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Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

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Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#51

Post by scribu » 

  if(Meteor.isClient) {
    ...
  }


  if(Meteor.isServer) {
    ...
  }
Does the Meteor compiler somehow split those code blocks into separate files, so that it only serves the client code to the browser?

If not, it seems like a pretty bad practice for delivering fast webapps.

Edit: In general, Meteor.isServer seems like a great way for developers to shoot themselves in the foot:

  Dev: Let me just add my $secret in the server-side block...
  Bad guy (viewing source): Oh, what have we here?
  Dev: PWNED :(

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#52

Post by JPKab »

don_draper wrote: post #20

Why does HN not like MongoDB, but does like Meteor. Meteor uses MongoDB if you don't know.

I agree that there's a whole lot of Mongo hate on here, but it falls into two categories:

1) Teams who started with Mongo (which makes sense when your schema is still in flux and you are still feeling out what you want it to finally be) then stuck with it when they should have moved to an RDBMS due to their use case, but never did and then find out that Mongo doesn't support features that any RDBMS from the 90's would.

2) Old school RDBMS people who are, as Steve Yegge would say "software conservatives." They love the way RDBMS's force people to really put thought into their data modeling upfront, and believe that anything that allows people more flexibility is opening the door to increasing amounts of chaos. Plus they hate the thought of returning to the dark ages when databases didn't all use SQL, and everyone had to learn a new query language for a new DB.

FYI: I've heard Meteor is planning on allowing use of other databases. I would particularly be keen on use of RethinkDB. I really like what those guys have been doing so far.

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#53

Post by scottmagdalein »

pearkes wrote: post #36

I feel like there's a certain point where thoughtfulness trumps speed while building something. Why is there such a desire to do X in N minutes? How can something unique and truly useful come from 5 shell commands?

Because accepting an email for a newsletter is not unique and should be able to be built in as little time as possible.

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#54

Post by scottmagdalein »

nedludd wrote: post #18

"Type this code and run it". Hey, I can teach you the theory of relativity in 30 seconds: type this "e=mc2".

This isn't a "learn how to be a programmer" tutorial. This is a "look how easy Meteor makes getting something simple built and deployed".

So instead of the theory of relativity, how about using a calculator to do your taxes.

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#55

Post by JPKab »

ehutch79 wrote: post #21
seivan wrote: post #11

Anyone who says "5 minutes implementation" to me, get's a nice and sound "GO FUCK YOURSELF" EDIT: Usually it's the business monkey, UX snake oil guys and product leeches that say "Hey, that will only take like 5 minutes, right?"

Why is this getting downvoted so much? Just the language I hope. because there is a point there. Everytime I see a meteor post, I get the feeling the article is telling me I'd be a fool to use anything else. Assuming that's so, can we start talking about things like PCI compliant meteor apps. And what the security landscape looks like since you can interact with the data store via your browser's javascript console.

"And what the security landscape looks like since you can interact with the data store via your browser's javascript console."

By default, Meteor is in a "development" mode where all the security is off while you get the app doing what you want on localhost. The security is implemented later by turning off the autopublish feature and using authentication at the pub/sub level in the "model" component of the MVVM stack. At this point, when you try to do what they do in the demo, and change data from the browser console, it will make the change in the client for a split second, but that change is rejected at the model level, and the client resyncs with the model and the change is undone in the view.

BTW, I only "learned" (i'm not at all an expert) Meteor a few weeks ago (although I've been following the project since they first announced it 10?? or so months ago.) It's actually pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. But it is unmistakably a BIG FRAMEWORK in the Rails sense, whereas everyhing else in the Node world is truly modular in the Node fashion, with full transparency into what's going on. For people who like that, check out Derby, and it looks like there is some more stuff in the pipeline with Rendr by the dudes at AirBnB.

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#56

Post by javajosh »

scribu wrote: post #51

if(Meteor.isClient) { ... } if(Meteor.isServer) { ... } Does the Meteor compiler somehow split those code blocks into separate files, so that it only serves the client code to the browser? If not, it seems like a pretty bad practice for delivering fast webapps. Edit: In general, Meteor.isServer seems like a great way for developers to shoot themselves in the foot: Dev: Let me just add my $secret in the server-side bl…

Not sure why you got downvoted; it's a good question. It's not as trivially easy to check as your downvoter might think, as deployed Meteor bundles are minified.

Anyway, the answer is that the entire script is sent to the file and the server. In practice, this isn't a performance issue so much as a security issue - there may be parts of your server code that you don't want clients knowing about.

You can prevent server-side code from getting shipped to the client by placing it in the server subdir.

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#57

Post by twakefield »

pfraze wrote: post #50
twakefield wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full disclosure: I am the OP and work at Mailgun This is tough for me to answer objectively, but I'll do my best. Both services offer many of the same features and eliminate the pain of managing your own email server. Both services will achieve better deliverability at scale than managing your own server unless you know what you are doing and most people aren't interested in diving that deep into email. Mailgun is ve…

Mailgun sounds like a really good fit for me. I'm running a couchdb server, and I want to set it up to POST to my DB. Dump straight into my document store, life is good. I did a quick try at it and ran into a 415 from couchdb, which means mailgun didn't send json. Is there a way to configure a route to do that? If not, I'll have to write a custom _update handler.

Hey pfraze, we do not have a json option for Routes.

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#58

Post by javajosh »

1qaz2wsx3edc wrote: post #26
javajosh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

meteor create --list Personally, I think the `parties` example is a good one, so you can do: meteor create --example parties Enjoy.

The parties examples only uses a static map (lame), they make no use of google maps or leaflets. Try using an infoWindow. You can't, it's not easy. You're productive will be stone walled with the simplest of integration. (This is a limit of constant regions and how meteor handles controlling a piece of the dom). Working with maps or third party libraries is a common task. So, given that common tasks become stone wall…

As much as I dislike the whiny tone of your comment, you have a point: Meteor has problems integrating with some libraries. If a smart-package doesn't exist for it, the odds of it working are slim. (Try getting jquery ui to work...)

Part of this is because the Meteor use of reactive programming is very different.

Regarding the whining: projects like this take time and effort to create. Wanting something "a year ago" ignores the reality that this is what we have now, and for all it's warts, it's good!

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#59

Post by papsosouid »

nestlequ1k wrote: post #25
don_draper wrote: post #20

Why does HN not like MongoDB, but does like Meteor. Meteor uses MongoDB if you don't know.

MongoDB is pretty popular here. There's just a vocal group of old school RDBMS lovers who like to hate on everything that isn't PostgreSQL.

That doesn't seem very accurate. Plenty of "how do I shot database?" people are very anti-mongo too. Some of that may well be because they feel mongo gets more mindshare than their preferred nondb, but don't blame postgresql users for that.

Re: Create a web app from scratch in under 5 minutes with Meteor and Mailgun

#60

Post by spullara »

kisielk wrote: post #28

$ curl https://install.meteor.com | sh I really wish people would stop giving instructions like this. Despite all the focus on web security and sandboxing, we continue to instruct people to run arbitrary code on their user account. People should at least give any shell script they download from the internet a cursory look to see if it's doing what it should be doing instead of blindly executing the response from an H…

It would be great if shasum would let you check against a sha on the command line so you could do something like:

curl https://install.meteor.com | shasum -c 6fa3128600e9bd73a161a625f8503e6614b44b2b | sh

Could be built into curl possibly.

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