Best Practices

Industry-tested guidelines and recommendations for building robust, secure, and maintainable applications

Do: Always validate user input, use environment variables for secrets, and implement proper error handling in your applications.

Don't: Hardcode API keys, ignore error responses, or skip input validation in production applications.

Code Quality Standards

Maintain high-quality, readable, and maintainable code

Security Guidelines

Essential security practices for building secure applications

Performance Optimization

Best practices for building fast and efficient applications

Team Collaboration

Guidelines for effective team development and code reviews

Core Development Principles

Security First

Always use HTTPS for API communications
Store API keys and secrets in environment variables
Implement proper authentication and authorization
Validate and sanitize all user inputs

Code Quality

Write self-documenting code with clear naming
Follow consistent formatting and style guidelines
Implement comprehensive error handling
Add meaningful comments for complex logic

Example: Secure API Client

✅ Good Practice

api-client.js

class APIClient {
  constructor() {
    this.apiKey = process.env.DEVDOCS_API_KEY;
    this.baseURL = 'https://api.devdocs.com';
    
    if (!this.apiKey) {
      throw new Error('API key is required');
    }
  }

  async makeRequest(endpoint, options = {}) {
    const url = `${this.baseURL}${endpoint}`;
    
    try {
      const response = await fetch(url, {
        ...options,
        headers: {
          'Authorization': `Bearer ${this.apiKey}`,
          'Content-Type': 'application/json',
          ...options.headers,
        },
      });

      if (!response.ok) {
        throw new APIError(
          `API request failed: ${response.status}`,
          response.status
        );
      }

      return await response.json();
    } catch (error) {
      console.error('API request failed:', error);
      throw error;
    }
  }
}

class APIError extends Error {
  constructor(message, statusCode) {
    super(message);
    this.name = 'APIError';
    this.statusCode = statusCode;
  }
}

❌ Poor Practice

bad-example.js

// Don't do this!
const API_KEY = 'dk_live_1234567890abcdef'; // Hardcoded secret
const baseURL = 'http://api.devdocs.com'; // Insecure HTTP

function getData(endpoint) {
  // No error handling
  fetch(baseURL + endpoint, {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': API_KEY, // Wrong format
    }
  })
  .then(r => r.json()) // No status check
  .then(console.log); // Basic logging
}

Performance Best Practices

Key strategies for optimizing your application performance

API Optimization

• Implement request caching where appropriate
• Use compression for large payloads
• Implement retry logic with exponential backoff
• Monitor and respect rate limits

Frontend Performance

• Minimize bundle sizes and use code splitting
• Implement lazy loading for heavy components
• Optimize images and use modern formats
• Use CDN for static assets