Posts tagged: dev

All posts with the tag "dev"

291 posts latest post 2026-05-09
Publishing rhythm
May 2026 | 8 posts

Custom Scrollbar Design

Getting a custom scrollbar on your site makes it stand out a bit compared to the very plain stock one that are on most sites. This is how I set mine up on my gatsby site. Inspired by Wes Bos’s new uses.tech [1] I wanted a custom scrollbar on my personal site. I had tried to do it in the past, but gave up after it was not working. Looking at the Source # [2] Since uses.tech [1] is open source I jumped on github, searched for scroll and found this layout.js [3]. Copy it to my own component # [4] My first step was to take his css and copy it into a styled component for my entire layout, but it failed. I do not fully understand why. None of the custom style came through at all. If you know please leave me a comment. [5] I suspect for some reason it has to do with attatching to the html [6] element inside of a styled-component. I think wes was able to get around this by using createGlobalStyle. But I was still using much of the default gatsby template, so I did not have a createG...

2020 waylonwalker.com rebrand

Moving into 2020 I have been really leaning on using purple as my theme color everywhere more and more. Its time for an update to my personal site, not just because it feels plain, not just because the cover art I am using for dev.to doesn’t fit my current card layout, but because I feel inspired and I want to. Starting point # [1] ![This is what we are working with.](https://images.waylonwalker.com/2020-02-10 12-17-43_Start.png) This is what we are working with. It has been my card design for at least a year now. Its not bad but, its a bit play, doesnt fit my new cover art style, and that date is not working over top of the cover art text. - plain - cover art does not fit - I am not digging the date on cover art that also has text Colors # [2] I have been really into using a deep purple lately. It is a neutral color that does not get enough respect, i.e. it’s not used as frequently and kinda stands out when used. How I pick colors # [3] I am really bad at picking colors t...

I just added react-headroom to my site

It was so easy to get a professional looking navbar with just 3 lines of code. This package seriously is so usable on mobile it is ridiculous. I found this package from day-4 [1] of the 100 days of gatsby challenge. It is by the wonderful man who brought us gatsbyjs Kyle Mathews, so you know its gotta be good. install react-headroom # [2] installation is easy npm i react-headroom Import Headroom # [3] There was no instructions for es6 style imports that are common with gatsbyjs sites like mine, but it was intuitive to figure out. import Headroom from 'react-headroom' Using Headroom # [4] Simply wrap your existing content, Nav in my case, with the <Headroom /> component and your off to the races. The content will pop back into view when you scroll past then back up. <Headroom> <-- Your content goes here --> </Headroom> See it in action # [5] I think this simple package completely changes the ux of your site on mobile. You can get that sticky nav out of the way, but its still...

Serverless things to investigate

Social Automation # [1] Zappier # [2] - Free - only one step is free - can take rss to social Automate.io # [3] - Form submission # [4] https://getform.io Free to get started https://formkeep.com/?#pricing [5] Free 7 day trial $4.99 cheapest after References: [1]: #social-automation [2]: #zappier [3]: #automateio [4]: #form-submission [5]: https://formkeep.com/

I finally fixed my Styled-Components in gatsby.js

I finally fixed my Styled-Components in gatsby.js. I am starting a redesign of my website. I have started cross posting to dev.to [1] more regularly. With that I have been making more detailed cover images at the recommended 1000x420. These images get cut off on my own site, which is a bit ridiculous to have my own content not look right on my own site. But before we start a heavy redesign I have a small issue that has plagued the site for at least a year! I have a small issue that has plagued the site for at least a year! I have been using styled components in my gatsby.js site for about a year now. And it has been plagued by styled-components not being in the ssr causing some jank in the styles being loaded. You can see it in the lighthouse performance report below. It generally loads super quick, and is only caused on first load. Anything using the gatsby <Link/> component typically is fine and unaffected by the issue. The fix # [2] The fix was so simple it was only 2 lines t...

Should I switch to Zeit Now

Netlify # [1] I have happily had my personal site waylonwalker.com [2] hosted on netlify for nearly 2 years now. In fact I have hosted about a dozen different toy projects to play with on there, 4 of which have gone far enough to get a custom domain name. They are fast to deploy and consistently do so on every git push to main. Zeit # [3] I have recently started playing with zeit again. I really like their cli tool, its dead simple and makes sense. I tried the netlify one early on and dont think I really gave it much of a chance. I was able to backup a site we were modifying by saving everything locally (literally control+s) and running now in the command line. While I was on the site I realized that when switching to gatsby v2 I had deployed it to now.sh while testing, before cutting over to the updated one on netlify. It has been building every version since without issue! It has been building every version since without issue! What I am using # [4] - gatsby - forestry.io ...

