May Monthly Recap: A Project I Loved Working On
Tags: vue, jamstack, api, career
Published: 2022-06-08 19:06:35

May was a really exciting month for me at [Prismic](https://prismic.io?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline). 🤸‍♀️

A few years ago, I transitioned from a career as a writer and editor to web development through a full-stack coding boot camp. It’s been a fun, but sometimes difficult journey. I have definitely struggled with imposter syndrome and more, but I’ve also found a lot of excitement in the fact that there’s always something new to explore as a developer. 

My work at Prismic has been an amazing way to bring both the content part of me and the developer part of me together. And in May, we launched a project that brought that synergy to a new level. 📈  I got to work with our team to bring my enjoyment of new things in web dev together with content creation in the best way: a coding challenge newsletter that helps you explore new tech. 

The best part about it, though, was the way that our team made this newsletter idea into something even better than I could have imagined on my own. After years of freelancing, that kind of collaboration adds a special sprinkle of joy to my work here. ☺️

But enough about me. Here are some of the awesome pieces that our writers published in May! 👇

## [The Jamstack Ecosystem vs. WordPress: Why and When to Switch](https://prismic.io/blog/jamstack-vs-wordpress?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=destination_title)

WordPress. It’s a dominant force in the world of web development, to be sure. But when innovations are on the horizon, the sheer number of users on a platform doesn’t necessarily make it the very best solution available. In particular, [comparing the Jamstack ecosystem (plus a headless CMS, of course) with WordPress](https://prismic.io/blog/jamstack-vs-wordpress?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline) can reveal a number of benefits for different projects. [Coner](https://twitter.com/MrConerMurphy) did a great job of covering this comparison, and it’s worth a read whether it’s you or someone you work with who needs to be convinced that it’s time for a switch.

## [15 Awesome Web Development News Sources](https://prismic.io/blog/best-web-development-news-sources?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=destination_title)

As much as I love keeping up with new things in development, it can honestly be a bit overwhelming at times. I really love the [list of resources for web development news](https://prismic.io/blog/best-web-development-news-sources?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline) that [Coner](https://twitter.com/MrConerMurphy) put together here. There’s something for everyone, no matter how you prefer to keep up with the news.

## [The Optimized Dev Newsletter](https://prismic.io/blog/coding-challenges-newsletter?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=destination_title)

This is it! One of the most enjoyable projects I’ve ever gotten to work on. To quickly recap, it’s a [coding challenge newsletter](https://prismic.io/blog/coding-challenges-newsletter?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline) that helps developers explore new tech each month to stay on the leading edge of web development. You’ll see the first-ever challenge solution below, since we post the solution each month after our subscribers have had time to try it out on their own. Next month, we’re going to dip into Svelte!

## [Trying Vue as a React Developer: A Quick Introduction](https://prismic.io/blog/compare-react-vs-vue?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=destination_title)

So, when I talk about scaffolding in The Optimized Dev newsletter, this is what I mean. May’s challenge was all about trying out Pinia, which is set to be the default state management library for Vue 3. Not all of our subscribers are Vue developers, though, so we wanted to be sure to provide a little extra support so they could still join in the fun. [Anthony’s](https://twitter.com/ajcwebdev) quick introduction [helps React developers understand the differences they’ll notice when trying Vue.](https://prismic.io/blog/compare-react-vs-vue?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline)

## [6 Ways Slice Machine Empowers Developers to Build Better Websites](https://prismic.io/blog/slice-machine-empowers-developers?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=destination_title)

Here at Prismic, we have [a developer tool](https://prismic.io/blog/slice-machine-empowers-developers?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline) that we’re pretty fond of called Slice Machine. I think we love it so much because it really reflects something that we value as a company, which is delivering a great developer experience. Essentially Slice Machine is our tool for creating reusable components (Slices) for content teams to use in Prismic’s editing interface. It helps you by creating the models that Prismic’s API needs to configure the editor and store/send data, while also helping you with the boilerplate of coding components and connecting them to the API. There are a lot of benefits when using this tool, and I could keep talking about it for a while 😂 but [Angelo](https://twitter.com/angeloashmore) did a great job highlighting them, so I’ll [let you read it from him](https://prismic.io/blog/slice-machine-empowers-developers?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline).

## [Give Pinia a Try: Build a Confetti Clicker Game with Us](https://prismic.io/blog/try-tutorial-vue-pinia?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=destination_title)

If you want a try-before-you-buy preview of the Optimized Dev Newsletter, this tutorial is the solution to May’s coding challenge. Our subscribers built Pinia’s Party, a confetti clicker game that used Pinia to leverage stores. [Lucie](https://twitter.com/li_hbr) did a great job of making this a truly fun project to help devs explore state management in Vue, and more specifically [the default library for state management in Vue 3, Pinia](https://prismic.io/blog/try-tutorial-vue-pinia?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline).

## [How Do APIs Work?](https://prismic.io/blog/how-do-apis-work?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=destination_title)

I love this blog post. If you’re just getting into web development and you’re wondering [what APIs are and how they work](https://prismic.io/blog/how-do-apis-work), [Sam](https://twitter.com/samlfair?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=devto_monthly&utm_content=inline) has given you a great place to start. There are great analogies, helpful illustrations, and a nice overview of all of the questions you might have starting out.

I’ll be back next month to share what we’ve been working on and what I’ve been learning from all of the awesome people I get to collaborate with. In the meantime, happy coding! 🚀