A journey of the thousand binaries

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In this workshop we will explore the advantages of having a robust, mature universal artifact repository manager at the heart of the software development cycle. We will explore the most important concerns when developing rich applications and adapting to a fast pacing market. In the past years big companies have benefited from techniques like AB testing to improve their products, increase traffic, improve UX experience and offer new functionality. This is only possible if there is a solid devops infrastructure in place with tools that provide among others, control, security, versioning and good annotation support. It’s not only about having the right tools but knowing how to use them to its full potential.

This workshop has been presented at DevOps.js Conf 2022, check out the latest edition of this JavaScript Conference.

FAQ

Provisioning instances early is crucial to ensure that they are up and running by the time the hands-on part of the workshop begins. This allows participants to follow along with the examples and demonstrations without delays.

A link to access the free instance is provided during the workshop. This link is shown on the presenter's screen and included in some of the slides, allowing participants to join in and set up their instances even if they join later.

Software dependencies include frameworks, libraries, packages, modules, and resources. Each type serves different purposes, such as providing functionality, containing collections of modules, or including necessary files like templates and media.

A framework provides a more extensive and opinionated structure where the user's code is inserted into predefined places, and the framework calls the user's code. Conversely, a library consists of functions that the user can call to perform tasks without such a rigid structure.

Starting the environment provisioning early is recommended because setting up instances usually takes time. Early setup ensures that participants are ready to engage in practical activities without interruption once the session reaches hands-on demonstrations.

Challenges include dealing with potential bugs and security vulnerabilities in the dependencies, managing updates and compatibility issues, and ensuring that dependencies are well-maintained and trustworthy.

Dependency managers like NPM simplify the process of managing software dependencies by making it easy to publish, update, and manage various packages, ranging from trivial to complex functionalities.

In software development, a module is a set of functions or methods that provides self-contained functionality. It usually has an interface that specifies its functionalities abstractly and provides one implementation.

Setting up a free instance involves following a provided link, entering personal details like name and email, selecting a cloud provider, and configuring the instance settings as directed during the workshop.

Adding new dependencies can introduce risks such as increased exposure to security vulnerabilities, potential for introducing bugs, and added complexity in maintaining software compatibility and compliance with licenses.

Ixchel Ruiz
Ixchel Ruiz
67 min
29 Mar, 2022

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Video Summary and Transcription
The Workshop covers the importance of dependencies in software development, the different types of dependencies, challenges and security issues with dependencies, the role of repositories in dependency management, and the process of resolving dependencies and publishing. It also discusses the configuration of repositories and authentication, and the creation and configuration of different types of repositories. The Workshop emphasizes the need for understanding dependencies, ensuring security, and using tools like JFocusray and OWAS dependency check for analysis and assessment.
Available in Español: Un viaje de los mil binarios

1. Introduction to Dependencies

Short description:

This part is about the importance of dependencies in software development. It emphasizes the need to reuse software written by others and discusses the different types of dependencies such as frameworks, libraries, packages, modules, and resources. It also highlights the fact that dependencies are not all the same and can vary in terms of functionality and complexity. The text encourages the audience to start provisioning their free tier and provides a link for them to do so. Overall, the part sets the stage for the workshop and introduces the concept of dependencies in software development.

Hi, hello. I'm super happy that you are here. One of the most important links that you will have is that one that is showing right now in my screen. So, if you follow there, you can get a free instance. This is important because to follow all the examples and to do exactly the same what I'm going to do at the demo so and provisioning instances usually takes a little bit of time. So, it's important that you start doing it at this moment so we reach the hands on part of this workshop, we will have our instances running.

And, well, I'm here in Switzerland, in Basel, Switzerland. I'm super excited and happy that you're here with me. So, let's start with the session or the workshop. And I will post the link and you will have it in some of the slides, so if you join later on or you haven't done it, there is still a chance. So, this is me. I'm from Mexico. I live in Switzerland, as I work for a company so that's exactly where you're going with that link. Again, this session and this workshop is all about dependencies. And if you're starting to provision your free tier, this is what you are looking at. And you go and start for free. You can choose whatever name there. And as I said, it takes time. So, that's why I encourage you to do it right now. And while you do that and everything is provisioned, let's start with the real interesting topics.

