Weeknotes 16

This week, mostly work stuff. Read on…!

Web Design and Development

Perch Dashboard Widget

I’ve been working on another dashboard widget for Perch CMS as a personal side project. I saw a discussion in the Perchology Slack group about Perch addons/apps and, whilst a widget is a lot simpler than a full-blown app, I decided to resurrect my Dashboard Links widget.

It’s a simple widget that displays a few links on the Perch admin dashboard. My idea is that this could be used to add, for example, help tutorial links or a link to the developer’s website. Or a link to Google Analytics for the site. Or, whatever you want.

I admit that this widget is not too exciting but I’m sure I’ll learn a few things from working on it. Previously, I worked on a Google Analytics widget but I’ve not done much in this area since then.

Making a Site Responsive

I’ve been working on a client’s site and making it work better on mobile devices. The work seems to have been started by previous developer because the site was a fluid layout. And there were a couple of media queries in the style sheet. But, nothing else.

The main challenge in this work was making a slideshow work better. In the end, I recoded it to use Responsive Slides, which just works much, much better on mobile devices.

Changing Code Editor

I’ve been a Sublime Text user for a long time but I’m now trying out Visual Studio Code. I like it but it’s a bit early to say if I will make the switch permanent. I’ve found some fab extensions though including CSS Peek which mimics Brackets inline CSS editing mode.

Running

Have signed up for the ballot for London Marathon 2019. I don’t have high expectations of getting a place because it’s hugely oversubscribed every year. But, it will give me an incentive to continue with my longer Sunday runs. My main aim for this year though is to make the half marathon distance more routine. After that, and if I get a place or enter another marathon, I’ll have a better idea of what’s needed. I know it will be incredibly tough though and just finishing will be my main objective.

That’s it for this week. See you next time.