Blog — Page 8 — ConnorOnTheWeb

VS Code showing Alpine.js directives and Liquid template tags syntax-highlighted together in a Shopify section file

Custom Shopify Themes Converge on Alpine.js

Alpine.js shows up across independent Shopify starter themes for a real reason. Here’s why it fits Online Store 2.0, with real production examples.

Javascript Jul 30, 2026 6 min read

Stylized code reading '@click="auto()"' and 'x-???', representing AI autocomplete guessing at an Alpine.js directive without grounding

Why Alpine.js Has No Real Autocomplete (AI Doesn’t Fix It)

AI autocomplete doesn’t replace structural tooling for Alpine.js, it needs it. Real hallucination research, and why GitHub added LSP to Copilot itself.

Javascript Jul 29, 2026 7 min read

Alpine.js Tools v1.0-v1.5: Three Bugs, Three Fixes

From v1.0.0 to v1.5.0, Alpine.js Tools gained diagnostics, Go to Definition, and plugin support in VS Code, plus three bugs fixed along the way.

Javascript Jul 26, 2026 5 min read

A person standing beside a massive, ancient redwood tree in a California old-growth forest, illustrating scale and endurance

Why I Migrated From Next.js to Express in 2026

The migration that made Express the default for every Node stack I run: the bugs that started it, the research that held up, and four months of monitoring.

Javascript Jul 24, 2026 13 min read

Shattered glass scattered across carpet, with the words 'CVE Burden' overlaid, representing the accumulated weight of security vulnerabilities

Why Next.js Has 13x More CVEs Than Express

Next.js carries 64 catalogued advisories to Express’s 5, counted the same way on the same day. The severity split matters more than the count.

Javascript Jul 24, 2026 9 min read

A hand-welded hydraulic press in a metal fabrication shop, with the words 'Build step' crossed out overlaid on the image

Why Server-Rendered Templates Don’t Need a Build Step

Server-rendered templates compile just-in-time, no separate build phase. How EJS caching works, what it costs, and when a build step still earns its place.

Javascript Jul 24, 2026 12 min read

A packed canvas backpack in a vehicle, representing a cache: a store of items kept close and ready, but opaque until you look inside

Next.js Hides Its Cache, Redis Doesn’t: The Observability Gap

Redis reports hit rate, misses and evictions in one command. Self-hosted Next.js gives you a per-response header and leaves the aggregation to you.

Javascript Jul 23, 2026 12 min read

A snow-covered mountain treeline with 'Node's Event Loop' overlaid as the title, evoking something frozen or blocked

Why React SSR Blocks Node’s Event Loop (SSR via Templating Doesn’t)

React’s SSR APIs run synchronous CPU work on Node’s single thread, from renderToString through RSC serialization. What blocks, and what streaming fixes.

Javascript Jul 23, 2026 8 min read

A paved forest road leading toward snow-dusted mountains, with 'Alpine.js' overlaid as the title, playing on the framework's name

Why Alpine.js Replaced React for Content-Driven Sites

Measured from the shipped files: Alpine’s CDN build is 16.7kB gzipped against 47kB for React plus React DOM. Where that gap matters, and where it does not.

Javascript Jul 22, 2026 15 min read

Next.js Memory Leak on Self-Hosted Search Routes: A Case Study

A production case study on memory growth from caching unbounded dynamic search routes in self-hosted Next.js, what changed in 15 and 16, and what fixed it.

Javascript Jul 11, 2026 28 min read

Mock X post embed showing the raw fallback blockquote text that displays when the embed script fails to execute after a Next.js client-side navigation

Why Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Other Social Embeds Break on Next.js Route Changes

Embeds render on refresh but vanish on client-side navigation. The spec-level cause, the fix platforms document, and why server-rendered pages don’t break.

Javascript Jul 9, 2026 22 min read

Alpine.js Highlighting and Completion for Neovim

Tree-sitter and legacy syntax highlighting for Alpine.js directives in Neovim, plus nvim-cmp completion and snippets across HTML, EJS, Blade, Twig, Liquid, and more.

Javascript Jun 20, 2026 8 min read