So, today's presentation and workshop is about a key part of our software development process. And it is dependencies. We don't need to reinvent the wheel every time we want to achieve a new level of functionality or deliver software faster. We want and we do reuse software written by others every day. Software dependencies. But by doing that, sometimes, we get into trouble. So, dependencies are not only used while we are developing. They are used for runtime or testing. And you know what? Dependencies are not all the same. So, I'm going to give you two statements and you will tell me if they are true or false. Actually, I will answer that for you. But you get the idea. So, dependencies are collections containing high quality tested code that provides functionality that requires significant expertise to develop. That's true. Some of our dependencies are really highly functional. They are really well tested. That's the case of our frameworks. So, it's true. Dependency managers like NPM have made possible that almost trivial functionality can be packaged and published. That is true. Publishing to NPM registry is dead trivial. And these are both sides of the spectrum. From one side we have libraries or pieces of code that require a lot or require a lot of work, have a lot of tests and provide a lot of functionality and maybe they are opinionated. On the other side we have very small pieces of code. So, we have to see what are the different types of dependencies that we have. Frameworks, libraries, packages, modules, and resources. So, this is typical what we refer as our dependencies. So, what is our resource? A resource is a collection of files, for example, templates, media, audio, video or images, plain text or even blobs that need to be included inside our applications to execute or display correctly. This doesn't need to be binaries. This is something that we depend and is needed.

2. Types of Dependencies

Short description:

This part explains the different types of dependencies in software development, including modules, packages, libraries, and frameworks. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the purpose and functionality of each type of dependency in order to make informed decisions. It also highlights the need to consider the degree of need and the impact of dependencies on updates, migration costs, and clean-up efforts. The part concludes by reminding the audience to start provisioning their environment and highlighting the significance of dependencies in software development.

And a module. This is a set of functions or methods that provides self-contained functionality. A module usually has an interface that explicitly and abstractly specifies both the functionality. And it provides an interface and usually one implementation. So, we can see it as a black box.

A package is a collection of modules that hold, in general, the same functional purpose. Usually a directory. And this is only for Python and JavaScript. We have a different structure for a package, but the concept still remains. Usually a directory contains a file that describes metadata about the package. And usually they're aggregated based on the functionality. So, it's easy to abstract or omit some packages, entire packages.

And a library. A library is a collection of related functionality defined in several packages. It's essentially a set of functions that you can call. Each call does some work and returns control to the client or framework or application. And finally, frameworks. A framework embodies some abstract defined with more behavior built in. And in order to use a framework, you usually, it's the other way around. We include our code inside some places in the framework and he will call us. So, for example, this is one of the most interesting difference between a framework and a library. And they usually are more opinionated. So, frameworks or platforms usually are bigger, are more opinionated. The integration between the different functional components is more connected. And they usually have a long list of versions or at least a road map. It's very mature. Because it usually requires a larger group of developers to build its functionality. Usually there is a license and, of course, there is a set of tests.

And in the JavaScript world, this is pretty apparent. Because, for example, Angular is defined as a platform. While React, they said that it's just a library or a group of libraries to build user interfaces. So, they are very clear about what is the purpose of their libraries or frameworks. And on the order side of the spectrum, I told you before, you have frameworks and you have tiny, tiny, tiny packages. And this is a collection of micro NPM packages, like sometimes one liners.

So, there are different types of dependencies. And having a clear mind or a clear idea which type of dependencies we have in our projects make us realize and also make us think about which ones are the crucial, what are the important ones. What are only cosmetics? Others are easily exchanged. And also something that we have to keep in mind is our degree of need. Because even if it's a large library, it's not really needed. And these two factors are really important to help us decide the cadence of update. Migration costs, our clean up efforts. Because that has to happen in every single application. So, for example, we have a dependency on five major libraries. Or five major one platform usually. And five major libraries. When do we update? How do we test? And what is our own roadmap? How dependent are we on code that is not so great? So, this is the question that we need to ask every single time that we decide to add a new dependency in our projects. Or we're trying to think about the future, or we have a problem with a specific dependency. So, making dependencies important, our level of dependency, our level, or the type of dependency is really important.

So, before we continue with the bad news, I will remind you again of the link to start provisioning your environment, so you can work with me alongside me during the demo part. So, we have dependencies, all types of dependencies, and we depend on them in different ways.

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