learns hacking to get revenge from an individual or an organization.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While some hackers break the law, their motives might be considered by other people as ethical, heroic, or justifiable.</span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Grey hat hackers:  A hacker who breaks into computer systems without permission but reveals his findings to the system owner.</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Red hat hackers: The vigilante. Hacks through a black hat&#8217;s systems to stop the illegal activities and malicious intent of a black hat hacker.</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hacktivists: A person who hacks through a system to broadcast their belief and ideals. Usually victimizes government systems and leaves political messages.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To sum up, ethical hackers hack on behalf of the company to find and cover the loopholes to the system&#8217;s security. On the other hand, unethical hackers hack to cause harm or loss to the company and take profit for themselves.</span></p>
<p>Hopefully this blog gave you some insight into the colourful world of hacking. More and more companies are taking data protection and security seriously, and are willing to invest heavily in securing their systems &#8211; including hiring ethical hackers.</p>


Ethical vs. unethical hackers

<blockquote><p><strong><em>Cost is more important than quality, but quality is the best way to reduce cost &#8211; Genichi Taguchi</em></strong></p></blockquote>
<p>This quote doesn’t just apply to projects or work. It certainly applies to all aspects of our life: whether it’d be something that we eat, we always tend to pick up the freshest produce we see; to online shopping, we often look at product reviews before checking the items out; to our relationship, there&#8217;s always that line of quality friends over quantity. It&#8217;s innate in people who want the best for themselves. If you lose quality in food, there&#8217;s a risk of getting sick if consumed. And for products, it tends to break easily in which you’ll have to spend more than what you paid for &#8211; that&#8217;s the price of poor quality.</p>
<p>For software, the importance of quality is monumental. An unstable product running in live production may lead to a loss in customer engagements, and while some projects run on the pre-production phase it also consumes a lot of time and resources. The more the build gets retracted from being pushed to live production, the higher the chances it creates more tension internally for the organization &#8211; which may then lead to it being discontinued.</p>
<p>As much as possible, we&#8217;d like to avoid that kind of situation as we have invested a great deal of time and money for a project to just go down the drain. And trust me, we&#8217;ve had a share of those experiences at work &#8211; some gains and losses. But a loss does not imply defeat; it just means we need to do better the next time the same problem occurs.</p>
<p>So here I&#8217;ve listed some of my thoughts on the important parts in supporting a project and its quality, which might be of use to some of you.</p>
<ol>
<li><strong><em>Clear Business/Project Goals</em></strong> &#8211; if you have an idea, you must be able to convey your plans and intentions to other people involved. Now, a project may not have all its core functionalities listed from the start; but it must have at least something specific it wants to do or deliver. You mustn’t allow developers to create the specifics from the start. It must come from the business/project manager else it will create a traction point, wherein developers will have to redo their work because it wasn&#8217;t the exact business/project requirement.</li>
<li><strong><em>Planning &#8211;</em></strong> once goals have been established, a project should have proper planning (from documentations, wireframes, user stories, event storming sessions, DevOps infrastructure, API and data designs, logical flows, etc.) before starting the development and targeting deadlines/the timeline for teams. Everyone should be clear on what needs to be achieved.</li>
<li><strong><em>Team Composition</em></strong> &#8211; as much as people hate being in a hierarchy, it creates an order for the organization. Teams must have a POC of who&#8217;s who to chase for when something related to a problem happens &#8211; from the project manager, backend/frontend lead, infrastructure to QA. Someone needs to be responsible for a role and must be able to manage the team and its optimal performance.</li>
<li><strong><em>Communication</em></strong> &#8211; &#8220;In teamwork, silence isn&#8217;t golden, it&#8217;s deadly.&#8221; The information being relayed doesn&#8217;t need to be perfect it just needs to be addressed properly by the people in the organization. To effectively deliver a good output, everyone must be able to communicate goals, issues, feedback, and suggestions.</li>
<li><strong><em>Infrastructure</em></strong> &#8211; it&#8217;s important to have a solid infrastructure setup as it is the backbone of projects and the most critical part when the project is running. It should be able to handle downtimes, traffics, log monitoring, service build updates, data events, etc.</li>
<li><strong><em>Quality Gates</em></strong> – now, this doesn&#8217;t solely depend on the QA team, it is apparent in all departments: project managers need to ensure the requirements are correct and detailed, developers will implement their own sets of code testing, DevOps will have the error log monitoring, and most importantly QA will have a set of tests that will fit the project/feature both manual and automation. The gates will have to block an unstable build from being released as a final output for a deadline/push and must ensure a much stable version is delivered throughout each cycle.</li>
</ol>
<p>The list above is not the perfect guide to achieve better project quality, but will give you a good idea of what should be expected as a criterion. It will always depend on how well the organization manages its processes, workflow, and teams. That&#8217;s why here at HOV, we&#8217;re continuously learning from one project at a time and developing better tools/processes to ensure we deliver the most ideal outcome for our ideas.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re working on an exciting test project to help the company fill missing gaps in ensuring better quality and transparency for internal projects this year. I look forward to sharing it in my next post! Fingers crossed 🤞</p>


