Lately I've been working on refreshing les éditions du samedi website - firstly launched with PluXML... 10 years ago. PluXML served us well for quite a time but maintenance became a little difficult from the moment our catalogue began to grow. And I must admit I did not find how to upgrade, I may have missed too much in-between updates and would have to start again from zero.
So I took this opportunity to explore more in depth the possibilities offered by Static Site Generators (SSG), in this case Eleventy with Simple.css. The main problem I was expecting was the ability for user to edit pages - I did not want to force any other member of the association to learn Markdown or to upload files on a server - evenless on GitHub.
This is why I set up an administration interface using Decap CMS. It was rather straightforward eventhough I struggled on understanding that there was no possibility to navigate the media folder through the interface. Now I'm watching the corresponding issue ^^'
The last part that was to set up was the structure to build the site before it is served - and why not, to handle the contact form. It took not much research to find the right candidate: it would be Netlify! So I pushed the local work I've prepared to GitHub and made the connection in Netlify. I started with a pre-prod website with a specific branch for my friends can test in advance and let me know what they think (I had just to make a few CSS changes, otherwise it was fine for them).
The hard (and long) part was to redirect to the Netlify application I created for the prod website. The domain was registered at OVH. So in case you are also struggling to understand what you should do here's the configuration that went well for my case:
In Netlify > Domains > your externally registered domain:
75.2.60.5 (as per this Guide)[sitename].netlify.app (as per same Guide)In OVH > Domain > DNS Servers
In OVH > Host
It's a small publishing structure where I'm a volunteer editor as well as... the webmaster ^^
I started from scratch with much help from Eleventy recipies, Eleventy rocks and Learn Eleventy - as well as the official website of course. I hope to write a specific note of what I've learned in the Eleventy world building this project - and share solutions for the problems I've faced.
No! I still have to do some settings in Netlify and verify redirections from the former website. I also have some ideas for improving it. But the major part is done. Hurray!
I'm happy to announce that the first version is available since May! You can play Qwixx here: https://qwixx.jboisseur.xyz
I've been working on this project for a long time. It started when I took a few Python lessons a few years ago but I abandonned because I had no clue about how to get an UI. Going back to HTML/CSS and then starting learning JavaScript put me back on tracks.
So many things! Particularly in JavaScript where I worked with arrays, listened for events, ran a huge amount of loops, created functions, toggled CSS classes, saved data in the user's browser etc. I also learned about debugging and using the web developer tools on the browser. I had to use some PHP as well, for saving best scores.
This said, I think the biggest take away was to divide the work into achievable challenges and push the harder ones at the end. Keeping this goal in mind: at the end of each step, the full game should be playable. This way, the path was most of the time enjoyable, and having something to share along the way is very rewarding.
I already started working on version 2, which is about allowing two persons to play on a same device. I'm experimenting working on cold and old code. It's very time-consuming but I try to refrain from starting all over on a blank project. I try to improve what's already there and implement what's missing to achieve this 2-players goal. One small step at a time.