Lev Lazinskiy

ezBadge v2: Now in Stunning Javascript HD

If you have ever wondered what it looked like to convert an application from Python to Javascript, you are in luck. After finishing ezbadgeyesterday, I came to the realization that the entire thing could and should have been written in Javascript. There is absolutely no reason for this thing to send any requests to a server in order to process the URL and render the markdown.

So, I did just that. Introducing, ezBadge v2 After removing all of the Flask, I was able to create two Javascript functions that essentially did the same thing as the Flask app was doing for me.  The added benefit is that other than serving the initial HTTP request, I do not have to handle any additional requests and the entire thing now runs in the browser.

This was a fun little exercise, and I think the Javascript version of this application is a bit more elegant. Rather than appending the template with Jinja as I was doing before, I am now spawning a modal (after doing some form validation) and then using the Marked library to render the preview of the badge markdown. I could have done all of the UI stuff with Flask without any issues, but the fact that the entire thing now runs in the browser saves bandwidth, computing resources, and time.

You can see the transformation for yourself in the ezBadge GitHub repo. In the next iteration of ezBadge I plan on adding more choices for the types of badges that you can make. If you have any suggestions please feel free to leave a comment here or open up a github issue.