This Site

published 2021-08-03

Overview

My latest (at the time of writing this) web-development project is this portfolio/blog site.

The source code can be found here.

Technologies Used

This site was written using the GatsbyJS framework.

The headless Content Management System (CMS) I used is DatoCMS.

It was kept super simple because I needed it done as quickly as possible, so I didn't really use any other big parts.

I did, however, use a bunch of super useful tutorials and libraries that I feel are worth mentioning:

The Development Process

I started this project by creating a new Gatsby project using the minimal starter. This set me up with a "blank" project.

I then hooked up the CMS and figured out how to use it. The Gatby plugin for this made it relatively painless.

Then, I built the landing page, the search pages, and blocked everything else out using super basic components.

I then made sure all the site parts were where they should be, and then made them all look good using CSS.

Finally, I planned out the CMS content structure, and then built the rest of the pages around that.

This site is probably going to be a work in progress forever as I have ideas for new features or improvements. This is basically all the steps I've taken up until everything is good enough for me to consider it all mostly done.

What I Learned

This project functions less as a way to learn new technologies and more as a refresher. Before making this site I had not done a web-based project in a while, so it gave me a good reason to brush up on my CSS, JS, React/Gatsby knowledge, and data-based skills (pun intended there).