AgileAdam.com – Page 2

Tech Tips

Editing Web Content in VS Code

/ March 11, 2022

Okay, so it’s not quite as amazing as the title suggests, but this solution is worth sharing.

I work a lot in Bookstack. It’s a fantastic documentation system built with Laravel. I edit all pages in markdown. There is a markdown pane on the left and a preview on the right. I love the UI (shown below) but unfortunately I cannot move around in the editor like I can in PHPStorm or VS Code, where I have Vim support.

I have a Chrome extension called Wasavi, which is incredible for editing text areas in an inline virtual Vim window. Unfortunately, though, it doesn’t show realtime feedback in the preview pane until I save and close out of the virtual editor.

It occurred to me it’d be useful to just pop into VS Code quickly to edit the doc, then bring those edits back into the Bookstack editor in Chrome. At first I dismissed the idea as being “too much work.” After thinking about it for a moment, though, I realized I could MacGyver this relatively quickly with my favorite Mac application, Keyboard Maestro.

Here’s what I came up with. As with most things, I am sure I’ll tweak this over time to make it better, faster, less “error”-prone, etc. I have added a README comment and renamed most actions so it’s (hopefully) easy to understand the approach.

read more
Tech Tips

One-handed Gmail Inbox Culling with Keyboard Maestro

/ February 27, 2022
Keyboard Maestro proves, once again, why it’s at the top spot on my most recommended Mac applications list.

My normal procedure for culling (deleting unwanted) emails in Gmail is (with list on left and email preview on right):
1. Open the first email (opens in right pane)
2. If deleting, press “#” (⇧3)
3. Else, if skipping, press “j” to move down to the next email (standard Gmail behavior, I think; and it’s intuitive if you’re used to Vim)
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3.
I realized today how much I dislike hitting “#” with my left hand while browsing with my right.
read more

Testing Cookie Modification in Laravel 8

/ February 4, 2022

If there’s a better way to pass a cookie from one request to another, in a phpunit feature test in Laravel, please let me know! Here’s one way to handle it:

<?php

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Illuminate\Cookie\CookieValuePrefix;
use Tests\TestCase;

class DiveDeeperTest extends TestCase
{

    /**
     * Tests if the diveDeeper route appends the passed value to the cookie arr.
     * @return void
     */
    public function test_it_updates_path_cookie()
    {
        // Post a deeperPath to the diveDeeper route (with a starter cookie).
        // This should append the "deeperPath" value to the "path" cookie array.
        $resp = $this->withCookie('path', serialize(['/']))
            ->post(route('diveDeeper'), [
                'deeperPath' => 'Users'
            ]);

        // Assert that the cookie has been modified.
        $resp->assertCookie('path', serialize(['/', 'Users']));

        // If we make another post request here, it won't include our
        // modified "path" cookie. We have to retrieve it, then pass it
        // through to the next request.

        // Decrypt the cookie (now modified by the diveDeeper route).
        $cookieValue = CookieValuePrefix::remove(app('encrypter')
            ->decrypt($resp->getCookie('path')->getValue(), false));

        // Hit the diveDeeper route again using the modified cookie value.
        $resp = $this->withCookie('path', $cookieValue)
            ->post(route('diveDeeper'), [
                'deeperPath' => 'adam'
            ]);

        // Assert that the cookie has been modified again.
        $resp->assertCookie('path', serialize(['/', 'Users', 'adam']));

        // Etc...
    }
}

<?php

namespace Tests\Feature;

use Illuminate\Cookie\CookieValuePrefix;

use Tests\TestCase;

class DiveDeeperTest extends TestCase

{

/**

* Tests if the diveDeeper route appends the passed value to the cookie arr.

* @return void

public function test_it_updates_path_cookie()

{

// Post a deeperPath to the diveDeeper route (with a starter cookie).

// This should append the "deeperPath" value to the "path" cookie array.

$resp = $this->withCookie('path', serialize(['/']))

->post(route('diveDeeper'), [

'deeperPath' => 'Users'

]);

// Assert that the cookie has been modified.

$resp->assertCookie('path', serialize(['/', 'Users']));

// If we make another post request here, it won't include our

// modified "path" cookie. We have to retrieve it, then pass it

// through to the next request.