Why poor quality is costly

<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cyber Attacks</span></h1>
<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">You start your day checking for emails and you spot a client email with &#8220;PROPOSAL” as the subject line. You try opening the attachment but nothing happens. You ask the sender to resend the mail, but you never get a reply. You continue your day as usual.</span></i></p>
<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The next day, your company announces that a data breach occurred with 130 million customer data compromised. You receive an email from the IT department asking for any unusual stuff that happened the previous day and you remember the weird “PROPOSAL” email with an attachment that never opened. You were a victim of </span></i><b><i>phishing</i></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here&#8217;s how </span><a href="https://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing"><b>phishing.org</b></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> defines it:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phishing is a cybercrime in which a target or targets are contacted by email, telephone, or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking, and credit card details and passwords. </span>The information is then used to access important accounts and can result in identity theft and financial loss.</p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phishing is among many other cyberattack methods that are being used by cybercriminals to acquire sensitive information for personal gains. Some of the most common attacks are:</span></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Denial of Service (DoS)</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Malware</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Password attack</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">SQL injection</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cross-site scripting (XSS)</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Man in the middle attack</span></li>
</ol>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Defending yourself and your organization from cyberattacks</span></h1>
<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Your IT Department conducts an information campaign on how to spot </span></i><b><i>phishing</i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> emails and how to deal with them. All the employees are also required to join a </span></i><b><i>Cyber Security Seminar</i></b><i> so you are more equip to deal with other forms of attacks that may target you and your organization in the future. In the seminar, you learn that cybersecurity is the collection of methods, technologies, and processes aimed to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer systems, networks, and data against cyber-attacks or unauthorized access, and even natural disasters.</i></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Defending yourself and your organization from cyberattacks is very much like defending a building from criminals. There are monitoring tools that record the activities happening in the system, much like what CCTV does in a building. There are also cybersecurity professionals that ensure the security of computer systems just like what security personnel does in a building. Cybersecurity should be implemented 24/7 as done in building security.</span></p>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why do you need to improve the security of a system?</span></h1>
<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">After the phishing incident, the IT team has been pushing security updates to everyone’s computer regularly. Some employees are annoyed because they are forced to restart their computers while they are working on something. They even question why one security update is not enough to protect the systems from cyberattacks.</span></i></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To answer that question, I’m going back to my analogy between cybersecurity and building security, I will also throw in a reference that I have researched because I feel like those imaginary employees are hard to convince.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Taken from an</span> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14043858.2017.1387410">academic paper</a> that reviewed seven studies about the effectiveness of surveillance cameras in reducing crime;</p>
<blockquote><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Changes in total </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">crime</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> found </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">crime</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> reductions ranging from 24 to 28% in public streets and urban subway stations, but no desirable effects in parking facilities or suburban subway stations.</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This implies that although crimes are reduced when surveillance cameras/CCTVs are installed, crimes still happen even when CCTVs are in use. The same thing is true for computer systems, a single security update will not eradicate the threat of cyberattacks. Cybercriminals/hackers will not be stopped by a security update, they will just look for other ways to break into your systems.</span></p>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Key takeaway</span></h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cybersecurity is the process of defending computer systems from cyberattacks. There are many forms of cyberattacks, one of which is phishing. Phishing is a technique used to obtain sensitive data where targets are contacted via email by cybercriminals posing as legitimate institutions. Cybercriminals/hackers cannot be stopped by just a single security update and as hackers continuously improve their techniques, your system’s security should improve as well.</span></p>


CyberSecurity

Tutorial: NextJs and Strapi setup


<p>I know what you&#8217;re thinking.&nbsp;<em>&#8220;Why Mocha? Why not use AVA? Why not find other alternatives?&#8221;</em></p>



<p>Yes, there are considerations taken for those questions, I&#8217;d rather cover that in another post.</p>



<p>This time, let&#8217;s assume we&#8217;re using the following tech and tools:</p>



<ol><li>API written in Node.js/Typescript</li><li>Mocha</li><li>Circle CI</li><li><code>nyc</code>&nbsp;test coverage tool</li><li>And a long set of tests, I mean really long.</li></ol>



<h3>Setting up Parallelism in Circle CI</h3>



<p>This is not the same&nbsp;<code>--parallel</code>&nbsp;flag option in Mocha. Parallelism in Circle CI allows you to split your test files and run them in separate executors running at the same time therefore reducing test time. Here&#8217;s what it looks like:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="1024" height="509" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Untitled-2-1-1024x509.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/dc765c96-f405-40cd-bd95-b9b3b067ee9e/Untitled.png" class="wp-image-1530" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Untitled-2-1-1024x509.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Untitled-2-1-300x149.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Untitled-2-1-768x382.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Untitled-2-1-1536x764.png 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Untitled-2-1.png 1628w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<p>In the image, we can see that there are 8 executors running in parallel. Each executor runs a different set of test files depending on how they were split across executors.</p>



<p>To enable this, we simply set&nbsp;parallelism&nbsp;attribute of a&nbsp;job&nbsp;in our&nbsp;<code>.circleci/config.yml</code>&nbsp;to the number of executors we want. In the case depicted in the picture above,&nbsp;parallelism&nbsp;is set to&nbsp;8. We also have to use some commands using&nbsp;circleci&nbsp;cli to split our test files:</p>



<ul><li><code>circleci tests glob</code></li><li><code>circleci tests split</code></li></ul>



