Latest Web Development posts from Steve Polito

Automate manual deployments with Git and binstubs

Your team’s manual deployment process doesn’t have to be so manual. Here’s how we automated our team’s deployment process with a few lines of bash and basic Git knowledge.

Add Tailwind CSS Color Palette to Bootstrap

You might be wondering why anyone would want to add Tailwind’s default color palette to Bootstrap. It comes down to personal preference, but below are the key reasons I think this is beneficial.

Ruby on Rails with React Tutorial

Many Rails+React tutorials demonstrate how to create an API only application using Rails, and then create a separate front-end application to digest the API with React. Other React tutorials have you work with something like Firebase to handle the back-end of the application. Although both of these approaches are common and acceptable, I wanted to create an application that has all the benefits of a non API only Rails application, without the limitations and vendor lock-in of a third party service like Firebase.

Why I'm Using Bootstrap In 2020

I recently needed to redevelop our agency’s website. We moved from Drupal to Jekyll in an effort to keep things simple. However, we didn’t end up changing the design much. The original design was totally custom, which meant it was up to me to create a typography system, layout system, as well as style any and all elements and components that could exist. As a web developer I’m used to this, but often overlook the complexity and redundancy involved in making the same decisions over and over again. Because of this, I decided to reach for Bootstrap, which has matured a lot in this newest release. Below are several reasons why I will continue to use Bootstrap in 2020.

Forestry CMS Snippets Demo

Snippets in Forestry are pre-defined chunks of text that can be inserted into your content. Think of them like WordPress Shortcodes. In this tutorial I will show you how to create a reusable snippet to embed responsive iframes.

Forestry CMS Blocks Field Demo

Foresty CMS allows content editors to easily manage a staticly generated site without needing to know markdown or HTML. This works really well if you’re just editing a page with a title and a body, but sometimes you need to offer more diversity. Luckily Forestry has a Block Field which allows a content editor to easily add robust content to a page. The example below shows how we can create a block field that displays highlights anywhere on a page.

Create a Bootstrap Starter Theme in Eleventy

With the rise in the JAMStack way of thinking, there has been a lot of development in static site generators. One that is quickly gaining popularity is Eleventy. Eleventy is very similar to Jekyll, but compiles much faster because it’s built on Node. What makes Eleventy stand out is its simplicity and flexibility.

Seven Easy Wins Before Launching Any Website

I work for an agency that specializes in developing small to medium sized websites. Over the years I’ve found that I follow the same process when launching each website. This list isn’t comprehensive, but I’m confident that it’s applicable to any site launch.

How to Easily Change Directories In Terminal

I used to be terrified of the command line terminal. I’m a visual learner, and the command line is the exact opposite of visual. Plus, I’m a front end developer. My thought was that I didn’t need to use the command line since all I’m doing is editing HTML, CSS and jQuery.

Using Feature Detection to Drop Support for Older Browsers

A lot of people are familiar with conditional classes, which is a great alternative to conditional stylesheets or css hacks. However, these only target IE. Even though most of us have become dependent on modern browsers like Chrome or Firefox, we still forget that they are not immune to problems. And let’s not forget mobile browsers like Opera Mini or Android Browser.

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