// Decrypt the cookie (now modified by the diveDeeper route).

$cookieValue = CookieValuePrefix::remove(app('encrypter')

->decrypt($resp->getCookie('path')->getValue(), false));

// Hit the diveDeeper route again using the modified cookie value.

$resp = $this->withCookie('path', $cookieValue)

->post(route('diveDeeper'), [

'deeperPath' => 'adam'

]);

// Assert that the cookie has been modified again.

$resp->assertCookie('path', serialize(['/', 'Users', 'adam']));

// Etc...

}

Development

Any Random Saturday Using Faker

/ January 5, 2022

Here’s a quick one, folks. I’m using Faker in Laravel factories to generate realistic data. I have a “week end date” field in one of my models that must always be a Saturday. Here’s how I generate a unique random Saturday:

PHP

date('Y-m-d', strtotime('next Saturday ' . $this->faker->unique->date()))

1

date('Y-m-d', strtotime('next Saturday ' . $this->faker->unique->date()))

read more
Development

Using “php artisan serve” with xdebug and PHPStorm

/ October 29, 2021

This is more of a person note for myself. This posts assumes some knowledge of php, Laravel, artisan, Homebrew, and xdebug.

I’ve been using php artisan serve to serve Laravel applications locally. It’s quick and it works well.

It’s probably not a great solution if you’re working with other people on a project, or if you want to implement a good CD/CI workflow. Having said that, it’s what I’m using today, so I figured I’d document how I got xdebug working with it (on my Mac).

read more

Development

Using Carbon to Generate Random Dates and Times

/ October 27, 2021

There are a number of ways to generate random dates/times in PHP. Here are some examples using the Carbon library:

// Between now and 180 days ago
Carbon::today()->subDays(rand(0, 180))
> 2021-09-02 00:00:00
> 2021-06-23 00:00:00
> 2021-05-23 00:00:00

// Between now and 180 days ago with random time
Carbon::today()->subDays(rand(0, 179))->addSeconds(rand(0, 86400));
> 2021-06-11 22:35:03
> 2021-10-24 13:19:53
> 2021-06-09 20:47:44

// Between now and 180 days ago

Carbon::today()->subDays(rand(0, 180))

> 2021-09-02 00:00:00

> 2021-06-23 00:00:00

> 2021-05-23 00:00:00

// Between now and 180 days ago with random time

Carbon::today()->subDays(rand(0, 179))->addSeconds(rand(0, 86400));

> 2021-06-11 22:35:03

> 2021-10-24 13:19:53

> 2021-06-09 20:47:44

Development

Adding a Global Function to Cypress for a Date {num} Months Ago

/ October 25, 2021

I’m working on a COVID-19 booster shot registration form. On this form I ask the user when they received their last COVID-19 vaccine shot. This is three simple fields (the month values are 01, 02, 03, etc.):

Date of last covid shot

Each vaccine brand (Pfizer, Moderna, J&J) has different eligibility criteria as it relates to the time since the individual received their original vaccine series. Pfizer, for example, is 6 months. My form needs to reject a user who says they received Pfizer less than 6 months ago.

Using Cypress I wanted some test coverage of this functionality. Original I had hard-coded a date value of 5 months ago:

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_month"]').select('08');
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_day"]').select('01');
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_year"]').select('2021');

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_month"]').select('08');

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_day"]').select('01');

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_year"]').select('2021');

As you can imagine this would work well for a while. Fast-forward a few months from now… the time ago will eventually be more than 6 months ago. I don’t want to have to keep updating this code with a recent date. The obvious solution is to dynamically choose the dates based on the current date. A global helper function would be ideal as I need to use this in many tests. Here’s a simple solution:

Step 1: Define the Function in index.js

The support/index.js file is loaded before each Cypress run. Creating a global function here is a quick way to introduce a reusable piece of code.

