Excuse the Dust

Published on Monday, July 29, 2019
Introduction Netlify Wyam

Excuse the dust as I get this site setup. The first order of business is getting the stack in order and I'll try to document each step along the way.

Step 1: Get a domain.

Thankfully my surname isn't all that common so getting my own name on the .com TLD turned out to be a non-issue. $11.99 and I'm all set.

Step 2: Choose a Platform

I quickly settled on Wyam. Open-Source, .NET based, command-line driven and I can use Visual Studio Code to edit everything. The hardest part was picking a theme and writing the introduction. A few things I got hung up on that may be worth noting:

  • If you're going to use Visual Studio Code as an editor, install a spell-checker.

  • Tags for a post need to be passed as an array:

    Tags: [Introduction, Wyam, Netlify]

or put them on separate lines.

Tags: 
- Introduction
- Wyam
- Netlify

If you miss the brackets, you'll get one giant tag with commas included.

Step 3: Find a Host

I briefly considered Azure Web Sites but unfortunately the free-tier does not include custom domains. I've got a shiny new domain I need to use! While searching, I came across Netlify and it seems like a great fit. The free tier offers SSL, plenty of bandwidth and custom domain support. The CLI and ease of deployment are nice additions as well.

Step 4: Continuous Deployment

Stay tuned for details on this in a future entry. For now I'll be deploying manually.

Now that I have all the pieces in place, there are a few housekeeping items to take care of: DNS entries for my new domain, setting up the site on Netlify and finally, building and deploying the initial version (and getting the code on GitHub). Stay tuned.