Building a Site in Gatsby

2020-07-13 344 words 2 minutes views

Contents

Here it is in its (relative) infancy! Given the current pandemic unfolding, I decided to complete the following on freeCodeCamp to try and increase my productivity (and employment prospects!) while our city has been in and out of lock down:

Responsive Web Design Certification
JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Certification
Front End Libraries Certification

What this means is, I decided to redo my site using Gatsby, as it seemed to be the static site generator most aligned with React and JavaScript generally, and I was a little curious about GraphQL. Jekyll was fun for a brief moment, but Gatsby seems more aligned with the skills I’m learning and has a fairly comprehensive plugin system.

After initially working my way through the tutorials, I did play with some starter Gatsby projects - and it was at this point I decided to reinvent the wheel a little. I’m normally against this (as any developer should be, to a degree), but given my intention to hopefully work in web development at some point, and not having looked at any web development since my university days, I thought developing my own site starting from a blank slate would be a great way to practice and apply some newly learned skills.

As such, this is the first project I’ve applied HTML5, CSS3, JS and React to – and any kind of front end development, particularly responsive design. While I’ve worked several technical roles since graduating, including development, none have focused on web development.

What does this mean? Strap in for a bumpy ride – plenty of tweaks and improvements to this site, and likely some further technical posts for things I learn and discover along the way that may help others.

Oh, and there will be plenty of opportunity for other posts too. I’m currently somewhat obsessed with Productivity (think Getting Things Done) and trying to use technology to its potential, along with develop good habits and establish routines to try and achieve more (much more). I’m sure there will be many topics I can cover in this space.