<p>Let&#8217;s put this into action, shall we? Here&#8217;s a simple&nbsp;<code>.circleci/config.yml</code>&nbsp;file that utilizes parallelism.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<pre class="wp-block-code"><code><code>version: 2.1

jobs:
  checkout_source:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/node:14.15.1-stretch
    steps:
      - checkout
      - persist_to_workspace:
          root: .
          paths:
            - .
  install_dependencies:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/node:14.15.1-stretch
    steps:
      - attach_workspace:
          at: .
      - restore_cache:
          keys:
            - dependencies-{{ checksum "package-lock.json" }}
      - run:
          name: Install dependencies
          command: npm install
      - save_cache:
          key: dependencies-{{ checksum "package-lock.json" }}
          paths:
            - node_modules
      - persist_to_workspace:
          root: .
          paths:
            - node_modules/*
  test:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/node:14.15.1-stretch
    parallelism: 8
    steps:
      - attach_workspace:
          at: .
      - run:
          name: Run tests
          command: |
            circleci tests glob 'test/**/*.spec.ts' |
            circleci tests split |
            xargs npx mocha
workflows:
  build_workflow:
    jobs:
      - checkout_source
      - install_dependencies:
          requires:
            - checkout_source
      - test:
          requires:
            - install_dependencies</code></code></pre>
</div></div>



<p>What the command&nbsp;<code>circleci tests glob 'test/**/*.spec.ts'</code>&nbsp;does is that it lists all the files that matches the glob pattern&nbsp;<code>'test/**/*.spec.ts'</code>. It&#8217;s pretty much like what the command&nbsp;<code>ls</code>&nbsp;does when you set a glob pattern as argument. The command&nbsp;<code>circleci tests split</code>&nbsp;then takes this list of files and splits them in such a way that each executor will have&nbsp;<em>ideally</em>&nbsp;well-distributed test files.</p>



<p>There are 3 splitting techniques that Circle CI is using and you can choose which one to use:</p>



<ol><li>Default, files are split alphabetically by their filenames.</li><li><code>circleci tests split --split-by=filesize</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Files are split by their sizes.</li><li><code>circleci tests split --split-by=timings</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Files are split by test timings. When you use this option, you&#8217;ll need to store your timing data in artifacts.</li></ol>



<p>For simplicity, in this example, we&#8217;re just splitting files using the default technique.</p>



<p>Congrats! You now have parallelism enabled in your Circle CI tests. Time to celebrate? Not quite. When you&#8217;re using a test coverage tool, you stumble upon a slight issue.</p>



<h3>Setting up&nbsp;<code>nyc</code>&nbsp;test coverage while&nbsp;<code>parallelism</code>&nbsp;is enabled</h3>



<p>Since we are splitting the test files and are distributing them to a number of executors, each executor will only be running a partial set of your whole test files. That means your test coverage, for each executor, will plummet down and coverage checking will consequently fail.</p>



<p>Here&#8217;s my approach to work around this thing:</p>



<ol><li>Run&nbsp;<code>nyc</code>&nbsp;in all tests for each executor but setting<code>&nbsp;check-coverage</code>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<code>false</code>. We don&#8217;t want to check coverage levels right now, we only need coverage data.</li><li>For each executor, store coverage data to an arbitrary (with some level of file organization) directory.</li><li>Merge coverage data from different directories generated by each executor.</li><li>And run coverage check against the merged coverage data.</li></ol>



<p>Again, to the config files!</p>



<p>We&#8217;re going to add&nbsp;<code>nyc</code>&nbsp;command and set the right&nbsp;<code>--temp-dir</code>&nbsp;flag to control where coverage data are stored. In our&nbsp;<code>.circleci/.config.yml</code>, our test command will now become:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>circleci tests glob 'test/**/*.spec.ts' |
circleci tests split |
xargs npx nyc --temp-dir=./.nyc_output_temp/$CIRCLE_JOB-$CIRCLE_NODE_INDEX/nyc_output mocha
</code></pre>



<p>What this does is it instructs&nbsp;<code>nyc</code>&nbsp;to store coverage data in&nbsp;<code>./.nyc_output_temp/$CIRCLE_JOB-$CIRCLE_NODE_INDEX/nyc_output</code>. You can set your own temporary directory, but it should be unique per executor to avoid overlaps/conflicts in merging the generated test coverage results. In here, I used the following built-in environment variables in Circle CI:</p>



<ol><li><code>$CIRCLE_JOB</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Name of the job. In this case, it&#8217;s&nbsp;<code>test</code>.</li><li><code>$CIRCLE_NODE_INDEX</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Each executor for a specific job has it&#8217;s own index.</li></ol>



<p>Now that we have test coverage data stored in the temporary directory, we just need to add a step in our job to make these files available to jobs downstream in the workflow. The following step tells CircleCI to persist the files in&nbsp;<code>.nyc_output_temp/*</code>&nbsp;directory, so that these files are available in our next job where we merge coverage test data and do the coverage check.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>- persist_to_workspace:
		root: .
    paths:
      - .nyc_output_temp/*
</code></pre>



