Lexicon
Terms used in the posts, each explained in a line or two. Inside a post, they open as a card when you hover over them.
- API contract test concept
A test that calls the real backend and checks that it still answers in the shape the frontend expects. If the backend changes a field, the contract test fails before the app does.
- Code coverage metric
The share of the code that runs at least once while the tests run. High coverage doesn’t prove the tests are good, but low coverage means some code is never checked at all.
- Decision model concept
A model that answers a typed question instead of writing text: yes or no, one of a few choices, or a score, each with a probability. Examples include TypeSafe’s Jev and OpenAI’s Decisions API.
- DeepL tool
A machine translation service with an API, known for natural-sounding translations in European languages.
- Docker tool
Runs software in containers, so a whole backend can be started on any machine with one command, the same way every time.
- Edge function concept
A small piece of server code that runs on demand, close to the user. In Kapmo, edge functions write challenges, translate them and check photos.
- Expo framework
The tooling around React Native that handles builds, updates and native modules for you. Kapmo is built on it.
- Fixture concept
Setup that a test gets handed before it starts, like a browser page that’s already logged in, so each test doesn’t repeat it.
- i18next tool
A library for translating apps. Each language gets a file of keys and their text, and the app picks the right one at runtime.
- Landscape product
Canonical’s tool for managing fleets of Ubuntu machines: updates, packages and security across many computers at once. Its web frontend is open source.
- MSW tool
Mock Service Worker. It answers the app’s network requests with fake data, so tests don’t need a real server. More in [Testing a large React app].
- Playwright tool
A tool that drives a real browser through an app the way a person would, clicking and typing.
- React Native framework
A framework for writing an app once in React and shipping it to both iOS and Android.
- React Testing Library tool
A library for testing React components the way a person uses them: find a button by its label, click it, check what appears. Tests don’t depend on how the component is built inside.
- Sentry tool
Collects crashes and errors from apps in production, with the stack trace and the device they happened on.
- Supabase platform
A hosted backend built on Postgres: database, sign-in, file storage and edge functions in one place. Kapmo runs entirely on it.
- TICS tool
TIOBE’s code-quality tool. It scores a codebase on test coverage, complexity and coding standards, and Canonical tracks its projects on a TICS dashboard.
- TQI metric
TIOBE Quality Indicator. The overall score from TICS, combining test coverage, complexity, compiler warnings, coding standards, duplication, dependencies and security into one percentage.
- Vision model concept
A language model that can also read images, so you can give it a photo and ask questions about it.
- Vitest tool
A test runner for JavaScript and TypeScript, built on Vite.