Learn how to create a template for a development container for TypeScript and Express.js. Plus a bonus for your npm-based projects! — Introduction In previous articles I have described how to set up a dev container for TypeScript (see “Creating a Dev Container for TypeScript and VS Code”, “TypeScript Dev Container Revisited: The February 2023 Edition”). The result is a template repository on github that makes it easy to create and start up…

How to set up an OpenID Connect compliant development environment with Docker? — Introduction If are working in a SaaS business, you are likely to have some form of identity provider (IDP). Among other things, an IDP typically takes care of authenticating users from possibly multiple tenants and keeps track of roles that may be assigned to users. Keycloak offers an OpenID Connect (OIDC)…

A gentle introduction to virtual networks with docker compose files Introduction In my previous article “Docker Port Mapping” I explained what port mapping is and demonstrated how to use it. Using a browser, we were able to send a request deliberately to one of two running containers. In this article, we…

Why and how to use port mapping in Docker? An introduction for beginners. In my experience working with software engineers, I have noticed time and again that the concept of of port mapping with Docker containers is one of the more challenging concepts. The typical problems include: Why we need…

Resolving Issues after Upgrading to Nodejs 18.14.0 — One of my favorite topics is the developer experience. Making it easy to set up and use an efficient and standardized development environment allows software engineers to spend more time on productive items instead of having to continuously deal with tool sets. Therefore, I maintain GitHub repositories with templates for…

How to improve the developer experience for better quality and productivity — Introduction In previous posts here and here, I described how to create a dev container for TypeScript development with VS Code. In this article I am goint to revisit the topic and share the insights I have gained since the publications of those two posts. The new insights are not invented…

Thank you for making the case of considering REPL as an additional tool in software engineering. I'd like to add a few thoughts. You mentioned that you would still write tests, just in a different fashion. So, it seems you still see value in automated tests per se. How do…

Using reflection to improve testability — Introduction When working with software engineering teams, I’m always interested in how I can assist with making their lives easier or how to help them continuously improve quality and productivity in their daily work. In this article I’ll describe a technique for improving testability of events in C#. I will show…

Hi Ankit, I'm not quite sure I fully understand what you are trying to accomplish. Therefore I'll attempt to respond in a more general way. I hope this is still helpful. In principle it is possible to run up multiple instance of the CosmosDB Emulator container. You just need to…