Another year, another year in review. Let's get to it!

Work

2022 ended with layoffs at Netlify, so coming back from the Christmas break still felt a bit weird. I was glad that I was not part of the layoffs, but it still felt weird surviving them.

Regardless, I got back in the saddle for 2023. Being on the frameworks team at Netlify means you never have a dull day. 😅

I ended up creating the Remix Netlify Edge Functions adapter.

feat: implemented Remix server adapter and runtime for Netlify #16

nickytonline posted on Jan 25, 2023

Description

Related Tickets & Documents

• Relates to https://github.com/remix-run/remix/pull/3104
• Closes #17

Disregard this failed check. I'm having issues unlinking it from the repository. It's not related to the project.

QA Instructions, Screenshots, Recordings

Local Development Steps

1. Checkout this branch, e.g. via the GitHub CLI, gh co 16
2. Run npm install
3. Ensure you have the Netlify CLI installed/updated. See https://docs.netlify.com/cli/get-started/
4. Run ntl build --offline
5. Run ntl serve
6. The local version of the edge demo site loads.

Testing Deployed Site

1. Ensure the deploy preview, one of the checks below, loads and that if you look in the Network panel of the devtools in the browser, that it has the cache control header set, i.e. cache-control: public, max-age=31536000, s-maxage=31536000

For us to review and ship your PR efficiently, please perform the following steps:

• [x] Open a bug/issue before writing your code 🧑‍💻. This ensures we can discuss the changes and get feedback from everyone that should be involved. If you`re fixing a typo or something that`s on fire 🔥 (e.g. incident related), you can skip this step.
• [x] Read the contribution guidelines 📖. This ensures your code follows our style guide and passes our tests.
• [x] Update or add tests (if any source code was changed or added) 🧪
• [ ] Update or add documentation (if features were changed or added) 📝
• [x] Make sure the status checks below are successful ✅

A picture of a cute animal (not mandatory, but encouraged)

View on GitHub

I also, along with the rest of the team, continued to work on the Next.js runtime for Netlify.

Eventually, the Remix Netlify Functions adapter made its way into the remix-compute repository, but that was more Logan from the Remix team than me. I just brought it across the finish line.

feat: migrate remix-netlify adapter #83

mcansh posted on May 02, 2023

Description

Related Tickets & Documents

• Closes #82

QA Instructions, Screenshots, Recordings

Note that for the time being, it's expected that the E2E tests fail for a PR from an external contributor. They don't get access to the token to run them. I've checked and they do pass when running manually.

For Serverless Demo

1. From the root of the project, run npm run build:demo
2. Run ntl serve to start the serverless demo site.
3. Run npm run e2e to start up Cypress.
4. Choose end to end tests from the Cypress UI.
5. Run the smoke test for the serverless demo site.
6. All tests pass.

For Edge Demo

1. From the root of the project, run npm run build:edge-demo
2. Run ntl serve to start the serverless demo site.
3. Run npm run e2e to start up Cypress.
4. Choose end to end tests from the Cypress UI.
5. Run the smoke test for the serverless demo site.
6. All tests pass.

For us to review and ship your PR efficiently, please perform the following steps:

• [x] Open a bug/issue before writing your code 🧑‍💻. This ensures we can discuss the changes and get feedback from everyone that should be involved. If you`re fixing a typo or something that`s on fire 🔥 (e.g. incident related), you can skip this step.
• [x] Read the contribution guidelines 📖. This ensures your code follows our style guide and passes our tests.
• [x] Update or add tests (if any source code was changed or added) 🧪
• [x] Update or add documentation (if features were changed or added) 📝
• [x] Make sure the status checks below are successful ✅

A picture of a cute animal (not mandatory, but encouraged)

View on GitHub

More Layoffs

More layoffs happened at Netlify in July, which I did survive once again, but I saw some great teammates leave the organization. It was stressful, and the work I did on the frameworks team was pretty demanding as well, and I kind of got burnt out.

