Slowly updating the website

I have been working on the site a bit in the past few weeks, and most of it is small changes. Despite that, these are changes that really has been bothering me that I needed to get adjusted. Some of these changes are on the details side, but most are on the larger architecture side. I am now updating a lot of content as a result.

Moving from categories to filters

One of the big changes is that I have moved from categories and started to use filters more. There are still plenty of categories, of course, but I am trying to reduce that and instead let people find specific content based on filters. I am doing this by adding a category field for each database, and then style it with custom icons delivered by Font Awesome.

I am using a very simple PHP function to split out the values, since they come in an array. Once split out, I link them to a tag page.

<style>
.jwsestoriescategorySplitter:last-child{
	display: none;
}

</style>
{{if $formValue}}
{{$items = explode(',',$formValue);}}
{{$items2 = explode(',',$value);}}
	{{foreach $items as $index => $item}}
		<i class="fa-kit fa-{$item}"></i>	
		<a href="https://jimiwikman.se/tags/{$item}">
		 {$items2[$index]}</a><span class="jwsestoriescategorySplitter">, </span>
	{{endforeach}}
{{endif}}

This is work in progress, and it is a bit annoying because I have to create this field for all databases and use the same values. Not exactly optimized, but I can live with it for now. I am also trying not to add too many because that would make things a bit difficult to work with and to use for the end users. It is a balance I need to figure out as I go.

Building the Atlassian section

I have also been working on the Atlassian section, which I look forward to showing you soon. It is going to be a combined information section about Atlassian and their collection and apps, as well as a marketing section for me to show what I can do as a consultant for those collections and apps.

I am still figuring this out and creating graphics for it, but it is progressing well. I just need to find the balance between useful content and promotion so it feels like valuable sections to visit. I might add the Playbooks back, but we'll see how much time I want to spend on that, since the Atlassian platform is changing so rapidly lately.

I am absolutely going to bring back the Release notes database and I have a crazy idea that as a member you can add your Atlassian URL and Organization ID and that way I can create a dynamic link to the release notes in your organization. I have not verified if this works, but it would be interesting to explore that, as that will make the release notes more interesting for sure.

Dynamic blocks for groups of pages

As I am reducing the categories, I also want to make sure that I have multiple sections gathered as one area. For example, for Articles I have My articles where I write content, a database for where members can write articles and a page with information on guest posting. These are all separate areas, but I want to bring them together so it is easy to navigate, and so they feel like they are one section.

To do this, I have a navigation bar at the top of the templates and at first I just had multiple blocks, one for each type of work, but I have changed that to use just one block. It is nothing fancy, and you can do it better, but it works for me.

<style>
  .jwseArticles_mainmenu-Wrapper{
    padding: 10px;
  }

</style>


     {{$host = $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];}}

<div class="jwseArticles_mainmenu-Wrapper">
    <i-tabs class="ipsTabs ipsTabs--sticky ipsTabs--mywork ipsTabs--stretch" id="elMyWorkTabs" style="box-shadow: none; padding: 0;">
        <div role="tablist">
            <a href="https://jimiwikman.se/writings/my-articles/" 
               id="elArticlesTab_MyArticles" 
               class="ipsTabs__tab"  
               role="tab" 
               aria-selected="{{if strpos($host, 'jimiwikman.se/writings/my-articles/') === 0}}true{{else}}false{{endif}}"><i class="fa-duotone fa-solid fa-bookmark"></i> My Articles</a>

            <a href="https://jimiwikman.se/writings/community-articles/" 
               id="elArticlesTab_CommunityArticles" 
               class="ipsTabs__tab"  
               role="tab" 
               aria-selected="{{if strpos($host, 'jimiwikman.se/writings/community-articles/') === 0}}true{{else}}false{{endif}}"><i class="fa-duotone fa-solid fa-user-pen"></i> Community Articles</a>

            <a href="https://jimiwikman.se/writings/guest-writing/" 
               id="elArticlesTab_GuestWriting" 
               class="ipsTabs__tab" 
               role="tab"  
               aria-selected="{{if strpos($host, 'jimiwikman.se/writings/guest-writing/') === 0}}true{{else}}false{{endif}}"><i class="fa-duotone fa-solid fa-memo-circle-info"></i> Guest Writing</a>
        </div>
        <div class="ipsTabs__scrollers" data-role="tabScrollers">
            <button data-direction="prev" type="button" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" hidden="">
                <i class="fa-solid fa-angle-left" aria-hidden="true"></i>
            </button>
            <button data-direction="next" type="button" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" hidden="">
                <i class="fa-solid fa-angle-right" aria-hidden="true"></i>
            </button>
        </div>
    </i-tabs>
</div>

Focusing on Articles and Videos

Right now I am focusing on Articles and Videos, and I am considering to bake them all together into a Content navigation node. It makes sense, and it saves some space since I want to add some new functionalities and sections soon.

For Articles, I am starting to feel pretty good, even if I need to finish some minor adjustments and of course add the categories and create the icons for them. I am cleaning out old configurations that have been broken since the upgrade to Invision Community V5 ages ago, and I am building new templates and architecture to replace them.

I am also reworking the Articles and will update old articles with more content, or rewrite them to make them more viable. I want the Articles section to actually be content that have value and not just news or opinions. Those articles will move to my personal blog instead.

Speaking of Blogs I am going to rework them a bit as well and add a navigation block there as well. This way I can collect the blogs a bit better and see how to better use the Community blogs, since I am not really sure where I want to take those.

For Videos, I need to rebuild the structure a bit and adjust the templates so I can better use RSS feeds to populate videos. I am building a navigation block for Videos as well and will most likely split out the Community videos and the Atlassian videos into two, or more, databases. This so I can better focus the filters based on the type of content. I am still working on the actual architecture, so we'll see where I eventually will end up.

What about Stories?

Stories will remain the way they are for now, but I will start adding content there again and gather feedback on how to improve that section. It is not a focus area this year, but will surely be one next year.

I am here, and this site is always in progress

As always, I am working behind the scenes with smaller changes and updating content. This may not always be something that you see, but I will take advantage of the Atlassian platform to see if I can visualize this a bit better. Perhaps I can even make you more involved if I can figure out how to better provide value for you.

So, speak up if you want to contribute or influence what I should do next!