Thriving Ag Systems
2020Tools: Jekyll, Git Pages and Actions, Forestry.io
The brief
I was approached by a USDA funded research group called Thriving Agriculture Systems in Urbanized Landscapes to create a website and CMS that would help the group catalog their research endeavors over the next decade.
The process
After a requirements meeting with the clients, I chose a JAMStack solution to keep within the budget while still providing a stable and low cost CMS experience for group members. I chose Jekyll CMS, Forestry.io, and Git Pages automation tools because of their flexibility and to keep the project under budget. I worked with project members to develop wireframes, and was able to re-use an existing theme I had built for another project, saving time while still meeting the project’s design goals. Despite most of the theme having been already developed, I did have to program a few reusable components to make the website easier to update through the Forestry.io interface.
Results
I learned a lot about the power of Forestry.io in this project, as well as its limitations. However, the decision to use Jekyll CMS, Git Pages automation, and Forestry.io was incredibly rewarding and should provide a stable long-term solution for the group. Since project completion, group members have added many research papers, images, news items, and other media to the website with relative ease.
Images from the project
