Resume Site

This project was built using the tutorial from Douglas Matoso:

Build a static site generator in 40 lines with Node.js

It came at an interesting time in my web development learning.

Over Christmas I had become interested in Next.js and Gatsby as tools to develop and deploy websites. But the processes behind these tools was opaque for me.

I decided to take the code from the tutorial and use it to deploy the resume that I had made in September.

I also wanted to explore separation of concerns and have a separate file for the text in a json file.

This meant I had to go deep into using ejs to create loops for the bootstrap components that had repeating elements like the accordian.

One problem I had early was about deciding what should go into the json.

Putting HTML tags didn't feel right. But as I wanted to get it done I decided to leave that discussion for another day.

From Resume Site to Resume App

I wanted to make a resume app that users can configure to send optimised resumes for job applications in a couple of clicks. So that they could use the time for networking rather than writing applications.

The app would have a client, and api and persistent data layer.

In this latest version the data is retrieved from the API when the button is clicked via a fetch command, and a bearer token in the header which is taken from the url.

More details about the API here:

https://github.com/exitroute/resume-api

The url is generated in the API by the user and then sent as part of the application.

Here's the url for demo purposes:

https://exitroute.github.io/resume/?token=1973

Landing on the site without this URL does not deliver the data when requested.

A hack would be needed for that :)

Learned:

about server side rendering and templates like ejs, or using javascript and template literals,
how decisions made with incomplete knowledge create technical debt
how to get data from urls using fetch and simple authentication design
and how to configure webpack!!!

That last point made me smile.

Status

The project is deployed and running as a very early prototype. Enhancements are planned.