Unit tests are essential to verify the behavior of small code units in a Node.js application. This leads to clearer design, fewer bugs, and better adherence to business requirements. That's why Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) have become so popular in the backend development community. In this tutorial, we'll dive into unit testing and understand why it's needed in your backend.

It's 2024, and the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is 35 years old. The fact that the vast majority of web traffic still relies on this simple, stateless form of communication is a marvel in itself. A first set of content retrieval optimizations were added to the protocol when v1.0 was published in 1996. These include the infamous caching instructions (aka headers) that the client and server use to negotiate whether content needs refreshing.

Quality Assurance or QA automation has become a game-changer in the software development process. Since it involves the use of automated tools and frameworks to execute tests on a software application before it is released into production, it ensures that the software meets the specified requirements and works as expected across different platforms and environments.

Ably CEO, Matthew O'Riordan, recently joined sports and media veteran, Carlo De Marchis, on his podcast ("A Guy with a Scarf") to discuss the dynamic world of realtime fan engagement in sports and entertainment. In the interview, Matt and Carlo cover the evolution of realtime applications and how the changing expectations of fans, particularly younger generations, are shaping the future of fan engagement. Watch the full interview, including Matt’s predictions for the future of this space.

We know it feels like all anyone talks about these days is artificial intelligence. Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, the professional world has been abuzz with reactions to this game-changing technology. It’s everywhere – and for good reason. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools have been around for a while, but ChatGPT brought AI into the mainstream in ways that hadn’t been seen before.

If you’re a software developer, you can’t avoid Linux. Created by Linus Torvalds, Linux is the preferred OS for most servers and the environment in which many popular development tools run best. While you don’t need to know everything about Linux, learning the top Linux commands is a valuable investment of your time. With this post, you’ll have a handy guide to the Linux commands most often used.

Process orchestration, also called business process orchestration, is an approach to manage and organize multiple automated tasks or workflows within a business process, like ETL process orchestration. It involves coordinating data extraction, transformation, and loading tasks across various systems to create a unified data source.

Data modernization transforms an organization’s data into more usable and accessible formats, making it usable by modern applications and systems, such as cloud-native applications, IoT devices, and mobile applications. Data modernization also includes extracting, cleaning, and migrating the data into advanced platforms.

In the fast-paced world of government software development, efficiency and effectiveness are paramount. One way government organizations enhance agility, foster innovation, and optimize resources in the public sector is through citizen development—the practice of allowing non-technical employees to create their own software applications using low-code or no-code platforms.