I’m remaking this website in the open. Follow along, if you wish: Writing, RSS, Source

The Work Before the Work

I plan to record just about every bit of work that goes into this site. But first, I had to do a bit of work to make that possible.

1. Create the repo on GitHub, cloned it to my machine, and initialized the project (yarn init) (commit)

2. Add 11ty with minimal content and configuration (commit)

   • So simple to get started!

3. Migrate (some) old content (commit)

   • The migration itself was as simple as copy/pasting and updating some frontmatter because all of my content, old and new, is written in Markdown.
     • I could use an intermediate template to translate from the old frontmatter properties to the new ones expected by 11ty, but with only three migrated posts, that seems like overkill.
   • Now that I have more than just a home page, I need to create a basic template to display content.
   • I also need to ensure that media like images display correctly. Keeping all images in a single directory will make any future migrations go more smoothly and enables a more straightforward path to setting up a CMS later.
   • Finally, I need to add a collection to display a list of all posts on the Writing page.

4. Add content to the home page, re: redesign (commit)

5. Set up continuous deployment on Netlify

   • Now I can push to my master branch and the site will automatically build and, if successful, deploy.

6. Archive full previous version of the site at v1.kylegach.com

   • I want to keep the old version around for posterity.
   • I chose to not migrate some content; this provides a location to which I can redirect those requests.

7. Add minimal styles (system font, max-width for content) (deploy, commit)

   • There’s a lot I want to have in place before I touch styles, but a limitless line length is difficult to read and must be addressed.

8. Add task list support for Markdown, so that I could, well, use task lists in markdown (commit)

   • Also enable some handy markdown options to improve typography a bit with automatic smart quotes

9. Publish V2 Rebuild & Redesign, the first post on the new site ✨ (deploy, commit)

10. List V2-related posts on the home page (deploy, commit)

    • Until I have better content, it seems wise to simply list all posts tagged ‘v2’.
    • Which means I have to add tags to posts and add another collection to collect the ‘v2’ ones.

11. Publish V2 Goals (and update V2 Rebuild & Redesign) (deploy, commit)

    • Revise the first post only to record work and pull out then expand the rest of what was there into a new one.

12. Add redirects for old content that was not migrated (commit)

    • Cool URIs don’t change.
    • I tried to do this through Netlify’s redirects feature, because it’s better to redirect on the server than on the client, but ran into a snag due to how I archived the old site (also on Netlify). I’ll revisit this.

13. Add site header with banner and update home page (deploy, commit)

    • If people land on the site from a page that isn’t home, I’d like them to understand the redesign going on.
    • Also, previously, only the home page displayed the site name. Oops.

So, now I have a workflow that allows me to publish posts and deploy changes with ease, and a simple foundation on which to build. Going forward, I’ll try not to dump these big lists of work, but I needed to get these essential tasks done as quickly as possible to preserve content and enable future updates.