Personal URL shortener with Netlify Redirects

I love using URL shorteners to easily share links without hitting character limits, but they loose their meaning. Services like bit.ly will save my links for me so that I can find them, but I would rather them to be easy to remember. https://bit.ly/2ruLwQz does not roll of the tongue so well. 301 🤸‍♀️ # [1] I recently discovered a really cool feature of netlify that I have always looked past, _redirects. It is so simple cool and powerful, every netlify site should do this! But how 🤷‍♀️ # [2] simply add a _redirects file to the root of your your published site with the following format. The trick I found with my gatsby site was that it needed to be in my static directory /static/_redirects, not root. Next you just put space separated links on separate lines. #’s can be used for comments. # netlify redirects # from_url to_url # Short-Blog /blog/scli /blog/simple-click/ /blog/cmdt /blog/cmd-exe-tips/ . . . # splats /b* /blog/:splat /n* /notes/:splat # External /twitter https...

RSS feed for your Gatsby Site

Adding an rss feed to your gatsby js site is super simple. https://www.gatsbyjs.org/packages/gatsby-plugin-feed/ Install # [1] npm install --save gatsby-plugin-feed How to use # [2] // In your gatsby-config.js module.exports = { plugins: [ { resolve: `gatsby-plugin-feed`, options: { query: ` { site { siteMetadata { title description siteUrl site_url: siteUrl } } } `, feeds: [ { serialize: ({ query: { site, allMarkdownRemark } }) => { return allMarkdownRemark.edges.map(edge => { return Object.assign({}, edge.node.frontmatter, { description: edge.node.excerpt, date: edge.node.frontmatter.date, url: site.siteMetadata.siteUrl + edge.node.fields.slug, guid: site.siteMetadata.siteUrl + edge.node.fields.slug, custom_elements: [{ "content:encoded": edge.node.html }], }) }) }, query: ` { allMarkdownRemark( sort: { order: DESC, fields: [frontmatter___date] }, ) { edges { node { excerpt html fields { slug } frontmatter { title date } } } } } ...

Forestry.io

Testing out forestry.io Sorry Netlify CMS # [1] I still ♥️ your product dont be forestry is simple I have been playing with the netlify cms for a while now, and it has been a decent experience, but I really struggle configuring it. Forestry is so simple to setup. My favorite part is that I can code up my gatsby.js site, storing all editable text in markdown, and come back later and add the CMS based on existing documents. Configuration is Simple # [2] Forestry.io has this amazing feature to create create based on existing document 🤯. This is great because it sets up the .yml config for me without error. And If I really want to come back later to customize it more I have that option, too. [3] By far my favorite feature is create based on existing document Multi-File Gallery # [4] I have a use case for a photography site where the owner wants to be able to show off sample photos of each type of work she does. I got it working in the netlify cms, although it was not very user...
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D3 Day 5

select rowid, key, raw, store_time, expire_time, access_time, access_count, tag, size, mode, filename from Cache where key=‘e3cd37c97980ab2c’; ’e3cd37c97980ab2c’ ’e3cd37c97980ab2c' select rowid, key, raw, store_time, expire_time, access_time, access_count, tag, size, mode, filename from Cache where key=‘c14050404a107d5e’; #content{ max-width: 800px; margin: 0 auto; } .chart { display: block; padding: 10px; background: peachpuff; } .bar { height: 30px; margin: 5px; background: teal; } .bar:hover{ background: #444; } button { background: rgb(240, 196, 211); border: none; font-size: 1.3rem; border-radius: 5px; padding: .2rem 1rem; margin-bottom: 1rem } .on { background: palevioletred; } .big { width: 100% } .small { width: 50% } Learn D3 in 5 days # [1] For what we are creating in these posts d3 is way overkill and very verbose, but I need to start somewhere! These are just stepping stones into real custom visualizations that cannot be done in any ...
D3 Day 4