/**
 * Returns a simple object for {num} months ago, containing YYYY, MM, DD.
 *
 * @param {number} num
 *   Number of months to subtract from current date.
 *
 * @return object
 *   Object containing three properties (year:YYYY, month:MM, day:DD)
 */
cy.getDateMonthsAgo = (num) => {
    const dateObj = new Date(
        new Date().getFullYear(),
        new Date().getMonth() - num,
        new Date().getDate()
    );

    return {
        year: dateObj.getFullYear().toString(),
        month: ('0' + (dateObj.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2),
        day: ('0' + dateObj.getDate()).slice(-2),
    }
}

/**

* Returns a simple object for {num} months ago, containing YYYY, MM, DD.

* @param {number} num

* Number of months to subtract from current date.

* @return object

* Object containing three properties (year:YYYY, month:MM, day:DD)

cy.getDateMonthsAgo = (num) => {

const dateObj = new Date(

new Date().getFullYear(),

new Date().getMonth() - num,

new Date().getDate()

);

return {

year: dateObj.getFullYear().toString(),

month: ('0' + (dateObj.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2),

day: ('0' + dateObj.getDate()).slice(-2),

}

There are many solutions to handle getting a date from {num} months ago. If you start looking around for “What is a month, really?” you will find many different opinions. The code I’m using above responds like most humans do: give the same day of the month from {num} months ago. With a {num} of 5 (five months ago), on October 25, 2021 the result would be May 25, 2021.

WARNING: Please note the following:

new Date(2021, 1, 28) ==> February 28, 2021
new Date(2021, 1, 29) ==> March 1, 2021
new Date(2021, 1, 30) ==> March 2, 2021
new Date(2021, 1, 31) ==> March 3, 2021
new Date(2021, 1, 32) ==> March 4, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 28) ==> February 28, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 29) ==> March 1, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 30) ==> March 2, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 31) ==> March 3, 2021

new Date(2021, 1, 32) ==> March 4, 2021

Step 2: Use the Function

const fiveMonthsAgo = cy.getDateMonthsAgo(5);
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_month"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.month);
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_day"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.day);
cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_year"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.year);

const fiveMonthsAgo = cy.getDateMonthsAgo(5);

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_month"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.month);

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_day"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.day);

cy.get('select[name="datelastvax_year"]').select(fiveMonthsAgo.year);

Photography

Flowers!

/ August 10, 2021

Click/tap an image to view these full screen and un-cropped.

read more
Development, Tech Tips

PERT Estimates – Using Three-Point Estimation to Improve Accuracy

/ July 29, 2021
Background & Method

I’ve long been a promoter of using three-point estimates for improved accuracy when estimating tasks.

When I estimate how long a task will take to execute, I imagine three separate circumstances in an effort to improve the accuracy of my estimate:
1. Optimistic: How quickly could I get this task done if everything went perfectly. What if I realize some unexpected “wins” that get me to the finish line faster?
2. Realistic: When I think about my performance executing similar tasks in the past, what’s my best guess at an average amount of time needed?
3. Pessimistic: Sometimes nothing seems to go well. If things do not come together as expected, what’s the longest (within reason) you can imagine this task taking?
If I’ve truly thought about each of these, I can use them as variables in a simple formula, and can get a more accurate time estimate as a result.

This formula, (Best+(Real*2)+(Worst*3))/6 , puts more emphasis on the worst-case scenario (#3 above) as things seem to always take longer than expected to execute. Sometimes I use two versions of the formula (one that puts even more emphasis on pessimistic).

One more thing worth noting: You’ll see I used “I” and “my” a lot above; I do not recommend estimating tasks you are not executing, personally. I recommend having the responsible party estimate the task whenever possible. Explain the PERT process to them.

Usage

While this formula is simple, and adjustable (alter the weights as you see fit), it would take some time to manually calculate the result for each task.

I utilize a few tools to generate PERT estimates at the speed of thought.

First, I’ve written an Alfred plugin to make the process simple. This is my most used method of generating PERT estimates. Here’s a screenshot to give you a taste:

I’ve also created many spreadsheets over the years. These often look similar to this:

Here are a few templates you can use: XLSX | ODS
read more
Photography

Battery Steele, Peaks Island, Maine, USA

/ July 24, 2021

Click the first image to view these full screen and un-cropped.

read more

Step 1: Define the Function in index.js

Step 2: Use the Function

Background & Method

Usage