Working actively on code is the best way to learn. I have a few web development side projects in my to do list which I thought I’d share.
Pick a data API on a site and make a new interface for it
There are literally tons of APIs to choose from, a quick google search took me to public-apis.io. I’m not sure how much of these are free, but there are a lot of opportunities to do a few fun things with an API. postman seems to be the defacto app for messing about with APIs, to grab data and see what it returns. I’d like to pick an API at some point and make it into an app of some sort. There’s even one for Donald Trump. Edit: Donald Trump since had his twitter account suspended. A trade off of using a third party API, which could potentially break without warning.
Make an api for some new data
I’ve always fancied making a REST API of my own, and it’s an option if you have some data that hasn’t been turned into an API yet. I just need to find the right kind of open data, and make it into one. For me, it would most likely be built in PHP, due to my experience with WordPress. And for ease of setup it would probably be a read-only app. I can’t really be bothered with full authentication of a login system etc, to manipulate the data. I’m currently weighing up on which API framework to try:
https://docs.guzzlephp.org/en/stable/
https://www.slimframework.com/
Make a super fast loading website
With the power of the web, comes create responsibility. Greater bandwidth, greater download speeds, higher fidelity media. The list goes on and on. But I’ve love to take a step back, and mess around with the idea of limitation. In this case load speed, or filesize. The latter took me to an old reddit post about onekb.net. A website that hosts 1kb websites for a ridiculously small amount per year (though not sure if it’s still active these days). I love the idea of removing all the physical file requirements. I wonder if I could make a truly 1kb hosted website, but using any amount of content and media I wanted?
Load speed is another area I’d like to look at. We have super fast internet these days, but sometimes I can’t help but feel that it’s being abused. Some websites are gorged full of scripts, media and so on that it makes my head spin. I find the web to be a generally horrid experience on mobile. Not always because of the load speed. But it’s usually so many pop ups, ads, and damn cookie notices.
Despite my own attempts to optimise a website for speed, I read a fascinating article by Jeremy Morgan, a developer who was able to load a website in one second. More or less every time. Wherever you are in the world. And this is first load mind you, not pre-cached nonsense. I’d love to build something around this, and do away with waiting for a browser to ‘paint the page’ with elements etc. Ugh. Static HTML Sites FTW.
Build a tool that bypasses adblocker detection
As an adblock user, I’ve noticed a few websites have gotten wise to this. They’ll block access to the page with a pop up, politely asking for you to turn off adblock for them. If the website is worthy in terms of the content I’m looking for, then I tend to turn it off for them. But if I can’t even see the content first I don’t bother. Usually I’ll dip into developer tools, remove the pop up manually, and read the article anyway. *Smug face*. Adblock intact. If I can make those few steps a bit quicker (think – adblock stealth mode) then I think I’m onto a winner.
Develop a headless theme for wordpress
Of all the web development side projects I’ve listed, this relates to a few I’ve already mentioned. WordPress is in a pretty decent place now with its REST API. However, as far as I can tell developers haven’t fully embraced the capabilities of creating a truly headless CMS. Imagine a theme that doesn’t need to rely on your standard them/files setup. It only uses HTML, CSS, and minimal PHP. This is something I’d like to explore. It’s kind of what they’ve done with calypso, the desktop app for wordpress.com, and I’m sure it was the inspiration for getting the REST API working with self hosted WordPress installations. Here are a few related tutorials I might try out:
smashingmagazine.com/2020/02/headless-wordpress-site-jamstack
dev.to/ninjasoards/easy-headless-wordpress-with-nuxt-netlify-5c4a
speckyboy.com/when-does-using-headless-wordpress-make-sense