Categories
work

New job at BAO Systems: Chief Unicorn Wrangler

As some of you may have seen on LinkedIn, I am now working full-time for BAO Systems. I tried to get a silly new title, but I figured “Senior Software Architect” would be a bit more professional. This is somewhat a return to familiar ground as I will be helping move research forward for many NGOs (PEPFAR, International Rescue Committee, Doctors Without Borders, …).

The timing of this change is perfect. My previous government contract wouldn’t let me work remotely, promoted a hostile work environment, and were more concerned with appearances than national cyber security. Now I get to work remotely with an international team, promote international health and safety, and through it all, save lives. I can’t complain much about that.

I was removed from the government contract for insubordination. Someday I may write about it. If you want the details sooner we can talk over a cold bottle of root beer at php|world.

Categories
howto

Getting ReactJS to use a local external js library

My new job involves mostly frontend work with various js libraries like ReactJS. I ran into the issue of wanting to include jquery.csv.js into a project and felt that existing documentation was lacking. Most google searches returned how to use something from a CDN. Our systems need to be able to run offline in the middle of Africa. A CDN isn’t going to cut the mustard.

First, get the library:

    npm install jquery-csv --save

Now we make a reference to it in webpack.config.js

    resolve: {
        alias: {
            ....
            'jquery-csv': path.resolve('./node_modules/jquery-csv')
        }
    }

FInally we tell the application about it (in app.js if you want)

    require('jquery-csv')

Restarting the server and checking the console, I can reference $.csv to my heart’s desire.