That said, my team there is still awesome and my manager, Marc Littlemore (@marclittlemore) was the best. Always championing for me and always up for a good chat even during stressful times. Aside from Marc, Claire Knight, who was my previous manager and then director of my part of the organization, was also wonderful. Both are really great, genuine people who have your back. No Game of Thrones shit going on there. I was so lucky to have them as managers.

In the end, though, it was time for a change. I want to thank all my Netlipeeps for being so awesome while I was there.

New Beginnings

For those that know me, I'm a big fan of open source. I've been working in open source since 2015, and professionally since January 2020. I actually used to work at dev.to where you might be reading this year in review post.

The way I decide to contribute to open source projects is I find a project I like, use, or both. That's how it started for DEV, and that's how it started for where I work now, OpenSauced!

I think my first contribution to the OpenSauced organization was a couple of years ago. I was a fan of all the work Brian Douglas (@bdougieyo) had been doing at GitHub in DevRel, and in his new company, OpenSauced.

I first met bdougie on the DEV Twitch stream a couple of years ago where we discussed Hacktoberfest, open source and OpenSauced.

And then we hung out again a couple of times on my own Twitch stream.

Fast-forward to me contributing to some of the projects in the OpenSauced org, and now I work there as a Senior Software engineer!

I started there, September 18th and haven't looked back. We had a successful Product Hunt launch in the fall, I shipped a tonne of stuff, and we've got all kinds of goodies coming in 2024!

Content Creation

It was another big year for content creation for me.

Blogging

First off, I have to give a big shoutout to my good friend and now co-worker Bekah (@bekahhw). Although I had blogged before working at OpenSauced, she pushed me to blog more.

I'm not going to list all my posts, but I wanted to drop a few that, I thought, were pretty solid.

Boost productivity with the GitHub CLI

Nick Taylor for OpenSauced ・ Nov 14 '23

#github #cli #git #productivity

Supercharge your Repository with Code Owners

Nick Taylor for OpenSauced ・ Sep 21 '23

#github #opensource #productivity #security

Migrating from Jest to Vitest for your React Application

Nick Taylor for OpenSauced ・ Dec 14 '23

#testing #react #vitest #typescript

Live Streaming

Streaming on Twitch

It was another big year for me on Twitch. Consistency is the name of the game. So many great guests throughout the year. I wrapped up the 2023 live stream season with Saron Yitbarek (@saronyitbarek) with a great discussion about Not A Designer.

Streaming on the CFE YouTube Channel

I've been a fan of Brian Rinaldi's (@remotesynth) for a while. He's doing so many great things in the developer community, so when he asked if I'd like to start guest streaming on the CFE YouTube channel, it was a no-brainer.

The live stream is called 2 Full 2 Stack and I do it once a month, typically the second to last week of the month.

Here's one of the episodes if you want to get a feel for the live stream.

Podcasting

My own podcast went to the wayside in 2023. I've got to get that back up and running in 2023. 😅

I still managed to make it on a bunch as a guest, though.

Talks

I gave some more talks at meetups and lunch and learns, but this year was the first time I gave a conference talk. Unfortunately, it wasn't in person, but it still felt good to give my first conference talk.

Once again, I was a part of the front-end test fest expoert panel. It was great hanging with Colby and Christina and Joe.

Here's all my talks if you want to check them out.

Conferences

This was my first year attending conferences. Originally, I had planned to attend the one conference, RenderATL thanks to my work education stipend, but Netlify also sent me to Remix Conf. Later in the summer, I decided to attend one in Toronto on my own dime which was super fun as well, Refactor: DX.

I finally got to meet a tonne of people that I'd only ever spoken to on Zoom or Twitter. So great connecting with so many folks.

Here's a few pics:

Remix Conf

Here's my whole Remix Conf 2023 album for anyone interested.

RenderATL

Here's my whole RenderATL 2023 album if folks want to check out more pics.

Refactor: DX

Here's my whole Refactor: DX 2023 album if folks would like to check out more pics.

Wrapping Things Up

What a whirlwind year 2023 was. It started off with coming back from Christmas break post layoffs at Netlify and finishing off the year with making a big impact at OpenSauced.

I'm pumped for 2024! How about you?

Photo by Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash