Breaking out the command line cookbooks and apron cheat sheets, Jim has started a new series that brings the Strapi kitchen with all its perfectly marinated guides to a screen near you: Jim's Recipes.
It's always nice when it's a piece of cake to bake a piece of code. Finding all the right ingredients is only half the equation and any good chef knows the pudding is in understanding — or at least being comfortable with — the details.
Those flavorful ideas led to the creation of Jim's new video series, taking on commonly asked questions in a more friendly and easy-to-digest format. The quick snack-sized tutorials are perfect for anyone looking to jump in and get their hands dirty with practical code in Strapi.
A Dash of Documentation
Give a dev some code and you solve a problem for a day; teach a dev to code and solve the problem for a lifetime.
Sometimes a major part of Jim's role as CTO and community advocate at Strapi involves answering many questions and solving a diverse set of issues individuals in the community are having. After all, it's normal to have similar — if not the same — questions when at the same stage in a project. As an added benefit, the repeated comments and genuine confusion often lead to better FAQs and clearer documentation!
The other side of the coin is how valuable guides, documentation, and FAQs are to everyone, but with new users struggling to solve problems every day it can quickly feel like a task worthy of Sisyphus.
In order to help as many people as possible get the most out of Strapi, Jim already has an assortment of tools in his shed. From technical documents to more general-purpose guides, there's usually something helpful up his sleeve.
Always looking to go further beyond expectations however, Jim decided to create Jim's Recipes as a way to respond faster to a frequently asked question he noticed has recently started popping up.
More than being another platform to store guides and documentation, the format adds a personal touch to technical content. It's a small way to help stay connected to the community while we all are stuck at home.
So to tease a possible future recipe, how it tends to work is Jim will notice many people asking questions around a very specific feature like:
How can I secure remit password link KPIs with reCAPTCHA?
After doing his due diligence and answering the question where it was asked, he'll then record a video going through each step and providing a new medium of understanding for anyone stuck trying to solve the same problem.
In other words, it's a practical application of a theoretical answer using Strapi.
Putting a Face on a Headless CMS
When looking at hundreds if not thousands of lines of code, it's easy to get lost in between the arrays and strings and forget the person sitting in the chair.
Like any good meal, an important ingredient is always the company we share. With an incredible amount of experience with both the Strapi community and code, the new videos are a fun way for Jim to add a personal touch to what are often cold answers.
Beyond the spices and sauces that add color to the plate, it also means he is able to properly gauge which topics would best be suited for a new instructional recipe video!
Jim knows more than most how coding sometimes doesn't leave you with enough time to read another article or scrap through documentation. A friendly video is something anyone can easily put, even in the background, to learn exactly how to auto-populate content types with dummy data or deploy a Strapi app on Heroku using MongoDB Atlas.
What it comes down to as we sit down for dinner is making sure Strapi knowledge is not only digestible, but also delicious.
Comfort Food for Your Code
Chef Jim and his superb recipes will continue serving up tasty treats to feed the Strapi community. On a personal level, Jim strives to be a reassuring voice, helping make web development with Strapi as easy as pie.
On a professional level, Jim's Recipes are clear and helpful videos that answer questions the community has been asking in a direct and simple way.
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