The History Of This Site
Part of the reason for setting this website up is to learn new skills and technologies.
With that in mind I aim to briefly document the progress.
Updated - 5th Jan 2022
Updated the footer to reflect the new year.
Updated - 23rd Dec 2021
Life & work has again resulted in me not doing much with this site in a while!
Finally got around to updating the AWS Lambda function that powers the Contact Form to Python v3.9 - AWS has depricated v2.7
back in July! A few libraries had changed so wasn't the easiest of tasks given I'm quite rusty...
Also updated the homepage content to reflect my current role and focus within Cisco.
Updated - 9th Jan 2019
Life & work has resulted in me not doing much with this site in a while!
Updated the picture on the main page to add a little bit of colour for 2019 - took some head scratching and googling to work out
how to use basic Adobe Illustrator functions. Also changed the copyright date on pages.
Updated - 9th Nov 2017
Changed the Ajax code to stop the form resetting under certain circumstances.
Updated - 6th April 2017
Added the site to Google search and index. Also modified the contact form return field to appear above the reCaptcha box.
Updated - 5th April 2017
Added server-side verification to the Google reCaptcha button on the contact form. This meant changing the configuration
of the Jquery function and JSON output, modifying the AWS API Gateway configuration, and most importantly adding functionality
to the AWS Lambda Python function so it can call the Google API and verify the user response.
Also updated the bootstrap configuration to 3.3.7 to keep it on current release.
Updated - 20th March 2017
It's been a while since I've made any progress here as life/work has been busy and taken up my focus...
I'm learning to code in Python so I have recreated the Lambda contact form fuction in Python 2.7 (was node.js).
I have also migrated the Lambda function to the London region (EU-West-2) and reployed the API Gateway in London too.
Also updated the footer across all pages to include 2017 and, updated the tools page to include Python.
Updated - 15th December 2016
Migrated the website content to the new AWS London region simply because I could. Turned out to be more effort than I planned
but hey, it worked. Essentially had to recreate the buckets as I wanted to retain the names, update Route53 for test and
modified some CloudFront elements.
Updated - 14th December 2016
Updated home page to reflect new role at Cisco.
Updated - 12th November 2016
Updated the header, foooter and menu-bar links to be relative to root path so that subdirectories can be used.
Updated - 11th November 2016
Updated some text on the index and verified IPV6 connectivity.
Updated - 7th October 2016
Added AAAA record for the alias in Route53 and IPV6 enabled the CloudFront distribution in anticipation of Route53 supporting IPV6.
Updated - 1st August 2016
Decided to use Jenkins to provide automated deployment so I created a dev branch in my local git repository,
and updated my AWS S3 scripts to sync the local directory with the bucket (including exclusions) rather than copy-up explicit files.
Installed Jenkins and configured it to deploy the test and production websites from the local git branches based on SCM poll.
To improve the contact form I added Google reCAPTHCA functionality and set client-side validation prior to API Gateway/Lambda submission.
Also updated the example GitHub code to reflect this new feature.
Updated - 27th July 2016
Added the return to top button to core pages to improve mobile experience.
Updated - 12th July 2016
Updated the Tools page and verified in the test domain before releasing to live.
Removed some ScrollReveal functionality from a few sections.
Updated - 9th July 2016
Created a subdomain bucket in S3 and also a new DNS zone in Route 53 for website release testing purposes.
Updated the homepage and website footer with a link to my new GitHub location.
Created a repository in GitHub to demonstrate code for how the Contact Form was created. Project page to follow...
Updated - 7th July 2016
Decided it's time to implement official version control now rather than just making file copies and appending dates.
I've decided to use Git so am completing the Udacity 'How to use Git and GitHub course'
in an attempt to implement it properly.
Created a local repository and made a baseline commit for the website in it's current state.
Updated - 28th June 2016
Created a SSL certificate and enabled with the use of CloudFront.
Updated - 24th June 2016
Updated the learning section on the main page. It's now column based with additional content,
a snapshot view of the old version can be found here, it was a pretty basic content placeholder...
Created the placeholder projects page and updated the NavBar across the site.
Updated - 21st June 2016
Enabled Google Analytics for the site.
Updated the CSS colour scheme slightly and added the Site Tools page; updated all other pages to account for Navbar update.
Updated - 19th June 2016
Updated the contact form Jquery/AJAX code to clear the form after submission, and also pass back the success/failure status to the HTML page.
Configured email hosting on the domain registrar (it's free) and created Route 53 MX records to point to the email server.
This is in part so I can create a website certificate and move to HTTPS connections.
Updated - 18th June 2016
The contact form now works!
I'm utilising the AWS API Gateway and AWS Lambda services to avoid maintaing servers - it took some tinkering over the last week to get this going...
I now need to change the code to clear the form after submission and return a status message.
I will write this one up on a standalone project page at some point as it was quite complicated (for me at least) to enable.
Updated - 8th June 2016
Migrated DNS Name Servers from the registrar to AWS Route 53.
Fixed NavBar Collapse on Mobile when clicking anchor links.
Updated - 7th June 2016
Updated ScrollReveal & Jquery as new versions were needed for scroll.
Rewrote scroll scripts to be 3.x compliant and fixed resultant page layout issues.
Updated - 6th June 2016
Fixed the James Carty header button to direct to home.
Updated Font-Awesome pack to provide email logo.
Added drop down menu-items for About and Projects; added this page to track history.
Website Boot - 5th June 2016
Initial website built in an afternoon website using HTML / CSS template.
Hosted on AWS using the S3 and Route53 services. The contact form isn't working due to S3 static content limitation...
I knew this in advance but wanted to get the site up Minimum Viable Product (MVP) fashion.
In terms of S3 features I'm using Reduced Redundancy, with AES-256 server-side-encryption and logging enabled.
To enable contact/email I'm considering migrating to active content or JavaScript/AWS API integration. I'd prefer to keep it Serverless with the latter.