Coming Website Changes
Change is Cool
I’m going to start refactoring the styles on the site; divorcing Bootstrap and embracing web components (probably with Lit) + vanilla CSS.
When I finish my article on Jekyll, I’ll also probably be migrating over to BridgetownRB. I love Jekyll, but after exploring Bridgetown for a while, I just fell in ❤️ with it. Only thing I’m a little iffy about is the inclusion of Webpack. Oh well, I’ll learn.
Lastly, I’ll also be exploring more headless CMS options. Netlify CMS is pretty cool but after the last markup refactor for the meta tags, the tediousness of managing the config file started getting to me.
AHHHHHH
New Web Dev Scares Me
For the past few years I’ve been a little out of touch with modern web development—I’ve primarily stayed within the comfort of WordPress, Drupal, and Laravel. All PHP-based (with the exception of React, which the new generation of WordPress is now leaning on) and what one might called aging tech (which I heavily disagree with.)
But I know times change and as of recently I’ve been making an active effort to update my knowledge. So far it’s been great! I’ve been diving into web components; they’re very exciting. I’ve also been updating my workflow: using SASS, static site generators, playing with NGINX, and even React.
However, since doing that, I have to ask…does a one-page template really need 156 dependencies? 🤒
I don’t wanna come off out of touch or write the 150th hot take about how the web has been ruined by over-engineered front-ends…but maaaaaaan. Maybe it’s just my taste.
I’ve always described myself as a full-stack dev but I may lose that self-certification because my taste in fronts ends seem just so…vanilla? I don’t know man.
All in all, this is still a very exciting place to explore and I am looking forward to what the future brings to the web.
Happy New Year!
2022
It is now a New Year in the central time zone. I’m not one to make resolutions—especially given…everything that has been going on for the past two years—but I hope it is eventful in the good kind of events.
Cheers!
Open!
Code is Public!
I wanted to take some time to write at least something on the README before I opened the source up. My site’s source is available for public viewing on GitHub.
Automated
Auto-Deployment
I hadn’t worked with GitHub actions in the past before but now that I have, I wonder why I hadn’t done so earlier.
This site is now being auto-deployed! Super excited.
I will have to keep an eye on my server’s resources and see if this workflow is worth the CPU cycles.
Next on the list: public source code release.
Site is "Launched"
Production
I finally have pushed some of the first “production ready” changes to this website!
Officially, 90% of the content on the site is now being delivered via YAML and NetlifyCMS. The whole website took around 1 month total time to develop. The most time consuming part was writing the CMS config file.
There’s still a lot of work to be done but now I am able to focus more on content and polish.
Next steps: getting this site to automatically build. Netlify is a great platform but I want to see if I can spin up my own automated solution.