The Craft CMS Podcast

2017 Year in Preview: Technologies and Trends We Are Looking Forward To

In this episode, we wish you a Happy New Year and chat about some [mostly Craft-related] technologies and trends we're looking forward to in 2017: Craft CMS 3, Yii 2, the Craft plugin store, VueJS, Google AMP, Facebook Instant Articles, Apple News, content marketing, CMFs (content management frameworks), and a golden age of #perfmatters. We wrap up with some philosophical conversation about activism, empathy, and breaking out of your bubble.

Interview with Patrick Harrington & Marko Srdoč: The Journey from Drupal to Craft CMS

Michael & Andrew interview two developers who have made the switch from Drupal to Craft CMS: Patrick Harrington and Marko Srdoč. Some very interesting discussion ensued about the strengths of Craft CMS, and also where Craft CMS could learn from Drupal. The unique perspective that two experienced Drupal developers offer on their take of Craft CMS is quite insightful, and provoked a nice discussion of how to pitch Craft to clients that have heard of Drupal, but not Craft CMS.

Interview with Sean Smith: The Journey from ExpressionEngine to Craft CMS

Andrew & special guest host Earl Johnston interview long time ExpressionEngine developer Sean Smith from http://caffeinecreations.ca/ [http://caffeinecreations.ca/] , discussing his recent transition to using Craft CMS.  We cover both the moments of unbridled joy, and the moments of frustration as Sean discusses his approach to learning to use Craft, and the contrasts between it and ExpressionEngine.

Website Performance Part III: Efficient Templating

Michael & Andrew continue the conversation about website performance, focusing on efficient Twig templating with Craft CMS.  Topics covered include how to code performant templates, using the {% cache %} tag efficiently, how to profile and optimize your front-end dev, and a good discussion of Eager Loading.  TTFT (Time To First Teet is also covered)

Website Performance Part II: Time to First Byte & Server-Side Performance

Michael & Andrew continue the conversation about website performance. This time we cover server-side performance, and the benefits of embracing performance-minded server tech like PHP7, Nginx, MariaDB, and HTTP2. As in our previous episode, we cover the practical implications, how to educate your clients about these technologies, and why you should build these improvements into your estimates and maintenance contracts.