<p>Assuming all tests passed, we can now merge the coverage data and do the coverage check. To merge the coverage data, we can just run the following <a href="https://github.com/istanbuljs/istanbuljs/blob/master/monorepo-merge-reports.js">code</a>:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>'use strict';

const { spawnSync } = require('child_process');
const path = require('path');
const glob = require('glob');
const makeDir = require('make-dir');
const rimraf = require('rimraf');

process.chdir(__dirname);
rimraf.sync('.nyc_output');
makeDir.sync('.nyc_output');

// Merge coverage data from each executor.
glob.sync('.nyc_output_temp/*/nyc_output').forEach((nycOutput) =&gt; {
  console.log(`Merging: ${nycOutput}`);
  const cwd = path.dirname(nycOutput);
  const { status, stderr } = spawnSync(
    'npx nyc',
    &#91;
      'merge',
      'nyc_output',
      path.join(__dirname, '.nyc_output', path.basename(cwd) + '.json'),
    ],
    {
      encoding: 'utf8',
      shell: true,
      cwd,
    },
  );

  if (status !== 0) {
    process.exit(status);
  }
});
</code></pre>



<p>The code actually runs&nbsp;<code>nyc merge</code>&nbsp;command to merge all coverage data from each directory generated by each executor. Once we have the merged coverage data, we can now run the coverage check.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>nyc report --reporter=lcov --reporter=text-summary --check-coverage
</code></pre>



<p>This command runs a coverage check under&nbsp;<code>.nyc_output</code>&nbsp;where all coverage data were merged when we ran the code above. This methodology of merging test coverage data is not limited to Circle CI tests only. You can also use this when you need to run different tests separately and want to run test coverage check after all different tests are ran.</p>



<h3>Conclusion</h3>



<p>That&#8217;s it! You can now enable parallelism in Circle CI without removing the ability to check test coverage. For sure, there are a few other ways to solve the same problem, but I have found this to be more robust and straightforward.</p>



<p>Here&#8217;s a public GitHub Gist were I put all the necessary configuration files:&nbsp;<a href="https://gist.github.com/ccpacillos/3778615ec84e3a494111a29430996829">https://gist.github.com/ccpacillos/3778615ec84e3a494111a29430996829</a></p>


Setting up Mocha Test Coverage and Parallelism In Circle CI


<p>Backend development is a large part of the work we are doing at High Output Ventures. Over time, we have accumulated a number of tools and conventions that we find ourselves repeatedly employing in every new project. I will be walking you through a typical backend development environment setup at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hov.co/">High Output Ventures</a>&nbsp;(HOV).</p>



<h2>package.json</h2>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
  "name": "backend-environment",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "description": "A typical backend development environment setup.",
  "main": "build/index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "exit -1"
  },
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "git+https://github.com/Proto-Garage/backend-environment.git"
  },
  "author": "High Output Ventures",
  "license": "ISC",
  "bugs": {
    "url": "&lt;https://github.com/Proto-Garage/backend-environment/issues>"
  },
  "homepage": "&lt;https://github.com/Proto-Garage/backend-environment#readme>"
}
</code></pre>



<p>Most of the backend projects at HOV are written in Typescript and run on top of NodeJS. Just like any NodeJS project, we start by running <code>npm init</code>. This will create a <code>package.json</code> file that contains all the basic information in a NodeJS project.</p>



<h2>Typescript</h2>



<p>NodeJS does not execute Typescript code directly. Typescript codes must first be transpiled into Javascript before NodeJS can execute them. To transpile Typescript code into Javascript, we use the official&nbsp;<code>typescript</code>&nbsp;package. We also use&nbsp;<code>ts-node</code>&nbsp;to do the transpilation step at runtime during the development process. This runtime Typescript transpilation is particularly useful for running tests quickly and without the need for an intermediate build step. For&nbsp;<a href="https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/module-resolution.html#path-mapping">path mapping</a>, we use&nbsp;<code>tscpaths</code>&nbsp;at compile-time and&nbsp;<code>tsconfig-paths</code>&nbsp;at runtime.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>npm install --save-dev ts-node tsconfig-paths tscpaths typescript
</code></pre>



<h3>tsconfig.json</h3>



<p>Every Typescript project must come with a&nbsp;<code>tsconfig.json</code>&nbsp;file. By carefully choosing the options we include in this file, we can customize the Typescript build process so that it fits perfectly with our setup. To simplify the debugging process, we enable the&nbsp;<code>sourceMap</code>&nbsp;option. By setting the&nbsp;<code>--enable-source-maps</code>&nbsp;option in NodeJS, every time a runtime error occurs, the stack trace will point us to the correct line number in the source file. We also make use of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/module-resolution.html#path-mapping">path mapping</a>feature to get rid of the long relative paths in import statements. The Typescript files are kept in&nbsp;<code>./src</code>&nbsp;and the build files are sent to&nbsp;<code>./build</code>.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "es2017",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "outDir": "./build",
    "strict": true,
    "strictNullChecks": true,
    "strictFunctionTypes": true,
    "strictPropertyInitialization": true,
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "removeComments": true,
    "noImplicitThis": true,
    "alwaysStrict": true,
    "noUnusedLocals": true,
    "noUnusedParameters": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "lib": &#91;"es2020"],
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "@library/*": &#91;"src/library/*"],
    }
  },
  "include": &#91;"src/**/*"]
}
</code></pre>



