Developer Conference 2015

The website for the Developers Conference 2015 in Mauritius is based on a combination of different, modern frameworks:

• AngularJS
• RequireJS
• HTML5 Boilerplate
• Bootstrap

Part of content is delivered "remotely"

Part of the actual content being displayed on the website is pulled remotely from cloud infrastructures like Google Spreadsheets. The data transfer is done in JSON, and could be used for other platforms like smartphone apps, too.

Using Google Docs for management of lists

They decision to use Google Docs, here Sheets in particular, was easy.

1. It eliminates any kind of security issues regarding the implementation of an administrative back-end for the website.
2. Sheets on Google Docs can be edited online. Anytime, anywhere
3. Google Docs can be shared with other users for common updates and changes
4. With the integrated Revision History in Google Docs it is possible to keep track of changes made by any editor, and content can be reverted
5. Data will be handled as lists anyway. Currently, we have the sessions, speakers and sponsors online
6. Using Google Docs as back-end is for free. 😄
7. It's a cool experiment...

Working with multiple frameworks

Well, the idea isn't new actually and I "borrowed" some infrastructure from an existing (closed) project to have a head start into this one. Particularly, the folder structure below the app is based on RequireJS. This actually keeps the app feature development tight and feature-based rather than separated by file-types as you might be used to. RequireJS keeps the front-end web dvelopment complete clean and takes care of versions, dependencies and loading of additional JavaScript files used on the website.

AngularJS and some extensions are used to provide 2-way data binding on the front-end part but also simplify implementation when talking to remote sources via CRUD operations.

The famous Html5Boilerplate has been created using the initializr website and includes Twitter's Bootstrap frontend framework for the grid layout and to provide seasoned web developers with known CSS directives and formatting structures. There are so many interesting designs available and just to keep things simple I went down this road.

Community-driven development

The Developers Conference in Mauritius has been initiated by the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community and is driven by the voluntarily effort and contribution of its members. We like to promote the use of open source, and what could be better than giving public access to the source code of this website?

There are so many talented people in Mauritius, and contributing to this project is surely a way to show others about their skills.

To contribute to this project, you'll need to do a few things first:

1. Fork the project on GitHub
2. Clone it to your computer
3. Setup a virtual host or website in your local web server
4. Fire up your favourite text editor or IDE
5. Start tweaking and enhancing the website
6. Browse the index.html in your virtual host

Pull requests are more than welcome.