Developer Tool Guides & Tutorials
Step-by-step guides for the 64 free online tools on dsjson.com: JSON formatting, encoding, hashing, image and PDF handling, with practical examples and troubleshooting.
30 guides in total · page 1 of 3
Reading Errors From Online Code Runners (6 Languages)
First work out which layer failed - compile, runtime, or the environment itself. How Python, JS, C++, Java, Go and Shell fail in the browser, plus five traps.
Does Minifying Code Break It? JS, CSS, SQL, HTML
Minifying is not just removing whitespace: CSS can alter strings, SQL can eat spaces after brackets, JS can glue symbols into one operator. The real limits:
Still Duplicated After Deduping? Five Data Cleaning Traps
Duplicates that survive deduping are usually trailing spaces, fullwidth characters or invisible ones. How lines match, why A sorts first, and regex.
JSON to XML or YAML? What Each Conversion Loses
Converting JSON to XML turns every value into text, and converting YAML can silently drop pipe blocks. Here is what each conversion loses and when to switch.
Why Decryption Fails: Keys, IVs, Chunking, Separators
Decryption usually fails for one of four reasons - the key was read as text, the IV got reused, RSA chunked at the wrong size, or the separators do not match.
Making GIFs: Frame Extraction, Composition, File Size
GIF allows only 256 colours and frames that store just the changed region. Why extraction must compose frames, how size is chosen, and where weight comes from.
Image Sizes That Work: Cropping, Watermarks, Grids
Avatars at 400x400, share covers at 1200x630, grid tiles at 1080x1080 - get the ratio wrong and compression cannot save it. Practical numbers and step order.
Why Is My Site Not Indexed? Status Codes, robots, UA
Zero indexed pages? Before rewriting content - 404 and 410 mean different things, one Disallow blocks a whole site, and a Googlebot UA proves nothing.
Invisible Characters: URL Encoding, Entities, Fullwidth
Text that looks identical but fails validation is usually a fullwidth digit, a twice-decoded entity, a plus sign in a URL, or a dollar sign in a replacement.
Converting Naming Styles: snake_case, camelCase, Constants
Converting snake_case to camelCase looks trivial until sha256Sum becomes sha_256_sum. Word boundaries, generated field names, nullables and type fallbacks.
Scanned, Screenshot or Encrypted PDFs: What Breaks
Scans and screenshots are not normal PDFs - images get re-encoded, encrypted files must be skipped, and a scan has no text layer. How to handle all three.
Time and Scheduling: cron Fields, Timezones, Dates
cron treats day-of-month and day-of-week as OR, a timestamp carries no timezone, and 30 February must be rejected explicitly. Three time problems, three causes.