<h2>Production Dependencies</h2>



<p>We use a large number of production dependencies, but the ones that are almost always used in every project are&nbsp;<code>luxon</code>and&nbsp;<code>ramda</code>.&nbsp;<code>luxon</code>&nbsp;is an alternative to the more famous&nbsp;<code>moment</code>&nbsp;package. We prefer&nbsp;<code>luxon</code>&nbsp;over&nbsp;<code>moment</code>&nbsp;because of its significantly better API. We use&nbsp;<code>luxon</code>&nbsp;for everything that involves date and time manipulation. For utility functions, we use&nbsp;<code>ramda</code>. We fell in love with&nbsp;<code>ramda</code>&nbsp;because of its strong adherence to functional programming principles. Other production dependencies that we commonly use are:&nbsp;<code>ms</code>,&nbsp;<code>uuid</code>,&nbsp;<code>redis</code>,&nbsp;<code>mongoose</code>, and&nbsp;<code>koa</code>.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>npm install luxon ramda
npm install --save-dev @types/luxon @types/ramda
</code></pre>



<h2>Linting</h2>



<p>To catch potential issues in the code, we use&nbsp;<code>eslint</code>&nbsp;for linting. We also use a number of additional plugins which enables us to use&nbsp;<code>eslint</code>&nbsp;together with Typescript.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>npm install --save-dev @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin @typescript-eslint/parser eslint eslint-config-airbnb-base eslint-import-resolver-typescript eslint-plugin-import 
</code></pre>



<h3>.eslintrc</h3>



<p>We use the Airbnb&nbsp;<code>eslint</code>&nbsp;config as the base config. We then add rules on top as we see fit.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
  "parser": "@typescript-eslint/parser",
  "plugins": &#91;"@typescript-eslint", "import"],
  "extends": &#91;
    "airbnb-base",
    "plugin:@typescript-eslint/recommended",
    "plugin:import/typescript"
  ],
  "settings": {
    "import/resolver": {
      "typescript": {}
    }
  },
  "env": {
    "node": true,
    "mocha": true
  },
  "rules": {
    "max-len": &#91;"error", 128],
    "no-console": "off"
  }
}
</code></pre>



<h2>Tests</h2>



<p>We primarily use&nbsp;<code>mocha</code>&nbsp;to run our tests. We have also experimented with alternative test runners such as&nbsp;<code>ava</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code>cucumberjs</code>. To generate random inputs, we use&nbsp;<code>chance</code>&nbsp;and to implement stubs, we use&nbsp;<code>sinon</code>. To measure the test coverage, we use&nbsp;<code>nyc</code>. All the test files are kept at&nbsp;<code>./test</code>.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>npm install --save-dev mocha chance sinon nyc @types/mocha @types/chance @types/sinon
</code></pre>



<p>Tests are usually divided into two categories:&nbsp;<code>unit tests</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code>integration tests</code>. Unit tests are aimed at testing individual components while integration tests are aimed at testing multiple components together to check if they work properly as a whole. We also keep a collection of custom helper functions for repetitive tasks such as generating test objects and setting up test environments.</p>



<h3>tsconfig.json</h3>



<p>The&nbsp;<code>test</code>&nbsp;directory contains its own&nbsp;<code>tsconfig.json</code>&nbsp;file. This local&nbsp;<code>tsconfig.json</code>&nbsp;file is basically an extension to the&nbsp;<code>tsconfig.json</code>&nbsp;file in the root directory. Here, we add options that are unique to the test environment.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
  "extends": "../tsconfig.json",
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "@library/*": &#91;"../src/library/*"],
      "@helpers/*": &#91;"./helpers/*"]
    }
  },
  "include": &#91;
    "./**/*",
    "../src/**/*",
  ],
}
</code></pre>



<h3>.mocharc.json</h3>



<p><code>mocha</code>&nbsp;options can be set in the&nbsp;<code>.mocharc.json</code>&nbsp;file which is usually located in the root directory. In our setup, we register&nbsp;<code>ts-node</code>&nbsp;so that we can directly run tests without needing an intermediate transpilation process. We also register&nbsp;<code>tsconfig-paths</code>&nbsp;to resolve path mapping at runtime.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
  "colors": true,
  "exit": true,
  "recursive": true,
  "bail": true,
  "timeout": 5000,
  "require": &#91;"ts-node/register/transpile-only", "tsconfig-paths/register"],
  "spec": "test/**/*.spec.ts"
}
</code></pre>



<h3>.nycrc</h3>



<p>To measure the test coverage, we use&nbsp;<code>istanbul</code>&nbsp;and it&#8217;s command-line interface&nbsp;<code>nyc</code>. By running&nbsp;<code>nyc</code>&nbsp;in every build, we ensure that there is enough test coverage at all times. The coverage threshold configuration is set depending on the needs of the project.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
  "extends": "@istanbuljs/nyc-config-typescript",
  "all": true,
  "check-coverage": true,
  "lines": 75,
  "statements": 75,
  "branches": 75,
  "functions": 75
}
</code></pre>



<h2>Docker</h2>



<p>Most of the applications that we built run inside Docker containers. These containers are then deployed to either Docker Swarm or Kubernetes. Using containers makes it easier to package and deploy our projects.</p>



