Welcome to Hot Web Dev August 2025, featuring the latest technology, web development news and articles. This edition features the tooling I used for my final honours project, accessibility, Ionic and progressive web apps (PWAs). Learning resources cover API and JavaScript game development. The tool of the month is an old concept with a modern CSS twist.
Table of contents
WTF, we are halfway through September
As you may notice, this month’s edition is a little late. That is because I have been finishing a dissertation for my degree after five years of study. My project involved creating a custom menu management and ordering app for my workplace. The tools of choice for this project were AdonisJS for the backend API and Ionic and Capacitor to create a PWA and apps for Android and iOS.
I took two technologies I had never used and built the app well enough to test on selected staff and pupils. At times, I wondered if I would ever get the app built, considering I was hospitalised at the end of June and had 8 weeks off to recover from emergency surgery.
I was more comfortable using Ionic, with Vue, and eventually got the hang of the MVC structure that AdonisJS uses.
Why did I choose these technologies?
I initially planned to use Laravel for the backend, but then decided to switch to a Node solution for both the backend and frontend. I had used Express during my studies and wanted an all-in-one solution. NestJS was also considered, but I ultimately chose AdonisJS.
I had previously used React Native in my studies, so when I came across Ionic, it seemed like the obvious choice. Both frameworks offer good accessibility, which was important to me. However, the fact that Ionic allowed you to use Vue ultimately swayed my decision.
As you can imagine, it’s been a hectic few months. This project has boosted my skills and knowledge, and my determination got me through it, even when life was tough.
Learning Resources
Are you interested in learning more about using JavaScript for games? Phaser is a free JavaScript library designed for 2D games. You write plain JavaScript, and Phaser handles the complex tasks. There’s no need for a build system or a game engine installer; you can begin with just a single HTML file and one JavaScript file. Fancy it? Try out Phaser by building a snake game.
If you are interested in learning more about AdonisJS, check out Adocasts. You’ll learn how to build APIs, implement authorisation and authentication, and work with individual modules like Bouncer for role permissions and Vine for input validation. You’ll also learn how to work with controllers and much more.
Coding & Web Design Resources
There were plenty of goodies in August. Smashing Magazine published a guide for optimising a PWA for different display modes. Meanwhile, FreeCodeCamp published an article on how to improve web accessibility with landmarks, which covers how to access landmarks with screen readers.
WOW Tool Of The Month
The tool of the month for August is a CSS background pattern tool. CSS patterns are a blast from the past, but on PatternCraft, you will find over 100 CSS patterns and gradient snippets. The patterns of old were small images with which you tiled using the background property. The modern way uses copy and paste snippets, saving heaps of time.
So if you fancy a change, this tool is ideal for developers and designers working with any modern frontend framework.
Must-Read Resources From August 2025
- Make Every Icon Move with AnimateIcons
- How I Learned System Design
- Clean Code: 8 Tips to Write Clean Functions 🔥
- Should You Learn Laravel Before PHP?
- 10 Best Code Smell Detection Tools in 2025
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