D3 Day 4

#content{ max-width: 800px; margin: 0 auto; } .chart { display: block; padding: 10px; background: peachpuff; /* transition: all 500ms */ } .bar { height: 30px; margin: 5px; background: teal; } .bar:hover{ background: #444; } button { background: rgb(240, 196, 211); border: none; font-size: 1.3rem; border-radius: 5px; padding: .2rem 1rem; margin-bottom: 1rem } .on { background: palevioletred; } .big { width: 100% } .small { width: 50% } --> Learn D3 in 5 days # [1] For what we are creating in these posts d3 is way overkill and very verbose, but I need to start somewhere! These are just stepping stones into real custom visualizations that cannot be done in any other tool today. I still cannot explain how excited I am to say “I created that in d3!!!” Todays Result # [2] Today I will be learning about d3 scales, and adding them to the bar chart that we created yesterday. Follow along as I try to create something interesting. [3] Recall Example ...
D3 Day 3

D3 Day 3

#content{ max-width: 800px; margin: 0 auto; } .chart { display: block; padding: 10px; background: peachpuff; } .bar { height: 30px; margin: 5px; background: teal; } button { background: rgb(240, 196, 211); border: none; font-size: 1.3rem; border-radius: 5px; padding: .2rem 1rem; margin-bottom: 1rem } .on { background: palevioletred; } Learn D3 in 5 days # [1] I recently subscribed to Ben Clinkinbeard’s learn D3.js in 5 days, and am currently on day 3. I read through the first 2 days, and felt fairly comfortable with selecting elements, so I did not follow along on the first two days. I probably should have, but there are only so many hours in the day. Why Learn D3 # [2] D3 is the ubiquitous dynamic visualization library for building custom interactive visualizations on the web. It is a bit low level, and more verbose than many other libraries that build upon it, but if you want full control D3 is the way to go. I have used a few libraries built upon d3 i...

FlexBox

em { color: #ff9966; } code { background: #FF06050A; color: #6394C8; } .item { color: #6394C8; font-size: 1.5rem; padding: 1rem; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; height: 100px; width: 100px; background: #351D57; margin: 5px; border: 2px solid #A83E75; box-shadow: 5px 5px 10px -5px rgba(0, 0, 0, .6); } .flex_container { padding: 1rem; box-shadow: 5px 5px 10px -5px rgba(0, 0, 0, .6); background: rgba(99, 148, 200, .2); animation: animate_container 2s cubic-bezier(.66, -0.0, .28, 1.0) infinite both alternate; } .flex_container:hover { animation: none } @keyframes animate_container { 0%{ width: 95%; } 20% { width: 95%; } 80% { width: 200px; } 100% { width: 200px; } } h3 { padding: 1rem; margin: 2rem; display: block; width: 100vw; background: white; color: white; background: #333; position: sticky; top: 0px; box-shadow: 0 0 #333, -100vw 0 #333, 100vw 0 #333; } Flexbox-zombies # [1] I recently fi...
Pug Reveal

Pug Reveal

Pug Reveal Slides I recently gave a presentation at the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Data Challenge. I wanted to use reveal to create my slides. I have used it before and it is a really nice package. Compared to PowerPoint it is much easier to incorporate interactive visualizations right into the presentation,easy to re factor and maintain slides. Since you are just working with text you can easily convert from a list of items on one slide to a set of slides. Avoiding Death by PowerPoint # [1] If you have not seen David JP Phillips Death By PowerPoint [2] TEDx, stop now and watch it. You will never look at slides the same again. Watching this video ruined me for watching presentations with these issues. Reveal is a tool that makes it very easy to follow these principles - You are the center of focus - Reduce clutter - Focus your users with - size - contrast Reduce clutter # [3] In the video David talks about reducing the number of points we have down to no more than 6. You...

No More Death By PowerPoint

No More Death By PowerPoint I Waylon S. Walker vow that from this point forward I will no longer create powerpoints to be considerec DEATH BY POWERPOINT If you have not seen David JP Phillips Death By PowerPoint [1] TEDx, stop now and watch it. You will never look at slides the same again. Watching this video ruined me for watching presentations with these issues. Reveal is a tool that makes it very easy to follow these principles I currently work in a company that employs over 100K employees, and to this day I cannot recall a single presentation given where the slides did not violate the rules stated in David’s Talk. This year I am putting a stop to this starting with myself. I am starting a new job role in 2018 and there is no better time to make some drastic changes to my workflow than now. I expect there to be a few followers and many naysayers, but I dont care. I will employ the directives listed below. 1+1=0 # [2] Very few people (if any) in your will be able to multi-tas...