<h3>Dockerfile</h3>



<p>Our typical Docker image is built on top of an&nbsp;<code>alpine</code>&nbsp;base image.&nbsp;<code>alpine</code>&nbsp;containers are known to be lightweight and minimalist.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>FROM node:12.18.2-alpine

WORKDIR /srv/node

COPY ./build /srv/node/build
COPY ./package.json /srv/node/package.json
COPY ./node_modules /srv/node/node_modules

CMD npm start
</code></pre>



<h3>docker-compose.yml</h3>



<p>To deploy third-party services such&nbsp;<code>redis</code>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<code>mongodb</code>&nbsp;in the local development environment, we use&nbsp;<code>docker-compose</code>. This ensures that all of our developers are using the same set of services with exactly the same versions.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>version: '3.2'
services:
  redis:
    image: redis:5.0.5-alpine
    ports:
      - 6379:6379
  mongo:
    image: mongo:4.1.5-xenial
    ports:
      - 27017:27017
</code></pre>



<h2>Scripts</h2>



<p>Custom scripts may be added to the&nbsp;<code>package.json</code>&nbsp;file. In our setup, these custom scripts and their functions are listed as follows:</p>



<ul><li><code>build</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Transpiles the Typescript source files and resolves the&nbsp;<code>path mappings</code>.</li><li><code>clean</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Removes the&nbsp;<code>./build</code>&nbsp;directory.</li><li><code>lint</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Executes&nbsp;<code>eslint</code>&nbsp;and reports any linting errors.</li><li><code>lint:fix</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Executes eslint and attempts to fix any linting errors automatically.</li><li><code>start</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Starts the NodeJS application. This assumes that the&nbsp;<code>build</code>&nbsp;script was previously executed.</li><li><code>test</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Executes all tests.</li><li><code>typecheck</code>&nbsp;&#8211; Checks if there are existing Typescript type errors.</li></ul>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
  ...
  "scripts": {
    "build": "npm run clean &amp;&amp; tsc &amp;&amp; tscpaths -p tsconfig.json -s ./src -o ./build",
    "clean": "rimraf /build",
		"lint": "eslint . --ext .ts",
    "lint:fix": "eslint . --ext .ts --fix",
    "start": "node --enable-source-maps build/index.js",
		"test": "cross-env NODE_ENV=test TS_NODE_PROJECT=tsconfig.json TS_NODE_FILES=true nyc --reporter=lcov --reporter=text-summary mocha",
		"typecheck": "tsc --noEmit"
  },
  ...
}
</code></pre>



<h2>Closing Thoughts</h2>



<p>There is an infinite number of ways to set up a backend development environment. What works for our team may not work for others. What&#8217;s important is that we choose the tools and conventions that we think are the best fit given the technical requirements of our projects. It is also important that we continually evolve this setup as new trends appear in the industry. An example project following this setup can be found&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/rogermadjos/backend-environment">here</a>.</p>


Backend Development Setup Walkthrough


<p>Kubernetes has been a favorite tool at HOV &#8211; it&#8217;s versatile and verbose. There are numerous options for deployment and cluster management that we have found but we can’t use them all. Let’s take a look at a couple of decisions we made and how we applied them.</p>



<h1><strong>Early Stages of Adoption</strong></h1>



<p>We had a vague idea of how to bridge our existing CI / CD practices into Kubernetes and did a couple of experiments on how to deal with this.</p>



<p>First, was a disruptive approach using <a href="https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize">kustomize</a>. We had a single repository containing all definitions that are being reused across various environments depending on kustomize&#8217;s main features; <strong>variants</strong> and <strong>overlays</strong>.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><strong>Variants</strong> are environment-specific output configurations. <strong>Overlays</strong> are reusable definitions that are being overlaid for a specific environment.</p></blockquote>



<p>Kustomize allows managing metadata and using specific configuration maps for an environment.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code .wp-block-code"><code>---
apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

namePrefix: development-
commonLabels:
  variant: development
  org: reitscreener-job

bases:
- ../../base

configMapGenerator:
  - name: reitscreener-job
    envs:
      - development.env

---
apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

namePrefix: production-
commonLabels:
  variant: production
  org: reitscreener-job

bases:
- ../../base

configMapGenerator:
  - name: reitscreener-job
    envs:
      - production.env

</code></pre>



<p>In the above environment configuration, there is a bases syntax that points to where the base folder is. The base folder contains the kuztomization.yml file which we import for all our reusable resources.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>---
apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

commonLabels:
  org: reitscreener

resources:

# Global Jobs
- alert.yml
- exchange-rate.yml

# SGX Jobs
- sgx-annual-report.yml
- sgx-quarter-report.yml
- sgx-announcements.yml
- sgx-bondyield.yml
- sgx-index-ftse.yml
- sgx-insight.yml
- sgx-share-price.yml
- sgx-insider-trade.yml
- sgx-insider-trade-links.yml
- sgx-volatility.yml</code></pre>



<p>We can then use overlays to reuse the base definition while deploying to different environments.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>---
sudo kustomize build overlays/production | sudo kubectl apply -f - sudo kustomize build overlays/development | sudo kubectl apply -f -</code></pre>



