Published in tedspence.com·Jan 30Member-onlyPart 1: Designing an API with DotNet and PostgresFor your next project, why not try one of the best open source database servers? For much of its first decade, the C# and other DotNet programming languages were expected to be paired with a Microsoft SQL Server database. …Dotnet6 min readDotnet6 min read
Published in tedspence.com·Jan 15Member-onlyValidating API documentation with Swashbuckle and DotNet CoreAdd a unit test to your program to assert that your documentation is complete I’m a big fan of Swashbuckle, the DotNet library that automatically generates OpenAPI schema files and documentation for your project. …Dotnet2 min readDotnet2 min read
Published in CodeX·Dec 11, 2022Member-onlyPowerShell scanning for DotNet projects and solutionsAutomatically scan your projects and solutions for vulnerabilities Do you have too many old projects and solutions in your repositories?Whenever a developer tackles a small task, you might wind up with a small proof-of-concept experiment that … just never gets deleted. Over time these can really pile up. One solution…Powershell3 min readPowershell3 min read
Published in CodeX·Nov 27, 2022Member-onlySolving hoop games with A-StarUsing a famous pathfinding algorithm to solve a color-matching game My wife recently showed me a cute little iPhone/iPad game similar to the classic Tower of Hanoi logic puzzle. …Game Development6 min readGame Development6 min read
Published in tedspence.com·Nov 23, 2022Member-onlyLayered security for DotNet Core APIsA helpful security technique for defense in depth using middleware Most business APIs are hosted in a multi-tenant environment. When a single database contains data for multiple customers, the API service ensures that each call only works with data owned by the caller. As your API grows larger over time…Security4 min readSecurity4 min read
Published in CodeX·Nov 13, 2022Member-onlyThe best accessories for your APIA collection of little features and tips that will matter for your API service So you’ve decided to build a REST API. You can find well tuned example projects or performance measurements for different REST API design patterns. …Rest7 min readRest7 min read
Published in tedspence.com·Nov 11, 2022Member-onlyPostmortem: The 1998 AST Computer WebsiteSuccesses and failures from a twenty-five year old web 1.0 project I had the privilege to work for AST Computer right about the time it was acquired by Samsung in 1997. After I completed a small project for the marketing team, I was asked to redesign the main AST.com website…Post Mortem12 min readPost Mortem12 min read
Published in tedspence.com·Oct 24, 2022Member-onlyMarketing personas for developersSo you’ve built an API — can you work with Marketing to promote it? It can be difficult to design a marketing strategy for an API-based software-as-a-service business. Some developer focused companies de-emphasize marketing in favor of organic growth, and some developers dislike the common conventions of marketing and advertising. …Marketing8 min readMarketing8 min read
Published in CodeX·Oct 7, 2022Member-onlyShould you fix your technical debt?The desire to constantly improve our codebase must have reasonable limits If you speak to engineers at any modern software-as-a-service company, they will tell you how they have to deal with lots and lots of tech debt. …Tech Debt7 min readTech Debt7 min read
Published in tedspence.com·Oct 4, 2022Member-onlyTeaching to empty rectanglesLessons from teaching a college course on zoom when students won’t use cameras I recall vividly the last lecture I gave on-campus in March 2020 prior to the pandemic. A student approached me after class, worried about the news reports of COVID-19 but uncertain how to respond. …Teaching7 min readTeaching7 min read