<p>Second was to build a <strong>centralized deployment</strong> service and expose APIs for CI service to call.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>export VERSION=`cat .version` &amp;&amp;
curl --location --fail --request POST '&lt;https://devops.inhouseproject.com/deploy>' \\\\
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \\\\
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiaWF0IjoxNTE2MjM5MDIyfQ.SflKxwRJSMeKKF2QT4fwpMeJf36POk6yJV_adQssw5c' \\\\
  --data-raw '{
    "environment": "development",
    "type": "deployment",
    "service": "inhouseservice",
    "version": "'"$VERSION"'"
  }'</code></pre>



<p>The good thing about this is that we can control access to the API level but we are already using GitHub and CircleCI both with good access control features, for our CI pipeline. We were also experiencing service downtime because of maintenance and git concurrency issues, we called git commands in the application layer, which should have been the least of our concerns.</p>



<p>Lastly, we are now looking at using <strong>decentralized deployments;</strong> each repository will be responsible for its deployment pipeline.</p>



<p>We have been looking into multiple tools (<a href="https://draft.sh/">draft</a>, <a href="https://helm.sh/">helm</a>, <a href="https://gitkube.sh/">gitkube</a>) however, they solve only part of our problems. Helm is not as straightforward as it looks and draft is the nearest but its support has been halted and the repository has been marked as read-only.</p>



<p>The next best thing we have is <a href="https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/skaffold">skaffold</a>. It follows our existing way of deploying containers &#8211; build, push, and deploy. We find the usage simple and straightforward. Let&#8217;s take a closer look at how we implemented it in one of our projects in the next sections.</p>



<h1><strong>YAML Configuration</strong></h1>



<p>Skaffold relies on a configuration file that can be generated using the following command:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>❯ skaffold init
Configuration skaffold.yaml was written
You can now run &#91;skaffold build] to build the artifacts
or &#91;skaffold run] to build and deploy
or &#91;skaffold dev] to enter development mode, with auto-redeploy</code></pre>



<p>This is a sample configuration skaffold file. It shows the ECR repository and the k8s manifest files.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>apiVersion: skaffold/v2beta7
kind: Config
metadata:
  name: sample-project-api
build:
  artifacts:
    - image: xxxxxxxxxxxx.dkr.ecr.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sample-project-api
  local:
    push: true
deploy:
  kubectl:
    manifests:
      - k8s/**/*.yaml</code></pre>



<p>Skaffold builds the images locally using docker commands that are set using the local definition.</p>



<p>It will also push the built image into the given ECR link, but you need to have AWS access.</p>



<p>It will then deploy all the k8s manifests declared in the configuration using kubectl command.</p>



<p>There is always room to do more, but this is the minimum setup that is required.</p>



<h1><strong>Building Images</strong></h1>



<p>Building images in our previous setup was straight forward but still tedious.</p>



<p>We created a CircleCI job that calls docker commands and pushes them into ECR.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>version: 2
jobs:
	...
  build_docker_image:
    docker:
      - image: in-house-circleci-image:latest
    environment:
      AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ...
      AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ...
      DOCKER_REGISTRY: xxxxxx.dkr.ecr.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com
    steps:
      - setup_remote_docker:
          version: 18.05.0-ce
          docker_layer_caching: true
      - run:
          name: save SHA to a file
          command: echo $CIRCLE_SHA1 > .circle-sha
      - restore_cache:
          keys:
            - repository-{{ checksum ".circle-sha" }}
      - restore_cache:
          keys:
            - build-{{ checksum ".circle-sha" }}
      - restore_cache:
          keys:
            - dependencies-production-{{ checksum "package-lock.json" }}
      - run:
          name: build docker image
          command: >
            docker build .
            --tag $DOCKER_REGISTRY/$IMAGE_NAME:$CIRCLE_BUILD_NUM
      - run:
          name: login to docker registry
          command: eval `aws ecr get-login --no-include-email --region ap-southeast-1`
      - run:
          name: push docker image to docker registry
          command: docker push $DOCKER_REGISTRY/$IMAGE_NAME:$CIRCLE_BUILD_NUM
      - run:
          name: tag latest image
          command: docker tag $DOCKER_REGISTRY/$IMAGE_NAME:$CIRCLE_BUILD_NUM $DOCKER_REGISTRY/$IMAGE_NAME:latest
      - run:
          name: push latest image
          command: docker push $DOCKER_REGISTRY/$IMAGE_NAME:latest
      - run:
          name: store version number
          command: echo $CIRCLE_BUILD_NUM > .version
      - store_artifacts:
          path: .version
      - save_cache:
          key: version-{{ checksum ".circle-sha" }}
          paths:
            - .version
  ...</code></pre>



<p>If you compare it to the new setup, all the details are now hidden into a single command.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>version: 2
jobs:
	...
  build:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/node:12.18.2-stretch
    steps:
      - attach_workspace:
          at: .
      - setup_remote_docker:
          version: 18.06.0-ce
          docker_layer_caching: true
      - restore_cache:
          keys:
            - dependencies-{{ checksum "package-lock.json" }}
      - aws-cli/setup
      - run:
          name: login to aws
          command: bash ./aws-login.sh
      - run:
          name: install skaffold
          command: |
            curl -Lo skaffold &lt;https://storage.googleapis.com/skaffold/releases/latest/skaffold-linux-amd64>
            chmod +x skaffold
            sudo mv skaffold /usr/local/bin
      - run:
          name: npm run build
          command: npm run build:ci
      - run:
          name: skaffold build
          command: skaffold build --tag=$CIRCLE_BUILD_NUM
...</code></pre>



<h1><strong>Deploying Images</strong></h1>



<p>The deployment part is where we migrate from the API requests into local kubectl.</p>



<p>This setup uses the local kubectl and it should point to the correct cluster using the kubeconfig.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>version: 2
jobs:
	...
  deploy:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/node:12.18.2-stretch
    steps:
      - attach_workspace:
          at: .
      - setup_remote_docker:
          version: 18.06.0-ce
          docker_layer_caching: true
      - restore_cache:
          keys:
            - dependencies-{{ checksum "package-lock.json" }}
      - aws-cli/setup
      - run:
          name: login to aws
          command: bash ./aws-login.sh
      - run:
          name: install skaffold
          command: |
            curl -Lo skaffold &lt;https://storage.googleapis.com/skaffold/releases/latest/skaffold-linux-amd64>
            chmod +x skaffold
            sudo mv skaffold /usr/local/bin
      - run:
          name: skaffold deploy
          command: skaffold deploy --images 498457837717.dkr.ecr.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/sample-project-api:$(cat .version)
...</code></pre>



<h1><strong>Closing Thoughts</strong></h1>



<p>It is easier to get the tools into action when you already understand the concepts behind because tools consist of a lot of features that you might not need for now. The basic flow for our deployment is for us to be able to <strong>build, push,</strong> and <strong>deploy</strong>. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools that the community has had available, we just need to pick the ones closest to what we are already doing. It&#8217;s always a good idea to explore things outside of the accepted norms as this is how you become holistic and not dogmatic.</p>


Experimenting with Deployments at HOV


<p>At HOV, a core value embedded in us is that of ‘<strong>Learning Machine</strong>.’ Everyone is encouraged to work on something that they believe could be their superpower. I have been working in QA and cross checking of data research, but earlier this year I decided to ‘dabble in the data’ as I enjoy doing data research and am always curious to learn more. The biggest challenge, of course, was how to make the switch and where to begin?&nbsp;</p>



<p>Like most beginners, I began researching Data Analytics and focused on introductory topics. However, the subject focus was fairly general and as a beginner I still had a thousand questions on my mind. With the help of my mentors at HOV, I decided to search instead for specific skills needed while applying for a Data Analyst position; this formed the beginning point of my journey. I also took the initiative to enroll in <a href="https://www.udemy.com/share/103xLiAkIccVdURXg=/">online courses</a> while managing my full-time role at HOV.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pixeltrue-data-analyse-1-1024x768.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1155" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pixeltrue-data-analyse-1-1024x768.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pixeltrue-data-analyse-1-300x225.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pixeltrue-data-analyse-1-768x576.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pixeltrue-data-analyse-1-1536x1152.png 1536w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pixeltrue-data-analyse-1-2048x1536.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<p>Choosing courses is never easy either, since there are limitless options and you’re starting out so you aren’t too sure which ones would be helpful. After trying out several courses, the one I would highly recommend is “<a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/what-is-datascience?specialization=ibm-data-science">What is Data Science?</a>”</p>



<p>&nbsp;In this course, topics are discussed based on experiences of actual data scientists all from different backgrounds. Want to know their secret skill? Passion! They all had a burning desire to continuously learn more, use new tools and practice to clean and analyze data. That’s when I realized that I could be one of them too… and if you put your heart to it, so can you!&nbsp;</p>



<p>So if you’re still confused about where to start or if you should start, here are some tips from an aspiring and new Data Scientist:&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>1. Be curious</strong> 🕵🏽‍♀️</p>



<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Curiosity is an absolute must. You have to ask questions to clarify the business need and come to a solution. Start asking simple but key questions like the following: &#8220;What data is required to solve the problem, and where will that data come from?&#8221;</p>



<p><strong>2. Argumentative</strong> 🏁</p>



<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t be afraid to start somewhere and then learn from the data itself. It&#8217;s always going to be a learning process; modify your assumptions, hypothesis and data! By learning, we&#8217;ll have the ability to tell great stories while presenting our data.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>3. Judgements&nbsp;</strong>📚</p>



<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In most contexts it isn’t advised to have preconceived ideas about things but with data analytics, the more you know the easier the decision. Heading into a problem with a fairly good idea about it will always help you decide where to begin.</p>



<p><strong>4. Decide what expertise or industry you&#8217;re interested in, and what your competitive advantage is</strong> 💪🏾</p>



<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Once you figure out where your expertise lie, start acquiring the analytical skills; what platforms you should learn and which of those platforms or tools would be specific to the industry that interests you. Once you have got some proficiency in the tools, the next thing would be to apply your skills to real problems!&nbsp;</p>



<p>Pro-tip: Try using Task Relevant Maturity (TRM) boards as roadmaps. Here’s mine ⬇️</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img width="1024" height="567" src="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TRM-Board-2-1024x567.png" alt="Task relevant maturity board example" class="wp-image-1178" srcset="https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TRM-Board-2-1024x567.png 1024w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TRM-Board-2-300x166.png 300w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TRM-Board-2-768x425.png 768w, https://wordpress.highoutput.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TRM-Board-2.png 1181w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<p>I hope you find these tips helpful in your data analytics journey! </p>
